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LONDON 



EXHIBITED 



1851; 



ELUCIDATING ITS NATOBA1 AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 

• ITS ANTIQUITY AND AECHITECTUEE ; 

[TS ARTS, MANUFACTURES, TRADE, AND ORGANIZATION ; 
ITS SOCIAL, LITERARY, AND SCIENTIFIC IXSTITUTIOXS ; 

AND 

ITS NUMEROUS GALLERIES OF FIXE ART. 



WITH 205 ILLUSTEATIOXS, 

EXECUTED BY MR. ROBERT BRAXSTOX, MR. O. JEWITT, MR. J. R. JOBBIXS, 
AXD others; 

INCLUDING A NEWLY-CONSTBUCTED MAP. 

EXGRAVED BY MR. WILSOX LOWRY. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY 



JOH^ WEALE 



LONDON. 




|©»cc 

IMJt 



LONDON AND ITS VICINITY. 



T ONDON is the largest and wealthiest, as well as the most populous 
of the cities of the world. It is at once the centre of liberty, the 
seat of a great imperial government, and the metropolis of that great 
race whose industry and practical application of the arts of peace are 
felt in every clime, while they exert an almost boundless influence over 
the moral and political destinies of the world. About to become the 
theatre of an event of the highest moral importance, it is desirable that 
the stranger in our giant city should be made acquainted with its 
organization and structure — with its trade and commerce — with the 
sources of its social and political greatness — with its many treasures 
hidden from the eye of the superficial observer. The aim of the present 
volume is to endeavour to effect this object — and in such a manner as 
not only to satisfy the mind of the learned and scientific inquirer, but 
to afford to the man of business and the sight-seer the advantages of 
a book of reference to those numerous depositories of art and science 
which abound in the t metropolis, and which render such effectual aid 
towards the refinement of domestic life, bv furnishing alike the means 
of instruction and amusement. The work — which is accompanied by 
a map scientifically laid down from the meridian of St. Paul's — will be 
found to contain valuable information on the following subjects : — 
Almshouses. i Breweries. 



Architecture of London, ancient and mo- 
dern. 

Architects : the great men, Jones, "Wren, 

and Chambers, who have contributed Charitable Institutions, 
most to the architecture of London. Climate of London. 

Arts, Manufactures, and Trades. | Club-houses. 

Assurances. 

Asylums. 

Banks — Bank of England. 

Baths and "Washhouses. 

Botanical Features and Landscape of the 

Neighbourhood of London. j East India House and Institution. 

B 



Canals. 

Cathedrals and Churches, 

Cemeteries. 



Colleges. 

Corporations. 

Customs Duties. 

Docks, Commercial and Royal. 

Ducal Residences. 



LONDON — CONTENTS. 



Education. 
Electric Telegraphs. 
Engineering Workshops. 
Exchanges : Royal Exchange, Coal Ex- 
change, Corn Exchange. 
Galleries of Art. 
Gardens, Conservatories, &c. 
Geology. 
Halls. 

Horticulture. 
Hospitals. 
Inns of Court. 
Institutions. 
Learned Societies. 
Legislation and Government. 
Libraries. 
Lunatic Asylums. 
Markets. 

Mediaeval Antiquities and Tudor Art. 
Mercantile Marine. 
Military Appointments. 
Mint and Monetary System. 
Model Lodgings. 
Municipal Law. 
Music. 
Museums. 



Natural History. 

Observatories. 

Palaces. 

Panoramas. 

Parks. 

Patent Offices. 

Physical Geography of the Basin of the 

Thames. 
Pleasure Grounds. 
Police. 

Port of London. 
Postal Arrangements. 
Prisons. 
Public Schools. 
Public and Private Buildings. 
Railway Stations. 
Sewers. 

Spirit of the Public Journals. 
Squares. 
Statuary. 

Steam Navigation. 
Thames Tunnel. 
Theatres. 

Trips in search of Refinement and Taste. 
Water Supply. 

&c, &c, &c. 



Before proceeding with this task, we shall offer some preliminary 
and general observations necessary to explain to the reader the 
natural situation and structure of our metropolitan city; with essays 
on those regulations which are connected with our political organi- 
zation and constitution, our domestic habits and the working of our 
social system ; after which the several distinct subjects are treated 
of, and our rapid intercommunication, our inland navigation, and 
examples of the fine and useful arts in their application to purposes 
of utility and grandeur are exhibited : nor would such a picture of 
our organization be complete without a descriptive account of those 
accumulations of the wealth of nature and art in museums, which 
combine the treasures of the natural history of man with the fossil 
remains of a previous age and a former world. These the philosopher, 
the historian, and the sight-seer will find abundantly illustrated in 
this great metropolis. 

" It is a fact not a little interesting to Englishmen, and, combined with our insular 
station in that great highway of nations, the Atlantic, not a little explanatory of 
our commercial eminence, that London occupies nearly the centre of the terrestrial 
hemisphere." — Sir John Herschel's Natural Philosophy. 



LONDON PRELIMINARY. 



ON THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE BASIN OF THE THAMES. 

Section 1. Hydrography. — The liydrograpliical basin of the 
Thames is formed by a valley of denudation, rather irregular in its 
form T but whose main direction is from west to east, with a sub- 
sidiary valley, that of the Lea, running nearly north and south. 
The length, from the Isle of Grain and Shoebury Ness to the sources 
of the river, is about 230 miles ; the breadth is less easily defined. 
In no case, however, does it much exceed 60 miles; and its average 
width may be taken as being about from 26 to 30 miles. The area 
thus drained is supposed to be 602? square miles, though some geogra- 
phers estimate it at 6500 square miles. For 188 miles of its course 
the river is navigable ; no less than 70 miles being under the influ- 
ence of the tides. The commercial importance of the river as a 
means of transport is, moreover, much increased by the canalization 
of several of its affluents ; and by the execution of numerous arti- 
ficial canals, which place it in connection, by water, with almost 
every town of importance in the south of Great Britain. 

Course. — Geographers are not unanimous in deciding upon any 
particular spot as the source of the Thames. Indeed, the streams 
which dispute the honour of giving rise to it are so equal in their 
insignificance that the decision is of little moment. Four of them, 
the Leech, the Colne, the Churn, and the Isis, which rise in the Cots- 
wold range of hills, unite near Leehlade, from which point the river 
becomes navigable, and is known for a considerable portion of its 
course by the name of the Isis. Leehlade is about 146 miles from 
London, and 204 from Sheerness; its elevation above low-water 
mark at London Bridge is 258 ft., thus showing the average fall of 
the river from that point to be 21 in. per mile, or about 1 in 3017. 

At Leehlade, the Thames and Severn Canal locks into the Isis, 
thus putting the south-east and south-west coasts of England in con- 
nection with one another. This canal is 40 ft. wide on the water 
line, 30 ft. on the floor, and 5 ft. deep ; it is navigable by boats 
of 70 tons burthen. The navigation of the Isis was intended for 
boats of 100 tons, so that it is often necessary to tranship goods 
passing from the river to the canal, or vice versa. 

After passing Leehlade, the Isis follows a circuitous course : leav- 
ing Farringdon on the south, and Bampton on the north, it runs 
through the grounds of ^lenheim to Oxford, having received, near 
Woodstock, the Evenlode. At Oxford, the Charwell falls into the 
river; it is a stream of some importance, which rises near Cuhvorth 
in the Buckinghamshire hills, and receives, at Islip, a stream from 
the neighbourhood of Grandborough. The Oxford Canal joins the 
Thames here also, opening a water-carriage to Birmingham and 
Warwick, by means of a canal of small section, 28 ft. wide on the 

b 2 



4 LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. 

water-line, 1G ft. on the floor, and 4 ft. 6 in. deep; the locks 
being only 74 ft. 9 in. long, by 7 ft. wide. The Isis then con- 
tinues its course southerly, through Nuneham Park to Abingdon, 
where it receives the Windrush, and near which town also the 
Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal locks into it at a point where the river 
is 180 ft. 4 in. above the mean level of the sea at the Nore. This 
also is a canal of small section. The course of the river thence be- 
comes more circuitous, with a general inclination towards the south- 
east (in the course of which the Ock, from the vale of White Horse, 
joins the main stream), to near Dorchester in Oxfordshire, where it 
joins the Thame, and from this point the united streams take the 
definite name of the Thames. The Thame rises in the same ran^e 
of the Buckinghamshire hills from which the Charwell takes its 
source; it winds through the vale of Aylesbury, and receives at 
Wendover its most considerable affluent. 

The Thames thence runs southerly through a gorge in the Chil- 
tern Hills, which slope down abruptly towards the narrow valley of 
the river; it passes Bensington, Wallingford (where it receives a 
small stream), Pangbourne (where another joins it), Streatley, Ma- 
ple Durham and Purley Hall to Henley. Near Reading, it receives 
the Kennet, which is formed by the meeting of two rivulets at Marl- 
borough, and is augmented by subsidiary streams at Newberry and 
at Upton, before it joins the main river. The town of Reading 
itself is situated upon the Kennet, at a distance of l\ mile from 
the junction with the Thames. This portion of the river is ren- 
dered navigable for boats 109 ft. long, by 17 ft. wide, and 4 ft. 
draught of water. Above Reading, the Kennet is canalized for a 
distance of 1 8^ miles, at which point the Kennet and Avon Canal 
locks into it. Boats of from 50 to 70 tons navigate on this canal, 
for the width of the water-line is 44 ft., of the floor-line, 24 ft., 
with a minimum depth of 5 ft.; the locks are 80 ft. long between 
gates, by 14 ft. in width. The Kennet and Avon Canal joins 
London directly with Bath and Bristol. 

At Maidenhead the Loddon, which rises near Basingstoke and 
Odiham in the chalk-hills of Hampshire, joins the Thames. That 
river then passes round the Castle Hill to near Woburn Park and 
Ham, by Datchet, Staines,, and Chertsey. At Staines the Colne, 
from the neighbourhood of Watford, falls into the Thames ; and at 
Ham it receives the Wey, which rises near Alton, in Hampshire, 
runs through Farnham, and, at Guildford, receives a stream taking 
its source in the Bramshot Hills near Horsham, and passing through 
Godalming. About If mile from the embouchure of the Wey in 
the Thames, the Basingstoke Canal locks down into the former. 
The Wey itself, and its tributary from the Surrey Hills, is rendered 
navigable as far as Godalming ; at which town a canal commences, 
joining the Wey and the Arun, and placing London in connection, 



LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. 5 

bv water carriage, with Portsmouth and the south coast. The lochs 
in the Wev are 81 ft. long by 14 ft. wide; those on the Basing- 
stoke Canal are 72 ft. long by 13 ft. wide, and are designed for 
boats of 50 tons burthen; the Wey and Arun Canal is of about the 
same dimensions. 

The Thames then takes an easterly course through Hampton 
Court to Thames Ditton ; thence rather northerly to Kingston and 
Richmond, where the Mole falls in. Lower down, at Brentford, it 
receives the Brent, flowing from the Hertfordshire Hills, and forming 
the connecting link between the upper part of the Thames and the 
Grand Junction Canal. This main artery of the system of English 
artificial navigation places London in connection with all the im- 
portant canals in the midland counties. Its width on the water-line 
is 43 ft., its depth 5 ft.; the lochs are 82 ft. long by 14^ ft. wide, 
and usually of ? ft. lifts. 

The Wandle falls into the Thames at Wandsworth, and several 
small streams join the river between Brentford and the metropolis; 
some even, formerly of note, do so in the very heart of the town. 
Rivers have their fortunes, like nations, and at times small ones dis- 
appear before the progress of civilization, or at least become con- 
verted to most base uses. Thus we now can only trace such streams 
as the Bayswater Brook, the Fleet, Wall Brook, and the other 
rivulets of ancient London, in the modern sewers. 

On the east of London, a little below Blackball, on the northern 
shore, the Lea falls into the Thames. This affluent rises in the hills 
of Hertfordshire, and flows through Puckeridge and Welwyn. At 
Ware, it receives several minor streams, and near Hertford, at 26 
miles from its outfall into the Thames, it is rendered navigable for 
boats not exceeding 40 tons. The course of the river Lea is 
southerly from Hoddesden to the outfall, and it divides the counties 
of Hertfordshire and Middlesex. At Hertford the navigation com- 
mences at a point 111 ft. 3 in. above the sea; and there is also, 
near the same city, a canal 5 miles long, by means of which the Lea 
navigation is connected with that of the Stork A short distance 
from the embouchure a canal, called Sir George Duckett's Canal, 
connects the Lea with the upper part of the Regent's Canal; and, 
nearer still to the embouchure, the Lea Cut, of 1^- mile in length, 
enables barges to gain the upper part of the Thames without passing 
round the Isle of Dogs. The Regent's Canal is, in fact, the termina- 
tion of the Paddington branch of the Grand Junction Canal. The 
Paddington branch begins at a point near LTxbridge, 90 ft. above 
low water at Limehouse, and runs a distance of 14 miles to Pad- 
dington. There the Regent's Canal joins it", and is continued round 
the north of London to Limehouse, a distance of 8i miles, with a 
fall of 90 ft., gained by 12 locks. 

On the southern shore, a little higher up than Blackwall, the 



6 LONDON— GEOGRAPHY. 

Deptford Creek forms the embouchure of the Ravensbourne, which 
flows from the Surrey Hills in the neighbourhood of Hays Common 
and Addiscomb. It is navigable for a very short distance inland, 
during the remainder of its course it is but a small mill-stream. 

From Blackwall to the sea, the only affluents of importance are, 
on the northern shore, the Roding, which fal!s into the Thames at 
Barking Creek, and is navigable as far as that ancient town. In 
Dagenham Marsh, a stream from the hills round Havering-atte-Bower 
falls in ; at Rainham, the Ingerburn discharges itself; and at Pur- 
fleet, a small stream from Childerditch Common is swallowed up in 
the continually increasing river. On the south side, in the marshes 
of Dartford, the Darent and the Cray, from the Kentish Hills, join 
shortly before falling into the Thames. Their united stream is na- 
vigable with the tide as far as the town of Dartford. In the last 
20 miles of the course of the Thames it does not receive any affluent 
worth notice ; and, in fact, may rather be considered an arm of the 
sea than a river. 

At a very early period of English history, the Thames appears to 
have been considered as a political boundary of great importance. 
The division of the country into shires is supposed to have been 
established on its present basis by King Alfred; and we therein find 
that the Thames was adopted as the boundary of many of these 
districts at an inconsiderable distance from its source. A little be- 
low Lechlade, in fact, the river Isis separates the counties of Berk- 
shire and Oxfordshire ; it then forms the line of demarcation, either 
under the name of the Isis or the Thames, between Buckingham- 
shire and Berkshire ; then between Surrey and Middlesex ; and 
finally between Kent and Essex. But, long before the time of 
Alfred, the river was adopted as the political limits of the Roman 
provinces of Britannia Prima on the south, and of Flavia Csesariensis 
on the north. In the seventh century also it formed one of the 
boundaries of the Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and West Seaxe, in 
the middle of England ; and of those of East Seaxe, South Seaxe, 
and Cantivare, on the eastern coast. 

Volume. — The volume of the Thames, in the parts unaffected by 
the tide, is, as might be expected, from its comparatively insignifi- 
cant basin, not very considerable. Mr. J. RenmVs observations at 
Windsor, during the dry month of June, 1794, only gave a volume 
equal to 961 cubic feet per second. Mr. G. RenmVs observations, in 
the year 1835, showed, that at Laleham the volume was 1153 cubic 
feet per second; and at Kingston, 1600. After a heavy fall of rain, 
the volume at the latter point was augmented to 1800 cubic feet per 
second; but in this case the river was 18 in. above its summer 
level. Mr. Anderson found, in the month of December, 1830, that 
the volume at Staines was 2050 ft. per second, the river then 
standing 4 ft. above the summer level. At Teddington, Mr. An- 



LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. 7 

derson calculated that, with an 18-in. overfall at the locks, the 
volume was TOO ft.; and with a 24-in. overfall, it was 1260. 
Taking a mean of these three last mentioned volumes, we may as- 
sume that the Thames, in the parts removed from the influence of 
the tides, on the average, has a volume equal to 1357 cubic feet per 
second, or 115,516,800 ft. per day, and 42,163,632,000 cubic feet 
per annum. Now Dr. Halley, assuming the average rain-fall of the 
whole basin to be 24 in., calculated that its total amount would 
be 280,259,555,200 cubic feet per annum. The loss by evaporation 
and absorption would then constitute about g tlis of the total rain- 
fall; — certainly a very small portion, when compared with the same 
loss in other hydrographical basins. It may be accounted for either 
by the highly retentive nature of the bed of the river, or by the 
moisture of the atmosphere. Dr. Halley calculated the loss by 
evaporation at only ^th of the total rain-fall ; but this is evidently 
exaggerated. 

The numerous works connected with the navigation of the upper 
part of the Thames, together with the weirs and clams of the water- 
mills, interfere so much with the flow of the water as to render its 
velocity very different from that which would result from its different 
inclinations. Mr. J. Rennie assumed it to be on the mean 2 miles 
per hour ; in some cases it is as much as 2f miles ; and at Windsor, 
in 1794, he found it to be %\ miles per hour. 

Tides. — Below Teddington the river is exposed to the action of 
the tides, which, from a peculiar combination of causes, act with 
great force in the Thames. The tide wave from the Atlantic divides 
at Land's End into two streams, one of which runs up the British 
Channel and enters the Thames round the North Foreland ; the other 
passes along the west coast of England and Scotland, and returns 
southward by the eastern shore, and enters the Thames also, after 
passing the Yarmouth Roads. The tide in the river is then com- 
posed of two tidal waves, distant 12 hours from each other, so 
that the day and night tides are equal ; the tides meet between 
the Foreland and the Kentish Knock. The velocity of the wave 
from the North Foreland to London is very great, beins about 50 
miles per hour ; above the bridges, from the resistances it meets, the 
velocity is so much diminished that the wave is not propagated more 
rapidly than 12 miles an hour on the average. The difference of 
time of high water between London Bridge and Richmond is 1 hour 
18 minutes. 

The same resistances which retard the flow of the tidal wave affect 
the duration of its rise. Thus at London Bridge we find that the 
flood tide runs for 5 hours, and the ebb tide for 7. At Putney Bridge 
the flood only lasts for 4 hours ; at Richmond for 2 ; and at Tedding- 
ton only for If hour. The rise of the tide at Deptford is in the 
spring tides 19 ft. 2 in., in the neaps, 15 ft. 3 in. At the London 



8 LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. 

Docks it is, on the average of the spring tides, 18 ft. ; at Putney, 
10 ft. 2 in.; at Kew, 7 ft. 1 in.; at Richmond, 3 ft. 10 in.; and 
at Tedclington, 1 ft. 4^ in. Professor Airy observed, that the rise 
of the water in the Thames, at a given interval from low water (in 
half an hour, for instance), is considerably more than its descent in 
the same interval before low water. There exists, in fact, the rudi- 
ment of a bore. The duration of slack water, or the interval between 
the change of direction of the stream, is 40 minutes during the 
spring tides, and 37 minutes during the neaps, at Beptford. 

The vulgar establishment is the interval by which the time of high 
water follows the moon's transit on the day of new and full moon. 
What Sir John Lubbock calls the corrected establishment, or the lunar 
hour of high water freed from the semimenstrual irregularity, is found 
to be, at the London Docks, 1 h. 26 m. The interval of the high tide 
and moon's transit is, however, affected by a considerable inequality, 
which goes through its period twice in a month, depending on the 
moons distance from the sun in right ascension, or on the solar time 
of the moon's transit. Its value is two hours. 

The direction of the winds has a great influence on the tides of the 
Thames, not only as to the height they attain, but also as to their 
duration. Thus with north-westerly gales they do not rise so high, 
nor does the flood run so long, as with the wind in any other quarters. 
With south-westerly gales, however, and with those from the east, 
the tides often rise even as much as 4 ft. above their usual levels. 
The demolition of the old London Bridge is also said to have pro- 
duced an increase of the height of the tide to the extent of 2 ft. ; 
whilst it is very certain that the bed of the river and the low-water 
mark have been considerably lowered by the same cause. This 
lowering of the bed is regularly distributed over the whole length of 
the river, from the bridge to Teddington ; and it appears to be not 
less than 2 ft. at the former, and about 10 in. at the latter. 

The recent movements which have taken place near Blackfriars 
Bridge would induce us to believe that the depression of the river bed 
is much greater than even this quantity. 

The velocity of the current created by the tidal wave is between 
3| and 2^ miles per hour ; 3 miles being the average, and also the 
velocity most suitable to the navigation carried on in the upper parts. 
At the ebb the greatest velocity appears to be between the bridges, 
as follows: — 

From Westminster to Waterloo Bridges 2*27 miles per hour. 

„ Waterloo to Blackfriars „ 2*854 „ 

„ Blackfriars to South wark „ 3*70 „ 

„ South wark to London „ 3*903 ,, 

The areas of different portions of the river at high water at the 
following points between the above limits being — 



LONDON — GEOGRAPHY. 9 

Whitehall 23,500 feet superficial. 

Hungerford Market . . . 22,000 „ 

Waterloo Bridge .... 21,000 „ 

Opposite Bouverie Street . . 18^000 „ 

Southwark Bridge . . . . J 7,000 „ 

London Bridge .... 17,000 „ 

This irregularity in the area fully accounts for the formation of the 
loathsome beds of mud which disfigure the river at low tide, and de- 
monstrates painfully the defective state of the regulations connected 
with the formation and maintenance of the course of the river. 

Banks of Lower Thames. — The banks of the lower part of the 
Thames are marked by the same want of a definite plan which renders 
the upper part of the stream less useful than it might be made. The 
period at which they were first formed is very remote, being by some 
supposed to date as far back as the time of the Romans. This, in- 
deed, seems very probable, for the manner in which the banks are 
executed, though eminently successful, is marked by all the clumsiness 
of a first essay. The marshes they protect from the river are some- 
times (as at Woolwich) not less than 4 ft. 3 in. below the level of 
the high water in spring tides. Those of the Isle of Dogs are now 
being enclosed by an embankment upon piles, with a superstructure 
in brickwork, executed in conformity with a plan prepared by Mr. 
Walker, under the direction of the Navigation Committee ; thus 
indicating that the attention of that body has been fairly called to 
the necessity of co-ordinating all encroachments upon the channel of 
the river to one general system. The result of the several works 
upon the bed of the Thames, and the demolition of the old bridge, 
has been hitherto to lower the bed, and to compromise the safety of 
several of the bridges in the stream, and of some of the buildings on 
the shore. It is to be hoped that the legislature will take some mea- 
sures to remedy the dangerous and defective state of the present 
organization of the conservancy of the river. 

Moreover, in the lower Thames, that is to say, in those parts of 
its course below London Bridge, numerous shoals exist, which are 
highly prejudicial to the safety of the navigation, whilst at the same 
time there is no reason why they might not be carried further out 
towards the embouchure if the course of the river were regularised, 
and the dredging operations made to conform to the necessities of 
the port. These shoals exist in the parts of the Thames in which 
the deep sea navigation terminates, where, in fact, from the more 
energetic action of the tides, the floods from the upper country begin 
to deposit the matter they hold in solution. 

The force with which the tidal wave enters the mouth of the 
Thames prevents the detritus borne down by the upper stream from 
being carried sufficientlv far towards the embouchure to form a Delta. 

b 3 



1 LONDON— GEOGRAPHY. 

It is therefore deposited at those points of the course of the river at 
which the propulsive power of the land waters is counterbalanced by 
that of the tide wave, which tends to force the detritus back again. 
The still water thus produced is exposed to great changes in its po- 
sition and extent from an infinity of local and accidental causes ; so 
that the shoals vary very frequently without any apparent cause. 
Their real origin, however, may be attributed to the interferences 
with the regularity in the flow of the river by natural deviations of 
the line of the banks, or by the execution of ill-contrived, ill-planned 
works. 

For instance, we find that a shoal exists on the north shore, op- 
posite to the recesses formed by the east entrance of the London 
Dock on the north, and the St. Saviour's Dock on the south ; these 
give rise to reaches of still water, in which the detritus from the 
upper part of the river can be deposited. A similar shoal is formed 
opposite to the Lime Kiln Dock ; another in a wide reach a little 
above the Greenland Docks; a fourth near the embouchure of the 
Ravensbourne in the Thames, which may be attributed to the di- 
rection in which it falls into the main stream, precisely the reverse to 
what would be required in the interest of the navigation. Opposite 
Saunders Ness are shoals on each side of the river, owing to the 
retardation of its velocity from the abrupt bend it here forms ; a 
small shoal in the mid stream, a little lower down than these side 
ones, appears to owe its origin to the interference they produce on 
the direction of the currents. Another small shoal is produced by 
the still water opposite the entrance of the West India Docks. At 
the embouchure of the Lea, owing to the interference of the upland 
waters of that river with those of the Thames, two shoals are formed 
near Bugsby's Hole. It is probable that the effectual removal of 
these two may be attended with considerable difficulty; but all the 
others might easily be remedied. 

Estuary. — Below this point the river begins so distinctly to assume 
the characteristics of an estuary, that it is almost impossible to define 
with certitude the position of the shoals, still less would it be pos- 
sible to prevent their formation, or effectually to combat them. At 
Woolwich the water becomes brackish at spring tides, and the greater 
specific gravity it thence attains modifies the conditions of the depo- 
sition of the matter it holds in suspension. The difference between 
the lengths of time during which the flood and the ebb tides prevail, 
also diminishes as the river approaches the sea. Moreover, the 
action of the current upon the shores of the embouchure, at the 
same time that it removes the land on both sides, and thus changes 
the form of the outfall, so also does it carry into those portions of 
the estuary where still water is to be met with, the materials result- 
ing from the degradation of the shores. The variations of the tides 
from the neap to the spring, the changes in the force and direction of 



LONDON GEOGRAPHY. 1 1 

the deep sea current, possibly from the effects of storms in very 
different and distant latitudes ; the irregularities of the volume of 
fresh water brought down from the upper regions of the Thames, 
combine to render its "regime" in the lower and wider portions of 
its course very irregular and capricious. The sands of the Nore vary 
often in their outline, and their distance from the surface of the 
water ; the erosive force of the current upon the banks also varies in 
intensity according to the action of the causes shortly enumerated above. 

The erosions of the sea upon the shores of the estuary of the 
Thames are very rapid, both upon the Essex and Kentish coasts. 
The cliffs of Waiton-on-the-Naze are rapidly disappearing ; the 
Maplin Sand, near Shoebury Ness, may, perhaps, be considered as 
having formed part of the main land in former times. The Isle of 
Sheppey, and the coast near Heme Bay, are being swept away in a 
gradual but inevitable manner; nor is the land forming the pro- 
montory between the embouchures of the Thames and the Med way 
removed from the same cause of destruction. Ail the materials 
thus removed, combined with the detritus brought down by the fresh 
water, are deposited in, or near, the estuary of the Nore, where 
they form the extensive banks, or shoals, visible at low water. It is 
extremely difficult to ascertain the amount of sediment carried down 
by the river itself; but from the nature of the formations it tra- 
verses in the latter portion of its course, and the comparatively feeble 
inclination of its bed, the proportionate amount of matter in mecha- 
nical suspension, in all probability, is very considerable. 

In the section of the Physical Geography of the Basin of the 
Thames, in which we treat of the geology of the district, will be 
found the areas occupied by the different formations which constitute 
it, and through which it travels. These influence the hydrography 
of a district to a very great extent, not only in consequence of the 
different capacity of the strata for the absorption of water, but also 
in consequence of the manner in which they furnish the materials 
held either in mechanical or chemical solution, or suspension, in the 
stream. Thus it must be evident that the water flowing from the 
oolitic and the cretaceous formations is more likely to be charged 
with the carbonate of lime than that which drains from such portions 
of the surface as are covered by the London clay. These, again, 
from the nature of the vegetation they nourish with the greatest pro- 
fusion, are likely to communicate to the waters they furnish the germs 
of animal and vegetable organization. The open, spongy nature of 
the two former classes of formation must, moreover, make them more 
retentive of water than the comparatively speaking impermeable 
strata of the London clay. The greater number of the affluents of 
the Thames, it is true, take their rise in the oolites and in the chalk ; 
but their volumes are comparatively less than those which are fur- 
nished by the London clay, especially when we compare the re- 
spective lengths of the streams. 



1 2 LONDON— GEOGRAPHY. 

In the same section will also be found the heights of some of the 
most important elevations of the district under our examination. 
They also have considerable influence upon the hydrography of the 
basin, both by their action in determining a greater or less amount 
of rain-fall, by attracting and condensing the moisture suspended in 
the atmosphere, and by affecting the rate of discharge of the surface 
water. 

Matter in Suspension. — The positive quantity of extraneous matter 
contained in the Thames water does not seem to have been ascer- 
tained with any degree of certainty ; nor does the range of tidal 
action upon suspended matter in it appear to have been made the 
subject of direct experiment. Dr. Bostock is reported to have esti- 
mated the proportion of solid matter in suspension in the river water 
as being TT ^th of the weight ; Mr. Kerrison's experiments would 
show it to be -^-x-yth ; and in all probability this estimate is a low one. 
The calculation of Dr. Bostock was made before 1828, that of Mr. 
Kerrison in 1834. Since then the nature of the river water has 
been modified by the incessant wash of the steamers ; but we must 
also observe, that if the continual agitation produced by them pre- 
vents the deposition of the mud, yet at the same time, from the 
increased and increasing scour of the river, the bed is considerably 
cleaner than it used to be, especially in the parts above bridge. The 
evidence given before some of the Parliamentary Committees would 
lead us to infer that the greater part of these impurities are derived 
from the upper parts of the river and from its affluents. At Rich- 
mond the Thames is as foul as in the heart of the town, according 
to the engineers examined. The Wey, and the Mole especially, 
bring down very turbid w r aters, as does also the Colne, near Isle- 
worth, after heavy rains. It is to be observed, however, that the 
modifications of the bed of the river from the removal of London 
Bridge are far from having yet produced their full effect. Neither 
the river itself, nor the banks in the embouchure, nor the bed in the 
upper portion, have yet assumed the definite regime that absurdly- 
delayed measure seems likely to produce. 

Floods. — Floods occur in the valleys of the Thames and the Lea 
occasionally. They arise entirely from the surface waters, hardly 
ever from the melting of snow, or ice, in the highlands near their 
sources. Indeed, the climate of this part of England, and the feeble 
elevation of its hills, does not .admit of the duration of frost for a 
sufficient length of time to affect the sources of the river supply. 
Under these circumstances, the floods are found to occur in the rainy 
seasons, in November and December, in April and in May, without, 
however, being in any manner peculiarly confined to those months. 
The flood waters brought down to the rivers are highly charged with 
earthy matter and the germs of organized life ; they, in fact, ma- 
terially influence the formation of the alluvial deposits of the river. 
Ehrenberg mentions a fact of considerable importance in the dis- 



LONDON — CLIMATE. 1 3 

cussion of questions affecting the relative purities of river water. 
It is, that in all the rivers which fall into the German Ocean the 
microscopic animals of the sea extend up rivers as far as the ehh and 
flow of the tide extend. His researches show that the flood tide, 
even when the surface waters have no taste of salt, does not so 
much depend upon an accumulation of river water from its outflow 
being checked as it does upon the introduction of sea water under 
the river water, owing to its greater specific gravity. Ehrenberg 
found that the remains of the microscopic sea animals constituted no 
less than rath of the solid matter found in the banks of the estuary. 

List of Authors consulted. 

Gr. Rennie. — Reports to British Association. 

Lubbock, "Whewell, Airy. — On Tides. Philosophical Transactions. 

Lloyd. — On Difference of Levels between Sheerness and London. Ditto. 

Page, Telford, Anderson, Mills, &c. — Evidence before Parliamentary Committees, 

principally subsequent to 1828. 
Quarterly Journal of Geological Society. 
Priestley's Account of Navigable Rivers. 
Knight's London. 

Cruden's History of Gravesend, &c. 
M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary. 
Johnston's National Atlas. 
Ordnance Survey. 
Feamside's Thames. 
Beardmore's Tables. 
Leslie's Evidence before Parliamentary Committees. 

Section 2. Climate. — London itself is situated in 51° 31/ of 
north latitude ; and the line passing through its eastern extremity of 
Greenwich has been adopted by the Anglo-Saxon race as the zero 
of longitudinal distances. The length of the continuance of the sun 
above the horizon is 7f hours on the shortest day; and 16 J- hours 
on the longest. The mean temperature of the rural district round 
the metropolis is 48°*50; that of the city itself is 50°'50; the 
mean of the whole district being 49°" 65. The variations in the 
temperature recur with what appears to be tolerable regularity after 
a cycle of 17 years; during which the coldest falls at the 10th from 
the first year; the warmest at the 7th from the coldest; the first 
year, marking the cycle, being usually of the mean temperature. 

The greatest heats known have not exceeded 96° in the shade 
and in the open air; the cold sometimes descends as low as 5° below 
zero; the range being 101° Fahrenheit. When the temperature 
exceeds 80°, thunder-storms usually clear the atmosphere and reduce 
the heat. As a general rule also, the frosts do not last through the 
24 hours, and a continuance of them for any length of time is quite 
exceptional. The upper part of the Thames was blocked up by the 
frozen ice in 1840, and to a somewhat greater extent in 1826. 
With these exceptions, however, the ice has not seriously impeded 



14 



LONDON — CLIMATE. 



the navigation since the years 1814 and 1815. In former times the 
river was frozen over more frequently than it has heen of late years, 
thus confirming the opinion that the progress of civilization tends to 
modify and improve the climate. In the works upon Physical Geo- 
graphy, London is placed on the 64th degree of the isothermal 
range ; and on the 38th of the isokemenal divisions. 

Thermometrical Observations, — The monthly averages of tempera- 
ture, taken over a range of 20 years, show that the warmest months 
only differ from the coldest by 26|°, and that the temperature of the 
city differs 2|° from that of the country. This local difference is 
greatest in winter, as might naturally be expected from the more 
sheltered position of the metropolis, and the artificial elevation of 
the temperature produced by the immense number of factories and 
domestic fires. In the spring, the heat of town and country ap- 
proaches equality; the difference becomes again perceptible in 
summer, owing to the reverberation from the narrow streets, and 
the want of air ; in autumn again the equality is resumed. Thus, 
between the years 1807 and 1816' included, we find the mean tempera- 
tures of the different months to have been as follows, viz. : 



Months. 



January . 
February . 
March . . 
April . . 
May . . 
June 

July . . 
August 
September 
October 
November 
December . 



Country. 



34 
39 
41 
46 
55 
58 
62 
61 
5G 
50 
40 
37 



16 

•78 
•51 
•89 
•79 
-66 
•40 
•35 
•22 
•24 
•93 
'66 



London. 



36-20 
41-47 
42*77 
47-69 
56-28 
59-91 
63-41 
62-41 
58-45 
52-23 
43-08 
39-40 



Difference. 



2*04 

1-69 

1-26 

0-80 

0-49 

1-25 

1-01 

1-26 

2-13* 

1-99 

2-15 

1-74 



The mean temperature, as shown by an examination of the tables 
of observations extending over 35 years, assumes a rate of increase 
in the different months which may be represented by a curve nearly 
equal to, and parallel with one representing the progress of the sun 
in declination. 

The greatest number of the extremes of heat and cold occur in 

* There appears to be some error in the mean quoted for the month of September ; 
in the previous decade the difference was considerably less, and it appears usually 
to be only 1°'77. 



LONDON CLIMATE. 



15 



the first month of the year. On an average of 10 years only two 
occurred in the twelfth month, and one in the second. The extremes 
of heat are more diffused through the remaining months ; five usually 
fall in the seventh month ; the others are distributed, in a diminish- 
ing proportion, over the months earlier or later in the summer. 
There are thus only two spring and two autumn months, which are 
not exposed to great varieties of temperature. The ranges of the 
thermometer in the day-time, for the years between 1807 and 1816, 
are thus given by Mr. Howard in his admirable work upon the 
climate of London, from which in fact we have extracted nearly all 
we give upon the subject. 



Years. 


1 
Highest. ' Lowest. 


Range. 


Medium. 


1807 

1808 

1809 

1810 

1811 

1812 

1813 

1814 ..... 

1815 

1816 


o 

87 
96 
82 
85 
88 
78 
85 
91 
80 
81 


o 

13 
12 

18 
10 
14 
18 
19 

8 
17 

5 


o 

74 
84 
64 
75 
74 
60 
66 
83 
63 
86 


o 

50 

54 

50 

47'5 

51 

48 

52 

49-5 

48-5 

38 


Averages . 


85-3 


12-4 


729 


48-85 



The mean of the daily extremes having been . 48°*79 

Ditto of the monthly ditto . . . 48°*34 

Ditto of the years, as above . . . 48°' 85 

Between the years 1817 and 1831 the examination of the tables 

gave the mean of the daily extremes . . . 49°'649 

That of the months 49°*651 

That of the years ...... 49°'721 

Perhaps from 90° to 20° may be regarded as the extreme ranges in 
the day-time. At night the temperature has descended below zero ; 
but so very rarely as to make such an occurrence phenomenal. 

In London the mean variations between the temperature of the 
day and the night are 11°'37; in the country they are 15°*41. In 
the former, the mean height during the day being (according to the 
observations made between 1816 and 1817) 56°- 17; during the night 
44°*80. In the latter it was during the day 56°'51, during the night 
41 o, 10. The extreme range appears to be in the sixth month, in 
which it has been known to attain from 35° to 37°. During the 



16 



LONDON — CLIMATE. 



period between the years 1817 and 1823, the difference appears to 
have been greater ; for the mean of the greatest heat in the country 
was 57°*926, at night it was 40°*614, the difference being 17°*312. 
It is remarkable that this difference corresponds, to the fraction of a 
degree, with that which prevails between the temperature of summer 
and winter. 

The temperatures of the different months were ascertained from 
a series of observations, extending over the years from 1805 to 1830 
inclusive, to be on the average as follows : — 



Months. 



January . 
February . 
March . . 
April . . 
May . . 
June . 
July . . 
August 
September 
October 
November 
December 



Mean. 



Variation. 



35-140 


13-95 


38-997 


12-26 


42-030 


11-20 


47-567 


8-64 


54-937 


11-99 


59-613 


9-36 


63-190 


S'68 


57-187 


8-89 


50-123 


9-80 


42-432 


12-88 


41-950 


10-19 


38-343 


12-40 



Finally we may observe, that hoar frosts occur when the thermo- 
meter is about 39° ; and that the dense yellow fogs so peculiar to 
London occur the most frequently in the months of November, 
December, and January, whilst the thermometer ranges under 40°. 

Barometrical Pressure. — The barometer is subject to variations of 
a similar nature to those of the thermometer; that is to say, they 
are frequent and unexpected, but rarely of any great amount. 
During the years between 1807 and 1816 the mean of the twelve 
greatest elevations was 30*305 in. ; that of the twelve greatest de- 
pressions was 29*188 in.; the medium of the elevations and of the 
depressions was 29*746 in. The highest observations during that 
period were 30*71 in., although. subsequently they have been made 
at 30*89 in., during the prevalence of north-easterly breezes. The 
lowest observations were at 28*22 in. with southerly winds; the 
greatest range being thus 2'67in. ; the average range 1*998 in. 

Between 1815 and 1830 similar observations gave as the mean of 
the twelve greatest elevations 30*356 in., and of the twelve greatest 
depressions 29*075 in. ; the medium of the elevations and depressions 
being 29*715 in. The highest annual mean was in the year 1825, 



LONDON — CLIMATE. 



17 



when the twelve greatest elevations gave an average of 30*82 in. ; the 
lowest was in 1831, when the twelve greatest depressions gave a mean 
of 28*26 in. In the year 1821, the variation even extended to 3 in. ; 
but over the period from 1807 to 1831 the mean range was onlv 
2-07 in. 

The monthly variations may be represented as follows : — 



Months. 


Maximum. 


! 

Minimum. 


Diff. or 
mean. 


Greatest 
elevation. 


Greatest 
depress". 


Full 
range. 




o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


January . 


30-515 


28-937 


1-578 


30-8-2 


28-69 


2-13 


February 


30-459 


28-824 


1-435 


30-80 


28-45 


2-35 


March . . 


30-417 


28*895 


1-522 


30-75 


28-35 


2-40 


April . . 


30-330 


29*042 


1-282 


30-57 


28-50 


2-07 


May . . . 


30-307 


29-262 


1-045 


30-61 


29-06 


1-55 


June . 


30-282 


29-335 


0-947 


30*54 


29-12 


1-42 


July . . . 


30*216 


29-375 


0-841 


30-57 


28-99 


1-58 


August . 


30-262 


29-235 


1-027 


30-57 


28*75 


1-82 1 


September . 


30-292 


29-207 


1-085 


30-50 


28-52 


1-98 | 


October . 


30-346 


29-009 


1-337 


30*67 


28-52 


2-15 


November . 


30-377 


28-970 


1-407 


30-65 


28-30 


2-35 


December . 

1 


30-449 


28-820 


1-629 


30-80 


27*80 


3-00 



Winds. — Tbe direction of the winds appears to be principally 
from the south and the west, over the district formed by the basin of 
the Thames. Starting from the north, we find that the winds blew 
during 74 days in a year, on the average of the years between 1807 
and 1816 inclusive, from points varying from that point towards the 
east; the extreme numbers of days during which they thus blew 
from points between the north and the east being 96 and 58 re- 
spectively. The average number of days they blew from between 
the east and the south was 54 ; the extremes being 72 and 34 
respectively. From between the south and the west the average 
number of days was 104; the extremes being 123 and 78. From 
between the west and the north the average was 100 days; the 
extremes being 124 and 83. The variable winds blowing 33 days 
on the average, between the extremes of 51 and 17 in the course of 
the year. 

If the winds be only grouped under the denominations of 
easterly and westerly, it would be found that the former prevailed 
during 140, the latter during 225 days. If they be grouped under 
the denominations of northerly and southerly, the former would be 
found to have prevailed during 192 days, the latter during 173. 

During the several months of the years between 1807 and 1816 



18 



LONDON—CLIMATE. 



the winds varied as follows : the table having been calculated for the 
years mentioned above. The variations between 1817 and 1823 cor- 
responded so closely with the average results deduced from this table, 
that it may be considered as a very correct representation of the 
actual state of the case for that subsequent period. 



Months. 


N. & E. 


1 
E. & S. 


S.&W. 


W.&N. 


Yariable. 


Total. 




Days. 


Days. 


Days. 


Days. 


Da} T s. 


Days. 


January . . . 


6-8 


5'3 


7*0 


9*1 


2-8 


31 


February . 




3-2 


4-0 


11-7 


7*4 


1*7 


28 


March . . 




9*8 


5-4 


6*6 


6-5 


2-7 


31 


April . . 




8-3 


5*6 


6-0 


6*4 


3-7 


30 


May . . 




5-9 


6-5 


9*0 


5'6 


4*0 


31 


June 




7*1 


3-0 


7*2 


9*1 


3-6 


30 


July . . 




4*5 


2-5 


9-5 


11-5 


3-0 


31 


August 




3*5 


2-9 


10-2 


12-9 


1-5 


31 


September 




6*4 


6-0 


8-0 


7-4 


2-2 


30 


October 




5*2 


5*0 


10-5 


7-4 


2-9 


31 


November 




7-8 


3-1 


8' 8 


8*4 


T9 


30 


December . 




5*0 


4-6 


9-9 


9-7 


1-8 


31 


Monthly average, ) 


6-0 


4*5 


8-7 


8*45 


2-65 




1807 to 1816 J 














Monthly average, ) 
1817 to 1823 J 


6-14 


4-9 


8-5 


9'45 


1-41 




1 










1 



Mr. Daniell observes that the force of the winds does not always 
decrease as the elevation above the ground increases ; but on the 
contrary is often found to augment rapidly. More than two currents 
may often be traced in the atmosphere at one time by the motion of 
the clouds. The land and sea breezes of morning and evening do 
not recur with sufficient regularity in these latitudes to be appreciable 
in their influence upon the results of the tables. 

Northerly winds almost invariably raise the barometer, while,, 
southerly winds as constantly depress it. The most permanent rains 
in this climate come from the southern regions. The least rain falls 
when the winds range from the north to the east. 

Evaporation. — The evaporation which takes place near London 
was calculated by Mr. Daniell to be on the average 23*974 in. in a 
year. This result was obtained from a series of observations made 
by the means of an hygrometer of that gentleman's invention. Mr. 
Howard's observations gave results which substantially confirmed 
those made by Mr. Daniell, for he found that with a gauge placed at 
a height of 43 ft. from the ground, exposed to the south-east, and 
subject to the action of the winds, he obtained a mean total of 



LONDON — CLIMATE. 1 9 

85 in. upon the years 1807, 1808, and 1809, which were very dry 
warm years. In the years 1810, 1812, with a fall of rain considerably 
above the average, the evaporation gauge, placed at a lower level and 
ess exposed, only showed a mean of 33*37 in. In the years 
1813 and 1815, which again were dry years, the gauge placed imme- 
liately upon the ground and sheltered, showed a mean evaporation 
of 20'28 in. Mr. Howard suggests that probably the rate of 33*37 in. 
may represent the rate of evaporation which takes place from running 
streams in exposed situations ; the rate of 20*28 in. may also repre- 
sent that of canals and reservoirs of still water. 

Mr. Howard also gives a condensed tabular statement of the mean 
evaporation corresponding with the different seasons, and their mean 
temperatures, as follows : — 

7 Evaporation. 37*20 Temperature. 
48-06 „ 

6080 „ 

49*13 

This is considerably in excess of Mr. Darnell's total evaporation, 
but that may be accounted for by the different conditions under 
which the observations were made. 

Mr. Daniell estimates the rate at which this process proceeds near 
London during the several months of the vear as follows : — 





In. 


Winter 


3-587 


Spring 


8-856 


Summer 


. 11-580 


Autumn 


6-440 





Inches. 




Inches. 


January . 


. 0-413 


July 


. 3-293 


February 


. 0-733 


August 


. 3*327 


March . 


. 1-488 


September 


. 2-620 


April 


. 2-290 


October 


. 1-488 


May 


. 3-286 


November . 


. 0-770 


June 


. 3-760 


December 


. 0516 



The smallest quantity of water is therefore lifted into the air during 
the month of January, and the greatest in June. The mean quantity 
held in solution in a cubic foot of air is said to be 3*789 gr. 

Mr. Leslie invented an instrument for the purpose of measuring 
the exhalation from a humid surface in a given time, which he 
called an atmometer. He estimated that the daily exhalation from a 
sheltered surface of water, in the neighbourhood of London, would, 
at the mean dryness of winter, lower it 0-018in. in 24 hours; 
and at the mean dryness of summer as much as 0*048 in. The effect 
of the winds upon the amount of evaporation is, however, a very 
important element of all such calculations ; it is sometimes augmented 
five or even ten times. In general, this augmentation is proportional to 
the swiftness of the wind ; the action of still air itself being reckoned 
equal to that produced by a speed of 8 miles an hour. 



20 



LONDON — CLIMATE. 



The greatest known evaporation in a month has attained as much 
as 6 inches; the least 0*21 in. In the month of March, 1809, during 
3 days a very extraordinary evaporation took place. On the 17th 
was 0-39; on the 1 8th 0*28; and on the 19th 0-14 in. 

Rain,-— The quantity of rain which falls near London is dif- 
ferently stated by Mr. Daniell and Mr. Howard. The former states 
that the average is 23^ inches in the year; the latter, that the 
average from his observations between 1797 to 1819, or 23 years, 
was 25*179 in. The latter quuantity is usually considered correct. 
The years which gave the greatest amount of rain were 1810, when 
it amounted to 32'37in., and 1797 when it was equal to 29*996' in. 
Those which gave the least were 1807, when it was 18 '01 in., anc 
1802, when it was 18*428 in. Subsequent observations made ai 
Greenwich have shown that in the year 1841 the rain-fall was nol 
less than 33*26 in. ; in 1840 it was 16*43 in. only, and in 1847 
17*61 in. The mean of these observations at Greenwich made be- 
tween the years 1838 and 1849 was, however, 24*84 in., approaching 
sufficiently near to the mean given by Mr. Howard from his ob- 
servations made at a lower level ; for it is a well-known law of the 
fall of rain " that smaller quantities have been observed to be depositee 
in high than in low situations, even though the difference of altitude 
should be considerable." 

The quantity of rain which falls in the different months is calculated 
by Mr. Daniell, and was observed by Mr. Howard, to be as under : 
the third column contains the number of days during which the rain 
fell in each month, as given by Mr. Howard : — 



Months. 


Daniell. 


Howard. 


Days. 


No. of days' 

rain in six 

months. 


Quantity of 

rain in six 

months. 


January 
Februarv . 






1-483 

0-746 


1-907 
1-643 


14-4 
15-8 






March 






1-440 


1-542 


12-7 






April . . 
May . . 






1-786 
1-853 


1-719 
2-036 


14-0 
15-8 






June 






1-830 


1-964 


11-8 


84-5 


1.0-811 


July . . 






2-516 


2-592 


16-1 






August 






1-453 


2-134 


16-3 






September 
October 






2-193 
2-073 


1-644 

2-872 


12-3 
16-2 






November 






2-400 


2-637 


15-0 






December . 






2-426 


2-489 


17'7 


93*6 


14*368 


Totals / . 


22-199 


25*179 


178-1 


178-1 


25*179 



LONDON — CLIMATE. 2 1 

There is a little discrepancy between the total resulting from the 
subdivision of Mr. Daniell's calculations and the average total of 23 ^th 
he gives elsewhere. But the two sets of observations agree in this — 
that the month of February is the driest, because the shortest perhaps, 
in the year, and that the month of July is the wettest. In fact, Mr. 
Daniell's calculations were far from having been made with the care 
of the more veteran observer, Mr. Howard : we find that the former 
states the mean rain fall, as obtained from seventeen years' records at 
Chiswick, to be different from both the quantities he had previously 
given, for he quotes it at 24* 16 in., and he makes the mean evaporation 
equal to 29*598 in. in the same epoch. 

The greatest quantity known to have fallen in twenty-four hours 
is 2*05 in. The proportion of what falls when the sun is above the 
horizon is only f rds of that which falls when it is below it. 

Mr. Howard states that the quantity of rain which falls in the 
different seasons is as follows : — 





Bain. 


Mean Temp 


Winter 


5-868 inches. 


37-20° 


Spring 


4-813 „ 


48-06 


Summer . 


6-682 „ 


60-80 


Autumn . 


7-441 „ 


49-13 



The same author observed that one year in five is exposed to the dry 
extreme, whilst one year in ten is exposed to that of wet. The warm 
years are generally dry; the cold ones damp. 

Fogs. — The local phenomenon of the frequence of fogs in the dis- 
trict of the immediate neighbourhood of London appears, firstly, to be 
owing to the presence of the river; and r secondly, to the fact that the 
superior temperature of the town produces results precisely similar to 
those we find to occur upon rivers and lakes. The cold damp cur- 
rents of the atmosphere, which cannot act upon the air of the country 
districts, owing to the equality of their specific gravity, when they 
encounter the warmer and lighter strata over the town displace the 
latter, intermixing with it, and condensing its moisture. Fogs thus 
are often to be observed in London, whilst the surrounding country 
is entirely free from them. The peculiar colour of the London fogs 
appears to be owing to the fact that during their prevalence the ascent 
of the coal smoke is impeded, and that it is thus mixed with the 
condensed moisture of the atmosphere. As is well known, they are 
often so dense as to require the gas to be lighted in midday, and they 
cover the town with a most dingy and depressing pall. They also 
frequently exhibit the peculiarity of increasing density after their 
first formation, which appears to be owing to the descent of fresh 
currents of cold air towards the lighter regions of the atmosphere. * 

They do not occur when the wind is in a dry quarter, as for in- 
stance when it is in the east; notwithstanding that there may be 



22 LONDON — CLIMATE. 

very considerable difference in the temperature of the air and of the 
water, or the ground. The peculiar odour which attends the London 
fogs has not yet been satisfactorily explained, although the uniformity 
of its recurrence and its very marked character would appear to chal- 
lenge elaborate examination. In all probability it arises from some 
modification of the atmosphere, which must have considerable in- 
fluence upon the sanitary state of the metropolis. It is possible tbat, 
to a certain extent, it may be attributed to the chemical nature of the 
strata upon which the town is built. At least this is certain — that in 
many isolated cases wells, formed through the London clay, give forth 
a very considerable amount of the sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which 
seems to produce the characteristic odour of the fogs in question. 

Dews.— Dews exercise a considerable influence on the state of the 
atmosphere with respect to the amount of evaporation, or rather to 
the balance of the hygrometric causes. In our latitudes they are 
supposed to yield as much as 5 in. per annum, or a quantity equal to 
nearly 4th of the total rain fall. Mr. Howard noticed that in one 
night as much as ^tli of an inch was collected in a rain gauge. 

The greatest quantity of dew falls from a little before sunset to a 
little after sunrise, its proximate cause depending on the diminution of 
temperature between those periods, which acts to cause the atmosphere 
to deposit the moisture it holds in suspension. The difference in the 
temperature which produces this effect is greatest in the day and night 
seasons of spring and autumn, when as much as from 20 to 30 degrees 
are often found to exist between them in the neighbourhood of London. 
A calm clear atmosphere is necessary for the deposition of dews, 
which in this differ from mists (whose origin is nearly the same), 
for they deposit at all times of day ©r night, and in all states of the 
atmosphere. The abundance of dew depends on the large quantity of 
moisture suspended in the atmosphere at the moment of the action of 
the immediate causes. Hence it is most copious on calm clear nights, 
succeeded by misty and foggy mornings. In England, heat and dry 
weather are rarely accompanied by dews ; the greatest amount falls 
after rain in cool summer nights, generally with southerly and easterly 
winds, with a depression of the barometer. Hoar frost, the ice of dew, 
is common in the winter months, and it is regarded as a sure sign of 
wet weather. 

Mr. Daniell calculated the mean dew point at 44°*31 from the 
average of a series of observations made between the years 1826' to 
1842 at Chiswick, where they were carried on at a height of 14 ft. 
above high- water mark. The range of the dew point was between 79° 
and 0°. The mean elastic force of the vapour was 0*342 in., varying 
between 0*973 and 051 in.; a cubit foot containing on the average 
3*806 grains of moisture at that position. 

The dew point was lowest with northerly and easterly winds ; 
highest when they were southerly. It would also appear that a differ- 



LONDON — CLIMATE. 23 

cnce was observable when they blew from the sea or from the land. 
A number of observations of the relation between the direction of the 
winds and the dew point gave the following results; the first numbers 
being those upon which the mean was based, the last the mean dew 
point : — 



87 North 


. 40-1 


113 North-east 


. 40-7 


80 East 


. 42-3 


111 South-east 


. 45-G 


70 South 


. 48*7 


225 South-west 


. 48*6* 


J 5 West 


. 44*8 


174 North-west 


. 41*3 



Electrical Phenomena. — Electrical phenomena act constantly, but 
rarely with much energy, in the latitude of the London basin. 
Thunder storms occur in the warm summer months, re-establishing 
the balance of the electrical states of the moisture suspended in the 
tmosphere. But, as they take place usually with a feeble tempera- 
ture, they are seldom violent, nor are they accompanied by the terrific 
hail which desolates warmer countries. They usually are accompanied 
by copious rains in summer ; when they happen in winter they are 
often accompanied by the nearest approaches to hurricanes we are 
acquainted with. The Aurora Borealis occasionally visits the neigh- 
bourhood of London, but seldom lasts for any great length of time. 

Storms. — Storms and heavy gales of wind are principally confined 
to the winter months. When they arise from the north-cast they are 
almost exclusively confined to the time during which the sun is above 
the horizon. When they arise from the south-west, they occur whilst 
he is below it. Hurricanes able to root up trees, blow down houses, 
roll up lead, and in fact to exercise the full power of those tremendous 
visitations, happen very rarely, but they are by no means unknown in 
our climate. Their recurrence does not seem to be more frequent 
than once in ten years. 

A singular connection has been observed between the direction of 
:he wind and the chemical action going on in the strata composing 
;he London basin, to which we have alluded in the previous part of 
;his paper. The sulphuretted hydrogen they give forth is found to 
ssue in the greatest abundance in wet weather, when the wind is 
from the south and the west ; it is the least when the wind is from 
the north and the east, and consequently the driest. 

Mr. Daniell observed very justly, and the observation may well 
conclude the remarks on our climate, that Ci the British islands are 
situated in such a manner as to be subject to all the circumstances 
which can possibly be supposed to render a climate irregular and 
variable. Placed nearly in the centre of the temperate zone, where 
the range of temperature is very great, their atmosphere is subject on 
be one side to the impressions of the largest continent in the world, 
md on the other to those of the vast Atlantic Ocean. Upon their 
coasts the great stream of aqueous vapour, perpetually arising from 



24 LONDON — GEOLOGY. 

the western waters, first receives the influence of the land, whence 
emanate those condensations and expansions which deflect and reverse 
the grand system of equipoised currents. They are also within the 
frigorific effects of the immense barriers and fields of ice which, when 
the shifting position of the sun advances the tropical climate towards 
the northern pole, counteract its energy, and present a condensing 
surface of enormous extent to the increasing elasticity of the aqueous 
atmosphere/' When causes so numerous and so powerful act to 
produce irregularities, it is impossible to do more than state the laws 
which act over long periods of time. They have only been care- 
fully studied of late years, so that it is probable that many of the 
generalizations given above may hereafter be considerably modified. 
But " amidst all the uncertainty and seeming confusion arising from 
these complications general principles may still be recognised, and it 
is believed that the more they are studied the more obvious they will 
appear." 

List of Authors consulted. 

Luke Howard. — Climate of London. 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1833. 

„ A Cycle of Eighteen Years in the Climate of Great Britain, &c, 

8vo. Lond. 1842. 
Daniell, J. F. — Elements of Meteorology. 3 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1845. 
Leslie, Professor. — In Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
British Almanac and Companion from 1830 to 1850 passim. 

Section 3. Geology. — The Thames, from its source to its out- 
fall, traverses the series of formations which lie upon the oolites of 
central England, following in its course a valley which, in its present 
configii ration at least, is, comparatively speaking, modern. Within 
the historical periods no change appears to have taken place, beyond 
those produced by the gradual contraction of the width of the stream, 
especially towards its embouchure ; but modern works have brought 
to light traces of what would induce us to believe that partial modifi- 
cations had taken place subsequently to the peopling of the island. 
The configuration of the strata in some of the lower portions of the 
hydrographical basin, however, indicate that this district must, at a 
remoter geological epoch, have presented nearly similar outlines to 
those it does at the present day, although at a much lower level 
in comparison with that of the ocean. The present course of the 
Thames, in fact, appears to have been as it w T ere traced out for it, 
before the surface of the main land assumed its present form. 

Geology of the Ridge bounding the Thames. — The outline of the 
basin may be described thus, commencing from the south-eastern 
extremity. In the portion between Gravesend and the valley of the 
Darent, the basin of the Thames is separated from that of the Med- 
way by a ridge of chalk hills, capped by the middle tertiary strata of 
the eocene formations, which occupy so large a surface round Lon- 
don. The valley of the Darent is, for the lower part, entirely in 



LONDON — GEOLOGY. 25 

the chalk, although the river itself rises in an elevated ridge of the 
lower green sand, which continues the line of demarcation between 
the two rivers just mentioned. In all probability the tertiary strata 
were continued across the valley during the epoch of their deposi- 
tion ; and they were carried away by the current which formed the 
actual watercourse of this transverse valley. The sources of the 
Darent are near Godstone, and it traverses narrow beds of the gault 
clay, and of the upper green sand, before entering into that portion of 
its course where it flows only through the chalk. The ridge of the 
Thames basin continues to be formed by the subcretaceous forma- 
tions until we arrive at the neighbourhood of Reigate, where they 
are capped by the Weald clay, and even for a short distance by the 
beds of the Hastings sand. One of the branches of the Mole takes 
its origin from these beds ; and they divide its watershed from that 
of the Ouse. 

The ridge of the basin then abruptly bends in a direction north- 
west by west, and is covered by the Weald clay and the lower green 
sands, which formations prevail in those portions of the district 
through which runs the affluent of the Wey, passing near Godalming. 
This portion of the boundary ridge divides the watershed of the Wey 
from that of the A run, and pours its waters towards the north in 
rather a less degree than to the south. 

The upper green sands form the boundary of the basin in that 
portion drained by the branch of the Wey which runs near Guild- 
ford, through Farnham, from near Alton. Near Alton they appear to 
have been removed, for we again find the chalk, which continues to 
form the surface of the hydrographical basin, with an elevated ridge 
of an irregular outline, and a direction nearly due west, through 
Whitchurch, Marlborough, &c, to near Calne, in Wiltshire. The 
affluents of the Thames we have mentioned as flowing from the 
subcretaceous formations in this southern part of its basin, are 
obliged to find their outlet into the main stream through narrow 
gorges in the chalk formation, which exhibits in this part of England 
very distinct traces of great and regular disturbances. An inspection 
of any geological map will show that at some antecedent epoch the 
chalk must have formed the boundary of two estuaries, situated on 
what now constitute the eastern and the south-eastern shores of 
England, with a third basin towards the south. The outlines of 
these estuaries are formed by very distinct ridges in the chalk, one 
of which, bounding the basin of London clay, known specifically by 
the name of the London basin, crosses England in nearly a straight 
line from Dover to near Devizes, running due east and west. It 
then turns off at an angle of about 35°, and runs again nearly in a 
straight line, in a direction about north-easterly, to the sea shore, 
between King's Lynn and Cromer; forming the two sides of a tri- 
angle, now filled in by the London clay. The other basin on the 

e 



26 LONDON — GEOLOGY. 

south is nearly parallel to this, or at least the outline of the chalk 
ridge, which hounds it to the north, is parallel to that of London. It 
"begins on the sea shore near Eastbourne, runs through Winchester, 
Shaftshuiy, to near Beaminster, and then returns at a sharp angle 
towards the sea near Dorchester, inclosing the narrow basin of the 
eocene formations, known as the Hampshire basin. The south- 
eastern basin, or ancient estuary, appears to have been filled up 
under different cosmical circumstances, and to have owed its separate 
existence to movements in the chalk which took place in a different 
direction to those forming the outline of the eocene tertiary basins. 
The antiquity of the Wealdean formation is supposed to be greater 
than that of the London clay ; and on the south-eastern coast of 
England it occupies the region between the two parallel ridges of the 
chalk above mentioned, being bounded on the west by a transverse 
ridge joining those running from the east to the west. 

Resuming our description of the boundary of the basin of the 
Thames, we find that it is formed near Calne by the lower green 
sands, and that soon afterwards the middle oolite rises to the surface, 
giving place to the lower division of that series which continues as 
far as the head of the Colne near Brock worth. The direction of this 
ridge is nearly north ; thence it diverges towards the east to the 
sources of the Charwell, continuing in the district of the lower oolite. 
From the sources of this river the ridge bends in a southerly direc- 
tion to the neighbourhood of Twyford in the middle oolite ; thence 
it runs easterly round the sources of the Thame, passing through the 
upper oolite, and the lower green sand. The chalk formation then 
again forms the bounding ridge, which separates the valley of the 
Thames from that of the Ouse and its affluents. It continues in an 
easterly direction, bearing rather towards the north to beyond Bunt- 
ingford, bending round the sources of the Lea, and the Stort. The 
direction of the ridge then becomes southerly, and is entirely formed 
by an elevation of the London clay, passing through Dunmow, Great 
Waltham, Chelmsford, Billericay, to near Grey's Thurock, where the 
chalk reappears. 

Areas. — In so irregularly defined an area it is almost impossible 
to ascertain with precision the relative surfaces occupied by the 
different formations. The difficulty is increased by the number of 
the strata which outcrop in some portions of the district, and the 
very narrow zones they occupy in regions where the perfect cultiva- 
tion of the soil renders it impossible to make very accurate investi- 
gations. If, however, we assume the total surface of the hydro- 
graphical basin of the Thames as being 6025 square miles, we may 
calculate that the oolitic formations occupy 2000 of them ; the cre- 
taceous formations 1925; and the tertiary formations 2100 square 
miles. In this calculation we have neglected the subdivisions of the 
different groups, for the reasons above stated. 



LONDON— GEOLOGY. 27 

Geology of the Watercourses. — Following the courses of the afflu- 
ents of the Thames, we find that the rivers which rise above Lech- 
lade take their source in the low r er oolite of the Cotswold Hills; ex- 
cepting the Key, which rises in the Oxford clay, and the Cole, which 
is furnished from the impermeable strata of the gault. From Lech- 
lade the course of the river is in the Oxford clay, to a point near the 
junction of the Charwell, which, after rising in the lower, traverses 
the middle oolite for a short distance, and then joins the Isis, after 
traversing, like it, the Oxford clay. The Isis thence continues in the 
upper oolite, or the Kimmeridge clay, for some distance ; then it winds 
its way through the gault to a point at Shillingford near Dorchester, 
where the Thame, whose origin and course are nearly all in the 
upper oolite, falls in. The Ock has its course entirely in the upper 
oolite. 

The Thames then flows through the subcretaceous green sand 
formations as far as Goring ; and there it traverses a gorge in the 
chalk, and continues at the bottom of a valley in that formation to 
Bray, near Windsor, receiving in its way the Kennet, whose origin 
is entirely in the chalk, and whose valley is covered by a red clay, 
probably derived from the destruction of the strata which occupied 
the position of the existing valley, or from the drift to be noticed 
hereafter. 

The course of the Thames thence to its embouchure is entirely 
through the tertiary formations. The alluvial deposits, however, 
assume, near Fulham, so great importance as almost to be entitled to 
be considered a distinct formation. Before arriving at that point, 
however, the Loddon, whose entire course is in the London clay, falls 
in ; then the Colne, from the chalk, traversing near its junction the 
lower tertiaries ; then the Brent, from the blue clay only ; the Wey 
and the Mole from the subcretaceous formations, and which, as said 
before, force their streams through gorges in the chalk into the 

' Coo 

tertiary valley ; then the Wandle, which flows entirely through the 
clay ; bear down to the Thames the 'waters which flow r from their 
respective districts. The Lea rises in the chalk, but the more im- 
portant part of its course is in the tertiary formations ; the Ravens- 
bourne, the Roding, the Ingerburn, and the eastern affluents on the 
north banks of the Thames, are entirely furnished by the London 
tertiaries. The Darent, and its confluent the Cray, traverse that 
formation only for a very short distance after leaving the valleys in 
the chalk through wdiich they flow from the bounding ridge. 

The parallelism of the more ancient strata in their course from sea 
to sea is very remarkable, although there necessarily exist very great 
flexures, and irregularities in the details of their outlines. Their re- 
currence in the opposite portions of the European continent has also 
an interest to the geological observer, as indicating the outlines of 
the ocean, at whose bottom the cretaceous formations were quietlv 

c 2 



2 8 LONDON GEOLOGY* 

deposited during the countless ages necessary for the development of 
such extensive phenomena. The alternations of chemical and me- 
chanical action evinced by the different natures of the strata, the 
traces of frequent changes of level both by elevation and subsidence, 
render the examination of this branch of the science of the highest 
interest. 

Oolitic Formations. — The district which forms the hydrographi- 
cal basin of the Thames does not in any part touch upon the main 
division of the secondary strata known as the lias, although in many 
cases it approaches it very closely, and a detached outlying patch of 
the lias occurs not far from the head of the Evenlode. The eleva- 
tion of the oolites is not very great, and the outlines of the hills 
(wherever they do exist) are rounded, with a gentle inclination to- 
wards the valleys, especially on the eastern side. The highest point 
in the Cotsw r old range, near the sources of the Colne, is 1134 ft. above 
the mean level of the sea. The Broadway Beacon is 1086 ft. ; the ex- 
treme height of the spur which divides the valley of the Windrush 
from the Evenlode is only 883 ft. high. The range of hills known as 
the Edge Hills, between the heads of the Evenlode and the Charwell, 
does not exceed 686 ft.; and the central table land forming on the 
north the watershed of the Nen, and that of the Charwell on the 
south, is only 366' ft. above the sea. From this cause the execu- 
tion of the navigable canals between the various basins of central 
England was rendered comparatively speaking easy, and free from 
expensive works. 

The strata of the oolitic series are worked to some extent for the 
purpose of supplying building stone, and lime for local demands; 
the qualities of those found in the precise localities comprehended in 
the basin of the Thames are not, however, such as to cause them to 
be much sought after for the use of the metropolis. The only stones, 
in fact, which are known in the London market as coming from this 
geological district, are the Pains wick and the Ketton stones, although 
the Bath and the Portland oolites are both furnished from other 
portions of the oolitic formations. In the Oxford clays the septaria 
are met with in considerable quantities, but hardly under the con- 
ditions requisite for their being profitably converted into cement. 
Hydraulic limes might be obtained from some of the argillaceous 
beds in the proximity to the Oxford and the Kimmeridge clays ; but 
sufficient attention does not yet appear to have been devoted to this 
branch of economic geology. 

The fossil remains contained in the oolites of central England are 
so thoroughly described in the scientific treatises upon geology, that 
it would be presumptuous to endeavour to condense what has been 
written on the subject, in our necessarily imperfect sketch. The oc- 
currence of the jaw-bones of the Didelphys in the Stonesfield slates 
is, however, of too great interest not to be mentioned. These speci- 



LONDON GEOLOGY. 29 

mens are the only authentic ones known by which the existence of 
viviparous mammalia, during the secondary periods, is demonstrated ; 
and they are the more remarkable that, although five jaw-bones have 
been discovered, no other remains of the animals are to be met with. 
In the formations of a more recent date, also, there is a complete 
absence of mammalian remains until we arrive at the tertiary epoch. 
The jaw-bones alluded to are found in the Stonesfield slates worked 
near Oxford, in the Cots wold Hills. 

Subcretaceous Formations. — The oolitic strata dip in all directions, 
in a kind of basin-like form, immediately covered by the cretaceous 
formations, divided by geologists into the subcretaceous deposits and 
the chalk proper. The former outcrop, as we have seen, over con- 
siderable areas of the district under our notice, being separated from 
the oolites by the Weald clay and the Kimmeridge clay. These 
beds, being impermeable, hold up the waters which nitrate through 
the exposed surfaces of the subcretaceous formations, constituting 
these latter into subterranean reservoirs of water, from which, as Mr. 
Prestwich justly observes, it is very probable that a large supply 
might be obtained by means of artesian wells. Geologists classify the 
subcretaceous beds as follows : — Firstly, and immediately upon the 
upper members of the oolitic series, we find the lower green sand of 
very variable thickness. Secondly, the gault clay, interposed be- 
tween the upper and lower green sand, which last forms the third 
member of the series, and immediately underlies the chalk. 

Mr. Prestwich describes the lower green sand as consisting of a 
series of beds of loose sands and soft sandstones, with subordinate 
beds of clay, and groups of argillaceous strata; the sands, however, 
on the whole predominate largely. It thins out from east to west; 
for at Hythe, according to Dr. Fitton, it is 406 ft. thick, whereas 
at Devizes it is only from 13 to 20 ft. thick. At this latter place its 
superposition upon the Kimmeridge clay and the oolite may be dis- 
tinctly observed. 

Wherever the gault outcrops between the sands of the subcre- 
taceous formations it forms valleys which, when uncultivated, are 
covered by rushes and plants affecting low and damp situations. It 
is sometimes laminated, and often the planes of its deposition are 
traceable by interposed beds of sand, or by courses of small nodules. 
Its mineralogical composition may be regarded as being a calcareous 
loam usually of a blue colour ; sometimes it attains a thickness of 
about 100 ft. In the basin of the Thames it does not appear to be 
worked for the purposes of commerce. 

The upper green sand, in this differing from the lower, augments 
in volume as we proceed from east to west. At the first points 
where its thickness has been ascertained, viz., at Godstone, it is from 
20 to 30 ft. thick; at Farnham it is nearly 100 ft.; near Walling- 
ton 70 ft.; at Wantage 100 ft.; in the vale of Pewsey, and at 



so 



LONDON— GEOLOGY. 



Devizes, 140 ft., according to the researches of Mr. Prestwich. It 
is very uniform in its lithological structure : the upper division con- 
sisting of sands, occasionally mixed with clay; the lower, of soft, 
thin-bedded, or fissile calcareous sandstone. At Godstone this is 
quarried to a considerable extent, and used under the name of fire- 
stone, in the construction of such works as are required to resist a 
moderate open fire. At Mitfield and at Reigate are outlying deposits 
of fullers' earth, varying from 7 to 17 ft. in depth, and which have 
been worked for many years. They contain occasionally crystals of , 
the sulphate of barytes. Near Farnham the upper green sandstones 
are quarried for building purposes ; but it is to be observed that they 
assume there the character of argillaceous limestones. Near the same 
town of Farnham the green sands and the gault, where it appears, 
contain nodules of phosphate of lime, which are sometimes used in 
agriculture as a substitute for bone-dust. 

The characteristic fossils of the subcretaceous formations are, the 
Exogyra sinuata, the Nucula pectinata, Inoceramus concentricus, Pli- 
catula placunea, the Scaphites, species of Turrilites, Baculites, and the 
Ammonites monile. The teeth of sharks are also of frequent oc- 
currence. 

At Woburn there is also a detached outlier of fullers' earth, which 
is worked to a considerable extent. Rather to the north-west of | 
Thame is a pit from which ochre is obtained ; and at Croydon, in 
the same geological division, is a quarry from which a kind of fire- 
clay is obtained. 

Chalk, — The chalk formation is superposed on these beds of sand, 
from which the main body of the chalk is separated by a bed of I 
chalk-marl, of a light gray colour, inclining to brown, frequently 
stained by the presence of oxide of iron. It is usually soft and 
friable ; and it consists principally of carbonate of lime and alumina, 
with an intermixture of silica. A small proportion of iron, and oc- 
casionally of oxide of manganese, are also present. Sulphuret of iron 
and spicular crystals of carbonate of lime are also frequently to be | 
met with. 

The chalk-marl is extensively quarried for the purpose of supply- 
ing the London market with lime. The quality it produces is, on I 
the average, a moderately hydraulic lime, of which that furnished by 
the neighbourhood of Merstham and Dorking are characteristic sam- 
ples. Smeaton mentions that he employed, in some of his canal 
works, a lime, from his description, far superior to those just men- 
tioned, obtained by the burning of a variety of the chalk-marl found 
near Guildford, and known by the local designation of clunch. With 
the present facilities for its transport offered by the railways and 
canal, it were to be desired that attention were again called to it. 

The chalk itself is somewhat arbitrarily divided by the geological i 
w r riters into the upper, middle, and lower chalk ; although it is ex- 



LONDON — GEOLOGY. 31 

tremely difficult to Bay decidedly where the one hegins or the others 
end. The most natural division seems to he, that of the chalk with- 
out flints, the lower and harder beds, which are also less white, and 
sometimes varied by green or red grains ; and of the chalk with 
flints, the upper and softer series. The latter is of a purer white 
and of a softer texture than the inferior strata, but in other respects 
presents no sensible difference. It is regularly stratified, and sepa- 
rated by horizontal layers of silicious nodules into beds, that vary 
from a few inches to several feet in thickness, and which are tra- 
versed by obliquely vertical veins of tabular flint, that may be traced 
for many yards without interruption. These are sometimes disposed 
horizontally, and form a continuous layer of thin flint of considerable 
extent. To continue the description so elegantly given by Dr. Man tell, 
" The nodular masses of flint are very irregular in form, and variable 
in magnitude — some of them scarcely exceeding the size of a bullet, 
while others are several feet in circumference. Although thickly 
distributed in horizontal beds or layers, they are never in contact 
with each other, but every nodule is completely surrounded by chalk. 
Their external surface is composed of a white opaque crust ; in- 
ternally they are of various shades of gray inclining to black, and 
often containing cavities lined with chalcedony and crystallized 
quartz." 

The minerals of the chalk are confined entirely to isolated speci- 
mens of quartz and chalcedony, with occasional nodules of the sul- 
, phuret of iron. The animal remains, on the contrary, are very 
numerous. They consist of zoophytes ; bones, palates, and scales of 
fish; not less than 300 species of shells, mostly pelagian; traces of 
confervse and fuci ; water-worn and worm-eaten fragments of dico- 
tyledonous wood ; bones and teeth of several oviparous quadrupeds, 
but none of mammalia. Commercially, the chalk is quarried for the 
purpose of making lime, the qualities of which, as is well known, arc 
only adapted for internal works. Occasionally the chalk becomes 
harder and denser in its grain, and is then used as a building stone 
in the localities in which it is found. The conversion into lime is, 
however, the principal use to which chalk is turned in our country, 
for which its superior adaptation to agricultural purposes renders it 
a highly important mineral production. 

The hills of the chalk are not very lofty, and they are easily dis- 
tinguishable in a landscape by the rounded form, and the absence of 
abrupt escarpments in their outlines. The greatest elevations they 
attain in the vallev of the Thames are, in the Chiltern range, at 
Kensworth Hill, of 904 ft., and at Nettlebed Hill, of 820 ft. above 
the sea, respectively. In the North Downs, Inkpen Beacon attains 
a height of 1011 ft.; Hind Head, of 923 ft.; and Leith Hill, 
993 ft. 

From the peculiar mechanical structure of the chalk, in such 



32 LONDON — GEOLOGY. 

places as it is exposed, if the rain-water is not immediately thrown 
off by the declivity of the valleys, it is rapidly absorbed into the body 
of the formation. Wherever, then, the chalk is not covered with 
beds of drift clay, the streams it furnishes are few, and insignificant 
in volume. Compared with the other formations, certainly the 
chalk, area for area, yields less to the river than they do. The af- 
fluents of the Thames which are furnished by it, we also find to run 
through valleys in which the drift clay occurs to a great extent, as in 
the case of the Kennet, the Colne, and the Lea. In the valley of 
the Kennet, we may also mention that large beds of peat are met 
with, and that they are worked to some extent near Newberry. 

The existence of the impermeable bed of chalk-marl under the 
main body of this formation also has a considerable influence on 
the formation of springs in the valleys where it is exposed. In the 
cases in which the marl outcrops on the hill sides, the waters, filter- 
ing through the superincumbent mass of the chalk, work their way 
through the portions immediately upon the marl ; for the nature of 
that stratum opposes itself to their further descent, and the hydro- 
statical pressure upon the upper waters forces them to flow away at 
the points in which there is no counteracting resistance. We thus 
find in many of the chalk valleys that copious perennial springs are to 
be met with ; even though the hills which surround them become 
perfectly dry immediately after a fall of rain, however copious. 

London Clay. — The chalk formation is immediately covered, in 
the basin of the Thames, by a considerable deposit, classed by mo- 
dern geologists in the eocene tertiary series. It is of very con- 
siderable thickness, and, as we have before seen, it performs an 
important part in the hydrography of the district, from the extent of 
country it covers, and the manner in which it throws off the surface 
waters. The name of the London clay has been applied to the 
whole division, which is capable of subclassifi cation into, firstly, the 
plastic clays; and secondly, into the London clay proper. 

The plastic clays immediately overly the chalk, and are met with 
in various thicknesses, wherever that formation outcrops from under 
the tertiaries. The character of the plastic clays is not uniform, for, 
again to quote the words of Mr. Prestwich, " it exhibits in many 
places variations in its structure and fauna." In the neighbourhood 
of Newberry and Reading are mottled clays, interstratified with beds 
of sand, and generally underlied by a bed abounding with the Ostrea 
bellovacina. At Woolwich, Charlton, and Bromley, the chalk is 
overlied by unfossiliferous sands, succeeded by a mixed series of 
clays and sands with flint pebbles, and containing many organic re- 
mains of fresh water and estuary origin. At Heme Bay and in the 
Isle of Thanet there exists a thicker and more important series of 
sands, sometimes in part very argillaceous, at others much mixed 
with green sand, and many of the beds of which abound with marine 



LONDON — GEOLOGY. S3 

fossils — the fluviatile beds of Woolwich, and the mottled clays of the 
western districts, having in these places completely disappeared. 

The plastic clay formation is most largely developed in the eastern 
portion of the basin of the Thames. In passing nnder London its 
composition changes very materially from what it is in the north-east 
of Kent, and its united thickness diminishes until it arrives at the 
extreme western outcrop. The greatest thickness in the portion first 
named is about 120 ft.; under London it is 75 ft.; at Claremont 
60 ft. ; and finally, at Hungerford, 48 ft. It is from the beds con- 
stituting this formation that the artesian wells of the metropolis 
derive their supplies ; but Mr. Prestwich accounts for their small 
value by the fact, that the uninterrupted flow of the water is pre- 
vented by two lines of disturbance, or faults, which traverse the dis- 
trict nearly at right angles one to another. 

The fossils of the plastic clay consist of numerous species of testacea 
and occasionally the bones of vertebrated animals, such as reptiles or 
fish. In the London basin no traces of mammalia are to be met 
with, though in the Isle of Wight bones of the Anoplotherium have 
been found. Fossil plants, in the form of lignites, are sufficiently 
common. 

Commercially, the plastic clay formations furnish earths admirably 
adapted for the manufacture of pottery ; and it is to their adaptation 
to such purposes that the whole series owes its name. The sandy 
loams, also, are much used by iron-founders, for the purpose of 
making the moulds into which the iron is run from the furnaces. The 
plastic clay does not offer any hills worth our notice. 

Upon the beds of the plastic clay those more particularly known 
by the designation of the London clay are deposited, in a manner 
usually conformable. It may be defined as a mass of dark -bluish clay 
occasionally brown at the outskirts, evidently of an origin similar to 
what we can now trace in estuaries ; of very great extent and con- 
siderable thickness. Some of the lower beds assume at times dif- 
ferent characters, and are yellowish-white, or variegated, unctuous, 
laminated, and in their chemical position partake of the nature of 
calcareous marls. The upper beds are most frequently brown, and 
near the top mixed with light-coloured sands, in sufficient quantities 
to form a good brick earth without mixture, the middle beds being 
mostly bluish-gray, as before said. Green sands are occasionally 
interspersed, at others rounded flint pebbles also, in these lower parts 
of the formation. The colour of the main body of the clay often 
becomes brown, with an appearance of being bedded, and with 
nodules of septaria dispersed in layers over a considerable extent. 
The fossils contained are very numerous and beautiful, especially 
near the Island of Sheppey, where the continual inroads of the sea 
expose them in great abundance. Sir C. Lyell states that as many 
as from 300 to 400 species of testacea are found in the London clay ; 

c 3 



34 LONDON — GEOLOGY. 

an immense number of the ligneous seed-vessels of plants, of species 
now confined to tropical regions, and the bones of crocodiles and turtles, 
are also found in it, but no remains either of mammalia or of birds 
were discovered until of late years. Professor Owen has, however, 
recognised the bones of Quadrumana in some positions of the clay. The 
nodules of septaria are collected to a very great extent upon the 
shore of the Isle of Sheppey, for the purpose of making the Roman 
cement so much used in engineering and architectural works. 
Mineralogically, the septaria may be defined as being an argillaceous 
carbonate of lime, traversed by veins of crystallized carbonate of 
lime ; it is either of a bluish or an ochreous-brown colour, according 
to the strata in which it occurs. Crustaceous fossil remains are often 
inclosed in the nodules. 

The Island of Sheppey also yields large quantities of the proto- 
sulphate of iron, or the absurdly-named copperas of commerce. It is 
used principally in the manufacture of ink and of prussian-blue. 
The sulphuret of iron is also found in the London clay, but hardly in 
sufficient quantities to render its extraction of commercial value. 
Crystals of the selenite, or the starry gypsum, frequently occur, but 
that mineral is also very irregularly distributed, nor is it met with in 
such proportions as to be of use. When the London clays are of a 
red colour, from the presence of ochreous iron, they are used for 
the manufacture of bricks. 

The elevations of- the hills in the London clay of the basin of the 
Thames in no case exceed 620 ft., which is that of Langdon Hill 
in Essex. In Epping Forest there is also a hill 390 ft. high ; and 
at Highgate the clay, capped by the Bagshot sand, attains a height of 
450 ft. above the mean level of the sea. The outlines of these 
hills are even more rounded than those of the chalk, and the valleys 
are also less precipitate in their falls. The effect of these conditions 
of form, combined with the retentive nature of the material, is to 
render the London clays more adapted to furnish the supplies of 
water they derive from the rain-fall to the rivers. It is indeed cha- 
racteristic of this group, that it throws off a greater number of 
streams in proportion than any other. But, at the same time, we 
must observe, that if no outfall be given to the surface water, and it 
cannot escape through the land, but lies upon it, the London clay is 
marshy and unhealthy. The extreme thickness of this formation is 
supposed to be about 620 to 650 ft. 

The London clay is covered in some portions of its area by a 
series of beds called the Bagshot sands, which lie conformably upon 
it in the district beginning near Esher and Claremont on the east, to 
Heckfield and Strath fieldsaye on the west. They extend from near 
Farnham on the south, to Wokingham on the north, with outliers on 
the top of Hampstead Hill, Harrow, Highgate, as also near Epping, 
Havering-atte- Bower, Brentwood, Langdon, and in the neighbour- 



LONDON — GEOLOGY. 35 

hood of Rayleigh, near Southend. This series consists of a mass of 
unfossiliferous silicious sands, with occasional subordinate beds of 
fossiliferons green sands and marls at their base. They usually form 
barren sandy districts, rising over the greater part of the area they 
cover into ranges of moderately-elevated heath-covered hills. At 
the outcrop of some of the clays and marls of the lower division, and 
also at the outcrop of the green sands and argillaceous marls of the 
middle division, the country is, however, remarkably fertile. These 
portions are, however, very limited in their area, when compared with 
the surface of the sands. 

The area of these formations has been stated lately, by the very 
equivocal authority of the Board of Health, to be 150 superficial 
miles ; the best geological maps make the area much less, even 
including the great outlier of Hampstead and Highgate. The total 
thickness ranges between 400 and 500 ft., but it is hardly ever 
found to exist in its full extent. 

Mr. Prestwich divides the whole formation into the three following 
groups ; viz. : — 

lstly. The lower Bagshot sands, varying from 100 to 150 ft. in 
thickness, which occur near Woking, Weybridge, Virginia Water, 
Claremont, Cobham, Ripley, Ascot, and at the bottom of Hampstead 
Heath. They are composed of whitish and light-yellow fine silicious 
sands, frequently micaceous, occasionally argillaceous, with a few 
seams of pebbles, and mere traces of organic remains. 

2ndly. The middle Bagshot sands, from 40 to 60 ft. thick. They 
are most extensively developed near Addlestone and Chertsey, at 
Shapley Heath, Swinley, Bagshot, Chobham, Ascot, and covering the 
top of Hampstead Heath, &c. They consist of a few beds of dif- 
ferent coloured sands and clays, with one or two beds of green sand 
containing lignite in the lower beds. 

Srdly. The upper Bagshot sands, from 200 to 300 ft. thick, 
which are met with near Chobham Place, Frumley Heath, Bagshot, 
Hartford Bridge, and Sandhurst. They consist of irregularly-bedded 
sands of a light-yellow colour, occasionally tinged with shades of 
green, red, and ochre. 

The rare fossils contained in this bed led Mr. Prestwich to assign 
it a date posterior to the London clay, but anterior to the pleistocene 
drifts, which cover that formation in other places. 

These pleistocene drifts, or, as they used to be called, diluvial 
deposits, are dispersed irregularly over the valley of the Thames 
throughout nearly the whole of its course, and were apparently 
brought from some elevated region towards the north and east. 
They are found at Maldon, Kelvedon, Braintree, Ilford, Gray's 
Fenney, Stratford, Leighton Buzzard, Finchley, and Muswell Hill, 
the Isle of Dogs, Erith, Brentford, and at other points in the upper 
valley of the Thames. Sir C. Wren, in his " Parentalia," describes 



86 LONDON — GEOLOGY. 

a set of beds existing under the foundations of St. Paul's of precisely 
the same nature. They consist of a light clayey sand and ferru- 
ginous gravel, with boulders of quartz and granitic rocks ; portions 
of all the rocks of the secondary strata, with their characteristic 
fossils; boulders of the London clay septaria, bored by teredinae. 
These beds are not present in all cases, in others they are replaced 
by those which cover them when the series is complete, and which 
consist of a set of beds of sands and light-coloured clays and gravel, con- 
taining bones and shells ; the whole being often covered by a bed of 
brick earth about 4 ft. in thickness. It is to be observed that the 
bones and shells are far from being confined to any one of the mem- 
bers of the series, though they appear to be most numerous about 
the centre. They are highly interesting, inasmuch as they contain 
the remains of elephants, mammoths, aurochs, elk, reindeer, rhino- 
ceros, hippopotamus, tiger, &c, in connection with a large number of 
our present indigenous fiuviatile and terrestial mollusca. 

In some localities the fossil remains of the period of deposition are 
wanting, and the drift consists entirely of the debris of the more 
ancient strata. Thus, at Muswell Hill, we find masses of chalk, 
chalk flints, primary and secondary rocks, and fossils of nearly every 
formation. In others the drift consists chiefly of stiff blue and yel- 
low clay; in others it contains or rests on beds of sand and gravel, 
and is often overlied by a deposit of sand, gravel, and chalk flints, 
exceeding 50 ft. in thickness. The district over which this drift 
extends comprises not only the main valley of the Thames, but also 
the subsidiary valleys of its affluents, such as the Wey and the Mole. 

The heights attained by these more recent deposits are inconsider- 
able; the highest points being near Winchfield, where the Bagshot 
sands are 250 ft. above the sea; at Bagshot Heath, the most ele- 
vated portion of which is 463 ft.; and, as said before, Highgate 
Hill, 450 ft. high. 

The banks of the Thames immediately upon the present course of 
the river, after passing Fulham, and continuing thence to the Nore, 
are formed in the alluvial mud of the existing era in geology. There 
would appear to be strong reasons for believing that the relative 
levels of this portion of the river have been considerably modified, 
either by the subsidence of some portion of the ancient river bed, 
or by the rapid elevation of it within the period in which the human 
race have occupied the island. We find that subterranean forests 
exist at Purfleet, Grays, Dagenham Marsh, and Tilbury Fort. In 
the Isle of Dogs a forest of this description was found at 8 ft. 
from the grass, consisting of elm, oak, and fir-trees, some of the 
former of which were 3 ft. 4 in. diameter, accompanied by human 
bones, recent shells, but no metals or traces of civilization. The 
trees in this forest were all laid from the south-east to the north-west, 
as if the inundation which had overthrown them came from that 



LONDON— NATURAL HISTORY. 37 

quarter. At trie mouth of the Thames we also find the singular heel 
apparently due to the accumulation of aquatic plants and the exuviae 
of marine infusoria which Ehrenherg calls the Darg. 

List of Authors consulted. 

Lyell's Principles of Geology. 
Mantell's Geology of the South East Coast. 
Conybeare and Philipps. 
De la Beche. — How to Observe. 
Philipps, J. — Geology. Lardner's Cyclopaedia. 
Greenough's Map and Explanation. 

Prestwich, Morris, Warburton, Mitchell, Austen, "Wetherell, Ehrenberg, Buck- 
land. — Papers in Transactions and Journal of the Geological Society. 
Report of Board of Health on Water Supply. 
Knipe, Philipps, Betts. — Geological Maps. 
Malcolm's London. 

Section 4. Natural History. — The Flora and the Fauna of a 
country like England, which has been for so many years the scene of 
the persevering exertions of perhaps one of the most energetic races 
which have figured upon the globe, must necessarily have suffered 
modifications so great as almost to defy our attempts to ascertain 
what they were originally. New races of plants and animals have 
been introduced; old ones have disappeared; according to the wants 
or the whims of men. Indeed, to such an extent has this been the 
case, that the parent stocks have either been lost altogether, or so 
much modified as hardly to be recognisable in many instances, or 
their places have been supplied by more productive varieties from 
other climes. The changes in the Flora are perhaps the most extra- 
ordinary; we will then examine them in the first instance, especially 
as the other divisions of organized life are so intimately connected 
with it. 

The Flora. — According to Mr. Loudon's summary, given in his 
very beautiful and elaborate work upon the Arboretum and Fruti- 
cetum Britannicum, " the indigenous plants which might be classed 
as trees or shrubs consisted of 71 genera and 200 species. Nearly 
100 of these are willows or roses; and the whole number of species 
are capable of being comprised in 37 groups or natural orders." In 
detail, they consist of — 

27 deciduous trees, including 4 species of mains , from 80 to 60 feet high on the 

average. 

28 deciduous trees, "whose height varied from 15 to 30 feet. 
1 evergreen, the Scotch pine, from 60 to 80 feet high. 

3 ditto, the box, the yew, and the holly, from 15 to 30 feet high. 
65 deciduous shrubs and very low trees, from 5 to 18 feet high, including 21 roses 

and 32 willows. 
26 deciduous shrubs, from 1 to 5 feet, including 6 roses and 10 willows. 



38 LONDON—- NATUEAL HISTORY. 

5 evergreen shrubs, from 5 to 15 feet high. 

7 ditto ditto, from 1 to 5 feet high. 
1 evergreen climber, the ivy. 

1 deciduous climber, the clematis vitalha. 

2 deciduous twiners, the honeysuckles. 

8 evergreen twiners, the brambles. 

3 deciduous shrubs, the rosa arvensis, solatium dulcamara, and mbus ccesius, 

from 6 to 12 inches high. 
13 evergreen shrubs, from 6 to 12 inches high. 
10 deciduous shrubs, from 3 inches to 1 foot. 

In the whole range of the native Flora, it is believed that no 
less than 3300 to 3400 species are to be found, of which 1437 are 
of the cotyledonous tribes, and 1893 of the acotyledonous. The 
former are comprised in 23 classes and 71 orders, the latter in 
8 classes and 121 orders. Amongst the cotyledonous plants, in 
addition to the 200 species of trees and plants above mentioned, 
there were 855 perennials, 60 biennials, 340 annuals. 

Amongst the perennials there were 83 grasses, principally belonging 
to the second division of the order graminece, characterised by a 
panicled inflorescence ; the gramineae also form a very considerable 
proportion of the biennials and of the annuals. 

Amongst the acotyledonous plants it is supposed that the native 
Flora included 800 fungi; 18 algae; 373 lichens; 85 hepaticae ; 
460 musci; 130 Alices. 

There were 18 sorts of edible wild fruits in the island at the 
period of the Roman invasion; 20 sorts of culinary plants ; 20 sorts 
of spinaceous plants ; 3 fungi ; 8 species of algae, even now eaten 
occasionally ; with 6 sorts of wild flowers retained in the cultivated 
Flora of the present day. The cultivated corns of the present day 
are nearly all of foreign introduction ; for although we possessed 
several species of the barley (hordeum\ and the oats (avena), they 
were not such as were adapted for food. 

The Romans carried into Britain, as they did into all the other 
countries they subjugated, an improved system of agriculture, and a 
vast accession to the Flora. It is to that wonderful nation that we 
are indebted for the plane tree, the lime, the elm, and several species 
of the poplar. Apples were grown in Britain before their arrival, 
but they introduced the pear, the damson, the cherry, peach, apricot, 
quince, mulberry, fig, medlar, walnut, sweet chestnut, the true 
service tree, many varieties of the rose, the rosemary, thyme, and 
arbutus and sweet bay. The greatest advantage our islands derived 
from their occupation is, however, without doubt, the introduction 
of the wheat (triticum hybernum), which appears to have followed 
their progress throughout the world. 

In the dark ages of the Saxon period, the British Islands, like the 
rest of Europe, unfortunately only retained such traces of the Roman 
civilization as the monks could preserve under their protection. 



LONDON— NATURAL HISTORY, 39 

Agriculture suffered like all other branches of refinement. The 
monks appear, however, to have cultivated nearly all the trees and 
plants the Romans had introduced, and they are known to have been 
acquainted with the following trees and shrubs: — the birch, the 
alder, the oak, the wild or Scotch pine, the mountain ash, the 
juniper, the elder, the sweet gale, the dog rose, the heath, the 
St. Johns wort, and the misletoe. 

The introduction of foreign plants seems to have taken place very 
slowly for many years after the Conquest, for in the 16th century we 
find that only 89 foreign woody plants were known to be cultivated 
in Britain, exclusive of two varieties of laurustinus. In the 17th 
century, the example set by Sir Walter Raleigh and Gerard appears 
to have produced some effect, for about 131 woody plants were 
introduced. In the 18th century greater progress was made, for 
445 trees and shrubs were added to our arboretum ; and in the first 
thirty years of the 19th century, not less than 699 were introduced. 
The efforts of Tradescant, Ray, Bishop Compton, and Evelyn, in the 
17th century, contributed to these results, whilst in the 18th, Par- 
kinson, Sutherland, and others, laboured heartily in the cause. 
Their efforts were assisted by the formation of the magnificent gar- 
dens of Chelsea, Syon, Fulham, Kew, Woburn, Chiswick, Mount 
Edgecomb, and many others dispersed over the country. But about 
one-half of the foreign trees and shrubs which now appear in the 
lists of our arboretums, have been introduced within the present 
century, and they are nearly all natives of North America. Amongst 
them not more than 300 attain the dimensions of timber trees, and 
of these the larch is by far the most valuable. A few of the trees 
came from Europe, but the bulk of them were furnished by the 
North American continent, which has been perhaps more thoroughly 
explored than the other thinly inhabited parts of the globe. The 
Duke of Marlborough appears to have aided the progress of our 
botanical acquisitions more than any other patron of the science, by 
the princely scale upon which the gardens at White Knights and 
at Blenheim were conducted. At the former establishment, near the 
town of Reading, that nobleman had collected an inestimable series 
of magnolias; the largest assemblage of the genus pinus in England; 
many species of the acer; fine specimens of the arbutus, sesculus, 
pavia, kolreuthia, &c. The other amateur botanists followed eagerly 
in the path thus traced for them, and it is principally owing to the 
exertions made since the beginning of the century, that we are in- 
debted for the unrivalled collections at Dropniore, Hylands, Bishop's 
Stoke Vicarage, Cheshunt, Cobham Hall, Barton Hall, Bagshot Park, 
Oakham Park, and Deepdene. The botanical gardens at Chiswick 
and in the Regent's Park; the establishments of such eminent horti- 
culturists as the Loddiges, at Hackney; Donald's, near Woking; 
Buchanan, at Camber well ; Lees, at Hammersmith ; Osborne, at Ful- 






40 



LONDON — NATUBAL HISTORY. 



ham; Knight, in the King's Road, Chelsea; Young, at Epsom; &c, 
have aided to naturalize an immense number of the new plants thus 
introduced. 

The results obtained from the combined efforts of all these 
labourers in so good a cause, have been to augment the artificial 
Flora of the British Islands to such an extent, that the combined 
numbers of the native and artificial Floras ars not less than from 
17,000 to 18,000. It has been ascertained by Mr. Loudon, that of 
the additions to the collection, the sources of supply might be 
grouped as follows ; — 



•om the European continent 


4,169 species 


„ „ Asiatic ..... 


2,365 „ 


„ „ African .... 


2,639 „ 


„ „ North American 


644 „ 


„ „ South American 


2,353 „ 


ative countries unknown 


970 „ 



Total . 



13,140 



in which number are included 370 different sorts of hardy trees, 
supporting the vicissitudes of our climate; 100 of that number being 
trees from 30 to 60 ft. high, and the remaining 270 trees from 10 
to 30 ft. high. Four hundred hardy grasses are also included in 
the above total. 

Of course, in so large a collection of foreign plants, it is not to be 
expected that all would thrive equally well. It is supposed, in fact, 
that no more than the following numbers of the different divisions 
can be procured in the nursery gardens :— 



Hardy plants 
Green-house plants 
Hot-house plants 
Annuals . 



Total 



4,580 

3,180 

1,463 

820 

10,043 



counting all the species and varieties. These include 1906 varieties 
of fruit trees, 154 species and 337 varieties of esculent herbaceous 
plants, and 2666 species and varieties of flowers. 

Now, if we proceed to examine in detail the Flora of the district 
round London, we may consider it, firstly, as regards the production 
of human food ; secondly, as regards the forest trees ; and, thirdly, 
as regards the wild flowers, grasses, mosses, &c. 

However we may classify the separate kinds of plants, it cannot 
be denied that, to us at least, the production of either the grain we 
eat or the grasses necessary for the support of the cattle we consume, 
is the most important function of the vegetable world ; and it is for 
this reason that we consider such plants before the others. We find 
thus that, in the agricultural district of the vallev of the Thames, 



LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 41 

the corns grown consist of seven species or varieties of wheat: 
viz., the triticum oestivum, or spring corn; the t. hybernum, or winter 
corn; t. composition; t. turginum ; t. polonicum ; t. spelta; t. mono- 
coccnm. Originally, as has heen "before observed, we were indebted 
to the Romans for this inestimable grain ; many new sorts have been 
tried of ]ate years, but those above enumerated are the most es- 
teemed. Of the ryes, supposed originally to have come from Crete, only 
one variety, the secale cereale, is cultivated. Six varieties of barley 
are planted: the hordeam vulgar e^ common spring barley, supposed 
to be a native of our islands; the hordeum celeste ', or Siberian barley; 
h. hexastichon, the winter barley; k. distichon, the common long- 
eared barley; the h. distichon nudum, the naked-eared barley; and 
the h. zeocriton, the sprat barley. Amongst the oats the avena sativa, 
or the white oats, are those most raised. Attempts have been made 
to introduce the zea mays, or the maize, but they do not appear to 
have succeeded well in our climate, which hardly attains a sufficiently 
elevated temperature to ripen it, as was predicted that it would. In 
the Isle of Thanet, the canary corn, or phalaris canariensis, is largely 
grown ; the millet, or panicum, is also raised. The white and 
black mustard, the sinapis alba and nigra; the buckwheat, or polygo- 
num fagopyrum ; and the rape seed, or brassica napus, complete the 
list of the grains usually produced in the valley of Thames. 

In the upper valley of its affluent the Wey, the hop, or humidus 
lupulus, is cultivated to a great extent near Farnham, as it is also 
near Maidstone and Canterbury, in Kent. There are four varieties : 
the Flemish, Farnham, Goldings, and Canterbury, which are the 
most esteemed, besides several other local varieties. 

Amongst the leguminous field plants, those principally cultivated 
are, the field pea, or pisum savitum; the common bean, or vicia 
faba; the tares, or vicia sativa; lentils, or ervum lens; and phaso- 
lus vidgaris, or the kidney bean. Amongst the roots cultivated in 
fields we may cite the potato, solanum tubercidum; the red beet, 
ceta vidgaris ; the mangult wurtzell, beta civa; the indigenous 
common turnip, or brassica rapa, and its variety the swedes, or 
brassica rapa rutabaga; the indigenous carrot, or daucus carota; the 
indigenous parsnip, or pasti?iaca sativa; the cabbage, or brassica 
cleracea. 

The tall hay grasses most commonly cultivated are the varieties of 
the lolum perenne, and its congeners ; of the dactylis, or cocksfoot ; 
of the holcus, or the woolly soft ; the festuca loliacea, or fescue grass ; 
the anthoxanthum vernum, or vernal grass ; alopecurus pratensis, or 
meadow fox-tail grass; the poafertilis and trivialis, or meadow grass; 
the cynosurus cristatus, or crested dog-tail grass ; the lolium perenne, 
or rye grass ; the agrostis stolonifera, or bent grass ; the phleum 
pratense, or cat's-tail grass ; and the avena pubescens, or the wild oat; 
being the species most esteemed. The trifolium pratense ; the 



42 LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 

t. medium j and t. repens ; or the red, cow, and white clover, of 
which the latter is indigenous; the hedysarum onobrychis, or sainfoin; 
and the medicago sativa, or lucerne; are also grown largely for the 
purpose of feeding horses and other cattle. Many other varieties of 
the tn {folium, of the hedysarwn, and of the medicago, not only grow 
wild, but are also cultivated ; the above named are, however, those 
most frequently grown near London. 

Some other plants, such as the poterium sanguinisorba, or the 
burnet ; the plantago lanceolata, or ribwort plantain ; the ulex 
Europcea, or gorse ; the spergula arvensis, or spurry ; and the apium 
petroselinum, or parsley, are also occasionally grown in large quan- 
tities in fields. 

In gardens, according to the popular statement of Mr. Loudon, the 
following plants and trees are cultivated for food, namely, of the 
cabbage tribe (brassica qu. oleracea ?J seven varieties, the white, the 
red, the savoy, the Brussels, the borecole, the cauliflower, and the 
brocoli. Of the leguminose plants ; the pea, the kidney bean, and 
the garden bean, with their endless sub-varieties. Of esculent roots; 
the potato, Jerusalem artichoke, turnip, carrot, parsnip, red beet, 
skirret, scorzonera, salsafy, and the radish. Of the spinaceous plants; 
the spinach, the orache, white and sea beet, the wild spinach, New 
Zealand spinach, the sorrel, and herb patience. Of the alliaceous roots; 
the onion, leek, chive, garlic, shallot, and rocambolle. Of the aspa- 
raginous tribe; the asparagus, seakale, artichoke, cardoon, rampion, 
and alisander. Of the acetarious tribes ; the lettuce, endive, succory, 
celery, mustard, wood sorrel, corn salad, garden cress, American cress, 
water cress, and the small salads. Amongst the potherbs andgarnish- 
ings, are the parsley, purslane, tarragon, fennel, dill, chervil, horse- 
radish, nasturtium, marygold, borage, &c. Amongst the sweet 
herbs, are the thyme, sage, clary, mint, marjoram, savory, basil, rose- 
mary, lavender, tansy, and cotsmary, or alecost. For the uses of 
confectionery, or medicine, the following plants are cultivated : the 
rhubarb, gourd, angelica, anise, coriander, caraway, rue, hyssop, cha- 
momile, elecampane, liquorice, wormwood, and balm ; the love apple, 
or tomato, the egg plant, capsicum, and samphire, are also sometimes 
grown. 

The kernel fruits grown are the apple, pear, quince, medlar, and 
the true service. The stone fruits are the peach, nectarine, apricot, 
almond, plum, and cherry; the county of Kent having possessed from 
time immemorial the reputation of producing the best fruits of the 
latter description. Amongst the berries may be reckoned the berberry, 
the elder, gooseberry, black currant, red ditto, cranberry, strawberry, 
and raspberry; the two latter attaining their greatest perfection near 
London. The nuts grown are the walnuts, chestnuts, and filberts, 
with all their sub-varieties : the counties of Kent and Hants ap- 
pear to produce the best filberts. 



LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 43 

In frames or in hot-houses are produced pines, grapes, figs, cucum- 
bers, and melons in some abundance; and occasionally a few oranges, 
pomegranates, olives, and Indian figs. Of the fungi only three sorts 
are consumed in cookery, viz., the mushroom, the truffle, found under 
the beech trees of Berkshire, &c, and the morel, found under nearly 
analogous circumstances. 

The list of hardy ornamental flowering shrubs is very extensive, 
and it receives additions almost every year. The principal ones grown 
near London are the hyacinth, tulip, ranunculus, iris, pink, dahlia, 
auricula, primula, carnation, chrysanthemum, rose, pansy, petunia, 
anemone, crocus, narcissus, fritillary, poeony, camellia, fuchsia, calceo- 
laria, verbona, lily, am ary His, ixia, gladiolus, rhododendrons, geraniacese, 
&c. Many of these are indigenous, but they have been considerably 
modified by cultivation. For instance, the primulce, or primrose tribe, 
the ranunculi, or buttercup tribe ; the crocus tribe ; the fritillaria 
meleagris, which grows wild on the banks of the Thames, near Kew 
and Mortlake ; the convallaria majalis, lily of the valley, this lovely 
flower grows wild near Hampstead and Dulwich. Many varieties of 
the iris are also derived from the indigenous wild plants ; as are also 
the cheiranthus cheiri, or the common wallflower ; the convolvuli, 
pinks, poppies, eglantine, honeysuckle. Many of the foreign plants 
of this class have become acclimatised to such an extent as to grow 
freely without cultivation, the most delightful of which is the 
mignonette. 

The forest trees grown in the valley of the Thames have, like all 
the other divisions of the Flora, received immense accessions to their 
numbers of late years. Of the total number of 370 given previously, 
the greater portion are, however, trees which are only grown in orna- 
mental parks, or in positions where they must be considered to be 
artificially cultivated. Perhaps that maybe the case with all the trees 
near London to a certain extent ; for as there are no woods of suffi- 
cient size to superinduce the natural regime of a forest, all our trees 
must be modified by their comparative isolation. The largest 
woods are in some parts of North Kent and Surrey ; Buckingham- 
shire and Oxfordshire can produce some tolerably large woods also ; 
but in the other counties included in the basin of the Thames, with 
the exception of Epping Forest and Windsor, there are few assem- 
blages of trees worthy of more than the name of copses. 

The most common forest trees usually grown are, firstly, the lime, 
3r tilia Europea, said to have been introduced by the Romans ; there 
ire three varieties to be found near London, which thrive well in rich 
ilayey loams, low-lying meadows, and on the banks of rivers. The 
varieties are the t. Europe a, t. platyphylla, and t. microphylla ; 
;hey frequently attain from 80 to 100 ft. in height. In the sooty 
itmosphere of London they soon loose their leaves ; and, moreover, 
is they flower late, they are not much planted near the town. The 



44 LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. 

tilia Americana has been planted very successfully at White Knights, 
where it has grown to about 60 ft. in height within a very few years. 

The acer pseudo platanus, or common sycamore, is of an origin 
which seems involved in some obscurity. If it be not indigenous, at 
any rate it ripens its seed in exposed situations, and may on that 
account be said to be naturalized at least. It is a fine full-sized tree, 
which reaches its full growth in 60 years, improves to 80 or 100, and 
decays before attaining 200 years. Some examples have been known 
whose circumference has not been less than 22 ft. near the ground, 
and which are supposed to have contained 327 cubic feet of timber. 
The sycamore is one of the few trees which support the atmosphere 
of the interior of London. The deciduous bark always looks clean, 
and the bright colour of its beautiful leaf makes it a deserved favourite 
in the gardens of the murky tow r n. There are four varieties cultivated 
in the south of England. 

The acer platanoides, or Norway maple, and the acer macroplnjlla^ 
from North America, have been introduced of late years. 

The acer campestre, or common field maple, is usually treated as 
a bush in the southern counties ; but when allowed to grow it is a 
rather fine tree ; it is indigenous. The misletoe is sometimes found 
upon this species of the maple. 

The cesculus hippocastanum, or horse chestnut, a foreign tree, 
introduced about 1550, grows with extraordinary beauty in some 
situations in the valley of the Thames. It requires a deep fine loam 
and a sheltered position ; and, under favourable circumstances, attains 
from 80 to 100 ft. in height, with a diameter of from 5 to 9 ft. In 
Kensington Gardens some very fine specimens are to be found ; and 
in Bushy Park is one of the most magnificent avenues of horse- 
chestnut trees in the world. 

The ilex cequifolium, the common or green holly, is an indigenous 
plant which generally takes the form of underwood to trees of more 
rapid growth, but at times it attains from 40 to 50 ft. high, with a 
diameter of from 2 to 4 ft. Evelyn planted it as a close hedge, 
and attended to it with such care, that at Saye's Court he suc- 
ceeded in obtaining a hedge 400 ft. long, by 8 ft. high, and 5 ft. 
broad. It grows well in Buckinghamshire and Kent, in gravelly 
soils on a substratum of chalk. 

The robinia pseudo acacia^ or false acacia, is the tree Cobbett 
endeavoured to bring into fashion under the name of the locust. It 
grows rapidly in the first ten years of its existence ; after that period 
its development is very slow. Several varieties of the pseudo-acacia 
are grown as ornamental trees ; but like all the real acacia tribe they 
are late in leaf, and the period of fall is early. 

The cerasus sylvestris, or wild cherry, or gean, is supposed to be an 
indigenous tree, which in a tolerably dry soil rises to 60 or 70 ft. in 
height. In woods it is the favourite resort of the thrush and blackcap. 



LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. 45 

The cratcegus axyacaniha, white thorn, or hawthorn, an indigenous 
tree, or one naturalized at least from the time of the Romans, is at 
the present day only allowed to grow as a hedge plant. In dry, loamy, 
and slightly gravelly soils, however, it attains the dimensions of a tree 
if left without heing clipped. The tribe of Crataegus appears to support 
the London atmosphere tolerably well, and they are on this account 
often planted in the interior of the town. 

The pyrus ancaparia, or mountain ash, and the pyrus alba, or the 
white bean, grow well in some positions near London; but are 
rarely planted otherwise than for ornamental trees. 

The fraxinus excelsior, or common ash, grows to a very great 
dimension at Woburn, attaining 90 ft. in height, with a circum- 
ference of 22^ ft. at the ground. It comes late into leaf, and is 
therefore only grown in coppices, or in such places as allow of its 
being made a commercial tree. The best ash timber grows in free, 
loamy soils, with a mixture of gravel. In rich soils it is luxuriant, 
but the wood it produces is shorter and more brittle in grain ; in cold 
wet clays it never attains any size. Some American varieties of the 
fraxinus have been introduced ; but they do not support the spring 
frosts of our climate. 

The ulmus camjiestris, or small-leaved elm, grows to a high degree 
of perfection in the south of England, and is usually planted as a 
hedge-row tree in the valley of the Thames, rising to from TO to 90 
ft. high, with a diameter of from 4 to 5 ft. We are indebted for 
this beautiful tree to the Romans; and it was a deserved favourite 
with the Anglo-Saxons. It comes into leaf early, keeps it late, and 
stands the smoky atmosphere of our large towns. It will grow upon 
soils of an inferior description, and of various characters, in light as 
well as heavy soils, and often best in strong clayey loam, too stiff and 
adhesive for the ulmus montana, or Scotch or wych elm. There are 
eight varieties of the small-leaved elm in cultivation near London ; 
besides the distinct species of the ulmus suberosa, or cork-barked 
elm, and the ulmus montana. 

There are only four or five species of willow which attain to the 
dimensions of trees, out of the 70 species cultivated. A few others 
attain from 20 to SO ft. in height; but the bulk of them are only 
own under the name of osiers on the river banks. Of the forest 
trees the most important are the salix fragilis, the salix Russelliana, 
the salix alba, and salix caprea, which attain from 60 to 80 ft. in height. 
The osier beds of the Thames and the Cam, however, offer a wide 
field of observation to the botanist, on account of the extraordinary 
number of these indigenous plants they contain. On the islands of 
the Thames, between London and Reading, there are many of these 
osier plantations ; but the greatest number, as well as the most per- 
fect specimens of this svstem of cultivation, are to be found at Reading 
"tself. 



46 LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. 

The poplar tribe flourish best in moist rich soils, and in the neigh- 
bourhood of running waters ; in marshes, and soils rendered con- 
stantly damp by stagnant waters, they do not thrive so well. There 
are many indigenous varieties, the most important of which are the 
popidus canescens, or gray poplar ; the populus tremula, or aspen ; the 
p. alba or abele. The p. grceca, or Athenian poplar ; the populus 
nigra,, or black poplar ; the p. monilifera, or black Italian ; the p. 
fustigata, or Lombardy poplar; the />. balsamifera, or tacamahac; are 
foreign varieties which have speedily adapted themselves to our climate. 
The black poplar yields the best timber ; the Lombardy poplar attains 
the greatest height. It grows occasionally, within 50 years, to as much 
as 120 ft. in height. 

The alnus glutinosa is one of our indigenous trees, which grows on 
the margins of rivers and running streams, and in marshy and damp 
lands, even in morasses and swamps of the wettest descriptions. A 
variety called the a. lanceolata, or cut-leaved alder, attains frequently 
70 ft. in height. 

The betula alba, or white birch, grows in hilly districts, commons, 
and wild tracts, where the soil is of a light and sandy nature. The 
mountain variety, or the weeping birch, grows the fastest, and there- 
fore is the most esteemed. It is planted near London as an orna- 
mental tree in the parks ; but is only prized inasmuch as it forms a 
variety in the landscape ; the foliage is very poor and thin, nor does 
it last as long as many others. . 

Of the quercus robur there are two indigenous species cultivated 
as forest trees throughout the southern counties, the q. robur pedun- 
cidata and sessiliflora. Botanists are, however, far from being agreed 
as to the persistence of the specific differences of these divisions. 
The oak grows best in strong adhesive loams, or good clay soils, more 
particularly when the substratum is of the latter nature, and the sur- 
face water is not allowed to stand at the foot of the tree. The a 
of the oak is proverbial for its great length ; but in the valley of the 
Thames it is found to be most profitable to cut them at 90 years, 
although the trees continue to increase in value until they are 120 
years old. Celebrated trees of this class have been noticed at Bod- 
dington, in Gloucestershire, of 54 ft. circumference ; at Hempstead, 
in Essex, of 53 ft. circumference ; at Merton, in Norfolk, of 63 
ft. circumference ; at Woolton, Michenden, in Buckinghamshire ; 
at Pansangher, in Hertfordshire. In fact, hardly any county in 
southern England is without its celebrated representative of the 
monarch of the woods. Formerly it was much more common ; and 
even so lately as the days of Henry VII. no less than the one-third 
of England was covered by forests in which the oak predominated. 
The only foreign variety which appears to accommodate itself to our 
climate is the q. cerris, or Turkey oak, of which a very beautiful 
sub-variety was obtained from seed at Fulham. 



LONDON — NATUEAL HISTORY. 47 

Only one of the evergreen oaks, the quercus ilex, has been culti- 
vated to any extent; for the q. suber and q. escidus, though they are 
grown with tolerable success in the south of England, are too delicate 
to support our more rigorous winters. The quercus ilex was intro- 
duced about the middle of the 16th century; and is only planted in 
ornamental gardens or parks. 

The common beech, f vagus sylvatica, a tree of the first magnitude, 
rivalling the oak, ash, or chestnut, is one of the four great indige- 
nous trees of the island. It is supposed to have been originally con- 
fined to the chalk districts of the midland counties, or the dry 
calcareous regions, in which it often occupies extensive forests to the 
exclusion of other trees. In Windsor Park are to be found magnifi- 
cent representatives of the class ; but it is not common in the parks 
or pleasure grounds near London. Some tolerably fine specimens 
are to be seen in Kensington Gardens. The dimensions the beech 
attains on dry calcareous soils are 100 ft. high by 12 to 20 ft. cir- 
cumference of the stem at about one foot from the ground. 

By some botanists the castanea vesca, or sweet chestnut, is consi- 
dered indigenous ; the more general opinion, however, attributes 
its introduction to the Romans. In suitable soils near London, it 
grows more rapidly than the oak, for in from 50 to GO years it attains 
a height of 60 to 80 ft. ; but after that period the timber begins to 
get shaky at heart. The chestnut thrives for centuries, however, after 
the interior has entirely decayed, for many of the historical trees are 
entirely hollow. It requires warm and sheltered positions to attain its 
full development in our climate, with a soil of a loam of tolerable 
quality. Very fine samples are to be found in Cobham and Green- 
wich Parks, and in Kensington Gardens. 

The common hornbeam, or carpinus betidas, is an indigenous tree 
of the second class, principally grown as an underwood. It abounds 
in Essex, Kent, and Norfolk, where it affects cold, stiff, clayey soils, 
and grows sometimes to 50 ft. in height, with a circumference of 
from 6 to 8 ft. 

At Lee Court, Kent, and in some pleasure grounds near London, 
are some fine specimens of the platanus oriental! s ; and in good allu- 
'vial soil on the banks of the river, as at Fulham, the platanus occiden- 
tal's also is found. At Lambeth Palace, and in Chelsea Gardens, are 
remarkably fine specimens of the latter. 

The common yew tree, or taxus baccata, is an indigenous tree, 
affecting rocky and mountainous districts, in soils of a stiff calcareous 
nature, kept moist by the percolation of water, or by shade. The yew 
is of very slow growth, but it attains great age ; as, for instance, the 
Ankerwyke yew, in sight of the place where Magna Charta was 
signed, and where Henry VIII. made appointments with Anne Boleyn, 
is supposed to be 1000 years old. In Ifley churchyard is a yew tree 
with a hollow trunk, but a flourishing head, which is supposed to date 



48 LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 

prior to tlie Conquest. The species of superstitious affection with 
which the yew tree is regarded, is perhaps increased by its being the 
favourite resort of the missel thrush and the blackbird. 

Of late years it has become fashionable to establish pinetums or 
collections of abietince. Amongst the most celebrated of these may 
be cited the pinetum of Dropmore, near Windsor, and Flit wick House, 
Bedfordshire, to which we are indebted for the naturalization of many 
foreign varieties of the pine tribe. Those most usually planted near 
London are the common pine, pinus sylvestris, an indigenous tree, 
rising to 80 or 100 ft., with a diameter of from 2 to 4 ft. in favour- 
able situations ; the Corsican variety in Kew Gardens is 90 ft. 
high. At White Knights, also, it thrives equally well. The pinus 
pinaster, or cluster pine, grows on sandy soils and upon the sea shore, 
in exposed positions. The pinus strobus, or Weymouth pine, has 
produced some fine trees, near Strathfieldsaye ; as also has the pinus 
cimbra at Dropmore. In the pleasure grounds of Kent and Sussex, 
it has been long the custom to plant the abies excelsa, or Norway 
spruce, as an ornamental tree. At Strathfieldsaye and Sion House, 
are many fine hemlock spruces (abies Ca?iadiensis ) , and at the latter 
are several specimens of the abies nigra, the lower branches of which 
have taken root where they touch the ground. The silver fir, pinus 
picea, has been planted as an ornamental tree since the commence- 
ment of the 17th century; bat of all the pine tribe introduced of late 
years ) without exception, the larch, pinus larix, is the most remark- 
able both for its beauty and its utility. It does not, however, grow 
well near London, but requires a mountainous situation. The pinus 
cedrus, cedar of Lebanon, has been planted as an ornamental tree for 
many years, for which purposes its grand, picturesque mass renders it 
peculiarly fitted. The largest specimens of the pinus cedrus, in the 
valley of the Thames, are at Strathfieldsaye, where one has attained 
a height of 108 feet ; and at Syon House, where there is a tree mea- 
suring 72 feet in circumference, at three feet, from the ground, and 
117 feet is the diameter of the head. 

At White Knights and Claremont, and at several places in Kent 
and Essex, the magnolia has been planted as a tree with great success. 
The varieties which have stood our climate the most perfectly are- 
the magnolia acuminata, m. cordata, and m. conspicua. They require 
a little care in the early stages. of their growth, but they thrive well 
near London. 

The enonymus Europaus, or common spindle tree, is an indigenous 
tree of the second order in Scotland, where it attains from 25 to 30 
feet in height. Near London, the finest specimens are in Kensington 
Gardens, where they do not exceed 1 5 feet. 

The cerasus Lusitanica, or common Portuguese laurel, has attained 
at Syon, Charlton, Cobham, and Claremont, the dimensions of a 
tree of the second class, reaching 40 feet occasionally. It stands 



LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 49 

exposure to our ordinary winters; but it is often killed down to the 
ground by severe frosts. The common box- tree, or buxus sempervirens, 
is one of those about whose origin the greatest doubts exist. It is 
rulgarly supposed to be indigenous, and the early botanists gave as its 
habitat, Boxhill, Surrey. It is true that it attains there a develop- 
ment in a wild state, which seems to warrant the supposition that it 
is a native of our islands. But histoiical evidence is far from con- 
firming the tradition which makes it to be so. On the dry chalky soil 
of Boxhill this tree attains 30 feet in height, but it is generally known 
as a shrub. 

There are of course many other trees and shrubs cultivated for use 
and ornament near London, such as the lilac, the laburnum, the acacias, 
the bay, laurustinus, privet, arbutus, rhododendrons, &c. To enume- 
ate all would lead us beyond the bounds of this notice ; the reader 
is therefore referred for more ample details to the works enumerated 
at the end of this section. To such as are desirous of studying in 
person this interesting branch of botany, we recommend an examina- 
tion of the woods near Cray, in Kent, Epping Forest, Greenwich 
Park, Kensington, Windsor, Claremont, Strathfieldsaye, White 
Knights — no longer in its glory — Fulham, Ken Wood, Syon House, 
Kew, and the woods near High Clere, and many other places in 
Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, and Cheshunt in Herefordshire. 

The wild flowers, grasses, mosses, algse, &c, ore most favourably 
studied in such places as by prescription, or on account of the unpro- 
ductive nature of the soil, have been left in a state of nature. We 
may cite Wimbledon, Putney, Wandsworth, andStreatham Commons; 
Norwood, Croydon, Mitcham, and Battersea Fields ; the river side 
between Hammersmith and Kew, Esher, Thames Ditton, Woking 
Common, Bagshot Heath, Hampsteacl, Epping Forest, Blackheath, 
nd Charlton, and the marsh districts. Every one of these localities 
possesses its characteristic Flora, and would amply repay a visit from 
the botanist. Cooper's Flora Metropolitana contains in detail the list 
f plants to be found at each place, arranged upon the natural system; 
Curtis' s Flora Londinensis, and Smith and Sowerby's English Botany, 
ontain the same information classified according to the Linnean 
system. Amongst the most interesting plants may be cited the 
Veronica tribe, which are very common about Hampstead and Charl- 
on ; the iris pseudacorus and fcetidissima ; the valerina officinalis, 
growing wild near osier grounds; the scabiosa; the sagina erecta, at 
Blackheath; the pulmonaria maritima ; the lonicera periclymenam, 
yt woodbine; the primidce, acaillis, officinalis and farinosa, or 
u-imroses; the campanula 7 , or heath-bell flowers; the fritillaria 
neleagris, from Kew and Mortlake ; the convallaria majalis, or lily 
)f the valley, already mentioned as a native of Hampstead, Kenwood, 
md Dulwich ; several varieties of the rumex, or dock ; the epilobium, 

It willow herbs; the erica, p>olygonium, saxifraga, and sedum; the 




LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 

saponaria officinalis, from Combe Wood ; many species of the ceras- 
tinm and the ranunculus digitalis, antirrhinum, malva, vicia ervium, 
medicago, hypericum, leontodon, carduus, chrysanthemum, centaurea, 
viola, orchis, and orphys ; the arum maculatum, or cuckoo's pint; 
besides an infinite variety, whose enumeration would swell our notice 
to an unlimited extent. The great number of the graminece is perhaps 
one of the characteristics of the alluvial plains by the river side. 
The leguminosce prevail to a great extent on the gravelly soils of the 
more elevated heaths. Of these the cytisus scoparius, of Wimble- 
don and Putney, is renowned for the enthusiastic admiration it is 
reported to have excited in the celebrated Linnaeus. 

Of the Algce the British Flora is supposed to possess about from 
300 to 400 species of the marine, and so immense a number of fresh- 
water species of algae that we are induced to question the correctness 
of the classification. In the London Basin, of course, the marine 
algae are few, being solely confined to the embouchure ; and even 
there rarely passing into what may strictly be called the river itself. 
If we adopt the classification according to the colour of the series, we 
find that our British marine algae consist of A of the olive, -| of the 
red, and l of the green series, with about 1 of the diatomaceae. Of 
the fresh water algce, it appears that there are 20 families, consisting 
of about 170 genera, with nearly 1000 species according to the 
latest author upon this branch of botany, the greater number of 
which are to be found near Cheshunt, and in the valleys of the 
Thames and the Lea. 

The Fauna. — It the Flora of England has been modified by the 
progress of civilization, the other regions of the organized kingdom 
bear equal marks of its effects. Thus, amongst the animals formerly 
found in our country, we find that the Irish elk has disappeared since 
our island was inhabited by the human race, though before any his- 
torical records were kept, the beaver hardly seems to have existed 
durino- the civilized era. The Scottish bear Martial alludes to (the 
ursus arctos) is not mentioned subsequently to 1072; the wolf was 
extirpated from Scotland about 1577, and from Ireland in 1710; it 
had long before ceased to infest England. The wild boar, the wild 
bull, and wild cat used, in the time of Fitz Stephen, to haunt the 
forests of Highgate and Hampstead ; all have been swept away by 
the advancing stream, with the exception of a few wild cats left in 
the North of England. 

The list of British quadrupeds, then, is very limited ; as they are 
all found in the valley of the Thames it is inserted in extenso. 

Cheiroptera, Bats . 12 species of the family Vespertilionidce. 
2 „ „ „ Plecoim. 

1 t9 }) „ Barbastellus. 

2 „ „ „ Rhinolphns. 
Eranaceus, Hedgehog 1 „ Eranaceus Europeans. 
Talpa, Mole . . 1 „ Talpa vulgaris. 



LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 



51 



Soricidce, Shrews 

TJrsidee, Bear . 
Mustelidce, Weasel 



FelidcB, Cat 
Canidce, Dog 

Phocidce, Seals . 



Sciuridce, Squirrel 
Muridoe, Mice . 

Castor idee, Beaver 
Leporidce, Hare 

Pachydermata . 

Cere idee, Stags . 

Box idee, Bulls . 
Capridce, Goats 
Cetacece, Whales 
Dcljildnidce 



Sea Calf, rare in the 
southern parts of the 
British islands. 



3 species. Sorex arenareus, Shrew Mouse. 

„ fodiens, Water Shrew. Essex. 
„ remifer, Oared Shrew. Norfolk. 
1 „ Melestaxus, the Badger. 
5 ;, Lutra vulgaris, Otter. 

Muztela vulgaris, Weasel. 
., erminea, Stoat. 
„ putorius, Polecat. 
„ furo, Ferret. 
Martes foina, Beech Martin. 
„ abietum, Pine Martin. 

1 „ Felis catus, Wild Cat. 

2 ,, Canis familiar is, Dog. 

Vulpes vulgaris, Fox. 
5 „ Phoca vitulina, 

„ Greenlandica, 

„ barbata, 
Haliclicerns gryplms, 
Trichecus Rosmarus, Walrus, very rare. 

2 „ Sentries vulgaris, Squirrel. 

Jfyoxus avellanarius, Dormouse. 
5 „ Mus messorius, Harvest Mouse. 

„ sylvaticus, Long-tailed Wood Mouse. 

„ musadus, Common Mouse. 

„ rattus, Black Rat. 

„ decuman.?, Norway Rat. 

3 „ Arvicola, amphibus, Water Rat. 

„ agrestis, Field Mouse. 
„ pratensis, Bank Vole. 

4 ,, Lepus timidus, Hare. 

„ variabilis, Alpine Hare. 
,, cuniculus, Rabbit. 
Cavia aperea, Guinea Pig. 
3 families. Sus scrofa, Common Boar. 
Equus caballus, Horse. 
Asinus vulgaris, Ass. 
3 species. Cervus elephas, Red Deer. New Forest. 
„ dama, Fallow Deer. 
„ capreolus, Roe Buck. 
2 „ 1 Bos taurus, with varieties. 

Urus Scotticus, Chillingham Cattle. 
2 „ Capra hircus, Common Goat. 
Ovis aries, Common Sheep. 
. These mammalia are sometimes stranded in the 

Thames. 
. Delphinus delpKis, Common Dolphin. 
„ tursio, Bottle-nosed Dolphin. 
Plwccena communis, Porpoise. 
„ Orca, Grampus. 
„ raela, Round-headed Porpoise. 
Beluga lucus, White Whale. 
Hyperoodon Butzlcopf, Bottle-headed Whale. 
Diodon Soicerbii, Sowerby's Whale. 
Monodon Monoceros, Norwhal. 
Physeter macrocephalus, Cachalot. 

„ torsio, High-finned Cachalot. 
Balcuna mysticetus, Common Whale. 
D 2 



52 LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. 

Amongst tlie reptiles we only find, in our islands, of the — 

Testudinata . . 1 species. Chelonia imbricata, Hawk's-bill Turtle. 
Lacertidce . . 2 „ Lacerta agilis, Sand Lizard. 

Zootica vivipara, Viviparous Lizard. 
Anguidce . . 1 ,, A nguis fr agilis, Blindworm. 

Colubridcs , . 2 „ Natrix torquata, Ringed Snake. 

Pelius Berus, Viper, or Adder. 
Ranidce . , . 2 „ Rana temporaria, Common Frog. 

„ esculenta, Edible Frog. 
Bufonidce , . 2 „ Bufo vulgaris, Common Toad. 

„ calamata, Natterjack. 
Salamandridcs . . 4 „ Triton cristatus, Newt. 

„ Bibronii, Straight-lipped Newt. 
Lissotriton punctatus, Eft. 

„ pahnatus, Palmated Eft. 

Crustacea. — Without entering into details upon the crustacese of our 
shores, we will content ourselves by remarking, that in the valley of 
the Thames, both in the salt and fresh water divisions, the greatest 
number of that class of animals belong to the order Decapoda. Thus 
we have the lobster, the prawn, shrimp, crayfish, of the section 
Macroura ; and the common crab of the section Brachyura. The 
reader who desires more detailed information upon this subject is 
referred to Bell's " British Crustacea," or Dr. Fleming's works. 

Mollusca. — The conchology of the basin of the Thames is not very 
clearly defined, in the portion of its estuary, owing to the violence of 
the tides and currents which prevail there. Specimens of many genera 
and species foreign to our islands are therefore often met with, but there 
is a necessary degree of uncertainty attached to any classification of 
them as connected with our country under these circumstances, which 
induces us to hesitate before including any definite list. We content 
ourselves, then, by observing that it is common to find on the shores 
of the Kentish and Essex coasts of the Thames, bivalve shells of the 
ostrea, avicula^ orbicula, crania, terebrodula, haliotis, pecten, area, 
mactra, pholas, cardium, teredo, solen, cytherea, mytillus, modiola, mya 
and anatina. Of the univalves, we find the patella, chiton, murex, 
echini, cowry, mitra,voluta,oliva,ovulce, cyprcea, bulla, pleurotoma,tyc. 

The land and fresh water mollusca present, necessarily, greater 
fixity of character, and are found in considerable numbers. The 
bivalves consist of seven species of the cyclas, principally in the 
upper parts of the Thames, the anodon cygneus, of large dimensions, 
on Hampstead Heath, and two species of my sea. The univalves com- 
prise the limacellus, testacellus, vitrina; 18 species of helix, carocolla, 
clausilla (5 species), bulimus (4 species), balosa, achatina, succinea, 
cyclostoma, carychium, pupa, vertigo; 10 species of planorbis, seg- 
mentina; 9 species of limneus,physa, valvata; 3 species of paludina, 
heretina, ancyllus. There are in all 85 species belonging to 26 genera 
of this division of the testacea. 

Fishes. — The fishes which inhabit the Thames and its affluents 



LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 53 

have not escaped the influence of the progress of civilization, and of 
the errors committed in the disposal of the refuse of our overgrown 
metropolis. In former times salmon, shad, and the lamprey were 
frequently caught in the river, but they have long ceased to inhabit it, 
unless occasionally. The fish to be caught at the present day may 
be briefly enumerated as follows, — bearing in mind that those above- 
mentioned are only occasional visitors, as is also the sturgeon, that 
even eels are becoming rare in the districts affected by the sewer- 
age, and that the only members of this division which seem to thrive 
in the present filthy state of the Thames are the white bait. We 
find the salmon, sturgeon, tench, barbel, roach, dace, chub, bream, 
ruffle, gudgeon, perch, eels, smelts, flounders, lamprey, shad, pike, 
trout, white bait, and the crusian and sticklebacks, the minnow, carp, 
gold fish, &c, in the upper parts of the river. The estuary is some- 
times visited by the blue shark, sea-fox, dog-fish, conger-eel, cod- 
fish, haddock, whiting, hake, ling, doree, halibut, plaise, soles, turbot, 
mackarel, bass, mullet, sprat, anchovy, but the presence of these fish 
is becoming more and more rare. Of those which appear to affect 
certain localities, we may cite the flounders and white bait of the 
Thames (Jlessus and ceplialus alburnus), the trout (salmofario) of 
the Wandle and the Wey ; the grayling (salmo thy mall us) of the 
Thame near Ludlow; and the rud (cyprinus finsccde) of the Cher- 
well ; the pike (esox lucius) is also common in the side streams. 

Infusoria, — The animalculae in the Thames water only begin to 
(Appear in a sensible proportion, according to the researches of 
Dr. Angus Smith, at Windsor, where it contains many rather large 
hydatince. At Oxford, it is true, we find some of the smaller 
green navicular, and several other smaller green bacillaria ; but the 
river appears to purify itself in its course, for at Reading these ani- 
malculae do not appear in such numbers. From Richmond down- 
wards, the case is much altered ; at such places as Chelsea, Hunger- 
ford Market, &c, the deposit from the water contains many animals, 
large and gelatinous looking; the vibrio fluviatilis, about J-$ of an 
inch long, is very common, as are also many polygastric animalculae, 
chiefly of the navicula fulva, which appear to thrive upon the abund- 
ance of silica brought down by the sewers and house drainage. 
The season of the year must doubtless affect the relative numbers of 
these animalculae, for we find that the Thames water is much harder 
at certain periods than at others. 

Birds. — Improved cultivation has affected the habits of the 
feathered tribes which frequent our shores. From their organization 
these are free to migrate according to the adaptation of any parti- 
cular country to the supply of their wants. As the primaeval forests 
have been cleared, the heaths cultivated, and marshes and lowlands 
drained^ the birds they were wont to nourish have been forced to 
seek elsewhere the conditions most favourable for their subsistence 



54* LONDON— NATURAL HISTORY. 

The species of the falconidm, for instance, which frequented the 
valley of the Thames, are far from being as numerous at the present 
day as they were formerly; the tetraonidce are more rare, some even 
(such as the Great Bustard, otis tarda,) have entirely abandoned us; 
the gruidcB are now met with less frequently, although some of them 
still remain ; the ardeidce have left many of their ancient habitats ; 
the natatores, although they still visit our shores, are not to be found 
in many places they used formerly to visit in great numbers. 

Amongst the birds admitted into the catalogues of the visitors or 
natives of our isles, there are perhaps as many as 237 species ; but as 
the list comprehends many which are evidently nothing more than 
stray wanderers, we may perhaps consider that number to be some- 
what exaggerated. Some of the most remarkable of those found in 
the district in the immediate proximity of the valley of the Thames 
are the following: — • 

Falconidce. — The aquila chryscetos, or golden eagle, is sometimes found near 
Bexhill, and south of London ; but very rarely. The halicetus albicilla, or white- 
tailed eagle, is occasionally met with in Epping and the New Forests. The pandion 
halicetus, or osprey, is found in Sussex, and near Selborne in Hampshire. The 
species of falco indigenous to our islands are the peregrinus (or peregrine), cesalon 
(the merlin), tumimcidus (kestrel) ; the visitors in the south are the falco subbeto 
(hobby) and rufisses (red-footed). The accipiter nisus (sparrow-hawk), milvus vul- 
garis (kite), buteo vulgaris (common kite), circus ceruginosus (marsh-harrier), and 
circus cyaneus (hen-harrier), are common in Kent, Hertfordshire, Essex, Hampshire, 
Cambridgeshire, &c. The astur palumbarius (goshawk), nauclerus furcatus (swallow- 
tailed kite), buteo lagopus (rough-legged buzzard), pernis apivorons (honey buzzard), 
are mere rare in that district. 

Strigidce. — The bubo maximus, scops aldrovandi (scop-eared owl), otus vulgaris 
and otus br achy otis (long and short-eared owls), the sumia myctea and funerea, and 
the noctua tenginalini, are visitors near London at intervals. The strix fiammea 
(barn owl), syrnium stridula (tawny owl), and the noctua passerina (little owl) are 
rather common. 

LaniadcB. — The visitors are the lanius excubitor (great gray shrike), I. collurio, 
I. rutihts, which are rather common. 

Nuscicapida?. — These are summer visitors. Amongst them we may mention the 
muscicapa grisola, and atricapilla, the spotted and pied fly-catchers ; the latter rare. 
Mendidce. — This well-known family is common in the southern parts of England. 
The species met with are cinelus aquaticus (common dipper), turdus viscivorus 
(missel thrush), t. pilaris (fieldfare), t. musicus (song thrush), t. merula (blackbird), 
petrocinela saxatilis, or rock thrush. More rarely we find the turdus Whitei, t 
iliacus (or redwing), t. torquatus (ring ouzel), and the oriolus galbula (golden oriole), 
found near London. 

Sylviadce. — The residents or common visitors are the accentor ^nodularis (hedge 
accentor) ; erythaca rubecula (redbreast) ; phcenicura suecica (blue-throated warbler) ; 
p. ruticilla and tithyx (redstart) ; saxicola rubicola (stonechat); s. rubetra, cenanthe; 
and locustella (species of chats) ; salicaria phragnitis (sedge warbler) : philomela 
luscinia (nightingale) ; curruca atricapilla (blackcap warbler), c. hortensis, c. cinerea, 
c. syhiella ; sylvia sylvicola (wood warbler), s. trochillus, hippolaris ; regulus 
cristatus (golden-crested warbler), r. modestus. Occasionally may be seen the 
accentor alpinus ; salicaria luscinoides; salicaria arundinacea, most common in 
Romney Marsh and on the banks of the Thames ; the melizophilus Dartfordiensis 
is common near Bexley Heath ; the regulus ignicapillus is rare. 

Paridaz. — These birds seem to prefer the neighbourhood of London, for we find 
near it the parus major, or great tit; p. ccerulus j ater cristatus, palustris and 



LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 55 

caudatus ; the parus cristatus being the most rare. The calaw.iphilus biarmicus 
(bearded tit) is found in Barking Creek occasionally. 

A mpellid*E.~— The bombycilla garrula, or Bohemian wax wing, is but a rare visitor 
in this country. 

Jlotacilladce. — The constant visitors of this family are the motaciUa Yarrellii 
(pied wagtail) ; m. boarula ; on. flava ; the more rare visitors are the motacilla alba 
and m. neglecta, 

Anikidaz. — The antlcus arboreus (tree pitpit) is a common summer visitor near 
London ; a. pratensis is nearly a resident; a. ricardi is rare. 

Alaudidce. — The rarest of the lark tribe are the alauda alpestris (shore lark); a. 
cristata, and a. brachydactyla. The alauda arrensis (skylark) is more common, 
and is met with in great numbers in the corn lands near London; the a. arborea 
(woodlark) is also common. 

Ember izidce. — It is not often that the plectropAanes Lapponica (or Lapland bunt- 
ing), the p. nivalis (snow bunting), or the emberiza schomiculus (black-headed 
bunting), visit the southern parts of England. It is more common to find 
plectrophanes milaria (common bunting), emberiza, citrinella (yellow hammer), and 
e. hortulana (ortolan bunting), near London. 

Fringillidoz. — This numerous family in the vicinity of the metropolis comprehends 
most commonly the fringilla Calebs and mooitifringilla (the chaffinch and bramble- 
finch) ; the passer montanus and doonesticus (the tree and house sparrow) ; cocco- 
thraustus chloris (greenfinch), c. vulgaris (hawfinch) ; found in great numbers in 
Epping Forest ; carduelis elegans (goldfinch) ; linota canoiabina (common linnet). 
1. linaria and /. montium, with pyrrhuta vulgaris (bullfinch). The more uncommon 
members in this country are — carduelis spin us (siskin), and linota canescens ; pyr~ 
ohula mucleator (pine grosbeak) is a very rare visitor; loxia curcirosira (common 
crossbill) is found in Sussex and Essex ; /. gityopitiacv.s and leucoptcra are extremely 
rare. 

Sturnidce. — The sturnus vulgaris (common starling) is the member of this family 
most frequently met with. The agelaius phcenicus and pastor roseus are only occa- 
sional visitors. 

Corrida. — These comprise, near London, the fregillus graculus (chough) ; corvus 
corax (raven), c. corone, comix, frugilegtis (rook) ; monedula (jackdaw) ; pica cau- 
da.ta (magpie); garrulus glandarius (jay); and the nucifraga caryotactes (nut- 
cracker). 

Bicido3. — Picus martins (black woodpecker) is rare ; pints viridis is more common; 
p. major and^j. minor are also frequency to be found near London. 

Cerihiada 3 . — Yunx torquilla (wryneck) is common in the south-east of England; 
certhia faraiiiaris (common creeper) ; and troglodytes vulgaris (or wren) are also fre- 
quent. The beautiful upupa epop has been frequently caught at Fulham, and the 
Sitta Europcza (or nuthatch) in Kensington Gardens. 

Cuculonidce. — Cuculv.s canorus is a well-known spring visitor; the coccyzus 
Ainericanus, or yellow-billed cuckoo, is very rare. 

Meropidce. — The Alcida liispida (king-fisher) is the most common bird of this 
tribe; occasionally we are visited by coracias garrula (roller), and merops apiaster 
(bee-eater). 

HirundincB. — These visitors consist of the hirundo w.stica (swallow), A. v.rbica- 
(martin), h. riparia (bank martin), k. apus (swift), clyp>sel'us (white-bellied swift). 

CaprimulgidcE. — The caprimulgus Europcsus is the only member of this tribe 
which visits us constantly. 

Columbidce. — In the woods near London we find in considerable numbers the 
columba palumbus (cushat) ; the c. cenas (stock-dove) ; c. livia (rock-dove) ; c. turtv.r 
(turtle). The latter is most common in Kent and Hertfordshire. Occasionally the 
North American Passenger Pigeon {columba migraloria) has been found in this 
neighbourhood. 

Phasianidce. — "We only find wild near London the phasianus colchicus (common 
pheasant). 



56 LONDON — NATURAL HISTORY. 

Tetraonidce. — This tribe is more numerous in Scotland than it is in the south, for 
it is only at rare intervals that the greater number of its species are found with us. 
The British birds are tetrao urogallus (capercaille), t tetrix (black grouse), t. 
Scoticus (red grouse), t. lagopus (ptarmigan), which rarely are seen near London. 
Perdix cinerea, ^j>. rvfa (common red-legged partridge), and perdix cotumix 
(quail), are common. As was said before the otis tard, formerly common in Suffolk 
and Norfolk, has nearly abandoned our shores ; whilst otis tetrax (the small bustard) 
is also rare. 

Charadridce. — The birds of this family found in the south-east of England are 
the cursorius Europceus (cream-coloured courser) ; otis cedicnemus (great plover) ; 
charadrius pluvialis (golden plover), ch. mormellus, c. hiaticula, c. cantiana, c. 
minos. Tringa squatarola (gray plover), t. vanellus (lapwing), t. interpres (turnstones). 
Hmmatopus ostralegus (sea pie), and charadrius calidris (sanderling plover), are 
found on the shores of the estuary of the Thames and the sea-coasts. 

Grinidce. — We have before observed that these were more rare in former times 
than at the present day; for the ardea grus (common crane) was a frequent visitor, 
though now rare. The ardea cinerea (heron) is still common in Lincolnshire; a. 
caspnca, a. alba, a. garzetta, a. aquinoctialis, a. comata, are met in sufficient 
numbers in the fen districts to warrant their being classed as British, birds. Ardea 
minuta (little bittern), a. stellaris (common bittern), are more frequently met with. 
The ardea lentiginosa, a. nycticorax, a. ciconia (white stork), a. nigra, plateala 
leucorodia (white spoonbill), and tantalus falcinellus (glossy ibis), are more rare. 
The birds of this tribe are by some ornithologists separated from ardea grus and its 
congeners under the name of the Ardeidce. 

Scolopacida. — Of this family we have the numenius arquatar (common curlew), 
n. phoeopus ; scolopax totanus, and s. caladrix (red shanks) ; tringa ochropus, t. 
glareola, t. hypolencos, t. macularia (sand pipers), tringa glottis (green shank) ; recur- 
virostra avosetta (avoset formerly common in Romney Marsh, but now rare) ; 
charardius humantopus ; scolopax Lapp onica and ozgocephala ; tringa pugnax 
(ruff), t. rustica (woodcock), t. major (snipe), t. galinida, t. islandica, t. pusilla, t. 
alpina, t. pucilla, t maritima (sand piper), and numenius pygmeus (curlew sand 
piper). 

Rallidce. — This family is represented by the Oallinula crex (land rail), <?. porsana, 
g. minuta ; rallus aquaiicus (water va\\) , gallinula chloropus (moorhen), andfulica 
atra (common coot). 

Analida 7 . — This member of the division of the natatores is represented by 

numerous species at the present day, although from the causes alluded to more 

effectually acting upon their means of subsistence, namely, the reclaiming of marsh. 

lands, they are more rare than formerly. Amongst the most remarkable varieties are 

the anas anser, a. segetina, a. phoenicoyus, a. albifrons, a. erytliropus, a. vernicla, 

a. rvficollis, a. JEgyptiaca, a. Gambensis, a. Canadensis, of what are vulgarly called 

the geese. Anas cygnus (wild swan), anas otor (mute swan of the Thames), and a. 

immutabilis (Polish swan), represent that division. Anas clypeata, a. strepera, a. 

acuta, a. glocitans, a. boschas, a. crecca, a. Penelope, a. Americana, a. mollissima, a. 

sinctabilis, a. fusca, a. nigra, a. perspicillata, a. ferina, a. ferrugina, a. marila, a. 
fidgilla, a. clangida ; fuligida rufina and /. dispar ; mergus albellus, m. serrator, 

m. merganser, &c. ; represent the tribes of wild ducks, teals, eider ducks, widgeons, 

scoter, smews, &c., which continue to visit us. 

Colymbidce. — Of this division we possess the following varieties. Podiceps 

cristatus, p. rubicollis, p. cornutus, pauritus, p. minor ; colymbus glacialis, c. 

arcticus, c. septentrionalis. 

Alcadce. — The sea-shore frequenting birds of this division are the uria troile, u. 

brunnichii, u. grylle ; alea alle, a. arctica, a. torda. 

PellicanidcB. — These are rare visitors; nor do we find any but the Pelicanus 

carbo, p. bassanus ; the^>. cristatus (shag) is common on our shores. 

Laridce. — Of the Terns of this family, we find most commonly the sterna hirundo 

and s.fissipes, the latter principally in Cambridgeshire; more rarely we meet with 



LONDON NATURAL HISTORY. 57 

s. caspia, s. baysii, s. anglica, s. minuta. Of the laridce, or gulls, we have larus 
minutus, I. tridactylus, 1. comus (common gull), I. marinus, I. cataracies (common 
skua of Suffolk and Norfolk) : I. cataractes pomarinus glacialis, and procdlaria 
pelagica (storm petrel), sometimes are seen in the Thames. 

In England we are comparatively free from insect plagues. Occa- 
sionally a gardener suffers no little wrath and vexation from the 
unceremonious and effective way in which whole rows of cabbages, 
&c, are entirely consumed by the larvae of the common white 
butterfly, and our fruit trees are often despoiled both of beauty and 
crop by the attacks of many of the smaller species; but still, with 
a few exceptions, insects here rarely cause more than damage to 
individuals. On one very celebrated occasion, however, in the year 
1825, a very fine row of elm trees, in Camberwell Grove, were 
suddenly found to be blighted, and many of them utterly destroyed. 
As no cause was apparent for this, many of course were conjectured; 
the air and smoke of London were pretty generally believed to be 
unfavourable to elms, and the inhabitants of the vicinity actually 
brought an action in Chancery against the proprietors of some neigh- 
bouring gas works, as the originators of the evil ; whereas, a more 
minute examination of the trees themselves traced the whole damage 
to the ravages of a small beetle (scoli/tus destructor), which, by 
boring its holes and innumerable passages under the bark, had quite 
destroyed the trees. This insect is well known abroad ; France and 
Brussels have severely suffered from its ravages. The above- 
mentioned incident caused a great sensation at the time, and en- 
tomology for some years was a rather fashionable study. 

The turnip-fly, too (jialtica nemorum), will frequently destroy 
whole fields of young turnips, and, for the first few days after the 
seedling leaves have appeared, these small animals occupy a large 
share of the agriculturist's mind; but as soon as the rougher leaves of 
the plant are thrown out the danger from this cause ceases. This 
beetle may always be found in some abundance in nearly every 
rough hedge-row or waste, where they shelter themselves all the 
winter, only leaving them for the more tempting turnip seedling. 
It would be as well perhaps, therefore, if the farmer would add this 
argument to the many others for diminishing the enormous hedge- 
rows we so frequently see. 

The hop fly {aphis humuli) is by far the most important of these 
little pests; it is a small fly, which appears devoted exclusively to 
this plant, and by its abundance or scarcity affects not only the crops 
and pockets of separate cultivators, but does so to such an extent as 
to be felt by the British Exchequer to the amount of some £ 100,000 
to £150,000 per annum. The common lady-bird, in its larva state, 
devours immense quantities of these insects, hence they should be 
tended with the greatest care ; yet, on one occasion, when these 
little red insects appeared in great numbers in the hop grounds of 
Kent, the growers, regarding them with great horror as an aggrava- 

d 3 



1838 


a 




2054 


yy 




1671 






605 


i% 




5U 


yy 




very 


large 


propor- 


idon. 


The 


woods 



58 LONDON— NATURAL HISTORY. 

tion of the evil they were sent to cure, actually collected them by 
bushels and destroyed them. 

But, still we must congratulate ourselves on our exemption from 
great evils, as with the above exceptions, cleanliness of person, or 
of house, will generally guard us sufficiently against the principal 
other entomological torments to which Britons are liable. 

Owing to our moderate climate we have very few insects of large 
size, yet the dampness and length of twilight render our fauna 
somewhat peculiar and interesting. The great comparative abund- 
ance of the moth tribe may be attributed to this, as we have about 
1700 species of this night and twilight class, to only 100 species of 
butterflies, or day-flying lepidoptera. The number of species found 
in Great Britain, by Stephen's Catalogue, is as follows : — 

Coleoptera ..... about 3300 species. 

Lepidoptera ..... r 

Hymenoptera , 

Diptera ...... 

Hemoptera ...... 

Other insects . . . . , 

making in all about 10,000 species. Of these, a 
tion may be found in the neighbourhood of London, 
near Dartford, and the crags in Kent, may be searched with profit 
by the collector; he will here find the large and rare moth the 
Kentish glory, endromis versicolor, which is seldom found else- 
where; the nolodonto zigzag a moth so named from the extraordi- 
nary shape of its larva, stamopus fagi ; several local butterflies, such 
as the chalk hill blue, the dark brown and duke of Burgundy frittil- 
laries, the scarlet and wood tiger moths, and several beautiful beetles. 

As near as Greenwich Park, in the summer months, the great 
stag beetle (lucanus cerous) may frequently be found in abundance, 
though it is rare in England save in Kent. 

The osier grounds near the Thames will supply some rare insects, 
the lesias^ and trochilium, moths of some scarcity; while in Essex 
and Hertfordshire may be found the purple emperor butterfly, the 
brown fritrillary, and white admiral butterflies, the death's-head 
and parrot-hawk moths, and many other interesting species; while 
if we go towards Cambridge, which is now but a few hours from 
London, we come to an entirely different fauna; here we find the 
beautiful papilio machaon, a "swallow-tail butterfly, still keeping up 
an unavailing struggle with the progress of agriculture; the splendid 
large copper butterflies and beetles of great beauty, the ceramhyx, 
septura, charcharias, &c. But all this abundance of knowledge of 
species is owing, perhaps, as much to the greater care that has 
been bestowed on the study near the resorts of civilization than to 
any other cause, for there is no locality where a plant grows in which 
the devotee of the sister study, entomology, will not meet with 
objects both of pleasure and instruction, 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 



59 



List of Authors consulted. 



Curtis's Flora Londinensis. 
Selby's Forest Trees. 
Newman's British Ferns. 
Hassel's British Algae. 
Harvey's British Algae. 
Loudon's Arboretum Britannicum. 

„ Encyclopaedia of Farming, and 

all his other works. 
Lauder's Gilpin's Forest Scenery. 
Evelyn's Sylva. 

Westwood's Arboretum Britannicum. 
Grreville's Cryptogamic Flora. 
Andrews On Heaths. 
Lindley's Synopsis of British Flora. 
„ Introduction to Botany, and all 

his other works. 
„ Guide to Orchard and Kitchen 

Garden. 
Cooper's Flora Metropolitan. 
Johnson's Farmer's Dictionary, &c. 
Agricultural Surveys of Counties. 
Reports of Agricultural Society. 
Magazine of Natural History. 
Reports of British Association. 



Hooker's British Flora. 

New Botanist's Guide. 

Manning's Surrey, &c. 

And the County Histories of the Dis- 
tricts traversed by the Thames. 

Turton's British Shells. 

Yarrell's Birds. 

Bell's Quadrupeds and Reptiles. 

Yarrell's Fishes. 

Pennant's British Zoology. 

Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 

M'Gillivray's History of Mollusca, &c. 
„ Manual of British Birds. 

Kirby and Spence's Introduction to En- 
tomology. 

"Westwood's Butterflies and Moths. 

Wood's and Curtis's works on Ento- 
mology. 

Burmeister's Manual, by Shuckard. 

Shuckard's British Coleoptera. 

Stephens' Systematic Catalogue. 

John Rennie's Alphabets of Botany, En- 
tomology, and other works. 



Section 5. Statistics. — As London is not confined by natural 
bounds nor by walls, has no octroi, and no general municipal organiza- 
tion, its statistics are far from complete, and in many cases it is impos- 
sible to give any definite information. 

Boundaries and Extent. — This basis of calculation cannot be de- 
fined, as every day some new street takes the place of the green field, 
and it is therefore only possible to adopt a general idea of the giant 
city. 

It has its heart in the county of the city of London, and is chiefly 
in Middlesex ; on the east it spreads into Essex, on the south into 
Surrey, and on the south-east into Kent. It is crossed by the Thames 
from Hammersmith to Woolwich, passing under eleven great bridges, 
and winding in a length of about twenty miles, but not always with 
houses on its shores. On the north bank there flow the navigable 
Roding and Lea, the Fleet, and many small brooks and creeks ; and 
the metropolis nearly touches the mouth of the navigable Brent, as in 
the north it does the sources. On the south bank the Ravensbourne 
and the Wandle flow within its bounds. On these many streams, 
some of which are now buried under houses or in sewers, the fleets of 
the Northmen once sailed, and battles were fought, and in later times 
mills were worked. 



GO 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 



On the north of the Thames London crosses the range of hills 
aud reaches Edmonton and Finchley; on the west it reaches Acton, 
Hammersmith, and nearly joins on to Brentford and Kew ; on the 
east it reaches Layton and Ham. On the south of the Thames 
London embraces Wandsworth, Streatham, Dulwich, Lewisham, 
Woolwich, and Plumstead. To each of these points continuous 
streets of houses reach ; but the solid mass of London lies within 
narrower bounds, with these several long arms extending from it. 
The greatest length of street, from east to west, is about 14 miles, 
and from north to south about 13 miles. The solid mass is about 
7 miles by 4 miles, so that the ground covered with houses is not 
less than 20 square miles. 

London has now swallowed up many cities, towns, villages, and 
separate jurisdictions. The four commonwealths or kingdoms of the 
Middle Saxons, East Saxons, the SoutlrRick, and of the Kentwaras, 
once ruled over its surface. It now embraces the county and episco- 
pal city of London, the episcopal city of Westminster, the boroughs 
of Southwark and Greenwich, the towns of Woolwich, Deptford, and 
Wandsworth, the watering places of Hampstead, Highgate, Islington, 
Acton, Kilburn, the fishing town of Barking, the once secluded and an- 
cient villages of Ham, Hornsey, Sydenham, Lee, Kensington, Fulham, 
Lambeth, Clapham, Paddington, Hackne}^, Chelsea, Stoke Newington, 
Newington Butts, Plumstead, and many others, the jurisdiction and 
lieutenancy of the Tower and Tower Hamlets, and of the Hospital 
of St. Katharine's, and the lordship of the Duchy of Lancaster in 
Westminster. 

Population. — In 1841 the population of the metropolis was taken as 
1,998,455, and it is now about 2,250,000, being the city of the greatest 
ascertained population and greatest number of houses in the world. 
The return of 1841 is thus made up : — 



London City, within the Roman walls 




. . • 


54,626 


„ „ without the Roman walls 


. 


70,382 


Finsbury Borough . 




265,043 


Tower Hamlets Borough and Liberty 




. 


419,730 


Essex Division .... 




. 


23,954 


Marylebone Borough . 








. 


287,465 


Marylebone Parish 








138,164 




St. Pancras „ 








128,479 




Paddington „ 








25,173 




Westminster City 








. 


222,053 


Kensington Division . 








. 


109,625 


Lambeth Borough 








. 


197,412 


Greenwich and Woolwich Borough 




72,748 


Total . 


1,998,455 



LONDON STATISTICS. 



61 



Recapitulation. — London in Middlesex ..... 1,475,289 

„ „ Essex 400,309 

„ „ Surrey 98,903 

„ „ Kent.^ ..... 23,954 

The number of males capable of bearing arms in the metropolis is about half a 
million. 

For the purposes of the registration of births, deaths, and marriages, 
London is reckoned as one of the eleven great divisions of England, 
and the population at successive periods is thus taken to enable com- 
parison to be made : — 

1801 .... 958,863 
1811 .... 1,138,815 
1821 .... 1,378,947 
1831 .... 1,654.994 
1841 .... 1,948,369 
In 1841 the number of males was 912,001, and of females, 1,036,368. 

The births, deaths, and marriages in the metropolitan district stand 
thus: — 





Births. 


Deaths. 


Marriages 


1838 . 


— 


. 53,546 . 


— 


1839 . 


53,575 . 


. 46,100 . 


. 18,384 


1840 . 


56,751 . 


. 47,156 . 


. 18,530 


1841 . 


58,362 .. 


. 46,292 . 


. 18,246 


1842 . 


61.381 .. 


. 46,242 .. 


. 17,826 


1843 . 


62,134 .. 


. 49,477 .. 


. 18,669 


1844 . 


64,329 .. 


. 51.109 .. 


. 20.126 


1845 . 


65,884 .. 


. 48,318 .. 


. 21,770 


1846 . 


69,882 .. 


. 49,450 .. 


. 22,272 


The numbc 


r of births and deaths do not include the 


still-born. 


The numbe 


r of deaths occurring daily 


is 125. 





Houses, — The number of houses in the registration district in 1841 
was 278,093, whereof inhabited, 262,737, uninhabited, 11,324, build- 
ing, 4032. The number of houses now is above 300,000, and the 
number of streets, alleys, &c., above 10,000. 

Employment. — An analysis of the employment of the population, 
from the " Post Office London Directory" and the " Useful Knowledge 
Geography of England and Wales," gives the number of persons em- 
ployed in the chief trades of London as follows : — 

Millinery .... 40,282 I Machinery 

Clothes and Slops . 

Boots and Shoes 

Books, Prints, &c. . 

Silk weaving . 

Cabinet making, &c. 

Shipbuilding . 

Painting and Sculpture 



. 5,615 
. 5,561 
. 4,434 
. 4,290 
. 4,002 
. 3,932 
. 3,591 
. 3,506 

Of most of these trades London is a chief seat. Other considerable trades are, 
Saddlen^, 2626 ; Cartmaking, 2635 ; Carving and Gilding, 2181 ; Brush and Broom- 
making, 2155; Pianos, Organs, and other instruments, 1886; Tinplate working, 
1419; Toys, 1298; Brewing, 1274 ; Rope, 1262 ; Fur, 1236 ; Glass, 1230 ; Iron, 
1176; Wax and Tallow, 1130; Guns and Pistols, 1113 ; Mathematical Instru- 



28,848 


Plate and Jewellery 


28,574 


Coachbuilding 


14,563 


Watch and Clockmaking 


14,563 


Coopering 


12,419 


Leatherworking 


6,305 


Brassworking 


5,787 


Hatmaking 



62 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 



merits, 1076 ; Artificial Flowers, 1025 ; Stained Paper, 966 ; Cutlery, 905 ; Baskets, 
881 ; Bricks and Tiles, 840 ; Umbrellas, 831 ; Sailmaking, 713 ; Sugar refining, 
645 ; Paper, 625 ; Chemicals, Dyes, Varnishes, &c, 617; Cork cutting, 576 ; Chair- 
making, 1700; Combs, 464; Goldbeating, 378 ; Hair working, 367 ; Ivory, 311; 
Type founding, 452. 

Other employments are, — 

Provision Trades, 52,761. 

9,110 
6,450 
1,866 
4,986 
1,732 
6,061 
2,764 
Clothing and Leather Trades, 
126,508. 

Tailors 23,517 

Shoemakers .... 28,574 

Drapers 3,913 

Dressmakers and Seamstresses . 27,049 

Bonnetmakers . . . 3,282 

Spinning, Braiding, Plaiting, and 

Weaving Trades, 27,960. 

Building and Furnishing Trades, . 

85,292. 

Carpenters, &c. . . . 18,321 

Bricklayers 



Butchers 


; 


Fishmongers . 


. 


Grocers . 


. 


Buttermen 


, 


Publicans 


. 


Milkmen 


. 



Painters, Plumbers 
Masons . 
Sawyers 



6,743 

11,507 

3,471 

2,978 



Metal Trades, 33,308. 
Smiths 7,481 

Carrying and Shipping Trades, 
52,660. 

Professional Persons, 28,318. 



Schoolmasters and Teachers 


9,244 


Ecclesiastics . 


1,271 


Medical Men .... 


4,972 


Lawyers . 


2,399 


Engineers and Architects 


1,379 


Artists . 


4,431 


Accountants . . . . 


1,108 


Public Servants, Policemen, 




and Soldiers 


19,240 


Merchants, Pawnbrokers, and 




Auctioneers 


8,389 


Clerks 


20,932 


Labourers .... 


50,279 


Omnibus and Cab Drivers 


10,000 


Male Servants 


39,300 


Female Servants and Nurses . 


138,917 



The number of Irish in London in 1841 was about 70,000 (this is 
besides Irish born in London); of Scotch and Highlanders, 25,000; 
and of foreigners, 20,000. The rest of the metropolitan population 
is English, of whom about 1,200,000 at least are born in London. 

Police. — The whole body of police is about 6000. The number 
of persons taken into custody yearly is 60,000 (males 40,000, fe- 
males 20,000), of whom half for drunkenness, 10,000 for assaults, 
15,000 for stealing, and 3000 for wilful damage. 5000 are yearly 
sent for trial to the superior criminal courts. Of those taken into 
custody 20,000 can neither read nor write ; 35,000 read, or read 
and write imperfectly; 4500 read and write well; and 500 have 
superior instruction. Of those convicted by the superior courts only 
about 240 can read and write well, and 17 have superior instruction. 
The number of persons and children yearly reported to the police 
as lost is about 2500, of whom above 1000 are reported found by 
the police. The number of suicides committed is 160, and at- 
tempted 110, being less than the number in the smaller population 
of Paris. The number of fires is nearly 500. The cost of the 
police is about 400,000/. yearly; and this is besides prisons and 
judicial establishments. 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 



63 



Trade of London. — Tons of shipping yearly engaged in trade with 
the port of London : — 



Coasting trade . 


. 3,000.000 


Ireland 


100,000 


Newcastle 


1,300,000 


Sweden and Norway . 


100,000 


Sunderland 


1,000,000 


France 


90,000 


Stockton 


700,000 


Prussia 


70,000 


English colonies . 


650,000 


English Africa . 


60,000 


East Indies 


200,000 


Guernsey, &c. 


50,000 


English North America . 200,000 


Denmark . 


40,000 


West Indies 


150,000 


Flanders . 


40,000 


Russia 


150,000 


Portugal . 


35,000 


Holland . 


120,000 


China 


30.000 


United States 


100,000 







Education. — London is the seat of a university, and has five colleges, 
faculties, and superior schools for old classic and modern languages; 1 
for women, 2 for East Indian studies, 2 for Hebrew (besides 3 chairs), 
11 for medicine, 1 for the veterinary art, 1 for pharmacy, 17 for 
chemistry, 3 for geology and metallurgy, 4 for law, 3 for civil engi- 
neering, 5 for military engineering, 1 for music, 2 for the fine arts, 
6 for teaching schoolmasters, 5 for teaching schoolmistresses, 2 for 
Episcopalian theology, 1 for Baptist ditto, 1 for Independent ditto, 
1 for Unitarian ditto, 1 for Jewish ditto. 

There are special schools for design, singing, church music, navi- 
gation, botany, horticulture, the blind, deaf and dumb, and idiots. 

The University of London consists of a chancellor, vice-chancellor, 
and senate, appointed provisionally by the secretary of state for the 
Home Department, and of graduates. The university is solely an 
examining body ; instruction is given in the colleges recognised by it, 
which are all the medical schools in the empire, and the colleges in 
London, and elsewhere in these islands, for superior instruction, not 
belonging to the other universities, and including most of the col- 
leges of the Roman Catholics, Baptists, Independents, and Wes- 
leyans. In London the colleges are University, King's, New, St. 
Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's, and the medical schools of St. 
George's, London, Charing Cross, Guy's, Westminster and Middlesex 
Hospitals, and the Hunterian School of Medicine. These give cer- 
tificates of the students having passed through the required courses 
in the faculties of arts, medicine, and law. Those of engineering 
and architecture are not yet fully organized. The university has no 
theological character. For the matriculation, examination, or pre- 
liminary examination on admission to the university, no college cer- 
tificate is necessary. The senate appoints examiners in the branches 
of the several faculties, and the examination, which is private, is as 
far as possible in writing, or of a practical character, oral examina- 
tion being avoided, unless indispensably necessary. The examinations 
are of two classes, at the option of the candidate, an ordinary exa- 
mination, in two classes, and an examination of a higher character 



04 LONDON— STATISTICS. 

for honours. To those passing this latter examination are alone 
given the scholarships and medals of the university. The examina- 
tions are very severe, and few go np for them ; but those who do 
are generally young men of great abilities, and a large proportion 
pass in the superior classes. There are a general matriculation exa- 
mination, examinations for Bachelor and Master of Arts, Bachelor 
and Doctor of Civil Law, two for Bachelor of Medicine, and one for 
Doctor of Medicine. The graduates possess very few privileges, 
but the degrees are highly valued. Latterly the degrees are given 
in public by the chancellor, in the presence of the graduates. 

Superior instruction is given in London by the three colleges of 
University (for all sects), King's (for Church of England men), and 
New College (for Independents). The latter teaches only humanity 
and theology ; but the others teach humanity, philosophy, medicine, 
law, engineering, and architecture, and have a full body of professors. 
The professors are chiefly paid by a proportion of the fees from 
pupils. The instruction is given by lectures, and weekly and ses- 
sional examinations are held. At the end of the session a grand 
examination and distribution of prizes takes place. The students 
are not obliged to be matriculated in the University of London, and 
many of them proceed to Oxford and Cambridge, in order to carry 
off the emoluments of those rich foundations. No system of moral 
discipline prevails in these colleges, the members of which reside 
where they list. These colleges are not under the control of the 
government, and belong to private subscribers, who appoint a council 
for their management, though the real administration is vested in the 
senate of professors. 

Of public grammar schools for boys there are about twenty-five. 
The chief are Westminster, University, and King's Colleges, Mer- 
chant Tailors, St. Paul's, Charterhouse, Christ's Hospital, City of 
London, Mercers, the Philological. 

The grammar school answers to the College Royal and Gymna- 
sium of the continent. The endowed schools are not under the 
control of the government, and there are many private schools. The 
endowed schools have exhibitions or scholarships attached to them 
for the maintenance of pupils in the universities of Oxford, Cam- 
bridge, and London, and the fees are generally low, and in some 
cases the education is gratuitous. At Westminster, the Charter- 
house, and Merchant Tailors, many of the wealthy classes are brought 
up, and most of the schools have produced many eminent scholars. 
In the grammar schools the basis of instruction is a hard and close 
training in the Latin grammar and rudiments, as a means of securing 
habits of attention, industry, and perseverance, and whatever may be 
the opinion as to the form of education, the result, by which we are to 
judge, and not by the form, proves that Englishmen, in their minds 
and in their habits of mental, political, and social discipline are as well 



LONDON — STATISTICS. G5 

trained as men of any European nation. Besides Latin, instruction is 
given in Greek, French, German, and other branches of education. In 
many of the large schools the lads at the option of their parents receive 
less classical instruction, and their education is of a more commercial 
character. As a general practice the minds of the younger hoys are 
not quickened, hut they are in preference kept to those studies which 
will train them in habits of industry. The boys of sixteen and seven- 
teen are encouraged to a greater exertion of the higher faculties, and 
are allowed to compose themes, orations, and verses in English, Latin, 
Greek, French, German, and Hebrew. Each school has a yearly 
display of its more promising pupils on a speech day, and at West- 
minster a Latin play is performed at Christmas. It is considered 
the development of the powers of imagination and of judgment can 
best take place at an advanced age, and the cultivation of these, as 
well as the acquisition of languages and other accomplishments, is 
left for the period of university study. 

Beneath the grammar schools are the boarding schools kept by 
private persons, and which are seldom on a par with the National and 
British and Foreign Schools, unless those of a higher class, where 
every branch of education can be obtained on making extra payment 
for it. The society schools generally labour under a want of teachers, 
and much of the instruction is given by pupil monitors. The teaching 
embraces reading, writing, spelling, English history, geography, lessons 
from objects, drawing, and an extensive course of theology in the form 
of hymns, prayers, catechisms, bible readings, and bible geography. 

Of lower schools for boys and girls there are about 50 foundation 
schools; 700 national and parish schools; and 200 British and Fo- 
reign schools. Many of these have infant schools attached to them, 
and are of a larger class. Of Sunday schools there are about TOO 
belonging to the church. The number of Bagged schools is 90. 
The number of children in the church day-schools is 65,000, and in 
the church Sunday-schools only 9000. The number of children in 
the British and Foreign day-schools is 30,000. The number of pupils 
in the Ragged day-schools is 1G,000. The whole number of other 
Sunday schools is about TOO, with 12,000 teachers and 130,000 pupils. 

The schooling of a great part of the population ceases at fourteen 
or fifteen, and the counting-house, warehouse, or shop, becomes the 
school of mental discipline. The Literary or Mechanics' Institution 
affords in its evening classes the means of continuing cheaply scholastic, 
instruction, and provides classes of French, German, Latin, Italian, 
natural philosophy, drawing, singing, recitation, music and dancing. 
The abundance of books in private hands and in the libraries of the 
institutions, and the requirements of instruction for the discharge of 
political duties, are great encouragements to reading among the youths 
and young men, and many avail themselves fully of the opportunities 
at their disposal. With many defects in English institutions the prac- 



66 LONDON— -STATISTICS. 

tical and working results will be found by the careful observer highly 
favourable when compared with those obtained elsewhere. 

The schooling of girls is almost without exception very expensive 
and very bad. Music, drawing, dancing and French are professed to 
be taught in all schools of any pretension, and are seldom learnt, and 
even if any proficiency be acquired in the ordinary requisites of school 
instruction, no care is taken for the discipline of the mind. Among 
the wealthier classes the girls are almost universally taught at home 
by governesses. 

As a general fact it may be noticed that the industrial education of 
the girls has fallen off of late years among all classes. 

Special education is provided for very extensively in London. The 
medical schools are numerous, and compete with each other. A sup- 
ply of subjects for anatomical dissection is providedfrom the unclaimed 
bodies of those dying in hospitals, workhouses, or prisons. The Col- 
lege of Physicians examines for physicians; that of Surgeons for sur- 
geons; the Society of Apothecaries for general practitioners of medicine 
and surgery; and the Royal Veterinary College for veterinarists. No 
course of study is required for lawyers, but solicitors have to pass an 
examination. There are some optional examinations for barristers 
and professorships of several branches of law. Engineering is pro- 
vided for in numerous colleges so far as scholastic instruction goes ; 
architecture in the Royal Academy, University, and King's and Putney 
Colleges ; the arts in the Royal Academy and some smaller schools ; 
music is the worst cultivated, and is in a low condition. 

Miscellaneous. — The amount of customs duties paid by London is 
nearly 11,000,000/.; of postage, about 900,000/. The yearly value 
of house property is about 8,000,000/., and the amount of poor rates 
about 650,000/. The amount invested in savings banks was, in 1850, 
about 4,500,000/. 

Charities. — The provision made for the general relief of the poor 
is described under Poor Law. There is besides an unexampled 
number of institutions, founded by private benevolence for the relief 
of distress in almost e\ery form. Many of these are described under 
the title of Asylums. Of the remainder it is impossible here to 
give an enumeration. We must refer to a most valuable work, 
" The Charities of London," by Sampson Low, jun. 

The hospitals may be first named. They include St. Bartholomew's, 
St. Thomas's, Westminster, Guy's, St. George's, London, Middlesex, 
Charing Cross, University College or North London, King's College, 
and Marylebone. All these are medical schools. There are further, 
the Free, Seamen's (in the Dreadnought ship on the Thames), Jews, 
and German. Besides the above, for general diseases, there are spe- 
cial hospitals, as Lying-in (5), Insane (several), Ophthalmic (2), Small 
Pox and Fever, Fistula, Orthopcedic, Consumption (2), and the Lock. 
All these are under the management of subscribers, who, as governors, 



LONDON — STATISTICS, 67 

appoint the medical and other officers, and when they think fit recom- 
mend patients. Throughout the London charitable institutions the 
medical officers are unsalaried, hut sometimes they derive emoluments 
as medical teachers. Admission to see the hospitals is readily given 
to strangers on application. 

Besides the relief given by these hospitals to the immense number 
of out-patients, and exclusive of their in-door patients, are numerous 
smaller local institutions for out-door relief, including 39 dispensa- 
ries ; and further, sanatoriums, sea-bathing institutions, lying-in, oph- 
thalmic, aural, glandular, and truss or rupture relief institutions. 
The Humane Society keeps up a police and medical staff for the 
relief of persons found in the water and in danger of drowning. 

The model dwellings for the poor, the baths and washhouses, and 
emigration funds, are provided by private benevolence*. 

Ten institutions are provided for the reformation of unfortunate 
females, three for female and juvenile criminals, and one for the relief 
of discharged criminals. An hospital maintains natural children to re- 
lieve the mothers from further temptation. A society procures the 
discharge of persons imprisoned for small debts. 

Miscellaneous institutions detect vagrancy, provide nightly shelter 
for the houseless in winter, give away coals, bread, and soup, and 
visit the necessitous in their abodes. The General District Visiting 
Society is a kind of propaganda society for converting the working 
classes to Christianity. 

Benevolent establishments succour distressed needlewomen, dress- 
makers, and female servants. 

The aged, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the insane, and the idiot, are 
well provided for. Several societies give pensions to the decayed mem- 
bers of the respectable classes. Each of the city corporations devotes 
large funds to charity, and each trade has its benevolent or pension society. 

For orphans and for education the provision is large. Several great 
societies cause reading and writing to be taught to the English people, 
for whom no education is provided as a right by the state, and there- 
fore it is thus afforded as an alms. These school-societies are the 
National for the Church, the British and Foreign for Dissenters, the 
"Wesleyan, the Congregationalist, the Roman Catholic, the Jewish, and 
the Infant. The schools are supported by the payment of a penny 
or twopence weekly from each child, the subscription of neighbours, 
a slight grant from the society, and a gratuity from the government. 
The government now gives aid for building schoolhouses, and niain- 
tainins: the normal colleges. Of these there are several in London. 
The National Society in 1847 had 6798 schools and 526,754 scholars, 
besides 237,848 Sunday scholars. The British and Foreign School 
Society likewise carries on its operations on a large scale. Several 
societies publish school-books and maps. 

* See post, article Baths and Washhouses and Houses for the Labouring Poor. 



68 LONDON — STATISTICS. 

The Ragged schools are for the poor children who can neither 
dress decently, nor pay the weekly penny. These schools, formed 
within the last three or four years, have heen the means of reclaim- 
ing many outcasts. Some of these schools are largely frequented by 
young thieves. The times of teaching are suited to the irregular 
'habits of the inmates, and the endeavour is to give them a moral and 
industrial training. Some of the b®ys have been fitted to be emi- 
grants. These schools are likewise open for adults, and generally 
they labour among those classes who, from the neglect of the state, 
are brought up to a life of vagabondism, and to prey upon the rest of 
the community. These schools receive no help from the state, but 
are wholly dependent upon voluntary contributions. There are 
nearly a hundred of these schools, and in which a thousand teachers 
gratuitously labour. 

The Sunday schools are another great monument of voluntary 
exertion. In every one of the Society-schools, and in every dis 
senting chapel, a Sunday school is held, the teachers in which are 
volunteers. Throughout England there are 70,000 of these schools, 
with about 2,000,000 of scholars, of whom a large proportion are 
in the metropolis. In these schools the defective instruction in the 
Society-schools is partly supplied. 

All these charitable institutions are regularly organized, and if they 
afford occasion for ostentation and display, at any rate they are the 
means of awakening the apathy of the community to the discharge 
of the social duties. The anniversary dinners and meetings become 
as much the holidays of the better classes, as occasions for beneficial 
exertion, and thus the co-operation and good feeling of all ranks of 
the commonwealth are engaged, from the prince to the beggar. 
That there are evils attendant on such a system, all will expect who 
know that human nature has imperfections ; but none who think 
rightly can see its working and fail to acknowledge the vast amount 
of good. The burthen is, of course, unequally divided, and those 
most willing have the greatest share. The same benefactors con- 
tribute to every charity ; the same devoted men and women are 
teachers in the Sunday-school, the ragged school, and district visitors; 
and those who give their mite, will, at the same time, be found work- 
ing-sip clothing, or providing comforts for the sick. 

Poo?' Law. — In the vast nation of London there must be, from 
many causes, a large number of poor for whom a provision becomes 
necessary. The aid of various charities is afforded to a great extent, 
and there is an ample public provision. The stranger, who sees the 
squalid Irish and other beggars who infest the streets, might doubt this, 
but on no subject is it necessary for him to be so cautious in trusting 
to appearances. For every one food, shelter, and clothing are provided, 
and the law prohibits begging ; but there will always be some who 
prefer begging to work, the more particularly when begging is a lucra- 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 69 

tive trade. As the beggar takes care not to ply Lis vocation in the 
hearing of the policeman, and the private person addressed is either 
unwilling, or has not the time to cause the criminal to be taken into 
custody, the army of beggars carries on its operations with little inter- 
ruption, or an occasional imprisonment in the House of Correction is 
only treated as a slight evil attendant on a life of sensual indulgence. 
The Irish, from preference, are clad in tatters, and walk barefoot ; the 
smaller number of English beggars array themselves expressly for their 
performance, and if they have not some deformity assume it. They 
likewise hire infant children at a considerable expense. Thev prey, 
in particular, upon the mechanics and their wives, who, occasionally 
subjected to real privations, benevolently say that perhaps they them- 
selves may some day be brought to wretchedness, and that the beggars 
may truly be in want, and if not, a penny will do no harm. To im- 
pose upon the mechanics the sham Lancashire weaver, with his large 
household, makes his regular round of the courts and alleys, proclaim- 
ing in a loud voice and with rhetorical skill the circumstances which 
prevent him from earning a livelihood by work, and a shower of half- 
pence answers his appeal. On Saturday nights he, his wife, and 
children are dressed up cleanly and neatly, with faces well washed 
and hair well combed, holding boxes of matches in their hands, and 
with down- cast looks, as if ashamed to beg. 

To every beggar, however urgent his appeal, and whatever guarantee 
he may offer of its truth, the stranger must thoroughly shut his ears and 
his pockets. If he is in doubt lest he should turn away any case of 
real distress, let him subscribe to the Mendicity Society in Red Lion 
Square, who will supply him with tickets, to be given as relief in- 
stead of money, and who give food only to those who are found to 
be deserving. The beggars have been known and seen to give these 
Mendicity tickets to the really poor. The police, too, can be called 
upon to take charge of a beggar, and to see him on his way to the 
poorhouse or the House of Correction. 

The whole of London is divided into large districts for the relief of 
the poor, called unions, consisting of a single large parish or of several 
small parishes. Each of these is governed by a Board of Guardians, 
chosen by the ratepayers. Each union has a large building, called 
a workhouse, which provides for aged men and women, sick and 
disabled men and women, wives deserted by their husbands, single 
women lying-in, orphans and illegitimate children, and all persons 
unable to obtain work and destitute of the means of subsistence. 
A department called the casual or vagrant ward is for the relief of 
wanderers, who either have not or say they have not means of finding 
food and shelter for the night. This is a right which can be enforced 
at once on application before the nearest civil magistrate. For the 
children separate establishments are now being formed in the neigh- 
bourhood of London, with suitable schools, workshops, and play- 



70 LONDON — STATISTICS. 

grounds, where they may he brought up industriously. The insane 
poor are sent to the County Lunatic Asylums, established expressly 
for them, and where every care is taken for the restoration of theii 
minds. The asylums for the county of Middlesex are at Han well and 
Colney Hatch. 

The aged poor are provided for comfortably, but not luxuriously, 
as it is not the intention they should enjoy the same advantages as 
the frugal and industrious. Able-bodied men and women are only 
provided with such a quantity of coarse and unsavoury food as h 
sufficient to sustain life, as it is not desired to encourage them to 
remain without work or in a state of dependence. It is sometimes 
made a means of misrepresentation that the prisoner and the convict 
are better fed than the pauper, whereas the larger allowance made to 
criminals is only enough to maintain life under the depressing influence 
of imprisonment. It is therefore perfectly preposterous to compare 
the conditions. The work to which paupers are put is such as docs 
not interfere with the labour market, chiefly stone-breaking, and it 
is a matter of course that workhouse labour affords little or no re- 
venue towards meeting the expenses. The discipline of these large 
establishments is necessarily simple and strict. The inmates are re- 
quired to stay within the walls, are dressed for cleanliness in the 
workhouse dress, and are separated into various classes, though not 
always to such an extent but that the evil influence of idlers, drunkards, 
convicts, vagrants, beggars, thieves, prostitutes, and other bad cha- 
racters, is strongly felt. When a person applies for relief to a board 
of guardians, if he is only a casual sojourner in their district, it is 
their duty to cause him to be conveyed to his birthplace, a change 
which by no means suits the Irish vagrants, who make their reap- 
pearance at as early a date as possible. The Irish reaper, however, 
remits his earnings to Ireland by post-office order, and gets a free 
passage as a pauper. 

The regular vagrants frequently take advantage of the casual wards 
of the workhouses in turn to get their night's lodging free, going forth 
in the morning to get their food by begging or thieving. As they 
wander about the union officers and police can seldom get a case 
against them to secure their punishment ; and though they are 
searched to find their money they generally manage to hide it suc- 
cesfully. 

In some cases relief is given out of doors, but to as small a degree 
as possible, the object being by the restraint of the workhouse to debar 
persons from seeking help unnecessarily, and even the pittance of 
two or three shillings a week is sufficient to tempt an Irish family to 
live in idleness. In each subdistrict of the union is a relieving officer, 
whose business it is to examine the claims and circumstances of all 
applicants for relief within and without the union house. He visits the 
poor in their abodes, and in cases of utter illness or other need provides 
food and medical attendance. 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 7 1 

The infirmaries of the Marylebone, St. Pancras, Lambeth, and other 
large unions, constitute large hospitals, and it is in these establishments 
the illnesses of the lower classes are really treated. The patients in 
the regular hospitals include few paupers, except for accidents or ex- 
traordinary diseases, but are many of them mechanics and domestic 
servants. 

Although a warning has been given against beggars, and the sys- 
tem of relief has been described, yet there is often a large amount of 
suffering in London. The working population subject themselves to 
great privations to keep out of the workhouse, and sometimes the re- 
lieving officer, warned by neighbours of the necessity, is repulsed when 
offering help. Some from false shame when in need prefer living 
by begging to taking from the public fund, to which they have contri- 
buted, and which is provided for them. Sometimes the outcasts of 
crime pine away in their abodes; sometimes the victims of sensualitv 
drop in their career of dissipation. Hence cases of utter wretched- 
ness, and even of death from want of food, do, notwithstanding every 
care, sometimes harrow the minds of the public. These are not, 
however, to be taken as instances by which to measure the con- 
dition of the population. 

Public Journals and the Times, — London, as compared with Paris 
and New York, is less distinguished for the number of its journals 
and their special distribution, than for the completeness of the 
journals themselves and the efficiency of their establishments. It is 
this which gives them a distinctive character and importance, and 
makes them a feature of metropolitan greatness particularly worthy 
of the examination of the stranger. The branch of literature Which 
is styled the press is known under two heads, as newspapers and 
periodicals, between which the line cannot in each case be accurately 
defined, but which nevertheless have considerable distinctness of 
character. To the first class belong the daily and weekly newspapers, 
to the second the weekly, monthly, and quarterly publications, of 
which original dissertations form the chief feature. 

The periodicals range from the volume review of the Edinburgh 
and Quarterly to the penny weekly sheet of the Family Herald, and 
in one shape or another they embrace the representation of every 
profession, party, sect, and shade of opinion. In the quarterly and 
monthly periodicals, Edinburgh shares with London, but with regard 
to both towns the contributors are not local, but drawn from all parts 
of the country. The whole mass of periodicals may therefore be 
considered together without distinction of origin. 

The quarterly reviews consist solely of dissertations by men of 
eminence in their respective branches on important topics. The 
Quarterly, the Edinburgh, and the Westminster, represent the Tory, 
the Whig, and the Radical parties, and others less known the several 
religious sects ; and there are special reviews for medicine and law. 



72 LONDON — STATISTICS. 

The monthly publications consist principally of what are called 
the magazines. The numbers of a magazine bind up in the course 
of a year into two volumes, and contain chiefly portions of novels 
continued in series or short sketches, with poems and an occasional 
political article. There are besides special monthly publications for 
the navy, army, civil engineers, surgeons, veterinarists, pharmaceutists, 
chemists, naturalists, artists, antiquarians, bankers. 

The political reviews rank among their contributors statesmen, 
historians, and the elite of science ; the magazines, the poets and 
novelists. Some of the works of Dickens, Bulwer, and other 
novelists of universal popularity, have first appeared in the magazines. 

Of the weekly periodicals it is more difficult to give a brief 
sketch. The Athenaeum and the Literary Gazette are journals for 
the criticism of literature, science, and art, in all their branches, and 
the communication of information regarding them. Then there is a 
long series of journals for medicine, law, architecture, and music. 

A class of publications, which may be represented by Chambers's 
Journal and the Family Herald, is published at a cheap price to 
supply the public appetite for wholesome reading. Beneath these 
come the penny sheets of novels, written to pander to the passions 
of the lower classes. 

Each of the various publications we have named has its editor, 
and those requiring such assistance a sub-editor, and all give em- 
ployment to a staff of contributors and translators, artists and 
engravers. The translations are chiefly of scientific and professional 
news; the literary publications,, except those of the lowest class, 
who republish the common French novels, rarely employ translators. 

A class of periodicals not before enumerated are the transactions 
and journals of the various scientific institutions. The several religious 
tract and temperance societies likewise issue numerous publications. 

The newspaper press in its constitution differs much from that 
described. 

The daily journals are those most important. The weekly 
journals reprint the news of the daily journals in a compressed form, 
and their distinctive character is derived from political articles, 
criticisms on literature and art, and occasional special communications. 
Several, as Sunday papers, give the news later than the daily papers 
of Saturday. In the weekly papers the sections of society unable 
separately to maintain the vast establishment of a daily paper have 
their special organs, and here we find the representatives of Absolutists, 
Tories, Conservatives, Protectionists, Whigs, Radicals, Republicans, 
Democrats, Jacobins, Economists, Socialists, High Church, Low Church, 
Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, Reform Wesleyans, Inde- 
pendents, Unitarians, Jews, Deists, Pantheists, and Atheists. It is by 
this latitude of discussion that conspiracy and revolution are superseded, 
and each party hopes to conquer its adversaries by the overwhelming 



LONDON STATISTICS. 7o 

truth of its doctrines, and not by the exertion of physical power. Here 
the Celt abuses English domination, and the colonist advocates the dis- 
solution of the imperial connection. The influence of these organs is 
great, and the ministry of the day has usually more than one re- 
presentative among them. Many classes of the population have 
neither time nor money for daily publications, and the weekly paper 
is sought on the Sunday and carefully read. This class of publica- 
tion has therefore large resources at its command, and is enabled to 
enlist men of great attainments among its contributors. 

A weekly newspaper is managed by an editor and sub-editor, with 
several assistants for the Saturday's transactions, and there are 
usually regular correspondents or contributors for particular depart- 
ments, for a political article or letter, for theatrical and musical 
criticism, and for sporting communications. Many of these parties 
hold other engagements on the press. 

One weekly publication, the Illustrated News, keeps a staff of 
artists and engravers to supply the materials for the expensive 
woodcuts appearing in its pages. 

The evening papers, since the establishment of the morning mails 
enables the morning papers to reach the country districts, are of 
diminished importance. They give the news from the morning 
papers with occasional additions, and some regular information of the 
day, and in periods of great excitement their exertions then keep 
pace with the public requirements for news. The ministry has 
always an organ, occasionally its chief organ, in this department of 
the press. The evening papers now publish about 4 o'clock, in 
time for the afternoon post, and during the sitting of parliament 
they give the debates up to a late hour in an after edition. They 
have their staff of editor and sub-editor, city correspondents, and in 
the session a corps of parliamentary reporters. The evening papers 
are the Globe, Sun and Express (liberal), and the Standard (conser- 
vative). There is likewise a shipping paper. 

The morning papers are now six in number : the Times, Morning 
Chronicle, Morning Herald, and Morning Post, all representing 
various sections of the conservative party ; the Daily News, which is 
the representative of the liberals, and the Morning Advertiser, 
likewise a liberal paper, but having its circulation almost exclusively 
among the licensed victuallers or publicans, to whom it belongs, and 
in aid of whose charities its profits are applied. The constitution 
and establishment of the five former papers have a general character 
in common, though with many modifications. Each belongs to a 
proprietary, which is not ostensibly known to the public, and each 
is managed by an administration, the members of which are not 
declared, nor is it the practice of a paper to allude by name to in- 
dividuals connected with its contemporaries. At the same time the 
laborious pursuits of the editors, and their occupation in the evening, 

E 



74 LONDON — STATISTICS. 

prevent them from appearing much in public, and the result is, so far 
as the mass of the public is concerned, a complete incognito, which, 
whatever its advantage, is paid for by an abnegation of all personal 
glory. The Thunderer becomes dead to the world, and as the 
secluded monk lives only for and in his order, so does the former 
live only in his newspaper. He gives up his individuality, he abjures 
the literary success, and the lasting fame, which his talents would 
achieve elsewhere ; he sacrifices the applauses of senates, and the 
exercise of political administration. The journal wields the power, 
is flattered with the incense of public applause, and swallows up the 
glory in the long catalogue of successes. That this system contributes 
greatly to the power of the English press there can be no doubt, for 
all personal considerations are set aside, and every exertion is devoted 
to the advancement of the paper. 

At the head of each establishment is the editor, or editor-in-chief, 
who may be said rather to have the general inspection, than the ad- 
ministration. He directs the policy of the paper, and is the centre 
from which its moral influence receives its impress. It is needless 
to say the few posts of this importance are not lightly given, and that, 
with an empire to choose from, talent and attainments of the highest 
class are considered indispensable in determining the choice. In 
writing the political or leading articles he has the assistance of gentle- 
men permanently engaged for the purpose, besides occasional 
special aid. For the administration of the office he has a sub-editor, 
who regulates the whole routine of the paper, and who secures the 
co-operation of the various special departments in the production of 
the daily work. This is an office which likewise requires mental 
resources of a very high order. In his immediate direction are the 
assistants who arrange the matter sent in from the several offices or 
contributors. The sub-editors duties give him the supply and regu- 
lation of the printing office, and he has to make the most advan- 
tageous arrangements for that part of the paper not occupied with 
advertisements. 

The sub-editor and his assistants receive from several sources 
leading articles, translations of foreign news, extracts from foreign, 
colonial, and provincial papers, communications from the foreign and 
home correspondents of the establishments, reports from the parlia- 
mentary and other reporters, and letters from private parties. There 
are besides the advertisements. 

The city gives rise to a distinct department. The city office, in 
the neighbourhood of the Bank, has for its head a city correspondent 
or editor, whose duty it is, with his assistants, to prepare the money 
market or city article, and to watch the movements of the currency, 
the exchanges, the discount market, the stock and share market, the 
commercial interests of the country, and generally the state of trade 
at home and abroad. More or less in connection with the city cor- 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 75 

respondent are correspondents on the Corn Exchange, and in the 
markets for colonial and other produce. The paper likewise has 
regular correspondents in all the local markets of the metropolis to 
record the prices of articles of consumption. 

The staff of foreign correspondents varies according to the re- 
sources of the paper and the exigencies of political events. The 
Times has lately kept correspondents in Paris, Italy, Vienna, 
Northern Germany, Madrid and Lishon, besides others on roving 
commissions attending armies in the field. The correspondent at 
Paris occupies an important political position, and is provided with 
every appliance to enable him to supply daily the latest political and 
commercial news. Special expresses bring these communications 
from Paris to London in time for the morning papers. It has hap- 
pened before now that political transactions affecting a people, al- 
though occurring in their own capital, have first been made known 
from London. Occasional correspondence is supplied from all parts 
of the world by persons in the confidence of the papers, and there is 
a regular organization to furnish advices in the quickest manner from 
the utmost ends of the earth. 

Besides the political missions abroad, others are undertaken from 
time to time at home. Such were those on the condition of the 
Irish population, and on English agriculture by the Times com- 
missioners; on labour and the poor in England by the Morning 
Chronicle commissioner ; on the State of the English Manufacturers, 
and on the Encumbered Estates by the Daily News commissioners. 

Each paper has a corps of parliamentary reporters, who attend the 
debates in the two Houses of Parliament, and in which many young 
men of talent are enlisted. Some of these are entered for the bar, 
others hold appointments on Sunday Papers, and thus obtain an income 
which induces them to adhere to the press as a vocation. 

Besides these gentlemen there is in London a great number of 
casual reporters, whose contributions are paid by the number of 
lines they contain, and hence are called penny-a -liners. -Although 
regular reporters are sent from the offices, whenever anything of 
importance is expected, yet a great mass of information relating to 
police-offices, inquests, fires, murders, accidents, and meetings, is 
obtained from the casual reporters, who, scattered over the metro- 
polis, are ever on the look out for anything which may afford them 
the materials for a paragraph. They are to be seen on the fire- 
engines, proceeding to the fires, a whole pack is let loose on the 
scent of a murder, and it has been said that a man who falls down 
and breaks his leg is sure to find by his side two persons ready with 
sympathy — the medical student eager to secure him for his own hos- 
pital, and the casual reporter who makes the most anxious enquiries 
as to his name, address, family, and connections, that he may publish 
the fullest particulars in the morning papers. 

e 2 



70 LONDON STATISTICS. 

The publishing office of a large paper has usually a distinct depart- 
ment for advertisements. Here payment is received for advertise- 
ments and a small ticket of receipt is given, hut a great many adver- 
tisements come from advertisement agents, who, for a percentage 
transact the business of large establishments and individuals. These 
firms employ a considerable capital, but during the railway mania 
they suffered much by the large accommodation they afforded to the 
new schemes. 

The newspapers are chiefly issued from the offices to newsvenders, 
some of whom carry on a very large business. Messrs. W. H. 
Smith and Son, in the Strand, take as many as 5000 of one weekly 
paper, and they supply a great number of provincial newsvenders 
throughout the island, sending down parcels by railway trains. The 
newsvenders deliver the papers to their town and country subscribers, 
and likewise sell them retail to chance customers. A large part of 
their business is in lending the papers to public institutions, 
coffee-houses and individuals by the day, sending them away by the 
evening's or next day's post ; and in lending them by the hour to 
persons reading them at home. 

Instead of the numerous cabinets de lecture of the Continent, the 
stranger will find but few in London. Here papers are hired from 
the newsvender, or by the lower classes borrowed from the public- 
house, which thus accommodates its customers. The periodicals will 
be found in the coffee-houses, and literary institutions, and those 
published monthly and quarterly are lent out from the circulating 
libraries. 

The- history of " the Times" newspaper and its machinery is a 
history of intellectual ability, industry, and enterprise, unwearied 
activity and pre-eminent success, both to the public and to the pro- 
prietors. 

Previous to the year 1814 "the Times," like every other news- 
paper, was printed by hand at the common press, and at the rate of 
about 300 sheets per hour, printed on one side. The following is a 
brief review of the progress of printing machinery. 

The first patent was obtained by Nicholson, in 1790, who then 
proposed placing both the types and the paper upon cylinders, and 
distributing and applying the ink also by means of cylinders ; another 
plan was to place common type upon a table, which was passed under 
a paper cylinder. In 1813, Donkin and Bacon proposed placing the 
type upon a prism, and introduced "composition" rollers. 

In 1814, Kcenig made the first working machine, and erected two 
of them at "the Times" office, each of which produced 1800 im- 
pressions per hour, and continued to do so until 1827. 

In 1816, Cowper made a machine to print from curved stereo- 
type plates; and, in 1818, one to print books and newspapers 
from ordinary type; which machines are now in general use. 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 



77 



Plate 1. 

APPLEGATH AND COWPERS " TIMES* MACHINE. 1827. 




78 LONDON — STATISTICS. 

In these machines he introduced the system of inking now so 
common. These machines printed from 2000 to 2400 impressions 
per hour. 

In 1827, Cowper and Applegath conjointly invented the four- 
cylinder machine which Applegath erected for " the Times." (See 
plate 1.) It at once superseded Koenig's machines, which were 
taken down. This machine printed from 4000 to 5000 impressions 
per hour. The diagram will give a general idea of these machines, 
which are still in use at " the Times" office. They consist of a table 
a, moved backwards and forwards under four iron cylinders b (called 
the paper cylinders), about 9 inches in diameter, which are covered 
with cloth, and round which the sheets of paper are held between 
tapes. The form is fixed on one part of table a, the inking rollers, c, 
lying on another part, on which they distribute the ink. Some of 
these rollers are placed in a diagonal position on the table, so that, as 
it moves backwards and forwards, they have a motion in the direction 
of their length, called the " end-motion," which, combined with the 
rotatory motion, causes the ink to be more effectually distributed. 
The ink is held in a reservoir or trough d, formed of an iron roller, 
called the ductor, against which the edge of an iron plate rests, and, 
by its pressure, regulates the quantity of ink given out. The ink is 
conveyed from the ductor-roller to the table by means of an elastic 
roller vibrating between them, e. The feeding is performed by four 
"layers-on," who lay the sheets of paper on the feeding boardsj^ 
whence they enter the machine between three pairs of tapes, by 
which they are conveyed round the, cylinders, and thence to the spot, 
g, where the u takers-off" stand, into whose hands the sheets fall as 
the tapes separate. 

In May, 1848, the last great improvement was introduced, when 
Mr. Applegath erected at " the Times " office a vertical machine, 
which produces the enormous number of 10,000 impressions per 
hour. (See plate 2, which gives a general idea of the machine in 
perspective, one of the feeders being omitted to show the position of 
the form.) This machine (see plate 2) consists of a vertical cylinder, 
about 65 in/in diameter, on which the type is fixed, surrounded by 
eight other cylinders, each about 13 in. in diameter, covered with 
cloth, and round which the sheets of paper are conveyed by means 
of tapes ; each paper cylinder being furnished with a feeding appa- 
ratus A, having one boy to lay them on and another to take them off. 
The inking rollers are also placed in a vertical position, against the 
large cylinder, upon a portion of the surface of which they distribute 
the ink. The ink is held in a vertical reservoir, formed of a ductor- 
roller, against which rests two " straight edges," connected at the 
back, so as to prevent the ink from running out. It is conveyed 
from the ductor-roller by one of the inking-rollers, against which it is 
occasionally pushed. 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 

Plate 2. 



79 




— « 
o 

M 

H 
g 

o 

M 

H 

k 



The type used is of the ordinary kind, and the form is placed upon 
a portion of the large cylinder, being fixed to it in a very plain but 
ingenious manner : a slab of iron is curved on its under side, so as to 
fit the large cylinder, whilst its upper surface is filed into facets or 



80 LONDON — STATISTICS, 

flat parts, corresponding in width and number to the width and 
number of the columns of the newspaper; between each column 
there is a strip of steel, with a thin edge to print the " rule " — the 
body of it being wedge-shaped, so as to fill up the angular space left 
between the columns of type, and to press the type together side- 
ways, or in the direction of the lines ; the type is pressed together in 
ihe other direction by means of screws, and is therefore firmly held 
together. The surface of the type thus forms a portion of a polygon ; 
and the regularity of the impression is obtained by pasting slips of 
paper on the paper cylinders. 

The operation of the machine is very simple: the "layer-on" 
draws forward a sheet of paper on the feeding board, until its edge 
is under a roller, furnished with tapes, which drops down and draws 
the sheet forward and downward, into a vertical position, when other 
rollers and tapes carry it round the paper cylinder, when it meets the 
type, which has been inked by passing in contact with the inking- 
rollers; the sheet then continues its progress until it reaches the 
"taker-off." 

The following is a description of the engravings, plates 3, 4, 5, 
and will explain how the various movements are performed ; the 
letters of reference are the same in each of these plates. 

&, «, is the large vertical drum, forming the centre of the system, 
mounted on the shaft b, 6, and driven by the bevel wheel and pinion 
c, d, the shaft of the pinion d being supported on the floor, and 
carried to the prime mover. 

f*f ->f ->/->/•>/->/•>/ are the eight impression cylinders, driven by the 
spur wheel e; the same speed is therefore secured between the cir- 
cumference of the drum (with the type) and the circumference of 
each impression cylinder. 

The columns of type, as we have already mentioned, are fixed in 
the four type holders g,g,g,g. Between the columns of type are 
the " rules," which are fitted into the top and bottom of the type 
holder in a similar way to a metal saw in its frame. These rules 
are made like the keystone of an arch, to fill up the space left at the 
junction of the columns, owing to the angle which the columns form 
with each other in their position as sides of a polygon. The centre 
rule in the type holder is a fixture, in order to avoid the possibility of 
the type escaping from its place, in screwing it up ; and each column 
is jammed up from one end by a set-screw, as shown at top and 
bottom of the upper and lower type holders. The four pages of 
type thus prepared are bolted to the rings of the central drum. It 
will be observed that the impression cylinders are not arranged sym- 
metrically around the central drum. A greater space is left between 
one pair than between the others, in order to give room to get at the 
type, which can only be done when it is in the position shown in the 
drawing. 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 

Plate 3.— Plan. 



81 




e 3 



82 LONDON—- STATISTICS. 

Each of the impression cylinders requires an apparatus for sup- 
plying it with the sheets of paper (one only being shown in the 
plan) ; and the vertical position of the type requires that the paper 
shall be also brought to a vertical position, and be moved laterally in 
its passage through the machine. This difficult problem is solved in 
the following manner : — 

The sheets of paper are piled on the feeding board h (see end view 
of feeding apparatus, plate 4), and are pushed forward, one by one, 
by the attendant, over the centre of the feeding drum 2, plate 4 ; k, &, 
are two small fluted rollers, fixed on the dropping bar, and driven by 
tapes, off the roller /, plate 4. 

At the right moment this bar turns on its centre Z, and #, k, drops, 
as shown in the drawing, and by its motion advances the sheet of 
paper between the rollers i and I. The motion of the sheet is then 
continued downwards by tapes passing around the rollers m, m 9 and 
n, n, plate 4. The paper is steadied in the whole of its course 
by numerous tapes, only a few of which are drawn to show their 
direction. The down tapes pass around the feeding roller and the 
smaller rollers m, m, and n, n, and carry the sheet with them, until 
its progress is arrested by two long narrow strips of wood o, 0, 
covered with woollen cloth, and called " stoppers," one pair of which 
are advanced forward against the other pair that are fixed. The 
motion of this stopper frame is effected by means of the canij*?, 
plate 4, which acts upon the arms q q, q q, attached to the frame. 
The rollers m, m, and n,n, plate 4, then (and/ of course, the tapes 
with them,) open, and leave the sheet in its vertical position, held 
up by the stoppers. The opening of the rollers m 9 m, and n 9 n 9 is 
effected by their bearings being mounted in the ends of levers, and 
these levers are made to act upon each other by means of the toothed 
segments shown in the drawing. The earn r, plate 4, lifts the link s, 
which moves the top pair of rollers m, m, while the motion is 
conveyed to the lower pair, n, n 9 by the connecting rod t, which is 
loaded with a weight at bottom to keep the friction roller on the 
cam r. 

To return to our sheet of paper, which we left held up by the 
stoppers. These are now relaxed, and the weight of the paper is 
taken by two pairs of small fingers, or suspending rollers, at the top 
of the sheet, which are brought together by a cam, and, pressing 
slightly together, hold the sheet up during the instant of time that 
the stoppers are relaxing, and until the three pairs of vertical rollers 
u u, uu, uu, plates 4 and 5, are brought into contact to communicate 
the lateral motion to the sheet. The vertical rollers are all driven at 
the same speed as the printing drum by means of bevel wheels and 
pinions, as shown. The three front rollers, u, u, u 9 are mounted in a 
hanging frame v 9 v, and the pinions at bottom are driven through the 
bevel pinions and the shaft w y w y which is made with a universal joint 



LONDON — STATISTICS, 



83 



Plate 4. — End View of Feeding Apparatus. 




to allow of the 
motion of the 
frame v,v. The 
back rollers are 
driven in a simi- 
lar way, but 
their centres 
are stationary. 
The proper 
motion is com- 
municated to 

the hanging 

© © 

frame v, t\ by 
a cam similar 
to jp, acting 
upon the lever 
and friction 
pulley a?, the 
motion being 
communicated 
through the 
levers y, y, 
plate 4. Imme- 
diately on the 

rollers being 
© 

brought into 
contact with 
the paper, it 
is advanced by 
their motion 
into the mouth 
of two sets 
of horizontal 
tapes, which 
pass round the 
drums 2 and 3, 
(also driven by 
gearing,) and 
carry the sheet 
onwards to- 
wards the im- 
pression cy- 
linder^ where 
it is printed, 
and whence 



84 LONDON — STATISTICS. 

it returns in the direction of the arrows, the dotted line show- 
ing its path. The sheet of paper in its passage out meets with 
another set of endless tapes at the roller 4, plate 3, which assist it 
out as far as the rollers 5, where these tapes return and leave the 
sheet to complete its course by the action of a single pair of sus- 
pending tapes at the top of the sheet, and pressed lightly together by 
the pulleys 6*. 

On arriving at the outer pulley these tapes are forcibly pressed 
together by a lever and stopped, and thus hold the sheet of paper 
suspended and ready for the attendant to draw down, and place on 
the taking-off board 7 — an operation very easily performed. Each 
of the eight impression cylinders is provided with a similar 
feeding apparatus, and the same action takes place successively 
at each, thus producing eight sheets, printed on one side, for 
each revolution of the central drum. 

We may now mention the plan which is adopted to counteract the 
deviation of the faces of the columns of type from a true circle. 
Strips of paper are pasted down the impression cylinder, in width 
equal to each column. Other narrower strips of paper are pasted 
in the centre of these, and other strips, narrower still, until the 
surface of the impression cylinder becomes a series of segments of 
smaller circles, agreeing sufficiently with the required curve, to 
produce a perfect impression of the type over the whole width of the 
column. 

The ink is supplied to the type by three inking-rollers 8, 8, 8, 
plate 5, placed between each, two impression cylinders. These rollers 
receive their ink from revolving in contact with a curved inking-table, 
placed on the central printing drum opposite to the form of type. 
The ink is communicated to the inking table by two vibrating rollers 
alternately in contact with it and the ductor-roller. The ductor- 
roller 9, plate 3, forms one side of an ink -box from which, as it 
revolves by the bevel gearing 10 and 11, it withdraws a portion of 
ink. The two ink-boxes are kept full by a reservoir placed above 
them. The inking-rollers are caused to press in contact with the 
inking-table by means of coiled springs, as shown, and their brass 
bearings are also furnished with set-screws to hold them in close con- 
tact with the type, as it passes, in a similar manner to other quick 
machines. 

The spindles of the inking-rollers are also provided with small 
friction wheels at top and bottom, which run upon a brass bearer on 
the central drum ; by which they are kept from being drawn into the 
drum by their springs, except at the proper time. 

There is an advantage incidental to the vertical position of the type 
and the paper ; viz., that the ink does not sink into the type as it 
does when it is placed horizontally, and on that account the type is 
kept much cleaner. 



LONDON — STATISTICS. 



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86 LONDON — LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. 

In looking at a copy of the Times, it will occasionally be observed 
that the impression is not exactly in the centre of the paper. Now, 
the only wonder really is, that it should be so nearly true. The 
type and the paper move at about the rate of 6 feet per second, 
so that an error in the arrival of the sheet of paper to the impression 
cylinder of one-seventieth of a second would cause an error of one inch 
in the margin. Yet so accurately is this performed, that the waste of 
sheets is considerably less with this machine than with the old hori- 
zontal ones. 

Some little difficulty was experienced at first in carrying on the 
paper, when vertical, without buckling it. This difficulty was con- 
quered by introducing an additional roller, to give the paper a slight 
angle, instead of drawing it out in a straight line, which had the 
effect of stiffening it, on the same principle as corrugating a plate of 
iron. 

The produce of this machine might readily be doubled, by having 
two forms of type on the central drum, instead of one (were it 
desirable for want of space for two machines, or other reasons), and 
the addition of eight other laying-on boards and feeding drums in a 
story above the present ones. 

The following are interesting statistics relative to the printing of 
the Times: — On the 7th of May, 1850, the Times and Supplement 
contained 72 columns, or 17,500 lines, made up of upwards of 
1,000,000 pieces of type, of which matter about two-fifths were 
written, composed, and corrected after 7 o'clock in the evening. 
The Supplement was sent to press at 7'50, p.m., the first form of the 
paper at 4*15, a.m., and the second form at 4*45, a.m.; on this occa- 
sion 7000 papers were published before 6*15, a.m., 21,000 papers 
before 7*30, a.m., and 34,000 before 8*45, a.m., or in about four 
hours. The greatest number of copies ever printed in one day was 
54,000, and the greatest quantity of printing in one day's publica- 
tion was on the 1st of March, 1848, when the paper used weighed 
7 tons, the weight usually required being 4<| tons ; the surface to be 
printed every night, including the Supplement, was 30 acres; the 
weight of the fount of type in constant use was 7 tons, and 110 
compositors and 25 pressmen were constantly employed. The whole 
of the printing at the Times office is now performed by four of 
Applegath and Cowper s four-cylinder machines, and two of Apple- 
gath's new vertical cylinder machines. 

Section 6. — Legislation and Government. — The metropolis 
is the seat of the central government in its various relations. 
The United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Town 
of Berwick-on-Tweed, the Orkneys, Shetlands, and Western 
Islands, is governed by the Imperial Parliament. The isles 
of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and their smaller 
islets, are only partially subject to the control of the Parliament. 



LONDON — LEGISLATION AND GOVEKNMENT. 87 

The protectorate of the Ionian Islands, Mosquitia, the Hawaian 
Islands, and other semi-dependencies, is exercised through the 
Colonial Office, without connection with any other department. 
The Indian Empire is ruled through the Board of Control and 
the Board of East India Directors, and the Arctic American ter- 
ritories through the Hudson's Bay Board. The colonies are divided 
into three classes, those having legislative assemblies (as those of 
North America, Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, Jamaica, and 
most of the West Indies), Crown colonies (as Ceylon, Gibraltar, 
Malta, Heligoland, Mauritius, West Africa, Aden, Hong-Kong, 
Labuan, the Falklands, Port Essington, Trinidad, and some of 
the West India Islands), and possessions (as Hindostan, &c). The 
Crown colonies are absolutely subject to the English Government 
and Parliament; the last class have the power of regulating their 
own expenditure and making their own laws, subject to the control 
of the home Government. 

The Parliament consists of the hereditary chief magistrate, under 
the title of King or Queen, and in whose name, but on their own 
responsibility, the ministers forming the executive exercise their func- 
tions; of a House of Lords, consisting of hereditary peers, 28 peers 
elected by the Irish peers for life, 16 peers elected by the Scotch 
peers for each parliament, and 30 archbishops and bishops of the 
Established Church in England and Ireland ; of a House of Com- 
mons, consisting of about 650 members, chosen for each parlia- 
ment by various classes of electors in the three great divisions of 
England, Scotland, and Ireland, for districts of shires or borough 
towns, the number of members for each district being one, two, three, 
or four. The operation of the qualifications is very irregular. In 
some boroughs every working man is an elector, as being a freeman ; 
but generally a great number of working and respectable men, not 
householders, are shut out : and in the counties only the landed and 
farmers' interests have the electoral franchise. The city of London 
returns four members ; the districts of Middlesex; South Essex, 
North Surrey, and West Kent, two each ; and the metropolitan bo- 
roughs of Westminster, Southwark, Marylebone, Tower Hamlets, 
Finsbury, Lambeth, and Greenwich, tw r o each. The whole of Lon- 
don has not the borough franchise, as a large part to the w r est of the 
city of Westminster is excluded ; so are the Essex suburbs, and other 
outlying districts. The franchise of freemen, but here limited to a 
selected class called liverymen, only exists in the city of London. 

Virtually the queen and her ministers, or the crown, or govern- 
ment, has no immediate share in the parliament, having given up 
the power, though not the right, of putting a veto on any measure. 
The crown names new peers from time to time, and occasionally, to 
strengthen a party without increasing the stock of hereditary peers, 
the eldest son of a peer is called into the House of Lords. The 



88 LONDON — LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. 

political faction in power, and exercising the functions of the crown, 
has great patronage, which is employed, as elsewhere in repre- 
sentative countries, in promoting the interests of its own faction, and 
thereby the House of Commons is influenced. Except in times of 
great excitement, political power is left in the hands of the party- 
men of all grades, the politicians by profession, and the great body 
of the public, who belong to no faction, and either do not exercise 
the electoral franchise, or do not possess it, leave the supervision of 
the government to the press, through which the influence of public 
opinion is brought to bear, and the proceedings of the dominant fac- 
tion restrained. 

For above two hundred years the executive government has been 
in the hands of a political faction, generally either Whig or Tory, and 
the exercise of power is reposed in a body of ten or fifteen ministers 
of state, forming the Cabinet Council, and of whom one is the Pre- 
mier or cabinet minister. The cabinet usually consists of the First 
Lord of the Treasury, and of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and 
another finance minister ; of the Lord High Chancellor, as head of 
the law ; of Secretaries of State for the Home, Foreign, and Colonial 
Departments ; of the President of the Board of Control for India., and 
of the First Lord of the Admiralty. The number, however, varies. 
The next class of political personages are ministers of state not 
cabinet ministers, as the Secretary at War, Secretary for Ireland, 
President of the Board of Trade, Master of the Mint, &c. The 
third class consists of the Secretaries of the Treasury, Admiralty, 
India Board, Board of Trade, &c, and the Under Secretaries of State. 
The fourth class consists of Lords of the Treasury and Admiralt}'. 
All of these are peers or members of parliament. 

The above constitute the political hierarchy, the members of which 
are removable when their own personal influence or that of their fac- 
tion declines. Beneath them, however, is a permanent staff of officials. 
These consist in each office of an under or assistant secretary, chief 
clerks, and clei»ks of the superior departments, arranged in several 
classes. Beneath these, again, come the whole body of government 
subordinates, the clerks of the Post Office, Customs, and Inland Re- 
venue, the executive officers of their administration, the letter car- 
riers, excisemen, and Custom-house officers. In each office there 
is generally a regular promotion in the several ranks, and a scale of 
superannuation provided by mutual contribution, and, except in cases 
of absolute dishonesty, the parties are virtually irremovable. 

Where the heads of the department do not belong to the political 
hierarchy, they consist of commissioners, named from among retired 
members of parliament or political personages, as the Commissioners 
of Customs, Inland Revenue, Poor Law, Police, &c. 

In the Cabinet Council resides the supreme power of the executive ; 
but generally, unless on some line of policy laid down by the Cabinet, 



LONDON— LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. 89 

each minister is supreme in his own department; and in Downing 
Street is to be found the secretary who has ordered a fleet to coerce 
a foreign state, the president who sent an army into Afghanistan, the 
minister who lias given representative institutions to a country larger 
than a European kingdom, and with a population more considerable 
than that of many sovereign commonwealths. The political secretary 
and under-secretary cannot, however, embrace the whole of the de- 
tails, and much of the power of each department resides with the 
permanent under-secretary, chief clerk and clerks,*" each of whom 
has his own functions, perhaps an important country under his 
influence. 

In everything that relates to expenditure, and it may be said to 
administration, the Board of Lords and Secretaries of the Treasury 
is supreme ; and as all measures involving outlay must come to them, 
they have the means of exercising a control over other departments. 
One of the Secretaries of the Treasury is known as the Whipper-in, 
to whom is intrusted the disposal of the patronage of the government 
among members of the House of Commons, with the view to secure 
their presence and their votes. In consequence of the demands of the 
numerous partisans the Treasury lays hold of the patronage of every 
appointment it can, in order to supply the applicants. The power of 
the Treasury Board is more particularly exercised in what are called 
the revenue departments, as the Customs, Inland Revenue, and Post 
Office, and it forms the tribunal of appeal in all disputes with the 
latter boards. 

The Home Department has charge of the administration of justice 
and criminal police, in conjunction with the Lord High Chancellor, 
the Attorney General of England, and the Lord Advocate of Scot- 
land. The Lord Lieutenant and Secretary of State for Ireland exer- 
cise the government of Ireland, under the home authorities. The 
Foreign and Colonial Departments, the Army or War Department, 
the Admiralty, and the Ordnance or Artillery and Store Department, 
are nearly independent, except in their relations with the Treasury. 
The Board of Control supervises the, Board of Directors in the govern- 
ment of India, and exercises an independent political influence in 
that country. The Board of Directors, elected by the proprietors of 
East India stock, have the patronage of all except the highest Indian 
appointments, and regulate the internal administration. The Presi- 
dent of the Council is the minister of education. The Board of Trade 
has under it the statistical department, a branch for the supervision 
of railways, one for the supervision of steamboats, the registration of 
patterns and designs, and the registration of returns of prices of corn. 
The office of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenue has the care of the 
national property, and the direction of public works and buildings 
not under the Admiralty or Ordnance. The crown estate of the 



90 LONDON — LEGISLATION AND GOVERNMENT. 

ancient Duchy of Lancaster, and the Prince of Wales' estate of the 
Duchy of Cornwall, are made separate departments. 

The hours of attendance in the various government offices vary. 
They are to be found in the Post Office Directory, and the pocket- 
hooks. As each department has its separate office, it is as well to 
ask for the office required of the messenger at the entrance of 
the buildings. Applications to the boards, or superior departments 
or authorities, should he addressed in writing, and the answer has a 
number attached to it, which should be noted in any subsequent 
communication. In case of complaint against any subordinate officer 
of government, application is to be made first to the head of the 
office, then to the board, and afterwards to the Lords of the Trea- 
sury. It is not expedient to rely too much on the influence of a 
member of parliament, as he has, in most cases, too many demands 
to make for his constituents to be unfettered. 

The House of Lords forms the supreme court of justice in all 
causes arising within the parliamentary territories in these islands ; 
but the jurisdiction is virtually exercised by the Lord High Chancellor 
and other peers who are lawyers. It is likewise the supreme 
criminal tribunal for trying kings, queens, ministers, governors- 
general, and peers and peeresses. Before it were tried Queen 
Caroline; Warren Hastings, Governor- General of India; and Lord 
Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty. The Privy Council, or rather 
the judicial committee of it, consisting of such members as have been 
judges at home or in the colonies, is the supreme court of justice in all 
civil causes arising within the extra parliamentary territories of Man, 
Jersey, &c. ; in India and the colonies ; likewise in admiralty causes, 
causes of the Established Church of England and Ireland, and in 
patent causes. Before this tribunal, which partly answers to the 
Supreme Court of the United States, are tried causes arising among 
the emperors, kings, provinces, and colonies of the English Empire. 

The peculiar feature of the English government is, that the hier- 
archy and power of the executive ceases with the political depart- 
ments, and that the greater part of the local government is virtually 
in the hands of independent authorities. The central government 
cannot interfere directly with the government of a county, town, or 
township ; and in England, Scotland, Ireland, Man, or Jersey, it 
must act according to the laws or forms of each country. Thus a 
degree of federal independence not existing in any democracy is to be 
found throughout the English - Empire, and which is one of the 
anomalies among the many which will strike the eye of an observer. 
The Lord-Lieutenant of a county, as of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, and 
Kent, is named for life by the dominant faction holding the execu- 
tive, and he presents to the Lord High Chancellor the names of the 
gentry who are appointed justices of peace for life, and who exercise 



LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 91 

the magistracy and raise and expend the county taxes. The Lord 
Mayor of London is nominally submitted for the approval of the 
government; but in all other towns even this form is not gone 
through, and the municipalities are totally independent of the govern- 
ment, as are likewise the townships or parishes, and which levy their 
taxes without reference to the government. The several judges 
and magistrates are irremovable, and exercise a large amount of 
patronage. 

In London are seated the superior Courts of England and Wales; 
those of equity, or for causes beyond the prescriptions of .aw; the 
Courts of the Lord High Chancellor, Master of the Rolls, and Vice 
Chancellors; those of law, whether oral or common law, or statute 
law, as the Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer; of 
Admiralty ; of Wills and Ecclesiastical Causes, as the Court of Arches, 
Prerogative Court, and Consistory Court. The Queens Bench has 
special jurisdiction in criminal and municipal cases; the Common 
Pleas, in electoral registration cases, and virtually in commercial cases ; 
the Exchequer, in Crown revenue cases. The Court of Exchequer 
Chamber is a court of civil appeal on points arising between the 
common law courts, and there is a court of criminal appeal. These 
courts are held by the 15 judges of the three common law courts, 
who likewise hold the local assize courts for civil and criminal causes. 
The three common law courts sit separately in the city of London. 
The assize courts in which metropolitan causes are tried are Croydon 
and Kingston for Surrey, Maidstone for Kent, and Chelmsford for 
Essex. 

Municipal Arrangements. — Looked at from a constitutional 
and legal point of view, the metropolis consists of the ancient cities 
of London and Westminster, the borough of South wark, and the 
modern parliamentary boroughs of Marylebone, Finsbury, the Tower 
Hamlets, Lambeth, and Greenwich. Of all these, London alone has a 
municipal government, the jealousy of the administration refusing this 
right to the whole metropolis and the separate boroughs. London re- 
turns four members to serve in the Parliament of the United Kingdom ; 
each of the other places two. The right of voting is vested in the 
occupiers of houses, counting-houses, warehouses, or buildings, of the 
clear yearly value of 10/., who are on the register of voters. To entitle 
him to be placed on the register, the elector must have occupied his 
house for twelve months previous to the 31st of July, must be rated 
to the poor, and have paid before the 20th of July all poor-rates and 
assessed taxes due before the 5th of January, and have resided within 
the borough, or within seven miles thereof, for six months before the 
31st of July. In London, freemen, being liverymen, who were ad- 
mitted before the 1st of March, 1831, or who have been admitted 
since by reason of a title from birth or servitude, and who reside 



92 LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 

within seven miles of the city, and are registered, form the old con- 
stituency, and are entitled to vote. 

The registers of voters are formed from lists of the occupiers made 
out annually hy the overseers of each parish, and of the liverymen of 
London by the clerks of the companies. The lists of London, with 
those of the other boroughs in Middlesex, are revised by bar- 
risters appointed by the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench ; 
those for Southwark and Lambeth by barristers appointed by the 
senior judge, who goes the Surrey assizes. These barristers hold 
courts in September or October every year, to expunge the names of 
those citizens who on technical grounds have been objected to, and 
insert the names of those who have been improperly omitted, and 
who claim a right to vote ; and from their decision an appeal lies to 
the Court of Common Pleas. 

There are several local courts for the administration of civil and 
criminal justice in the city of London and its neighbourhood. The 
civil courts within the city are the lord mayor's court and the 
sheriffs' court. The criminal courts are the Central Criminal Court, 
the Guildhall sessions, and the police courts. In the neighbourhood 
of London the local civil courts are the different county courts ; and 
the criminal courts are the Westminster and Middlesex, Southwark, 
Tower Hamlets, Kent, Essex, and Surrey sessions, and the police 
courts. 

The Mayor's Court, is held at Guildhall, nominally before the 
lord mayor and aldermen, but really before the recorder. It is a 
court of law and equity, and has jurisdiction over all personal and 
mixed actions arising within the city. Its principal business is in the 
customary proceeding of foreign attachment. If an action is com- 
menced in the mayor's court for a sum of money, and the officer 
returns that the defendant cannot be summoned, and the plaintiff 
surmises that another person within the city is indebted to the 
defendant, he has process against the third person, called the 
garnishee, to warn him to come in and answer whether he be 
indebted in the manner alleged. If he comes and does not deny 
the debt, it shall be attached in his hands, and after four defaults 
recorded on the part of the defendant, the garnishee shall find new 
surety to the plaintiff for the debt, and judgment shall be that the 
plaintiff shall have judgment against him, and he shall be quit against 
the other, after execution sued out by the plaintiff. By this custom, 
if a creditor discovers that a person within the city of London has 
any money or goods belonging to his debtor in his hands, he can 
attach the money or goods by proceeding in the mayor's court. He 
has to find sureties to restore the money or goods in the event of the 
defendant appearing within a year and a day and disproving the 
debt. 



LONDON— MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 03 

Each of the sheriffs of London has a court, which is held near 
Guildhall "before a judge appointed by him, and which has jurisdic- 
tion over all personal actions arising in the city. These courts also 
have a general summary jurisdiction in personal actions, when the 
debt or damage claimed does not exceed 20/., if any one of the 
defendants dwells or carries on his business in the city, or has dwelt 
or carried on his business there within six months before the action 
is commenced, or if the cause of action has arisen in London. 

The Central Criminal Court is held at the Old Bailey. The lord 
mayor, the lord chancellor, all the judges of the courts at West- 
minster, the judge of the admiralty, the dean of the arches, the alder- 
men, the recorder, the common Serjeant, the judge of the sheriffs' 
court or city commissioner, and any other persons whom the crown 
may appoint, are judges of this court. In it may be tried any crime 
committed in London or Middlesex, and in defined parts of the 
counties of Essex, Kent, and Surrey, surrounding the metropolis. 
It is held once a month, and two or three of the judges of the 
superior courts attend in rotation and preside at the trial of the 
graver charges. The other criminals are disposed of, in separate 
sittings, by the recorder, common Serjeant, and city commissioner. 

The London sessions are held eight times in the year before the 
lord mayor, aldermen, and recorder, or any four of them, and have 
jurisdiction over minor misdemeanors and poor-law appeals. 

Of police courts there are two in the city of London, one held at 
the Mansion House, before the lord mayor, and the other at the 
Guildhall, before one of the aldermen ; at these places criminals are 
examined on their first apprehension, to ascertain whether there is a 
sufficient charge against them to put them on their trial, and whether 
they ought to be imprisoned or admitted to bail, and minor offences 
and nuisances are dealt with in a summary way. 

There are several small debts' courts, now named County Courts, 
in the metropolis : viz., the "Whitechapel County Court of Middle- 
sex, held at Osborn Street, Whitechapel ; the Shoreditch County 
Court, No. 12, Charles Square, Hoxton ; the Bow County Court, 
at Bow ; the Clerkenwell County Court, at Duncan Terrace, City 
Road; the Bloomsbury County Court, at Portland Road, Regent's 
Park ; the Brompton County Court, at Whitehead's Grove, Chel- 
sea ; the Marylebone County Court, at the New Road, opposite 
Lisson Grove; the Westminster County Court, at No. 83, St. Mar- 
tins Lane ; the Southwark County Court, at Swan Street, Newing- 
ton ; and the Lambeth County Court, at Denmark Hill, Camberwell. 
These courts hold a summary jurisdiction over debts and demands not 
exceeding 20/.; actions which involve the title to land, tolls, fairs, 
markets, or franchises, or the validity or construction of a will or 
settlement, or malicious prosecution, libel, slander, criminal conversa- 
tion, seduction, or breach of marriage promise, are excepted from 



94 LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 

their jurisdiction, and also from the small debts' jurisdiction of the 
sheriffs' court in London. They also have power to give possession 
of houses or lands where the tenancy has expired, if the rent or value 
does not exceed 50/. a year, unless by joint consent. Under an 
Act passed in 1850, the County Courts have concurrent jurisdiction 
with the superior courts in debts and demands not exceeding 501. 
The Daily News gives on Monday a list of the causes before each 
County Court. The judges are barristers appointed by the crown. 
The South wark sessions are held before the lord mayor, the alder- 
men who have passed the chair, and the recorder, four times a 
year. The Middlesex and other sessions are held for their respective 
jurisdictions before justices of the peace appointed by the crown, 
within Middlesex, Westminster, the Tower Hamlets, Kent, Essex, 
and Surrey, respectively. They transact the same description of 
business as the London sessions ; all the more serious offences being 
tried at the Central Criminal Court. 

There are eleven metropolitan police courts : — Bow Street Police 
Court, at Bow Street, Covent Garden; the Westminster Police Court, 
at Vincent Square ; the Great Marlborough Street Police Court ; the 
Clerkenwell Police Court, at Bagnigge Wells Road ; the Worship 
Street Police Court; the Lambeth Police Court, at Kennington Lane; 
the Marylebone Police Court; the South wark Police Court; the Thames 
Police Court, at Arbour Square, Stepney; the Greenwich Police Court; 
the Woolwich Police Court; the Hammersmith Police Court; and the 
Wandsworth Police Court. At Bow Street there are three magistrates; 
at each of the others, with the exception of the Greenwich, Woolwich, 
Hammersmith, and Wandsworth Police Courts, there are two; and at 
Greenwich and Woolwich there are two to the two courts ; and so at 
Hammersmith and Wandsworth. These magistrates are appointed 
by the crown, and are selected from barristers. They have 
power not only to examine and commit offenders for trial or admit 
them to bail, if their offences are bailable, but also to punish sum- 
marily by fine and imprisonment many minor offences, such as assaults, 
obstructions of the public thoroughfares; also to order search for stolen 
goods, and to order the restoration of goods stolen or unlawfully ob- 
tained, to settle disputes as to the w r ages of bargemen and labourers 
who work on the Thames or the adjacent wharfs, to order compensa- 
tion for wilful damage done by tenants, to grant relief on wTongful 
seizures for rent, if a house or lodging is held by w r eek or month, or 
at a rent not exceeding 15/. a year, to order the restoration of goods 
not exceeding the value of 15/., to order a house which is in a filthy 
and unwholesome state to be cleansed ; to interfere in all complaints 
against cabmen, omnibus drivers, publicans, and policemen. 

The police are a body of men appointed to preserve order and ap- 
prehend offenders. For the district surrounding the city of London, 
and over which the jurisdiction of the metropolitan police courts ex- 



LONDON MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 95 

tend, they act under the direction and general superintendence of two 
commissioners appointed "by the crown. Their number is fixed by the 
Secretary of State for the Home Department. The Commissioners of 
Police have power to suppress illegal fairs, unlicensed theatres, places 
used for righting or baiting lions, bears, badgers, cocks, dogs, or other 
animals, gaming houses, to regulate the route and conduct of the drivers 
of carriages and cattle during the hours of Divine Service and public 
processions. 

Each policeman is sworn to act as a constable for preserving the 
peace, and preventing robberies and other felonies, and apprehending 
offenders against the peace. By the general law of the land they 
may arrest, of their own authority and without warrant, any person 
who has been guilty of treason or felony, or whom they have good 
reason to suspect to be guilty of such crime, and carry him before a 
magistrate, to be examined and committed for trial ; they may also 
arrest any persons they see fighting or committing an assault, and 
take them before a magistrate, in order that they may find surety 
to keep the peace. Their power to arrest such persons is not for the 
purpose of punishment, but for the preservation of the peace, and 
therefore they can only take them whilst they are fighting. They 
have no power to arrest after the quarrel is over. If a person has 
been guilty of a misdemeanor, or offence less than a felony, he must 
either be indicted, or a complaint should be made to a magistrate, 
and a warrant obtained under which he may be arrested. 

A policeman may also arrest without warrant any person whom 
he sees committing certain specific acts of annoyance in a public 
thoroughfare. The following is a catalogue : — Exposing for sale, 
feeding, or foddering a horse, showing a caravan, shoeing a horse, 
breaking a horse, or repairing a carriage, to the annoyance of the 
inhabitants or passengers ; turning loose a horse ; suffering to be at 
large an unmuzzled ferocious dog ; setting on a dog to attack, worry, 
or put in fear any person, horse, or animal ; causing mischief to be 
done by cattle, by negligence or ill usage in driving ; wantonly pelt- 
ing, driving, or hunting cattle, by a person not employed to drive 
thern ; riding on any part of a cart, or on the horse drawing the 
same, without holding the reins by the person who has the care 
thereof, or if such person is at such a distance from the cart that he 
has not a complete control over the horse ; riding or driving furiously, 
so as to endanger the life or limb of any person, or to the common 
danger of passengers; causing a cart, public carriage, sledge, truck, 
or barrow, to stand longer than necessary for taking up or setting 
down passengers ; leading or driving a horse or carriage upon the 
footway; fastening a horse so that it stand across a footway; rolling 
or carrying a cask, tub, hoop or wheel, ladder, plank, snowboard or 
placard, upon a footway ; wilfully disregarding the orders of the 
Commissioners of Police regulating the route of carriages during 



06 LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 

Divine Service, or for preventing obstructions during public proces- 
sions ; posting a bill against a wall, writing upon, defacing, or 
marking a wall, without the consent of the proprietor, or wilfully 
damaging any part of a building, wall, fence, or pale, or any fixture 
or appendage thereunto, or any tree, shrub, or seat in any public 
walk or garden ; a prostitute or nightwalker loitering or being 
in any thoroughfare or public place for the purpose of prostitution 
or solicitation, to the annoyance of the inhabitants or passengers ; 
selling, distributing, or exhibiting to public view any profane, in- 
decent, or obscene book, paper, print, drawing, painting, or repre- 
sentation, or singing any profane, indecent, or obscene song 
or ballad, or writing or drawing any indecent or obscene word, 
figure, or representation, or using any profane, indecent, or obscene 
language, to the annoyance of the inhabitants ; using any threaten- 
ing, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour, with intent to provoke 
a breach of the peace, or whereby a breach of the peace may be 
occasioned ; blowing a horn, or using a noisy instrument, for the 
purpose of calling persons together, or of announcing a show or 
entertainment, or of hawking, selling, or collecting any article, or 
obtaining money or alms ; wantonly discharging a firearm, throwing 
a stone to the danger of any person, making a bonfire, or throwing 
or setting fire to a firework ; wilfully and wantonly disturbing any 
inhabitant by pulling or ringing a door-bell, or knocking at a door 
without lawful excuse, or wilfully and unlawfully extinguishing the 
light of a lamp ; flying a kite, or playing a game to the annoyance 
of the inhabitants or passengers, or making or using a slide upon ice 
or snow to the common danger of passengers. 

Situations of the Metropolitan Police Stations, where information of 
Robberies, fyc, maybe given, and the assistance of Police Constables 
obtained when their services are required. 



o a 

K.S 


Local Name of 
Division. 


POLICE STATIONS. 


A 


Whitehall 


Great Scotland Yard, Whitehall ; 2, Gardener's Lane, King 

Street, Westminster. 
Rochester Row, Vincent Square; Robert's Buildings, Ebury 

Square, Pimlico. 
Little Vine Street, Piccadilly. 
Mary-le-Bone Lane; 5, Little Harcourt Street ; Hermitage 

Street, Paddington. 
Clarke's Buildings, St. Giles's ; Hunter Street, Brunswick 


B 

C 
D 

E 


Westminster 

St. James's 

St. Mary-le-Bone. 

Holborn 


F 


Covent Garden... 
Finsbury 


Square. 
34, Bow Street. 
Bagnigge Wells Road, Clerkenwell; Featherstone Street, 

St, Luke's. 







LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



97 



Situations of the Metropolitan Police Stations {continued). 






Local Name of 
Division. 



POLICE STATIONS. 



Whitechapel. 
Stepney .... 



Lambeth . 

South wark 
Islington . 



Camber well , 



Greenwich 



Hampstead 



Kensington . 



"Wandsworth 



TD 



River Thames 



Chapel Yard, Spital Square ; Denmark Street^ St. George's, 
East. 

Middlesex. — Mile End Road; Bromley, Devon's Lane; 
Wapping, Green Bank ; Shad well, King David's Lane ; 
Stepney, Arbour Square ; Poplar, Newby Place. Essex. 
— Plaistow; Great Ilford; "Wanstead; Ley tonstone Road; 
Woodford; Loughton; Dagenham; Barking; East Ham; 
West Ham ; Chadwell Heath ; Beacontree Heath. 

Tower Street, Waterloo Road; Kennington Lane; High 
Street, near the Old Church ; Chris tchurch, near the Old 
Church. 

Stone's End, Southwark; Paradise Street, Rotherhithe, 
near Mill Pond Bridge. 

Middlesex. — Kingsland, High Street; Hackney, Church 
Street; Hoxton, Robert Street; Islington, Islington 
Green; Enfield Highway, Green Street; Stoke New- 
ington, Lordship Road; Tottenham, near Scotland Green; 
Hornsey ; Edmonton ; Enfield. Herts. — Cheshunt. 
Essex. — Walthamstow; Waltham Abbey. 

Surrey. — Walworth, Park House, Lock's Fields ; Camber- 
well Green ; Brixton Road ; Mitcham ; Croydon, George 
Street; Streatham; Thornton Heath; Sutton; Adding- 
ton ; Carshalton. 

Kent.— Greenwich, Blackheath Road ; Woolwich, William 
Street ; Lea Road ; Lewisham, Rushey Green ; Sidcup ; 
Bexley Heath; Bromley; Farnborough; Beckenham; 
Shooter's Hill; H. M. Dock Yard, Deptford; H. M. Vic- 
tualling Yard, Deptford ; H. M. Dock Yard, Woolwich ; 
H. M. Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. 

Middlesex. — Highgate, High Street; Willesden, Stone 
Bridge; Edge ware Road, 8 milestone; Regent's Park, 
52, Albany Street ; Kentish Town, Junction Place ; 
Hampstead, 1, Heath Street; Somers Town, Phcenix 
Street ; St. John's Wood, 52, Salisbury Street, Portman 
Market ; Chipping Barnet, High Street ; Bushey, High 
Street; South Minims; Hendon ; Finchley. 

Middlesex. — Kensington, Church Court; Hammersmith, 
Brook Green; Brentford; Hanwell; Hillingdon and 
Uxbridge; Hounslow; Staines; Harrow; Ealing; Acton; 
Harefield ; Harlington : Stanwell. 

Middlesex. — Hampton; Sunbury; Chelsea, Milman's Row. 

Surrey Kingston, London Road; Epsom; Wandsworth; 

The Plain; Clapham Common; Richmond, Prince's Street ; 
Mortlake, High Street: Lower Tooting, Salvador; Mer- 
ton; Barnes, Priest Bridge. 

Blackwall; the Ship " Investigator," lying off Strand Lane, 
Wapping. 



98 LONDON — MUNICIPAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



In the city the police are under the control of a commissioner, 
appointed by the common council, with the approval of the crown ; 
and the number of constables is fixed by the mayor, aldermen, 
and common council. They have the same powers in the city as 
the metropolitan police have within their district. The fire police are 
noticed under the head of Insurance. 

Situations of the City Police Stations, 
First district . . . . . . Moor Lane. 



Second district 
Third district . 
Fourth district 
Fifth district . . 
Sixth district . 

Chief office, 26, Old Jewry, 



Smithfield. 

119, Fleet Street. 

Grarlick Lane. 

57, Fenchurch Street. 

Bishopsgate Street. 



Public-houses, that is, places in which wines and spirits are sold 
by retail, and the keepers of them, are licensed annually by the 
justices of the peace of the district in which they are situate. The 
same authority grants licences to places for the public amusements of 
music and dancing. Beer may be sold by retail under a licence 
granted by the Commissioners of Excise, and in this respect there 
is a distinction, some beersellers being licensed to sell beer to be 
drunk on the premises, and others licensed to sell beer which must 
not be drunk on the premises. To obtain the first the applicant 
must pay the tax for the licence, and obtain a certificate of good 
character, signed by six rated inhabitants of the parish, and certified 
by one of the overseers. To obtain the other he has only to pay the 
tax. 

Omnibuses, hackney-coaches, and cabs, are under the control of 
the commissioners of police, who grant licences and tickets to 
omnibuses, hackney-coaches, cabs, their drivers and conductors, 
and the attendants at the cab-stands, called watermen. Every car- 
riage and man has a number, which it is compulsory to exhibit con- 
spicuously. 

The number of omnibuses running daily is said to be 3000, em- 
ploying 30,000 horses. It is reckoned they carry persons to the 
extent of 300,000,000 of times. 

The buildings of London and its vicinity are under the supervision 
of three architects, called Official Eeferees, and others called District 
Surveyors. No new building, or party wall, can be erected without 
informing the district surveyor, who superintends the building, and 
sees that the walls are of proper thickness and construction. He is 
also bound to report buildings which are ruinous and dangerous to 
passengers, and the mayor and aldermen in London, and the over- 



LONDON POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS. 99 

seers of the parish elsewhere, may pull it down if the owner neglects 
to do so. 

The sewers in London are kept in order by commissioners of 
sewers, appointed by the corporation. Those in the surrounding 
districts by commissioners of sewers, empowered by a commission 
from the crown. The powers and duties of each set of commis- 
sioners are defined by acts of parliament. They have authority to 
compel the proper drainage of houses. 

The commissioners of sewers in London repair the streets. In the 
other parts of the metropolis this is done by commissioners, or sur- 
veyors, chosen by the parishioners. 

As there is no municipal authority for the whole metropolis, or the 
several portions of it, except the city of London, the functions else- 
where exercised by the inhabitants or their representatives are mostly 
usurped by boards of commissioners appointed by the government. 
Thus the police is under the commissioners of police ; sewers, under 
the commissioners of sewers : sanitarv arrangements and cemeteries, 
under the board of health ; turnpike roads, under the commissioners 
of roads ; public buildings and improvements, under the board of 
works. 

The poor law, and management of the paving, cleansing, and 
lighting, are still in the hands of the inhabitants of the parishes, or 
unions of parishes, or districts of them, and their representatives. 
The most important of these assemblies are the vestries of Marv- 
lebone and St. Pancras, which have among their members peers and 
members of parliament. 

Postal Regulations. — The postal arrangements of London have 
been so extensively imitated, that they present no difference from 
those of other capitals, except in their vastness. The centre is the 
General Post Office, in St. ]V1 artin's-le- Grand, Cheapside, seated on an 
ancient collegiate establishment, once a sanctuary for murderers and 
thieves. The branch offices, on a smaller scale, are Lombard Street 
(the old general post-office) for the city, Charing Cross, Old Caven- 
dish Street, and Blackman Street, Southwark. In each of the 
principal thoroughfares, and in everv district at convenient distances, 
receiving houses are kept by shopkeepers. Their situation is indi- 
cated by an inscription attached to the nearest gas-lamp. 

For the metropolitan purposes of the Post Office, London consists 
of two districts — a circle of three miles around the General Post Office, 
and all beyond the three-mile circle, which latter is suburban, and has 
fewer and later deliveries of letters. 

The receiving houses may be considered as complete for all pur- 
poses of the visitor as the General Post Office. They all sell postage 
stamps of 1<^., 2J., 6d., 8c/., and Is., for the prepayment of letters, 
and they take charge of all letters and newspapers for every part of 
the world. Only certain district receiving houses grant and pay 

F 2 



100 LONDON — POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS, 

money orders for the remittance of money to any part of the islands. 
The post-offices do not, as abroad, receive subscriptions for news- 
papers; that is the business of the newsvender. The receiving 
houses close earlier than the branch post-offices, and these earlier 
than the General Post Office ; so that in case of any delay, or the 
necessity of posting a letter late, the General Post Office is the last 
resource. 

The minute and recent details of post-office regulations cannot here 
be given ; for those we must refer to the Post-Office London Direc- 
tory, which is a complete guide to the individualities of the world of 
London, and which should always be resorted to by the stranger for 
any information. It is to be found in every place of public resort. 

Letters, if properly prepaid with stamps, can (with the exception 
of some few foreign places) be dropped into the box of the receiving 
houses without trouble or inquiry. When once in, the postmaster 
has no power to deliver them back again on any plea or pretence, as 
they are under charge of the establishment for delivery to the address. 
If the letter contains articles of value (not provided for by a money 
order), it may be registered, when a fee of sixpence is charged, and 
a receipt is given for it. The address on a letter should be distinct 
and legible, and with the post-town clearly marked. The stamp is 
pasted on the right-hand upper corner, for the convenience of obli- 
teration in the Post Office. To save trouble in making up letters, 
stamped envelopes can be bought at the receiving houses, and which 
require no wax or wafers, as they have an adhesive seal. 

As, notwithstanding all the care of the establishment, robberies of 
letters containing valuables are occasionally committed by its em- 
ployees, it is recommended always to register such letters ; but it is 
far preferable to send a money order, which is only payable to the 
person in whose name it is given, and who can be identified by the 
local postmaster. This order, if stolen, is of no good to the thief. 
There is a money-order office in every market town. Very small 
amounts may be remitted in postage stamps. 

Persons should be very particular as to the weight of their letters, 
as the receiving houses are not supplied with weighing apparatus by 
the government, and even when weighed by them, the letter is some- 
times found overweight in the General Post Office, and double postage 
becomes payable by the receiver of the letter. The English scale be- 
gins with half an ounce, for which the charge is one penny, and then 
goes on by ounces, for each of which two-pence is charged. The 
scale for foreign letters is sometimes a quarter of an ounce. The half 
ounce will take within an envelope a sheet and a half of quarto-post 
paper, or three sheets of note paper. 

In writing a letter, the full address of the sender should be care- 
fully written within it, for the information of his correspondent, and 
of the dead-letter office, in case of need. 



LONDON — POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS. 101 

Newspapers, that is, stamped publications, go post free all over 
these islands, most of the colonies, the United States, France, and 
many countries of Europe. In some cases of foreign dispatch they 
must he prepaid. Many periodicals publish a stamped edition for 
transmission by post. Newspapers sent within the three-mile circle 
are charged one penny. The address, but nothing else, may be written 
on the newspaper, or on an envelope open at both ends. Any com- 
munication written on a newspaper is charged with heavy postage. 
Care should be taken the newspaper is well secured, as it may burst 
open in the Post Office, and the address be lost. Newspapers may 
be sent at any time, except for foreign dispatch, when it must be 
within seven days of publication. 

Parliamentary reports and documents, and those of the colonial 
legislatures, may be sent of any weight, and at lower rates of charge. 
Pamphlets and books may be sent at low rates of charge. All these 
must be left open, and be without writing on them, other than the 
address. 

Small parcels are taken by the Post Office at reduced rates, but it 
is not wise to send articles which may break, or which stain, as the 
Post Office will detain them. 

Prices current, and commercial and shipping lists, are sent at 
reduced rates, although not stamped as newspapers. 

Letters sent unstamped or unpaid cause double postage to be levied. 

Persons coming to reside in London should take care to communi- 
cate their address precisely to their correspondents, including the 
number of the house. It should be borne in mind many streets in 
London have the same name, as King Street, Queen Street, and so 
forth. If a money order is to be sent, the name of the nearest 
money order receiving house should be communicated. Strangers, 
when settled down, can communicate their address to the General 
Post Office, which will assist in forwarding any ill-directed letters. 

In case of any overcharge or other mistake, the envelope should be 
kept and produced at the General Post Office. Applications for letters 
missing should be made to the Dead-Letter Office, General Post Office. 

Persons should be careful to send to their correspondents and the 
Post Office any change of address, as it is not safe to trust to the 
chance of letters being redirected and forwarded, and such letters 
are charged one penny. 

On the delivery of a registered letter the receiver must sign a 
receipt tendered by the letter carrier. 

Foreign and ship letters for persons whose residences are not 
known are announced in a list hung up daily in the hall of the 
General Post Office. Persons writing their addresses opposite to their 
names will receive their letters on the following morning. 

The impressions on the letters are a peculiar shape (according to 
the country) and number (assigned to each local post-office) for ob- 



102 LONDON— BANKING. 

literating the stamp, an impression, with the date of postage and the 
name of the post town, and a circular mark of the General Post Office, 
in red ink, with the word " paid," and the date of delivery. If un- 
paid the circular mark is on the back in black or red ink. These 
marks serve to show whether there has been any delay in posting a 
letter, and should be examined in case of doubt or dispute. 

It is most desirable a letter carrier should not, on any account, be 
kept waiting when delivering a letter, as thereby the whole delivery 
is delayed, and if this were to be done extensively the personal incon- 
venience would become very great. If a foreign or other unpaid 
letter is expected, change for payment should be given to the servant 
beforehand, so as to prevent the postman from being delayed. 

For the conveyance of parcels within the metropolis there is a 
joint-stock establishment, called the Parcels' Delivery Company, 
which has receiving houses in every district. 

Country parcels must be sent to the offices of the great carriers at 
the railway stations; the Swan with Two Necks, Gresham Street; 
Bull and Mouth, St. Martin's-le-Grand ; Spread Eagle, Gracechurch 
Street ; Golden Cross, Charing Cross ; George and Blue Boar, Hol- 
born ; Saracens Head, Skinner Street, Snow Hill ; Cross Keys, 
Wood Street ; Spread Eagle, Regent Circus ; Green Man and Still, 
Oxford Street ; Peacock, Islington ; White-Horse Cellar, Piccadilly ; 
White Horse, Fetter Lane; Bolt-in~Tun, Fleet Street; and Belle 
Sauvage, Ludgate Hill, &c. 

Full information, as to sending parcels and luggage, is contained in 
the Post-Office Directory, under the head of Conveyance Directory. 

Banking — Bank of England. — Banking, after the expulsion of the 
Jews and the decline of the Lombards, was carried on in London by the 
goldsmiths as a part of their business during the seventeenth cen- 
tury, but by the beginning of the last century it had become a 
distinct business. Its chief seat has been for hundreds of years in 
Lombard Street, and the settlement of the great medieval money- 
lenders is further commemorated by the arms of Lombardy being 
still the ensigns of the pawnbrokers in the form of three golden 
bezants or balls. 

The issue of paper-money in London is now restricted to the Bank 
of England, though formerly goldsmith's notes circulated. Some of 
the banks, however, issue for the Continent circular letters of credit, 
and many of the bankers carry on a large business as agents in 
London for the country banks, issuing paper-money. 

The ordinary banking bnsiness of taking care of money and lending 
it out is carried on by the Bank of England, the private bankers, and 
the joint-stock banks. Elsewhere in this island, as in many countries, 
banking is in the hands of joint-stock companies, but until a late date 
the Bank of England was allowed a monopoly in London against the 
establishment of any banking company, and thereby virtually a mono- 



LONDON—BANKING, 1 03 

poly was given to private banking. The private bankers still have 
the chief business, and nowhere else in the world will be found so 
many and such powerful firms, some of which date from the 17th 
century, and were sufferers by the confiscation of their property in 
what was called the closing of the exchequer in the Tower by 
Charles II. Stone, Martin, and Stone claim to be the successors of 
Sir Thomas Gresham, the great capitalist of Elizabeth's day. Child's 
dates from 1663, Hoare's from 1680, and Snow's from 1685. 
Ten others (Courts', Glyn's, Drummond's, Barclay's, Fuller's, Gosling's, 
Hankey's, Robarts', Smith's, and Willis's) were in existence be- 
fore 1765. These bankers of London have given members to the 
peers, and have always had many members in the other House, but 
a characteristic not least honourable is their large contributions to the 
charities of the metropolis. The banks are distributed into three classes, 
the City, the West End, and the Smithfield banks. The City banks 
carry on all the business of banking, are agents for the country banks, 
and discount bills ; the West End are chiefly limited to the deposit 
of money ; and the Smithfield banks carry on the transactions of the 
farmers, cattle dealers and butchers on market day. 

It may be said that the great end of London banking is to econo- 
mise coin by using it as little as possible. Cheques or drafts on the 
banks are given in payment, and here is brought into play a most 
interesting and it may be said, a wonderful institution in the shape of 
the Clearing House. This is an office in Lombard Street, belonging 
to private banks, and from which they exclude the joint-stock banks. 
To evade the operations of the stamp duties a cheque is always drawn 
to A. B. " or bearer," whereby a hazard is incurred, as if stolen or 
picked up " the bearer," whoever he may be, can demand payment. 
The ingenuity of the trader here steps in to baffle the government. 
As most traders have bankers, and thieves have not, a cheque is 
what is called " crossed " that is to say, the name of the banker of 
the payee is written " a-cross " it, or if this is not known two lines 
are drawn across it with the words " & Co.," leaving the payee to 
fill in a banker's name. Thus the cheque must be presented through 
a banker. Now, suppose that a cheque on Smith, Payne and Co., is 
given to a customer of Robarts, Curtis and Co., these latter do not 
send to Smith's house and get money for it, but they send it to the 
clearing house. There each banker has a desk, and at fixed times 
in the day he sends in to each of the other bankers a list of all 
cheques payable, receiving a like list in return. Thus Smith's and 
Robarts' have only to settle the balance of their respective lists, but 
even here the matter does not rest, for, although Robarts' may be 
indebted on the balance to Smith's, yet as Robarts' may have more 
than the balance owing from (say) Attwood's a general clearing takes 
place through the superintendent of the clearing house, and the final 
settlement of a day's transactions to the amount of millions is com- 



104< LONDON— -BANKING. 

monly effected by the payment in cash of a few pounds, and of a 
bundle of notes. The day's transactions often amount to 5,000,000/., 
and 3 A per cent, is the average amount of bank notes used. The banker 
is thus able to keep a smaller stock of bank notes, that is a smaller 
balance, and thereby to gain interest. Many of the brokers and 
mercantile firms likewise benefit, who have on particular days to pay 
and receive large amounts in checks, as both payments and receipts 
meet at the same time, and the balance, which was in their banker's 
hands on the night before, remains undisturbed. 

The practice of clearing is said to be above a century old ; the 
bankers employing clerks, named " clearers," who used to settle their 
accounts on the top of a post, or upon one another's backs in Lom- 
bard Street, and very often resorted to one banking house which had 
a large recess in the window, which they found very convenient ; but 
the house in question found just the opposite, and their noise made 
such a hindrance to business that, as it is said, they were often sum- 
marily turned out. This led to a house being taken in 1810, and 
the organization of a system admirable in its simple arrangements, 
and which has since been adopted by the railway companies. 
Printed forms are used throughout, those of debtors being in red, 
and those of creditors in black. 

By the rapid passage of cheques the labour of the banker is econo- 
mised, but by the system of bill broking his balances are pared down. 
The customer keeps with the banker such a steady balance as is con- 
sidered to be enough to remunerate him for the trouble of keeping the 
account, but moneys beyond this balance are lent at short dates on 
the Stock Exchange, or to bill brokers. The Stock Exchange is 
greatly fed by these loans, which are made from fixed period to fixed 
period called " account days," on the deposit of English or foreign 
stock, bonds, or shares. At the "account day" the money may 
either be drawn in or " continued " till the next " account day/ 
These " account days," which are likewise the times for settling other 
transactions on the Stock Exchange, give a great deal of work to the 
clearing house, and, without the latter establishment, could with 
difficulty be got through. Those who want their money lent out for 
a long fixed date, or a very short date as a few days, or an uncertain 
time, that is upon demand or " call," deposit it with a bill broker, 
who gives them a parcel of first-rate bills. Bill broking, in which 
the great house of Gurney in Lombard Street have the pre-eminence, 
it will be seen is only a variety of banking. The West End 
bankers and country bankers, as well as private individuals, invest 
their spare funds with the bill broker, to whom the first-class mer- 
chant applies for discount, and it is the bill broker who regulates the 
rate of interest for the whole mercantile world. Although the Bank 
of England publishes from time to time a notice of the rate at which 
it lends money at interest, yet this rate is higher than that of the 



LONDON — BANKING. 105 

bill broker for first-class bills, and is regulated by tbe competition of 
the bill broker. As the banks in the agricultural districts send to the 
bill broker to deposit money for which they have little demand, so the 
banks in the manufacturing districts send to him bills. These are 
" rediscounted " at a lower rate than that charged to the manfacturer, 
and thereby the country banks make a profit. 

Besides the clearing house which they have in common, the 
bankers employ a solicitor and detective police for the prosecution of 
those who embezzle from them or forge upon them. 

Many of the private bankers are connected with brewing firms, and 
through them banking is extended to the lower classes. The pub- 
licans are the treasurers of many of the mechanics, and from the 
publican the brewer's clerk collects whatever moneys he has in hand, 
and pays it in to the bankers. By this means the hoarding of money 
in London is very much limited. 

A peculiar feature of a London bank is the " strong room," that is 
a fire-proof vault well secured, in which the property of the customers 
can be kept. Here, at the West End bankers, are the plate chests 
of the prince piled up during absence from town or until wanted for 
a great banquet, but the " strong-room" of a city bank is a scene of 
business. Not only are there the chests of deeds and securities be- 
longing to the great capitalist, but the stock-in-trade of the smaller 
capitalist. Each morning a number of members of the Stock Ex- 
change and of Lloyd's pour into the city to pursue their avocations. 
They have neither office nor clerk, and yet they carry on large trans- 
actions. At the beginning of business the small tin-box with cash 
and securities is carried off to the scene of business and again care- 
fully returned in the evening, while the papers and books are locked 
up in a small drawer, which is rented. 

Any one can set up a private bank without capital if he can get 
any one to trust him, but the joint-stock bank affords the guarantee 
of a large paid-up capital and of a list of shareholders who are fur- 
ther responsible to the full extent of their fortunes for any loss sus- 
tained by their customers. The joint-stock banks have only been 
established in consequence of the alteration of the law within the 
last twenty years, but they are constantly advancing. Whereas 
the private banks pay no interest on deposits, several of the joint- 
stock banks do allow a small interest. There is little that is peculiar 
in the joint-stock banks apart from their organization. They have 
large and fine buildings, and a staff of well-trained officers. The 
exertions of Mr. Gilbart and of the late Mr. Jopling, the founders of 
the joint-stock bank system, have been the means of promoting the 
technical study of banking and the sciences connected with it, and of 
maintaining a useful periodical called the Bankers Magazine, besides 
occasionally supporting other periodicals, and forming a banking 
literature. The London and Westminster is a good example of a 

f 3 



106 LONDON— BANKING. 

joint-stock bank. Most of the joint-stock banks have branches in 
several parts of the metropolis. 

The Irish and colonial joint-stock banks have their head offices in 
London, but the latter are not allowed by their charters to carry on 
independent business here. These establishments absorb a large 
amount of capital, and the shareholders are commonly protected by 
charter against further liability. 

There are very large establishments, which elsewhere are under- 
stood as banks, which here stand in an anomalous character. A 
stranger thinks of Messrs. Rothschild as among the first bankers, a 
Londoner never thinks of them as such. The Messrs. Rothschild 
have their great establishment in a large building in St. Swithin's 
Lane. Here they pay the dividends of the several foreign loans for 
which they are contractors, and carry on their business in the remit- 
tance of money to the continent. The Messrs. Baring carry on a 
like business for the New World, though they likewise carry on 
more extensive mercantile transactions. Messrs. Ricardo (Spanish) ; 
Bischoffsheim and Goldschmidt ; and King (Brazilian) are among 
the other agents of foreign states. The Portuguese and Mexican 
governments have offices of their own, called Financial Agencies, for 
the transaction of their business. Many of the greatest capitalists, 
whose reputation is universal and whose names are to be found to 
whole loans, as the Baron de Goldsmid, Mr. John Attwood, and Sir 
Moses Montefiore, have no offices. 

The savings banks receive the savings of the small tradesmen and 
middle classes, and these institutions have a greater development in 
London than in any part of the country. The difference between 
the government rate of interest and that allowed to the depositors 
affords liberal salaries to the actuaries and the clerks, and as the 
banks are few, and the deposits large, they have generally good 
buildings. The London Provident Institution, Bloomfield Street, 
Moorfields, is a very good example of these establishments. There 
are about thirty of these banks in London, with 4,000,000/. of 
deposits. Considerable business is likewise done by them in the sale 
of government annuities. A penny bank was established in 1849 
for the deposit of still smaller savings. 

The banks in London do not provide, accommodation for the small 
shopkeepers, any more than they do for the working classes ; hence 
not only savings banks, but loan societies and pawnbroking, are 
found in the metropolis, carrying on operations on a great scale. 
Loan societies are, of late years, regulated by an act of parliament. 
They are commonly formed by small tradesmen, and held in public 
houses, and lend sums of from \L upwards, on the security of two 
or more persons besides the borrower, receiving back the advance in 
weekly or monthly instalments. They make a charge for the book 
of conditions, and for inquiries into the character of borrower and 



LONDON — BANKING. 1 07 

securities. In 1840 thirty-nine loan societies were returned to 
parliament, which granted 11,860 loans; but these are only a small 
part of the whole. There are a few charities which lend money 
without interest, or on low terms, but in a town so great it is found 
the fraudulent reap more benefit from such institutions than the 
deserving. 

Pawnbroking is not authorized to be carried on by large bodies, 
and therefore it is a private trade, there being no large Monte de 
Piete. The pawnbrokers pay a yearly stamp duty for a licence, and 
their rates of interest are regulated by act of parliament. Among 
the very poorest classes the pawnbroker is competed with by the dolly- 
shopkeeper, who, under a sham sale, lends a few pence, giving back 
the articles at a higher price. There are no statistics of this trade. 

The tallyman sells goods of all kinds to the working classes, at 
their own houses, sending an agent weekly to receive payment by 
instalments, which constitute a large price. Although legitimate 
accommodation is afforded by the tally system, yet in most cases the 
means of the working classes are absorbed by the tallyman, the 
pawnbroker, and the publican. A new dress or piece of furniture is 
bought of the tallyman ; before it is fully paid for it is pledged to the 
pawnbroker, and another account opened with the tallyman. 

The Bank of England, in Threadneedle Street, is the great mone- 
tary institution of the country. Like so many other establishments 
in England, although performing public functions, it is not under 
government control. The scheme for it was projected by Mr. Wm. 
Paterson, and in 1694 William III. granted a charter. From that 
time it has been in operation as the government bank, and has at 
length acquired a monopoly, now spreading over the country, of the 
issue of paper money in the metropolis. The whole capital, origin- 
ally 1,200,000/., and now 14,553,000/., has been lent to the govern- 
ment, and is in their hands. The charter is always granted by par- 
liament for a short term only as a lease liable to be resumed, or 
given with new conditions, as the last time in 1844. Although the 
private hanking transactions are on a large scale, yet they are subsi- 
diary to the others' transactions, and the bankers and brokers success- 
fully compete. The Bank, at times, discounts largely, but its own 
exigencies and those of the government have often prevented it from 
doing justice to commercial interests. The rate of interest first 
charged was from 4^ to 6 per cent. ; but this was reduced, and has 
seldom gone beyond 5 per cent., except in August, 1847, when it 
was, for a short time, raised to 7 per cent. The Bank, from time to 
time, gives notice of the rates and dates at which it will lend money 
on funded securities and on bills, but it no longer regulates the 
money market. The Bank has been more than once in difficulties, 
as in war time the government drains the bullion from it, and in 
times of bad harvest bullion goes abroad to pay for the sudden 



108 LONDON — BANKING, 

import of foreign corn. In 1696, it suspended payments of its notes, 
which were quoted at 14 discount; in 1797, the government, by the 
Bank Restriction Act, forbade it from paying its notes in gold, and this 
restriction was kept on until 1819 (Peel's Bill) ; in 1 826, the government 
authorized it to issue temporarily 1/. notes to meet the panic; and in 
1847, to exceed its issues, but this authority was not acted upon. 
The notes of the Bank were originally for large, and sometimes irre- 
gular amounts, paid by instalments; but in 1759 the limit, which 
had been 20/., was brought down to 10/., and in 1793 to 5/. From 
1797 one-pound notes were constantly issued till Peel's Bill. Since 
that time the lowest notes are for 5/. From the issue of notes, 
allowances for paying the interest on the national debt, profits on 
bullion, and ordinary banking sources, the Bank derives its income. 
In 1695, the dividend was 9 per cent. ; but this, in the last century, 
was seldom more than 5 per cent. ; but from the time of the French 
war it has risen, and is now kept at 7 per cent., with occasional 
bonuses. To uphold this dividend the Bank has always a large 
reserve called the Rest. The stockholders choose the court, which 
consists of a governor, deputy-governor, and twenty-four directors, 
the governor holding 4000/. stock, the deputy-governor 3000/., and 
the directors 2000/. Until very lately the direction had fallen into 
much disrepute, for private bankers being held ineligible, and great 
capitalists not caring for the trouble and responsibility, it was filled. 
up by a clique of jobbers, who recommended a house list of candi- 
dates. These men had profited by the political and other circum- 
stances during the war, to raise themselves prominently into notice, 
living at a high rate, and, as it turned out, living upon the public. 
They were called " lives and fortunes' men," because to uphold the 
Pitt administration they had got up a memorial pledging their lives 
and fortunes in its support, their fortunes being then very problema- 
tical, and a subject of derision to men of substance. This clique was 
severely shaken in 1825; but of late years the failures of governors 
and deputy-governors, paying only half-a-crown in the pound, be- 
came so numerous as to induce the holders of Bank Stock to purge 
the direction. This court of directors assembles in the Bank Parlour, 
and has the undisturbed management of the affairs of the corporation, 
as it is a rule with the proprietors in their quarterly courts not to 
discuss any details of the business. The governor and the deputy- 
governor carry on the negotiations with the First Lord of the Trea- 
sury, or the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The court receive about 
8000/. yearly, and have under them a staff of a thousand officers, 
clerks, porters, and messengers. The establishment is liberally 
remunerated, with a regular system of promotion, a superannuation 
fund, guarantee fund, and library, so that the appointment of a bank 
clerk, if not brilliant, is solid. In war time a battalion of volunteers 
was formed from the establishment, and armed from the armoury 



LONDON — BANKING. • 109 

within the walls, raid in times of civil commotion the staff is liable to 
be called on for the defence of the Bank. In the daytime there is 
no guard, but every evening an officer and party of soldiers is marched 
in from the garrison of the Tower for the night service. The trans- 
actions of the Bank are now chiefly regulated by the last charter act 
(Sir Robert Peel's, 7 and 8 Victoria, chapter 32). This provides 
that the note issuing and banking functions of the Bank shall be 
divided. The Bank is allowed to issue notes, first upon the security 
of the government debt, that is, 14,500,000/., and further, upon any 
amount of bullion in its vaults; the circulation, therefore, rises and 
falls with the quantity of bullion in the Bank. This circulation has 
now fallen as low as 20,000,000/., while the amount of bullion in 
the Bank has nearly reached 17,000,000/., but the bullion has of late 
years fluctuated below 5,000,000/. In the offices gold is given for 
notes and notes for gold. On presenting a note in the cashier's 
office the name and address must be written on the top ; it is then 
examined by one clerk and is paid by another. The business of the 
Bank being large the forms are more complicated than in smaller 
establishments. The banking consists first of the payment of the 
interest on 700,000,000/. of the national debt, for which it is allowed 
a small sum, but virtually the government business is done in con- 
sideration of the monopoly of the note circulation. Here registers 
are kept of the sales and purchase of stock, of the names of the 
holders, and the half-yearly dividends are paid to those who, in 
popular phrase, put their money in the Bank. The offices for this 
purpose take up a large space in the Bank. The Bank likewise 
advances money to the government on exchequer bills, or treasury 
bills, or bonds, in anticipation of the receipts of taxes, or to meet any 
sudden demands. By making advances to capitalists on stock and 
exchequer bills it keeps up the value of the public funds as a security. 
The Bank receives and pays money for all the public departments, 
and the public balance is sometimes large before the time for paying 
the dividends. It keeps accounts for private individuals, including 
all the London bankers, and the balances are large after the time for 
paying the dividends, as they are then transferred from the public 
account to the private. Its advances on securities and bills fluctuate 
like the balances, in various proportions of 25,000,000/. The amount 
of coin kept in the banking department is very small, as the reserve 
is kept in notes. 

On the Bank is virtually reposed the responsibility of keeping up 
the chief stock of bullion in the country, and this it effects by large 
purchases of bullion. Most of the bullion from California, Peru, 
Mexico, Brazil, and Russia, is at once carried to the Bank vaults, 
and the Bank makes advances on it, or buys it. If needful it is sent 
to the Mint to be coined, the Mint not taking any charge or seniorage. 
The transactions in bullion leave the Bank a profit. 



] 1 LONDON — ASSURANCE. 

The Bank has branches at Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, 
Leeds, Hull, Birmingham, Leicester, Swansea, Bristol, Plymouth, 
and Norwich. 

The Bank business was first carried on at Grocers' Hall, but in 
1732 the present building was begun, and it has been since extended 
to embrace the greater part of the parish of St. Christopher de-Stocks, 
the churchyard of which forms an inner court. The ancient stream 
of Walbrook runs under it, and the foundation is there carried on 
piles and counter arches. 

The business of Assurance is the means in London of maintaining 
several large corporations, the buildings for which are among the 
architectural ornaments of the metropolis. 

Life assurance was one of the first branches which flourished, and 
it received its great development as a convenient means of gambling. 
Lives were picked out, on which both parties could speculate, the 
one on the prospect of their duration, the other on that of their 
early falling in. Private assurance offices flourished in the seven- 
teenth century, as betting offices do now ; and at length legislation 
was directed to the suppression of the evil, but, as most commonly 
happens, to the punishment of legitimate business likewise. It is in 
this legislation we find the cause of the present trammels on life 
assurance. In 1698, a fund was formed in Mercers' Hall for grant- 
ing annuities to clergymen's widows ; but this fell to the ground. In 
1706, the Amicable Society was incorporated by Queen Anne for 
life assurance, and still exists. The arrangements of this corpora- 
tion are peculiar and antiquated. In the last century and the present 
many assurance companies have been formed, and now a great num- 
ber exist, conducting their business so as to offer various advantages. 
Those which are proprietary offer the guarantee of a paid-up capital, 
and can conduct some classes of business on low terms. Those 
which are mutual divide among the assurers the whole profits, and 
therefore secure to them the full value of their contributions. The 
Equitable is the most remarkable of these latter, and is one of the 
most wealthy corporations of the world, having millions accumulated 
and invested. Every seven years an apportionment is made among 
the assurers of the accumulations. Some companies unite partially the 
proprietary and mutual principles ; some, which offer a commission 
for the introduction of business, enlist the co-operation of particular 
professions, in some cases by contributing to a professional charitable 
fund. There are companies for lawyers, medical men, architects 
and builders, officers, licensed victuallers, farmers, churchmen, dis- 
senters, Roman catholics, freemasons, and temperance men. These 
companies undertake the granting of sums of money at death, or of 
annuities during life. They purchase reversions. Many carry on a 
lucrative business by lending money on security, taking a life policy 
as the bonus for the transaction. Large sums are yearly accumu- 



LONDON — ASSURANCE. Ill 

lated by these companies, which have now become the great money- 
lenders, and besides their investments in the funds, they are large 
holders of railway debentures, and extensive mortgagees of the 
estates of our great aristocracy, particularly in Ireland. They share, 
with the Bank of England, in loans to corporations and public 
bodies, and all large money transactions. 

Within the last two or three years companies have been formed 
for the special risks of sudden death and railway accidents, calcu- 
lating rather upon the public alarm than upon the extent of the risk. 

The benefit societies are the assurance companies of the working 
classes, and are protected from litigation by special enactments. There 
are assurance companies formed to profit by the privileges thus con- 
ferred. Most of the benefit societies are unfortunately not enrolled 
under the act, and there is, therefore, no security for their adminis- 
tration, while it very seldom happens that the scale of contributions 
is high enough to secure the permanency of the fund. The Odd- 
fellows, and other pseudo-secret societies, which are the favourites 
of the working classes, are unenrolled, and dissipate part of the con- 
tributions in public-house dissipation and in mummery. The burial 
and sick clubs, which are enrolled, generally succumb under the 
publican, the undertaker, and the trade politician, who, as secretary 
or treasurer, embezzles the funds. 

In connection with the assurance companies a distinct profession 
has been formed of actuaries, or those employed in the scientific 
calculations of the risks, and they have an institute of actuaries. 

Fire assurance, it might have been thought, would have been early 
provided for, and that it would be met by a common fund, as else- 
where ; but it was not till the beginning of the last century that it 
was fully organized, and then as a business carried on by great cor- 
porations. The Royal Exchange Assurance was incorporated in 
1720, and likewise takes life and sea risks. The business of fire 
assurance is burthened with a very heavy stamp-duty, for whereas 
the charge for a single risk is Is., or Is. 6d. per cent., the duty is 3s. 
per cent., constituting a tax on those of provident habits. Farming 
stock, of late years, has been exempted from duty. The business is 
carried on chiefly by a few large London corporations, and by pro- 
vincial district corporations, such as the Norwich Union. As it re- 
quires a large business to support a fire assurance company, it is 
seldom a new one succeeds. The pawnbrokers have a company of 
their own, on account of the companies charging them high rates. 
In London the fire insurance companies long since maintained their 
own engines, as the parish engines were found insufficient in repress- 
ing fires. A few years ago it was proposed to amalgamate the esta- 
blishments of the assurance companies, and a fire-brigade was formed, 
which, anomalous as it may appear, is supported by the companies, 



112 LONDON— ASSURANCE. 

and therefore at tlie charge of the assurers. The fire-escapes are 
maintained by voluntary contributions to the Royal Society for the 
Protection of Life from Fire. The fire-brigade has stations through- 
out London, and on the Thames, where engines, staff, and appliances 
are kept in constant readiness, and attend fires on summons from the 
police. Sometimes the engines are summoned by electric telegraph, 
and conveyed by railway to fires in the country. Each parish has 
likewise its engines, which are less powerful. To assist the firemen 
in getting at the water, tablets will be noticed on the fronts of 
the houses (as W. M. 16 feet), showing where the water-taps are. 
Persons working at the engines are paid on the spot by the 
superintendents of the brigade, though volunteers enough can be 
got. On a fire being discovered, the policeman springs his rattle, 
and runs off to the fire-brigade station; other policemen being 
warned, the inhabitants are awakened, the fire-escape and turn- 
cock are sent for, a party of police assembles for the protection 
of the property and keeping order, and on the arrival of a horse- 
engine the main has been opened, and proceedings commence for 
putting out the fire — the force receiving constant accessions from 
every engine-station, according to the emergency. London not being 
a garrison, the military seldom attend a fire, unless in the immediate 
neighbourhood of a barrack, or when some great establishment is in 
flames. A fire is a lamentable spectacle ; but to a foreigner a fire in 
London gives a good opportunity for studying the national character, 
and the independent spirit of discipline and organization which distin- 
guishes the population. There is neither a military force present, nor 
a magistrate high in power to direct the operations. The police and 
firemen have no command but their own moral influence ; they are 
only members of the working classes ; but an energy, activity, and 
regularity are displayed, and a readiness of co-operation on the part 
of all classes, which overcome successfully the difficulties to be en- 
countered. The scene after a fire is likewise worthy of notice. No 
military force is drawn up in the neighbouring streets to preserve 
order, but two or three policemen are left to keep open a thorough- 
fare through the inquisitive crowd. Abroad discipline is sought in 
arms, and in the power of the government ; here in the bosoms of 
the citizens, by enlisting their willing co-operation, and by complying 
with the direction given by their action. 

Among agricultural risks provision is made for insuring the lives 
of cattle, and insuring stock against hail. Hail does not commit such 
ravages here as in the wine countries; and cattle and sheep being 
held in large lots, so as to give an average, these branches of assur- 
ance have not the same extension here as elsewhere. 

Marine assurance is a great business in London ; but its adminis- 
tration differs from the other branches, as, except what is done by 



LONDON — ASSURANCE. 1 1 3 

the corporations, the business lies in the hands of private parties; 
that is to say, the underwriters, who make their place of assembly 
at Lloyd's. The voluntary association of these underwriters in a 
private coffee-house has resulted in a vast organization. They keep 
up not only records of shipping news, accessible to their members, 
but a register of all shipping, English and Foreign, to be assured 
by them, and which is known as Lloyd's Register. At every port 
throughout the world is an agent of Lloyd's to give information 
of shipping movements, and to take charge of wrecks. Every day 
a paper is published of shipping movements, called Lloyd's List. 
At Trieste a great trading corporation, and a newspaper, are named 
after Lloyd's. The business of marine assurance is much restricted 
in England by heavy duties on policies, so that no business is done in 
England for foreign assurers, as with life and fire, but many English 
ships are assured at Hamburgh, and other foreign ports, where there 
are no duties. Many of the colliers arriving in the port of London 
are mutually insured in clubs belonging to their respective ports. 

Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping is at 2, White 
Lion Court, Cornhill, and is an office of considerable importance, 
peculiarly so to the shipping interest of the United Kingdom. 

Previous to the year 1834, there were two register books printed ; 
when this society was formed for obtaining a true and accurate 
classification of the mercantile marine of the kingdom and of the 
foreign vessels trading thereto. 

The affairs of the society are under the direction of a committee in 
London of twenty-four members, consisting of merchants, shipowners, 
and underwriters. The chairman for managing the affairs at Lloyd's, 
and the chairman of the General Ship Owners Society, and also the 
chairman and deputy-chairman of the Liverpool Committee, and the 
chairman of the Rotation Commissioners for the time being are ex- 
officio members of the committee. A proportion of the members 
retire annually, and the vacancies are filled up by the committee for 
managing the affairs of Lloyd's, and by the committee of the General 
Ship Owners Society. 

The surveyors are appointed by the committee and one or more so 
appointed are stationed in every seaport of the United Kingdom. 
The reports of the surveyors made, and all documents relating to the 
classification of the ships are carefully preserved, and the classification 
is made by a sub -committee who examine into the reports, and if the 
several rules established by them for the building and repairing of 
the ships have been conformed to. 

The lists, showing the class each ship belongs to, as A 1, JE 1, &c, 
are published every year, and corrected from time to time as the 
necessity for so doing appears. 

The high repute the committee and their affairs have attained for 
their integrity and the usefulness of the system of classification has 



114 



LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 



rendered it necessary for them to greatly enlarge their offices, which 
has been lately done under the superintendence of their architect, 
Mr. John Turner. 

The ground floor of the building is occupied by the five surveyors 
for the Port of London ; the first floor by the secretary and clerks ; 
the board-room, a handsome apartment 37 ft. long, by 16 ft. 6 in. 
wide, and 15 feet high, occupies the whole frontage of the building 
on the second floor. The attics are devoted to the printing establish- 
ment attached to the office. 

Some beautiful models, showing the construction of the several 
classes of shipping, are in the possession of the committee. 

In the end of the last century an office was carried on for some 
time to insure persons against losses by thieves and highway robbers. 
Many projects have been formed to assure against losses by bank- 
ruptcies, insolvencies, and bad debts. 

The Guarantee Societies are interesting examples of the principle 
of assurance. The Guarantee Society, and the others in imitation of 
it,, give security in a bond, in consideration of a small premium (say 
t| per cent.), against any defalcation by a clerk or other person in a 
situation of trust. Before giving bond for an applicant, a searching 
investigation is made into his character from his birth, so that the 
bond, when given, becomes likewise a testimonial of character, and 
many poor and friendless, but deserving young men, are thus enabled 
to take employment. Abroad, a person in public employment is 
frequently called upon to deposit a sum of money as a security in the 
Caisse des Consignations, or public funds, drawing the interest. 
Acting upon the system of the guarantee society, the Bank of 
England now calls upon its clerks to contribute, by a percentage, to 
a guarantee fund. 



Section 7. — Duties on Articles imported into England. — Here 
follows an enumeration of the several articles chargeable to the revenue, 
together with a list of such articles as have the benefit of Free-trade 
by a remission of charges. Such articles as are subject to payment 
have an additional charge of 5 per cent, made to the importer. 



Agates or Carnelians, cut, manufac- £ 3. d. 

tured, or set 100?. 10 

Ale and Beer brl. 10 

Almonds, not Jordan nor bitter, .cwt. 10 

Jordan ,, 15 

Paste of 100?. 10 

Amber, Manufactures of, not enum. 10 

Apples, raw bush. 6 

Dried ,, 2 

Aquafortis cwt. 5 

Arrow Root ,,026 

Bandstring twist 100?. 10 

Barley, pearled cwt. 10 

Baskets 100?. 10 

Bast ropes, twines, and strands ,, 10 

Beads and bugles of glass lb. 0J 

Beads, arango, coral, jet, crystal, and 

not enumerated , 100?. 10 



£ s. d. 

Beer or Mum brl. of 32 gal. 10 

Produce of the Isle of Man, per brl. 

Spruce brl. of 32 gal. 10 

Blacking 100?. 10 

Books, printed prior to 1801, bd. or 

or unbound cwt. 10 

Printed in or since 1801, bound or 

unbound » . .. ,, 5 

In foreign living language, printed 
in or since 1801, bd. or unbound 2 10 
*** Copyrights of books printed 
abroad are prohibited. 

Boots, shoes and calashes — Women's 

boots and calashes doz. pr. 6 

If lined or trimmed with fur, or 
other trimming „ 7 6 



LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 



115 



Boots, continued. £ s. 

Women's shoes, with cork or dou- 
ble soles, quilted, and clogs, doz.pr. 5 
If lined or trimmed with fur or other 

trimming ,, 6 

"Women's shoes of silk, satin, jean, 
or other stuffs, kid, morocco, or 

other leather ,,0 4 

If lined or trimmed with fur or other 

trimming ,, 5 

Girls' boots, shoes, and calashes, 
not exceeding 7 in. in length, to 
be charged with two thirds of the 
above duties. 
Men's boots and shoes. If the quar- 
ter do not exceed 2| in. or the vamp 
4 in. in ht. from the sole inside ,,0 7 
If either the quarter or vamp exceed 
the above dimensions but do not 
exceed 6 in. in height from the 

sole inside ,, 10 

If either the quarter or vamp ex- 
ceed 6 in. in height from the sole 

inside ,, 14 

Boot fronts, not exceeding 9 in. in 

height „ 1 

Ditto, not exceeding 9 in ,, 2 

Boxes of all sorts, excepting those 
made wholly or partly of glass. 
on which the proper glass duty- 
will be levied 100/. 10 

Brass, Manufacture of „ 10 

Powder ,, 10 

Brass and copper wire ,, 10 

Bricks or clinkers (Dutch) 1000 10 

Other sorts , , 15 

Brocade of gold or silver 100/. 10 

Bronze, manufacture not particularly 

enumerated ,, 10 

Powder of ,, 10 

Buck wheat qr. 1 

Meal cwt. 

Butter ,, 10 

Buttons, Metal 100/. 10 

Covered with silk, &c, 15/. per 
cent. 
Cables (not being iron cables) , tarred 

or untarred cwt. 6 

If and when otherwise disposed 

of 100/. 10 

Taken from foreign ships, and cut 
into lengths not exceeding three 

fathoms ,, 10 

Cameos ,50 

Camphor, refined cwt. 5 

Candles, Spermaceti lb. 

Stearine „ 

Tallow cwt. 5 

Wax lb. 

Canes, Walking, or sticks, mounted, 
painted, or otherwise ornament- 
ed 100/. 10 

Cantharides lb. 

Capers, including the pickle ,, 

Cards, Playing dozen packs 4 

Carmine oz. 

Carriages, all sorts 100/. 10 

Casks (empty) ,, io 

Cassava powder cwt. 2 

Cassia lignea lb. 

Catlings 100/. 10 

Chalk, prepared or manufactured „ 10 

Cheese cw t. o 5 

Cherries, raw 10o/. 5 

Dried lb# 

Chicory, or any vegetable matter ap- 
plicable to the uses of chicory or 
coffee :— 
Boasted or ground lb. 



Chicory, continued. £ s. d. 

Raw 'or kiln-dried cwt. 10 

China or porcelain ware, painted, or 

plain, gilt, or ornamented . .100/. 10 

Cider tun 5 5 

Cinnamon lb. 6 

Citron, preserved in salt 100/. 5 

Clocks „ 10 

Or watches of any metal, impressed 
with any mark" or stamp, appear- 
ing to be or to represent any legal 
Brit, assay mark or stamp, or pur- 
porting, by any mark or appear- 
ance, to be the manufacture of 
the United Kingdom . . prohibit. 

Cloves lb. 6 

Cocoa „ 2 

Husks and shells ,,001 

Paste and chocolate ,,006 

Coculus Indicus cwt. 7 6 

Coffee lb. 6 

Kiln dried, roasted, or ground, on 
and after 1st January, 1850 .. . ,, 8 

Coir rope, twine and strands cwt. 2 6 

Comfits, dry lb. 6 

Confectionery ,,006 

Copper, Ore of per ton 10 

Old, fit only to be remanufac- 

tured ,, 2 6 

Un wrought, viz. in bricks or pigs, 

rose, and all cast ,, 2 6 

In parts wrought, viz. bars, rods, or 

ingots, hammered or raised ,, 2 6 
In plates and copper coin. . ,, 2 6 

Regulusof „ 1 

Manufacture of, not enumerated, 
and copper-plates engraved. .100/. 10 

Or brass wire „ 10 

Cordage, tarred or untarred (standing 
or running rigging in use ex- 
cepted) cwt. 6 

If, and when otherwise disposed 

of 100/. 5 

Corks, ready made lb. 8 

Squared for rounding cwt. 16 

Fishermen's „ 2 

Corn— upon all wheat, barley, 
Bear or bigg, oats, rye, peas, and 

beans qr. 10 

Upon all wheat, meal, and flour, 
barley-meal, oatmeal, rye-meal, 
and flour, pea-meal, arid bean- 
meal cwt. 4^ 

Cotton articles, or manufacture of 
cotton, wholly or in part made 
up, not otherwise charged with 

duty 100/. 10 

Crayons ,, 10 

Crystal, cut or manufactured, ex- 

"cept beads ,, 10 

Beads „ 10 

Cucumbers, preserved in salt . . ,, 5 

Currants cwt. 15 

Dates ,, 10 

Dice pair 16 2 

Earthenware, not enumerated. . 100/. 10 

Eggs 120 10 

Embroidery and needlework .. . 100/. 15 

Emeralds.— See Jewels. 

Ether, from Guernsey, Jersey, Alder- 

nev, Sark, or Man gal. 18 9 

Ditto, additional „ Q 10 

Essences not otherwise described, 
viz. : — 
Extract of cardamoms, coculus 
indicus, Guinea grains of para- 
dise, liquorice, nux vomica, 
opium, Guinea pepper, Peru- 



116 



LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 



Essences, continued. £ s. d. 

vian or Jesuit's bark, quassia, 
radix rhataniae, vitriol 100/. 20 

Or preparation of any article, not 
particularly enumerated or de- 
scribed, nor otherwise charged 

withduty „ 20 

Feathers, not otherwise enumerated, 

dressed ,, 10 

Ostrich, dressed lb. 1 10 

Paddy bird, dressed „ 1 

Figs cwt. 15 

Fish, anchovies lb. 2 

Eels ship's lading 13 

Lobsters Free. 

Turbots cwt. 5 

Of foreign taking, imported from 
foreign places, in other than fish- 
ing vessels, viz. : — 

Oysters bush. 16 

Salmon ...cwt. 10 

Soles ,,050 

Turtle ,,050 

Fresh, not enumerated „ 10 

Cured, not enumerated ,, 1 

Flowers, Artificial, not made of 

silk 100/.25 

Frames for pictures, prints, or draw- 
ings...;. „ 10 

Fruit, raw, not enumerated... . „ 5 

Gauze of thread „ 10 

Ginger cwt. 10 

Preserved lb. 6 

Glass, viz. : — 

Any kind of window glass, white 
or stained of one colour only, not 
exceeding 1 -9th of an in. in thick- 
ness, and shades and cylin- 
ders cwt. 3 6 

All glass exceeding l-9th of an in. 
in thickness ; all silvered or po- 
lished glass, of whatever thick- 
ness, however small each pane, 
plate, or sheet, superficial mea- 
sure, viz. : 

Not exceeding more than 9 square 
ft 7. sq.ft. 3 

Containing more than 9 sq. ft. and 
not more than 14 sq. ft „ 6 

Containing more than 14 sq. ft. and 
not more than 36 sq. ft. . . . „ 7s 

Containing more than 36 sq. ft. ,, 9 

Painted or otherwise ornamented 

sup. ft. 9 

All white flint glass bottles, not 
cut, engraved or otherwise orna- 
mented, and beads and bugles of 
glass lb. ()i 

"Wine glasses, tumblers, and all 
other white flint-glass goods not 
cut, engraved, or otherwise orna- 
mented ,,001 

All flint cut glass, flint coloured 
glass, and fancy ornamental glass 
of whatever kind ,,002 

Bottles of glass covered with wicker 
(not being flint or cut glass) or of 
green or common glass cwt. 9 

And articles of green or common 
glass ,,009 

Average weight of glass bottles as 
taken by the Customs : — 

Qts. Pints. 

English shaped bottles with 
Port or Sherry per doz. 19 lbs. 11 lbs. 

Champagne, and other wines 
in similar bottles 1 „ 24 15 

Claret and other wines or 
brandy in similar bottles „ 14 



Glass, continued. Qts. Pints. 
Rhenish and other wines in si- 
milar bottles per doz. 16 lbs. 11 lbs. 

Geneva, square bottles, from 8 

to 11 gills „ 20 

Ditto, from 4 to 6 gills „ 14 

Manufactures not otherwise enu- 
merated or described, and old 
broken, fit only to be remanu- £ s. d. 

factured cwt. 3 6 

Gloves of leather, viz. : 

Habit mitts doz. pr. 2 4 

Habit. „ 3 6 

Men's „ 3 6 

Women's, or mitts „ 4 6 

Gold, leaves of 100 3 

Grains, Guinea, and Paradise. . cwt. 15 

Grapes .100?. 5 

Gunpowder cwt. 10 

Hair, Manufactures of, or goat's- 
wool, or of hair or goat's -wool, 
and any other material, and ar- 
ticles of such manufacture, 
wholly or in part made up, not 
particularly enumerated or other- 
wise charged with duty .... 100/. 1000 

Hams of all kinds cwt. 7 

Harp or lute strings, silvered . .. 100/. 10 

Hats or bonnets, of chip lb. 3 6 

Bast, cane, or horse-hair, each hat 
or bonnet not exceeding 22 in. in 

diameter doz. 7 

Each hat or bonnet exceeding 22 in. 

in diameter „ 10 

Of straw lb. 5 

Felt, hair, wool, or beaver .. . each 2 
Made of silk, or silk shag laid upon 
felt, linen, or other material ,, 2 

Honey cwt. 10 

Hops ,,250 

Iron and steel, wrought, not other- 
wise enumerated 100/. 10 

Isinglass cwt. 5 

Japanned or lacquered ware 100/. 10 

Jewels, emeralds, rubies, and all 

other precious stones, set.. . „ 10 

Lattenwire „ 10 

Lead, Manufactures of, not enume- 
rated „ 10 

Pig and sheet ton 2 6 

Leather cut into shapes, or any ar- 
ticle made of leather, or any ma- 
nufacture whereof leather is the 
most valuable part, not enume- 
rated 100/. 10 

Linen, or linen and cotton, viz. : — 
Cambrics and lawns commonly 
called French lawns, the piece 
not exceeding 8 yards long, and 
not exceeding £ths of a yard 
broad, and so in proportion for 
any greater or less quantity. 

Plain piece 2 6 

Bordered handkerchiefs „ 2 6 

Lawns of any other sort, not 

French 100/. 10 

Lace, thread „ 10 

Do. made by the hand, commonly 
called cushion, or pillow lace, 
whether of linen, cotton, or 

silken thread „ 10 

Damasks sq. yard 5 

Diaper „ 2^ 

Sails 100/. 15 

Do. if in actual use thereof and 

when otherwise disposed of ,, 10 
Articles, manufacture of linen, or 
linen mixed with cotton or wool, 
wholly or in part made up, not 



LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 



117 



Linen, continued. £ * d. 

particularly enumerated, or 

charged with duty 100/. 10 

Liquorice Roots cwt. 10 

Juice and paste „ 1 

Powder ,, 1 IS 

Macaroni and Vermicelli lb. 1 

Mace ,,026 

Maize or Indian corn qr. 1 

Meal ..cwt. 4| 

Marble, sawn, in slabs or otherwise 

manufactured ,,030 

Marmalade lb. 6 

Mats and matting 1007. 5 

Mead gal. 5 6 

Medlars bush. 10 

Mercury, prepared 100/. 10 

Metal, leaf (except gold), the packet 

of 250 leaves 1 

Millboards cwt. 110 

Molasses.— See Sugar. 

Morphia and its salts lb. 5 

Mum bar. 1 

Musical Instruments 100/. 10 

Mustard Flour cwt. 6 

Needle Work and Embroidery . 100/. 15 

Nutmegs lb. 2 6 

Wild in the shell ,,003 

Wild not in the shell ,,005 

Nuts, small and walnuts bush. 2 

Nux vomica cwt. 5 

Oil of almonds lb. 2 

Bays ,,002 

Chemical, essential, or perfumed „ 10 

Cloves ,,030 

Or spirits of turpentine cwt. 5 

Olives gal. 2 

Onions bush. 6 

Opium lb. 1 

Orange flower water ,,001 

Oranges and lemons, viz. : — 
In chests and boxes not exceeding 

5000 cubic inches box 2 6 

Over 5000 cubic inches, and not ex- 
ceeding 7300 „ 3 9 

Over 7300 cubic inches, and not ex- 
ceeding 14,000 ,,076 

For every 1000 cubic in. exceeding 

14,000 „ 7^ 

Loose 1000 15 

Entered at value, at the option of 

the importer 100/. 75 

Orsedew cwt. 10 

Painters' colours, manufactured 100/. 10 U 
Paper, brown, made of old rope or 
cordage only, without separating 
or extracting the pitch or tar 
therefrom, and without any mix- 
ture of other materials there- 
with lb. 3 

Printed, painted, or stained, hang- 
ings, or flock sq. yard 2 

Waste, unless printed on in the 
English language, or of any other 
sort not particularly enumerated 
nor otherwise charged with 

duty lb. 4| 

Printed on in the English language. Prohib. 

Pasteboards cwt. 1 10 

Pears, raw bush. 6 

Dried ,, 2 

Pencils 100/. 10 

Of slate „ 10 

Pepper, of all sorts lb. 6 

Percussion caps 1000 4 

Perfumery, not otherwise charged 

100/. 10 

Perry tun 5 5 

Phosphorus 1007. 10 



£ s. d. 

Pewter, Manufacture of 1007. 10 

Pickles, preserved in vinegar gal. 4 

Do. or vegetables, preserved in 

salt '. 1007. 5 

Pictures each 10 

And further sq. ft. 1 

Above 200 square feet each 10 

Pimento cwt. 5 

Plate of gold, together with the stamp 

duty (17^. per oz.) 100/. 10 

Silver, gilt and ungilt, do. (Is. Gd. 

peroz.) „ 10 

Platting or other manufacture to be 

used in, or proper for, making 

hats or bonnets, viz. : — 

Of bast, cane, or horse hair. ... lb. 

Of straw „ 

Willow squares 100/. 10 

Plums (commonly called French 

plums) and prunelloes cwt. 1 

Dried or preserved, &c ,, 1 

Preserved in sugar lb. 

Pomatum 100/. 10 

Pomegranates 1000 

Potato flour cwt. 

Pots, Melting, for goldsmiths 100 

Of stone 100/. 10 

Poultry ,, 5 

Note. — The same rate applies to all 
species of game, alive or dead. 

Powder, Hair cwt. 1 

Perfumed ,, 1 

Not otherwise, that will serve for 

the same uses as starch ,, 

Prints and Drawings, plain or col., 

single each 

Do. bound or sewed doz. 

Prunes cwt. 

Puddings lb. 

Quassia cwt. 

Quinces 1000 

Quinine, Sulphate of oz. 

Raisins cwt. 

Rice not rough, and in the husk . qr. 

Rough ditto „ 

Saccharum Saturni cwt. 

Sago „ 

Sausages or puddings lb. 

Scaleboards cwt. 1 

Sealing-wax 100/. 10 

Seeds, Mustard cwt. 

Trefoil „ 

Carra way, carrot, and clover. . „ 

Canary „ 

Grass, of all sorts „ 

Leek ,, 

Lucerne ,, 

Onion „ 

All other seeds 1 100/. 5 

Ships to be broken up with their 
tackle, apparel, and furniture 
(except sails), viz. foreign ships 

or vessels „ 25 

Foreign ships broken up ,, 10 

Silk, manufacture of, or of silk 
mixed with metal, or any other 
material the produce of Europe, 
viz. : — 
Or satin, plain, striped, figured, or 
brocaded, viz. 

Broad stuffs lb. 5 

Articles thereof, not otherwise enu- 
merated ,,060 

Or, and at the option of the officers 

of the Customs 100/. 15 

Gauze or crape, plain, striped, 

figured, or brocaded, viz. 
Broad stuffs lb. 9 



10 





5 

















7 

















s 





] 





3 


% 





Q 




















10 








1 





3 


7 








1 


10 





1 





(1 


6 


15 





1 





1 





10 








6 





1 


10 











1 


3 


5 





5 


l) 


5 





5 





5 





5 





5 






118 



LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 



Silk, continued. £ s. d. 

Articles thereof, not otherwise enu- 
merated lb. 10 

Or, and at the option of the officers 
of the Customs 100*. 15 

Gauze of all descriptions, mixed 
with silk, satin, or any other ma- 
terials in less proportion than 
one-half part of the fabric ; viz. 

Broad stuffs lb. 9 

Articles thereof, not otherwise enu- 
merated „ 10 

Or, and at the option of the officers 
of the Customs 100/. 15 

Velvet, plain or figured, viz. 

Broad stuffs lb. 9 

Articles thereof, not otherwise enu- 
merated „ 10 

Or, and at the option of the officers 
of the Customs 100/. 15 

Ribbons, plain silk, of one colour 
only lb. 6 

plain satin, of one colour 

only ,, 8 

■ silk or satin, striped, 

figured, or brocaded, or plain rib- 
bons of more than one colour. . „ 10 

gauze or crape, plain, 

figured, striped, or brocaded.. ,, 14 

gauze mixed with silk, 

satin, or other materials, of less 
proportion then one-half part of 

the fabric „ 12 

velvet or silk embossed 

with velvet ,, 10 

Artificial flowers wholly or in part 

of silk 100/.25 

Manufactures of silk, or of silk and 
any other material called plush, 
commonly used for making 

hats lb. 2 

Fancy silk net or tricot „ 8 

Plain silk lace or net, called Tulle,, 8 
Manufactures of silk, or of silk 
mixed with any other materials, 
not particularly enumerated or 
otherwise charged with duty. 100/. 15 
Millinery of silk, or of which the 
greater part of the material is 
silk, viz. 

Turbans or caps each 3 6 

Hats or bonnets ,, 7 

Dresses ,, 1 10 

Manufactures of silk, or of silk 
and any other materials, and ar- 
ticles of the same, wholly or par- 
tially made up, not particularly 
enumerated or otherwise charged 

with duty 100/. 15 

Silkworm gut ,, 10 

Skins or furs, articles manufactured 

of „ 10 

Slate.— See Stone. 

Smalts cwt. 10 

Snuff. — See Tobacco. 

Soap, hard ,,100 

Soft „ 14 

Naples ,,100 

Spa ware 100/. 10 

Spelter, or zinc, manufactures of. cwt. 10 
Spirits, or strong waters of all sorts — for every 
gallon of such spirits or strong waters, of 
any strength not exceeding the strength 
of proof by Sykes's hydrometer, and so in 
proportion for any greater or less strength 
than the strength of proof, and for any 
greater or less quantity than a gallon, viz. 
Not being spirits or strong waters the pro- 
duce of any British possession in America, 



Spirits, continued. 

or any British possession within the limits 
of the E. I. C. charter, and not being 
sweetened spirits, or spirits mixed with 
any article, so that the degree of strength 
thereof cannot be exactly ascertained by 

such hydrometer. gal. £() 15 

The produce of any British possession in 
America, not being sweetened spirits, or 
spirits mixed with any article, so that the 
degree of strength thereof cannot be ex- 
actly ascertained by such hydrometer, — 

If imported into England gal. £0 8 2 

„ Scotland „ 4 

,, Ireland „ 3 

Rum, the produce of any British possession 
within the limits of the E. I. C. charter, 
not being sweetened spirits, or so mixed as 
aforesaid, in regard to which the condi- 
tions of the Act 4 Vict. c. 8, have or shall 
have been fulfilled, — 

If imported into England gal. £0 8 2 

„ Scotland „ 4 

,, Ireland „ 3 

Rum-shrub, however sweetened, the produce 
of and imported from such possessions, in 
regard to which the conditions of the Act 
4 Vict. c. 8, have or shall have been ful- 
filled, or the produce of and importation 
from any British possession in America, — 

If imported into England gal. £0 8 2 

„ Scotland „ 4 

„ Ireland .... „ 3 
Note. — All spirits, except the above, to be 
charged with the additional duty of Ad. per 
gallon. Also that foreign spirits may not 
be removed from England to Scotland, 
except from the bonded warehouse. 
Spirits or strong waters, the production of 
any British possession within the limits of 
the E. I. C. charter, except rum, in regard 
to which the conditions of the Act 4 Vict. 
c. 8, have or shall have been fulfilled, not 
being sweetened spirits, or spirits so mixed 
as aforesaid gal. £0 15 

Spirits, cordials, or strong waters, not the 
produce of any British possession in Ame- 
rica, or of any British possession within 
the limits of the E. I. C. charter, in regard 
to which the conditions of the Act 4 Vict. 
c. 8, have or shall have been fulfilled, 
sweetened or mixed with any article, so 
that the degree of strength thereof cannot 
be exactly ascertained by Sykes's hydro- 
meter, and perfumed spirits, to be used as 

perfumery only gal. £l 10 

Strong waters, except rum-shrub, being the 
produce of any British possession in Ame- 
rica, or of any British possession qualified 
as aforesaid, sweetened'or mixed with any 

article as aforesaid gal. £1 

Cordials and liqueurs (except rum-shrub) 
being the produce of any British posses- 
sion in America, or of any British pos- 
session within the limits of the E. I. C. 
charter, qualified as aforesaid, sweetened 
or mixed with any articles as afore- 
said gal. £0 9 

Spruce.— -See Beer. 
Essence of spruce 100/. 10 

Starch; cwt. is. 

Gum of, torrified or calcined, commonly 
called British gum cwt. r £0 1 

Staves, except staves not exceeding 72 in. in 
length, nor 7 in. in breadth, nor 3-jrin. in 
thickness Id. 50 cubic ft. £0 18 

Steel, Manufacture of 100/. 10 

Stone and slate, hewn ton 10 



LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 



119 



Stone and slate, continued. 
Marble, sawn in slabs, or otherwise manu- 
factured cwt.£0 3 

Succades, including all fruits and vegetables 
preserved in sugar lb. £0 6 

NEW SUGAR DUTIES. 

Sugar or Molasses :— 
The growth and produce of any British 
possession into which the importation of 
foreign sugar is prohibited and imported 
from thence : — 
Candy, brown or white, refined sugar, or 
sugar equal in quality to refined, for every 
cwt. — 

From July 5 to July 5 inclusive. 

1849 I 1850 I 1851 
£0 16 I £0 14 8 I £0 13 4 
White-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by 
any process equal in quality to white 
clayed, not being refined, or equal to re- 
fined, for every cwt. — 

£0 14 | £0 12 10 1 £0 11 8 
Muscovado, or any other sugar, not being 
equal in quality to white clayed, for every 

£0 12 [ £0 11 | £0 10 
Molasses, for every cwt. — 

£0 4 6 1 £0 4 2 i £0 3 9 

And so in proportion for any greater or less 

quantity than a cwt. 

Sugar or Molasses, the growth and produce of 
any other British possession : — 
Candy, brown or white, refined sugar, or 
sugar equal in quality to refined, for every 
cwt. — 

From July 5 to Julv 5 inclusive. 
1849 i 1850 l 1851 1852 I 1853 1 1854 
s. d. s. d.\ s. d. \s. d.\ s. d. s. d. 
20 4 J 18 8 1 17 J 16 4 I 15 4 | 13 4 
White-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by 
any process equal in quality to white- 
clayed, not being refined or equal to re- 
fined, for every cwt. — 
16 11 | 15 5 | 14 | 13 5 J 12 10 | 11 8 
Brown-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by 
any process equal in quality to brown- 
clayed, and not equal to white clayed, for 
every cwt. — 

15 8 | 14 4 | 13 | 12 5 | 11 10 | 10 
Muscovado, or any other sugar, not being 
equal in quality to brown-clayed sugar, for 
every cwt. — 

14 6 | 13 3 | 12 J 11 6 | 11 | 10 
Molasses, for everv cwt. — 
5 9| 4 11 | 4*6 | 4 4 | 4 2| 3 9 
And so on in proportion for any greater or less 
quantity than a cwt. 

Sugar or Molasses, the growth and produce of 
any foreign country, and on all sugar or 
molasses not otherwise charged with 
duty : — 
Candy, brown or white, refined sugar, or 
sugar equal in quality to refined, for 
every cwt. — 

From July 5 to Julv 5 inclusive. 
1849 | 1850 I 1851 J 1852 | 1853 I 1854 
s. d. \ s. d. s. d. s. d.\ s. d. s. d. 
24 8 I 22 8 J 20 8 1 19 4 | 17 4 j 13 4 

White-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by 
any process equal in quality to white-clayed, 
not being refined, or equal to refined, for 
every cwt.— 
19 10 1 18 1 I 1G 4 1 15 2 | 14 I 11 8 



Sugar, continued. 
Brown-clayed sugar, or sugar rendered by anv 
process equal in quality to brown-clayed", 
and not equal to white-clayed, for every 
cwt. — 

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 
18 6 | 17 | 15 6 | 14 6 [ 13 I 10 
Muscovado, or any other sugar, not being 
equal in quality to brown-clayed sugar, for 
every cwt. — 

17 | 15 6 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 10 

Molasses, for every cwt. — 

64|59|5 3|4 10|46|39 

And so on in proportion for any greater or less 

quantity than a cwt. 

The Bounties or Drawbacks following to be 
paid and allowed upon the exportation 
from the United Kingdom of the several 
descriptions of refined sugar : — 
Upon refined sugar in loaf, complete and 
whole, or lumps duly refined, having been 
perfectly clarified and thoroughly dried in 
the stove, and being of uniform whiteness 
throughout, or such sugar pounded, 
crushed, or broken, or sugar candy, the 
cwt. — 

From July 5 to July 5 inclusive. 

1849 I 1850 I 1851 
£0 15 I £0 13 9 | £0 12 6 

Upon bastard or refined sugar, broken in 
pieces, or being ground, or powdered sugar 
pounded, or crushed, or broken, for every 
cwt. — 

£0 12 | £0 11 | £0 10 

And so on in proportion for any greater or less 
quantity than a cwt. 
Note. — Muscovado sugar imported into the 
Isle of Man, to pay 1*. per cwt. 

£ 5. d. 

Tallow cwt. 1 6 

Tamarinds lb. 3 

Tapioca cwt. 6 

Tea lb. 2 1 

Tiles 100/. 10 

Timber or wood, not being deals, 
battens, boards, staves, hand- 
spikes, oars, lath-wood, or other 
timber or wood, sawn, split, or 
otherwise dressed, except hewn, 
and not being timber or wood 
otherwise charged with duty, 

Id. of 50 cub. ft. 15 
Timber or wood deals, battens, 
boards, or other timber or wood 
sawn or split, and not otherwise 

charged Id. of 50 cub. ft. 10 

Staves, if exceeding 72 in. in length, 
7 in. in breadth, or 3^ in. in thick- 
ness „ 18 

Firewood fath. of 216 cub. ft. 6 

Handspikes, not exceeding 7 ft. in 
length... 120 12 



- exceeding 7 ft. in length . . ,, 14 

Knees, under Sin. square ,,060 

5 in. and under 8 in. square ,,140 

Lathwood fath. of 216 cub. ft. 14 

Oars 120 4 10 

Spars or poles under 22 ft. in length, 

and under 4 in. in diameter. . ,, 12 
22 ft. in length and upwards, 

and under 4 in. "in diameter. . ,,140 
of all lengths, 4 in. and under 

6 in. in diameter ,,280 

Spokes for wheels, not exceeding 

2 ft. in length 1000 14 

exceeding 2 ft. in length . . ,, 2 8 



120 



LONDON-— IMPORT DUTIES. 



Timber, continued. £ s. 

VVastewood, viz. billet wood and 
brushwood, used for the purpose 

of stowage 100/. 5 

Wood, planed, or otherwise dressed 
or prepared for use, and not par- 
ticularly enumerated nor other- 



Timber, continued. s. 

wise charged with duty, viz.— 
Ad. per ft. of cubic contents, and 

further 100/. 10 

Note. — The additional duty of 5 per cent, is 
due on timber and wood from a British posses- 
sion, but remitted on foreign produce. 



Or, in lieu of the duties hereinbefore imposed upon wood by the load, according to the cubic 
contents, the importer may have the option, at the time of passing the first entry, of entering 
battens, batten ends, boards, deals, deal ends, and plank, by tale, if of or from foreign coun- 
tries, according to the following dimensions, viz.: — 



Batten and batten ends— 

Notabove6ft. long 120 

Above 6 and not above 9 ft. long 

Above 9 and not above 12 ft. long 

Above 12 and not above 15 ft. long 

Above 15 and not above 18 ft. long 

Above 18 and not above 21 ft. long 

Boards, deals, deal ends, and planks— 



Not above 6 ft. long , 

Above 6 and not above 9 ft. long . . . 
Above 9 and not above 12 ft. long . 
Above 12 and not above 15 ft. long. 
Above 15 and not above 18 ft. long. 
Above 18 and not above 21 ft. long . 

Not above 6 ft. long 



Above 6 and not above 9 ft. long 

Above 9 and not above 12 ft. long . 
Above 12 and not above 15 ft. long. 
Above 15 and not above 18 ft. long. 
Above 18 and not above 21 ft. long. 



Not above 7 
in. in width. 



Not above 9£ 
in. in width. 



Above 9i i 
and not above 
11£ in width, 



Not above 1£ 


in. in thick- 


ness 




£0 18 


6 


1 7 


9 


1 16 11 


2 6 


3 


2 15 


4 


3 4 


6 


Not above 1| 


in. in thick- 


ness 




1 9 10 


2 4 


5 


2 19 


2 


3 14 


2 


4 8 11 


5 3 


8 


1 15 10 


2 13 


8 


3 11 


7 


4 9 


7 


5 7 


6 


6 5 


8 



Above 1£ in. 

and not above 

2| in thick n. 

£1 17 

2 15 6 

3 13 10 

4 12 6 

5 10 8 

6 9 
Above 1£ in. 

and not above 
3$ in thickn. 

2 19 8 

4 8 10 

5 18 4 

7 8 4 

8 17 10 
10 7 4 

3 11 8 

5 7 4 

7 3 2 

8 19 2 
10 15 
12 11 4 



Tin, in blocks, ingots, bars, or slabs, 

cwt. 6 

Foil lb. 6 

Manufact. of, not enumerated 100/. 10 

Tobacco lb. 3 

Snuff. ,,060 

Manufactured or segars „ 9 

Stalks and Flour of Prohib. 

Tobacco pipes, clay 100/. 10 

Tongues cwt. 7 

Toys, excepting toy and hand-mir- 
rors, on which the plate-glass duty 

will be levied 100J. 10 

Truffles lb. 1 

Turnery, not described 100/. 10 

Turpentine, above the value of 15*. 

per cwt cwt. 2 

Spirit or oil ,,050 

Twine 100/. 10 

Vanelloes lb. 5 

Varnish, not described 100/. 10 

Vegetable juice, to pay 10 per cent, as 
goods manufactured, T. O. 

Verdigris cwt. 050 

Verjuice ton 4 4 

Verm acelli and macaroni lb. 1 

Vinegar tun 4 4 

Wafers 100/. 10 

Washing balls cwt. 10 

Watches of gold or silver, or other 

metal 100/. 10 

Water, Cologne, the flask (30 con- 
taining not more than 1 gal.) 1 

Wax, Sealing 100/. 10 



£ s. 

Whipcord 100/, 10 

Wine— The produce of the Cape of 
Good Hope, or the territories or 
dependencies thereof, and im- 
ported direct thence gal . 2 

Not enumerated, or otherwise 

charged with duty „ 2 

French, Canary, Madeira, Portu- 
gal, Rhenish, Spanish, and other 

sorts ,,0 5 

The full duties on wine are drawn 
back upon re-exportation or ship- 
ment as stores. 
Wine lees, subject to the same duty 
as wine, but no drawback is al- 
lowed on the lees of wine exported. 
Wire, gilt or plated, or silver. .. 100/. 10 
Woollens, viz.: — Articles or manu- 
facture of wool, not being goat's 
wool, or wool mixed with cotton, 
wholly or in part made up, not 

otherwise charged „ 10 

Worsted yarn lb. 

Yarn, cable yarn cwt. 3 

Goods, wares, and merchandise, being 
either in part or wholly manu- 
factured, and not being enume- 
rated or described, nor otherwise 
charged with duty, and not pro- 
hibited to be imported into or 
used in Great Britain or Ireland, 
from foreign countries or British 
possessions 100/. 10 



LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 



121 



Agates or Carnelians not set, 

Alganobilla. 

Alkali. 

Alkanet Root. 

Almonds, bitter. 

Aloes. 

Alum. 

Rock. 
Amber, rough. 
Ambergris. 
Amboyna Wood. 
Angelica. 
Annatto. 

Roll. 
Animals, living. 

Asses. 

Goats. 

Horses, Mares, Geldings, 
Colts, and Foals. 

Mules. 

Kids. 

Oxen and Bulls. 

Cows. 

Calves. 

Sheep. 

Lambs. 

Swine and Hogs. 

Pigs, sucking. 
Antimony , Ore of. 

Crude. 

Regulus of. 
Argol. 

Anstolochia. 
Arsenic. 
Ashes, Pearl and Pot. 

Soap Weed, and Wood. 

Not enumerated. 
Asphaltum or Bitumen Judai- 

* cum. 
Bacon. 
Balsam, Canada. 

Capivi. 

Peru. 

Tolu. 

Balm of Gilead, and un- 
enumerated Balsam. 
Barilla. 
Bar Wood. 

Bark, for tanners or dyers 'use. 
Extract of, or of other vege- 
table substances to be used 
only for tanning leather. 
Peruvian. 
Cascarilla. 
Other sorts. 

Preparations of, for dyeing 
and cotton printing. 
Basket Rods, peeled and un- 

peeled. 
Beef, fresh or slightly salted. 

Salted, not being corned. 
Beef Wood. 
Berries, Bay. 
Juniper. " 
Yellow, 
Myrobolane. 
Unenumerated. 
Birds, singing. 
Blackwood. 
Bladders. 

Bones of cattle and other ani- 
mals, and of fish (except 
whale fins), whether burnt 
or not, or as animal char- 
coal. 
Boracic Acid. 



Articles admitted free. 

Borax, refined. 

or Tincal, unrefined. 
Bottles of Earth and Stone, 

empty. 
Box Wood. 
Brazil Wood. 
Braziletto Wood. 
Brimstone. 

refined in rolls. 

in flour. 
Bristles, rough or in any way 

sorted. 
Bronze Works of Art. 
Bullion — Coins, Medals, &c. 
Bulrushes. 
Cables and Cordage in actual 

use. 
Camomile Flowers. 
Camphor, unrefined. 
Camwood. 
Candlewick. 
Canella Alba, 
Canes, Bamboo. 

Reed. 

Rattans, not ground. 

or Sticks, unenumerated. 
Caoutchouc. 
Cardamoms. 
Castor. 
Cassia Buds. 

Fistula. 
Casts of Busts, Statues, or 

Figures. 
Caviare. 
Cedar Wood. 
Chalk, unmanufactured. 
Cherry Wood, being Furniture 

Wood. 
Chestnuts. 
China Root. 

Chip, or Willow, for platting. 
Chrystal, rough. 
Cinnabaris Nativa. 
Citrate of Lime. 
Citric Acid. 
Civet. 

Coals, Culm, and Cinders. 
Cobalt. 

Ore of. 
CochineaL 

Dust. 

Granilla. 
Coir Rope and Junk, old and 
new, cut into lengths not 
exceeding 3 feet. 
Colocynth. 
Columbo Root. 
Copperas, Blue. 

Green. 

White. 
Coral, whole, polished. 

unpolished. 

in fragments. 
Cordage in use in British ships. 
Cork. 

Cotton Manufactures, not 
being articles wholly or in 
part made up, not other- 
wise charged with duty. 

East India piece goods, "viz. 
Calicoes, and Muslins, 
white. 

Do. dyed or coloured. 

Handkerchiefs, dyed and 
coloured. 
Cotton Yarn. 
Cowries. 



Cranberries. 
Cream of Tartar. 
Cubebs. 
Cutch. 
Diamonds. 
Divi Divi. 
Down. 

Drugs, unenumerated. 
Ebony. 
Enamel. 

Feathers for Beds, in Beds or 
otherwise. 

Ostrich, undressed. 

Paddy Bird, undressed. 

Unenumerated & undressed. 
Flasks, in which Olive Oil is 

imported. 
Flax and Tow, or Codilla of 
Hemp and Flax, dressed 
and undressed. 
Flocks. 

Note. — Paper -stainers ' Flock 
is subject to duty as ma- 
nufactured goods! 
Flower Roots. 
Fustic. 

Gallic Powder. 
Galls. 
Gamboge. 
Garancine. 

Garnets, cut or uncut, not set. 
Gelatine. 
Gentian. 
Ginseng. 
Glue. 

Glue Clippings, or Waste of 
any kind, fit only for mak- 
ing Glue. 
Goods unenumerated, not 
being either in part or 
wholly manufactured, not 
enumerated, or prohibited. 
Grease. 
Greaves, Tallow. 

for Dogs. 
Guano. 
Gum, Animi. 

Arabic. 

Assafoetida. 

Ammoniacum. 

Benjamin. 

Copal. 

Euphorbium. 

Guiacum. 

Kino. 

Lac Dye. 

Mastic. 

Seed Lac. 

Senegal. 

Shellac. 

Storax. 

Tragacanth. 

Unenumerated. 
Gun Stocks in the rough, of 

Wood. 
Gypsum. 
Hair, Camel or Wool. 

Cow, Ox, Bull, or Elk. 

Horse. 

Human. 

Unenumerated. 
Hay. 

Heath, for Brushes. 
Hellebore. 
Hemp, dressed. 

rough or undressed, or any 
other vegetable substance 
G 



122 



LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES, 



of the nature and quality 
of undressed hemp, ana 
applicable to the same 
purposes. 
Hides, not tanned, tawed, cur- 
ried, or in any way dressed, 
dry and wet. 
or pieces of, raw or undress- 
ed, and unenumerated. 
tails, Buffalo, Bull, Cow, or 

Ox. 
tanned, not otherwise dress- 
ed. 
or pieces thereof, tawed, 
curried, varnished, japan- 
ned, enamelled. 
Muscovy or Russia Hides, 
or pieces thereof, tanned, 
coloured, shaved, or other- 
wise dressed. 
or pieces thereof any way 
dressed, not otherwise 
enumerated. 
Hones. 

Hoofs of Cattle. 
Hoops of Wood. 
Horns, tips and pieces of. 
Indigo. 

Ink for Printers. 
, Inkle, wrought, 
unwrought. 
Iron, Bloom. 
Cast. 

Chromate of. 
in Bars, unwrought. 
Hoops. 
Ore. 
Pig. 

Old Broken and Cast Iron. 
Slit or Hammered into Rods. 
Jalap. 
Jet. 

Jewels, Emeralds,and all other 
precious stones, unset. 
Pearls. 
Juice of Limes, Lemons, or 

Oranges. 
Kingwood. 
Lac, viz.: Sticklae. 
Lamp Black. 
Lapis Calaminaris. 
Lard. 
Latten. 

Shaven. 
Lavender Flowers. 
Lead Ore. 
Red. 
White. 
Black. 

Chromate of. 
Leaves of Roses. 
Leeches. 
Lignum Vita?. 

Linens, plain Linens and Dia- 
per, whether chequered or 
striped with Dyed Yarn or 
not, and manufactures of 
Linen, or of Linen mixed 
with Cotton or Wool, not 
particularly enumerated, 
or otherwise charged with 
duty, not being articles 
wholly or in part made up. 
Litharge. 
Live Creatures, illustrative of 

Natural History. 
Logwood. 



Articles admitted free (continued). 

Losh Hides. : Oil Seed Cake. 

Madder. Olibanum. 

Root. 
Magna Grecia ware. 
Mahogany. 
Manganese, Ore of. 
Manna. 

Croup. 
Manures, unenumerated. 
Manuscripts. 
Maple Wood. 

Maps and Charts, or parts 
thereof, plain or coloured 1 . 
Mattresses. 

Mats, Dunnage, not being of 
greater value than 10s. the 
100. 
Meat, salted or fresh, not 

otherwise described. 
Medals of any sort. 
Metal, Bell. 

Minerals and Fossils, and liv- 
ing Creatures (illustrative 
of Natural History). 
Models of Cork or Wood. 
Moss, Lichen Icelandicus. 
other than Rock or Iceland. 
Rock, for Dyers' use. § 
Mother o' Pearl Shells. 
Musk. 
Myrrh. 

Nicaragua Wood. 
Nickel, Arseniate of, in Lumps 
or Powder, being in an 
Unrefined state. 
Metallic Oxide of, refined. 
Ore of. 
Nitre, Cubic. 

Nuts, Kernels of Walnuts, 
and all Nuts or Kernels 
unenumerated, commonly 
used for expressing Oil 
therefrom. 



Coker, 

Pistachio. 

Chestnuts 
Oakum. 
Ochre. 
Oil, AnimaL 

Castor. 

Cocoa Nut. 

of Olives. 

Palm. 

Lard. 

Paran. 

Rock. 

Unenumerated. 

Train, Blubber, Spermaceti 
Oil, and Head Matter, the 
produce of fish or crea- 
tures living in the sea, 
caught by the crews of 
British vessels, and im- 
ported direct from the 
fishery or from any Bri- 
tish possession in a British 
vessel. 

Train and Blubber, of Fo- 
reign fishing. 

Seed, viz.: 

Hempseed. 

Linseed. 

Rapeseed. 

Walnut. 

Seed, unenumerated. 

Sperm of Foreign fishing. 

Spermaceti. 



Olive Wood. 
Orange and Lemon Peel, 
Ore, unenumerated. 
Orchal. 
Orpiment. 
Orris Root. 

Painters 7 Colours, unenume- 
rated, unmanufactured. 
Palmetto That eh. 

Manufactures. 
Parchment. 

Partridge Wood, being Furni- 
ture Wood* 
Patterns of Silk, Woollen,, 

and Cotton. 
Pearls. 
Pens. 

Pink Root. 
Pitch. 

Burgundy. 
Plantains. 
Plaster of Paris. 
Platina and Ore of Platinav 
Plants, Shrubs, and Trees. 
Olive. 

Platting or other Manufactures 
to be used in or proper for 
making Hats or Bonnets 
of Chip. 
Pomegranates, Peel of. 
Potatoes. 
Pork, fresh. 

Pork, salted (not Hams). 
Prussiate of Potash. 
Purple Wood, being Furniture 

Wood. 
Quicksilver. 
Quills, Goose. 

Swan. 
Radix Contrayervae. 
Enulag Campanae. 
Eringii. 
Ipecacuanhas. 
Rhataniae, 
Seneka?. 

Serpentariae or Snake Root, 
Rags, old Rags, old Ropes, or 
Junk, or old Fishing-nets, 
fit only for making Paper 
or Pasteboard. 
Pulp of. 
Woollen. 
Rape of Grapes. 
Red Wood, or Guinea Wood. 
R hubarb. 
Rosewood. 
Rosin. 
Safflower. 
Saffron. 
Sal Ammoniac. 
Limonum. 
Prunella. 
Salep, or Salop. 
Salt. 

Saltpetre. 
Sanguis Draconis. 
Santa Maria Wood. 
Sapan Wood. 
Sarsaparilla. 
Sassafras. 
Satin Wood. 
Saunders' Red. 

White or Yellow. 
Scammony. 
Seeds, Acorn. 



LONDON — IMPORT DUTIES. 



123 



Seeds, contitwed. 

Alganobilla. 

Aniseed. 

Beans, Kidney or French. 

Burnet. 

Colchicum. 

Cole. 

Coriander. 

Croton. 

Cummin. 

Fenugreek. 

Forest. 

Garden, unenumerated. 

Hemp. 

Lentiles. 

Lettuce. 

Linseed and Flaxseed. 

Lupin. 

Maw. 

Millet. 

Parsley. 

Poppy". 

Quince. 

Rape. 

Sesamum. 

Shrub or Tree. 

Tares. 

Worm. 

Unenumerated, commonly 
used for expressing Oil. 
Senna. 
Shovel Hilts. 

Shrubs, Trees, and Plants. 
Shumach. 
Silk, Raw. 

Knubs or Husks, and 
Waste. 

Thrown, not Dyed. 

Thrown, Dyed, viz.:— Sin- 
gles or Tram, Organzine 
or Crape Silk. 
Skins, Furs, Pelts, and Tails, 
or pieces of Skins, raw or 



undressed, unenumerated. 
Furs, Pelts, and Tails, or 
pieces of Skins, tanned, 
curried, dressed, unenu- 
merated. 

Specimens of Minerals, Fossils, 
or Ores, unenumerated,ex- 
ceeding 14 lbs. each. 

Speckled Wood. 

Spelter or Zinc, rolled but not 
otherwise manufactured, 
crude in cakes. 
Zinc oxide or white of. 

Spermaceti. 

Sponge. 



Articles admitted free {continued). 

Squills, dried and not dried. | Wax 

Stavesacre. 

Staves, not exceeding 72 inches 
in length, nor 7 inches in 
breadth, nor 3+ inches in 
thickness. 
Birch, hewn, not exceeding 
3 feet in length, nor ex- 
ceeding 8 inches square, 
imported for the sole pur- 
pose of making herring 
barrels for the use of the 
fisheries. 

Steel, unwrought. 
Scraps. 

Stone in blocks, shaped or 
rough scalped. 
Mill, Burr, Quern, and Dog, 
rough, shaped, or hewn. 

Straw or Grass for platting. 

Sweet Wood. 

Sulphur Casts. 

Talc. 

Tar. 
Barbadoes. 

Tarras. 

Tartaric Acid. 

Teasles. 

Teeth, Elephants'. 

Sea-cow, Sea-horse, or Sea- 
morse. 

Telescopes. 

Thread, not otherwise enu- 
merated or described. 

Terra Japonica, and Cutch. 
Sienna. 
Verde. 
Umbra. 

Tin ore, and regulus of. 

Tornsal. 

Tortoise Shell or Turtle Shell, 
unmanufactured. 

Tulip Wood. 



Bees, in any degree 
bleached. 

unbleached. 



Turmeric, 

Turpentine of Venice, Scio, 

or Cyprus. 
Turpentine, unless above 15s. 

the cwt. 
Valcnia. 
Vases, ancient, not of stone or 

wood. 
Vegetables, all not otherwise 

enumerated or described. 
Vellum. 
Vermilion. 
Ultramarine. 
Walnut Wood. 
i Water, Mineral. 



Myrtle. 

Vegetable. 
Weld. 

Whale Fins, of British taking, 
and imported direct from 
the fisheries, or from any 
British possession in a Bri- 
tish ship. 

Of foreign taking, and not 
prohibited. 
Woad. 

Wood, for ship -building, pre- 
viously admitted at the 
same duty as Teak. 

Birch, hewn, not exceeding 
3 ft. long, nor exceeding 8 
in. square, imported for 
the sole purpose of making 
herring barrels, for the 
use of the fisheries. 

Fir, hewn, of the same di- 
mensions, and imported 
for similar purposes. 

Teak. 

Furniture wood unenume- 
rated. 

NewZeaiand furniture wood. 
Wool. 

Beaver. 
Cut and combed. 

Hares. 

Coney. 

Cotton. 

Alpaca and the Llama tribe. 

Cotton, or waste of cotton. 

Goat's, or Hair. 

Sheep or Lamb's. 
Woollens, manufactures of 
wool, not being goat's, or 
of wool mixed with cotton, 
not particularly enume- 
rated or described, not 
otherwise charged with 
duty, not being articles 
wholly or in part made up. 

Yarn. 
Yarn, Camel or Mohair. 

Raw linen. 

Raw worsted, not dyed nor 
coloured, and not being fit 
or proper for embroider- 
ing, or other fancy pur- 
poses. 
Zaffre. 
Zebra Wood. 



Ditties on British Goods exported. 
Coals, culm, or cinders in a foreign ship, the ton, 4s. 



Orphan Dues, 
Payable upon Wines imported into the Port of London. 

s. d. 

Lisbon , the pipe 2 3h 

Portugal „ 2 3 

Cape and Madeira ,, 1 10 

All other sorts „ 2 2 

French thehhd. 1 

Do case, ea. 3 



G 2 



124 



ARCHITECTURE OF LONDON*. 



The architecture of any old country or place long civilised, neces- 
sarily divides itself into two periods, the works of which are so 
widely different that, though merging the one into the other by 
imperceptible shades, those at the extremes of the scale present on 
many points a perfect contrariety, so that they cannot be rightly 
understood from the same point of view, or judged by the same rules. 
Not being warned of this distinction, many give up the subject in 
despair or disgust, as one destitute of fixed principles ; because the 
identity of name has led them to confound what are really two arts, 
so opposite in character and objects, that the principles of each seem 
flatly contradicted when we attempt to apply them to the other. 
Before introducing the reader, therefore, to a series of monuments 
extending through eight centuries, we must endeavour in a few 
words to make him understand the broad distinction between ancient 
and modern building art, and the reason of the immense value 
attached to every relic of the former, however humble or frag- 
mentary. 

The objects of design in building might at first seem too obvious 
to admit of question, and, accordingly, in all countries, up to a 
certain stage in civilization, they have not varied. Convenience; 
comfort; resistance to the elements and to violence; durability; 
economy (or wise distribution of materials, so that none may be 
idle burdens) ; every kind of concord or congruity, between part and 
part, between part and whole, between the whole and its purpose, 
between each organ and its function, its properties and its uses, 
between appearance and reality (as the appearance of strength in 
whatever sustains, and of lightness in whatever is sustained ; uni- 
formity in that which is one thing, and multiformity in that which is 
a group of things); such are the simple ends which the builders of 
an early age set before them, and the pursuit of which gives to 
their works that appearance of design and singleness of purpose 
which renders them, like the works of nature, always beautiful. 
Animals and plants are beautiful, inasmuch as everything in them 
is governed by design, and nothing by chance; and these early build-l 
ings are more or less beautiful, in proportion as the appearance off 
design prevails over that of chance. There was, in those times, nol 
distinction of arts into useful and fine, no clash between use and 
ornament, for they were identical. Fitness and beauty were tv 
names for the same thing. The fitness of objects, their harmony ofl 
every kind, constituted their beauty, i. £., their truth. Truth is 

* This account is confined to the works of architecture, as such. The othen 
curiosities that any buildings here described may contain will be found elsewheref 
under the names of those buildings, as Tower, Temple Church, Westminster Abbey 1 
Greenwich Hospital, Cathedral, &c. 



LONDON ARCHITECTURE— REMARKS ON ITS HISTORY. 125 

beauty; and was the only kind of beauty then recognised. Arts ad- 
vanced by the discovery of new kinds of congruity or truth, the 
further development of those already discovered, the detection and 
remedy of incongruities previously overlooked. 

But when the excellences of any art have been refined and ex- 
alted to a certain pitch, many causes conspire to turn aside the 
efforts of artists into another direction. Some, perceiving that works 
are admired in proportion to the evidence of art or design apparent 
in them, begin to display art or contrivance merely for its own sake; 
to meet difficulties of their own making; because in this way their in- 
genuity can be made more apparent to superficial observers, than by 
the further improvement of excellences already carried so far as to 
leave no room for very obvious and striking improvement. Less 
active minds, again, find the perfection which the art has now 
attained, rather matter of satisfaction and wonder, than a stimulus to 
its further advancement; and being dazzled by its general excellence, 
which blinds them to the small remaining defects, instead of applying 
themselves to the detection and remedy of these, they aim only at 
retaining the excellences of former works, or the appearance thereof, 
with less cost, either of study, or of manual labour, or of both. 
The chief aim is no longer to improve, but to cheapen, if not 
the works, at least the designs of them; to find easy and com- 
pendious ways of reproducing (or rather imitating) those appear- 
ances that have excited admiration. It is then that the word effect 
begins to become an important one in the mouths of artists. It means 
some peculiarity of appearance, that, having arisen from some excel- 
lence, has so constantly accompanied that excellence, as to become 
an indication thereof; so that people have learnt, whenever they see 
this effect, to infer, without further trouble, the presence of that 
excellence of which it was once the indication. 

In the second stage of an art, then, its aim is no longer to improve 
upon the excellences of former works, but to reproduce or exaggerate 
the effects by which those excellences were accompanied. In cheap 
works, the effects are merely imitated, in pompous ones exagge- 
rated; but in both alike, the end of the art has been changed, and 
is no longer excellence, but effect. In the architecture of England 
this great change took place in the 14th century; earlier in some 
branches of the art than in others, but in none much earlier than 
1300, and in few later than 1350. 

As long as art is truly progressive, and directed to excellences 
and to them alone, no one complains of the want of variety or 
novelty, even though the excellences aimed at be always the same. 
But when effect has become the paramount object, to which all 
others in turn are sacrificed, men begin to think it hard that so much 
must be paid, and so much endured, for the sake of repeating certain 
hackneyed effects; and it is natural to look abroad for other kinds of 
effect that have sprung from the pursuit of other excellences, or of the 



120 ARCHITECTURE — ORIGINAL AND REPRESENTATIVE. 

same under other circumstances, physical or social. Hence, travellers 
and antiquaries begin to extol, the public to demand, and artists to 
learn and imitate, first the building-forms of classical antiquity, and 
at length a variety of styles of architecture; i.-e. 9 to represent the 
forms, and as far as possible the effects, characteristic of the build- 
ings of various past ages and foreign nations. And thus the art of 
building well, becomes, step by step, entirely merged and forgotten in 
that of so building as to represent the peculiarities of some given 
class of ancient buildings ; which is all that we now understand by 
the term architecture. 

Good terms are wanting to distinguish these two kinds of building, 
or, indeed, of art in general. The words ancient and modern ar6 
too vagne; and we cannot follow those who call the first period that 
of invention, and the latter that of imitation, for imitation seems 
needed alike in both, and invention in both, though differently 
directed. The ancient artists imitated (or even copied) from each 
other, quite as much as moderns from them; and, on the other hand, 
invention is shown in counterfeiting effects, as well as in developing 
excellences ; and is required for the modern purpose of disguising the 
structure or uses of objects, as well as for the ancient one of ex- 
pressing them. Indeed, the ingenuity of modern architecture is not 
duly appreciated. Should we not admire him who could consistently 
carry out the maxim that, " the use of speech is to conceal what we 
think " ? and is not some applause also due to the success of an art, 
whose use is to conceal how and wherefore we build ? 

If, however, we call the old species, original, and the new, repre- 
sentative design, though the true distinction may not be fully ex- 
pressed, perhaps no false one will be implied. We must add, that 
in the progress of representative art, from its infancy in the 14th 
century to its present giant development and universal triumph, three 
periods are to be distinguished; in the first of which, it was confined 
to the representation of certain effects of our own original style; in 
the second, it admitted freer and more completely scenic counterfeits, 
but was confined to one foreign style, and to the representation of 
its features, as a kind of alphabet to be recombined into designs 
which were still original as a whole. Lastly, the principle is ex- 
tended to the representation of whole works, as well as their details, 
and, at the same time, allowed to embrace a variety of styles instead 
of one alone. We may thus, on the whole, divide English build- 
ings chronologically into four periods. The first is that of original 
art; extending from the earliest times till the first appearance of 
sacrifices for effect (i. e., to represent the effects of former excellences), 
which change we may date in round numbers, about 1350. The 
second period may be called that of indigenous representative art; 
and extends from the above date till the introduction of the system- 
atised Italian architecture, by Inigo Jones, about 1600. The third 
includes the absolute reign of that svstem, which lasted till about 



FOUR PERIODS OF ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. 127 

1780; and was the age of rule and measure, in details, though still 
requiring original art in general arrangement and ensemble. The 
fourth period is introduced by the admission of a plurality of styles; 
by the bursting, even in the established style, of all the barriers and 
restrictive laws intended to bolster up the expiring art ; the extinc- 
tion of the artificial life so long kept up. This period is distin- 
guished from the former by unbounded licence and fancied liberty, 
though really enslaved more than ever to the representative principle, 
and to vulgar dictation, that has no idea of art but in the sense of 
deceit. It is the age of counterfeits more vast and refined than had 
previously been thought of; the age of "restorations" and of mock- 
antiques; of works representative not merely in their parts but as 
a whole ; of the final complete triumph of representation, and ex- 
clusion of its rival, even from those branches of design on which it 
had, till now, retained some hold. 

In such an age, peculiar interest attaches to the relics, however 
slight, that remain from the first period of art Ever interesting 
from their excellence, and the rapid progress traceable throughout 
them ; they are now become doubly so, from their entire opposition of 
principle to the works surrounding them. Always beautiful, even 
when erected ; they have now acquired an adventitious beauty not 
then contemplated — the beauty of unpretence, of being the only 
honest, the only real objects, amid a wide waste of hollow counter- 
feits. This is what constitutes their inimitable beauty and priceless 
value ; and this is why, without any of the antiquarian spirit, we 
must nevertheless mourn, as much as the most dusty archaeologists, 
over the numbers of these precious irrecoverables lost from year to 
year. In London they are perhaps fewer than in any other city old 
enough to contain any. The successive ravages of iconoclasm, fire, 
coal smoke, a destructive climate, commercial cupidity, and (worst of 
all) the forgery called u restoration/ have left this metropolis, (after 
sweeping off two of the finest monuments within these twenty 
years,) only four considerable portions of works of the age of unpre- 
tence ; and a few minute fragments. To these we will conduct the 
reader in their chronological order. 

The Pix Office, a low apartment adjoining the south-east 
corner of Westminster Abbey cloisters, claims to be the first piece 
of architecture in London, being apparently a part of the monastic 
buildings of Edward the Confessor, begun about 1050. This room 
is not accessible to the public,, nor has it any peculiarity of design 
that may render it interesting, otherwise than for its antiquity and for 
being the most neat and well-wrought work of our Saxon ancestors 
remaining. Its extent is about 110 feet by 30, divided by a central 
range of eight plain round pillars, with simple capitals, and covered by 
a vaulted ceiling in 18 square groined compartments, similar to those 
used in Roman building seven centuries before ; the only advance of 
art, during this long period, having apparently been the throwing off 



128 



ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 



the disguises of an effete state of civilization, and the return to honest 
sterling unpretence. 

xs* /J 



CHEAT /£« 




THE TOWER AND MOAT. 



The White Tower. — This monument is the keep or nucleus of 
the Tower of London, that celebrated palatial fortress, so in- 
timately mixed up in the whole eventful history of mediaeval 
England. Those who approach the spot with any expectation 
to be reminded of these associations by any of the old objects 
and links between the past and the present, usual to such sites, 
will be utterly disappointed. No fortress of equal age has been 
so transformed; the two lines of walls and towers being weeded of 
every original feature, even to a loophole, and betraying their presence 
only by a few bald surfaces of stone peeping out from the casing 
and surmounting mass of hideous erections, presenting the double 
paradox (which no other country can offer) of design without beauty; 
and irregularity, dirt, and patching without picturesqueness. This 
arises from the fact, that in England (we believe nowhere else) art 
(in the sense of deceit) is necessary even Where ornament is not at- 
tempted. There are other nations who cannot decorate buildings 
except by pretence, but we are the only one who cannot leave 
them plain without it. It is essential to bricklaying respectability 



THE WHITE TOWER. 129 

that certain appearances should be counterfeited, and these happen 
to have a most unfortunate tendency. Their general model seems 
to be the packing-case, to assimilate with which, many sacrifices 
of convenience and durability in building must be made, such as 
the openings reduced to the shallowest practicable depth, and allowed 
the protection of no hood, every projection eschewed as far as 
practicable, and the roof either entirely hidden, or kept within the 
walls which common sense would have it to cover. Hence, what- 
ever appearance of honesty, and whatever picturesque shadowing, 
arise, in the unadorned buildings of other countries, from the pro- 
jections and recessions called for by the constructive requirements, 
must here be banished ; the " respectability" even of the poorest 
and meanest requiring all such things to be suppressed. 

From within this belt of ugliness will be seen rising two piles that 
replace those burnt in 1841, and are intended to be " in keeping" 
with the place ; — a pretence in keeping with a reality. We may here 
see castle work and castellated work in juxtaposition, and form our 
opinion how they agree. The fine old pretenceless mass of the White 
Tower overtops the rest. Of this, again, only the general form and 
those of the windows remain ancient ; everything except the plain 
surfaces having been remodelled. 

There seems no foundation for the traditions that would ascribe to 
any part of this pile a date earlier than the first Norman monarch, 
who begun it in 1078, on the site of a work he had previously 
erected, and which is said to have been destroyed by floods. The 
architect of the present erection was Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, 
whose skill in such buildings is shown also by a very similar castle at 
Rochester. The external dimensions of the White Tower are 116 
feet long, 96 wide (with a semicircular projection 44 feet in dia- 
meter, formed by the apsis of the chapel), and the whole 92 feet 
high. The angular turrets rise considerably above the platform of 
the roof, how much originally it is now impossible to say. Three of 
these are square, their centres coincident with the centres of the 
walls, and their faces but slightly prominent. The stairs in them 
are circular. The north-eastern, which contains the principal stair- 
case, is larger than the other three, circular without as well as within, 
and having its axis at what would be the external angle of the walls. 
There are also buttresses at uniform intervals, more prominent than is 
usual in Norman buildings, and diminishing upwards by slopes or 
weatherings that continue round their sides as well as their front. 
The external walls are from 10 to 12 feet thick, and the internal 
ones 7 feet, and of these there are only two, dividing each floor into 
three apartments, of which the largest measures 90 feet by 36, the 
next 63 by 28, and the smallest, in the south-east corner, would be 
about 28 feet square, were it not lengthened by the thickness of the 
east wall, and the radius of the semicircle beyond it. The whole 
building consists of four stories, of which the lowest is half under- 

g 3 



130 



ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 



ground, and now covered by modem brick vaults*. The other three 
are therefore very lofty, especially the top one, the largest room of 
which was the council chamber. The two larger rooms of each story 
are divided in the manner of a nave and aisles by two rows of 
wooden posts, to strengthen the floors above, which are of massive 
square beams. These posts also give to the rooms a stately propor- 
tion, the middle avenue being always higher than its breadth. The 
south-east apartment, however (or that with the circular end), is 
vaulted on every story. Its upper part forms the chapel, occupying 
the height of two stories, and having its gallery level with the upper 
apartments, and its floor with those below them. The gallery 
extends round its apsis, and along each flank, and is supported by 




ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL, WHITE TOWER 

* Such solidity as this building possesses might be supposed to insure it against 
all ordinary casualties. Its huge masses seem to defy time, and even ordinary 
earthquakes, while they would never repay the trouble of wilful destruction. Yet a 
means has been found of jeopardising it. It will hardly be believed that gnn- 
powder is stored in its basement (of all spots in England probably that in which 
its explosion would do most mischief); and, as if to increase this to the utmost, the 
upper stories are depositories of valuable records! 



THE WHITE TOWER— BOW CRYPT. 131 

round columns below, that being the most convenient figure 
for columns that have to be walked round, while above, where 
this reason no longer exists, the pillars for supporting the 
ceiling are square. The intervals of these pillars, both above and 
. below, are spanned, like the windows and all apertures throughout 
this building, by semicircular arches, because this was the method 
most suited to the economy of the material, as far as the science of 
the day could determine, and there was no reason for making them 
represent anything else. The vaultings are also of the simplest form 
available for their situation ; those of the upper ceiling, both over the 
central space and over the galleries, being half cylinders ; but below 
the galleries, such a ceiling, by springing above the crowns of the 
arches, would occasion a waste of height, and the Roman intersect- 
ing or groined vault is hence used, permitting the arches to be open 
to the full height of the aisle ceilings. As these require a square base 
from which to spring, the round columns end in square capitals, the 
connection of which with the circular shaft (being the only sunk work 
throughout the structure), is carved with devices different on each 
capital, and this is the only labour bestowed for ornament. The 
groining springs, on its outer side, from pilasters or internal butments, 
the intervals between which, having no need of equal strength, are 
recessed, to enlarge the capacity of the chapel, and vary the sur- 
faces. 

" Well," the visitor may now ask, " what is there remarkable 
in this very plain and unassuming apartment ?" Nothing, probably, 
at the time of its erection, but it has now something very remark- 
able, which is this — Though everything be plain, is there anything 
mean ? Though so little be wrought for ornament, and nothing 
rnade for ornament, is any ornament missed? — is any seen to have 
been grudged ? No ; with such rigid economy there is nothing 
niggardly, no evidence of a struggle between means and effect. 
Utterly without richness, there is yet no appearance of poverty. 
Look round and find the modern building, high or low, find the royal 
presence-chamber of which the same can be said — which is without 
mean subterfuges, make-shifts, make-believes. If you cannot, it 
follows that buildings of an early date have something besides their 
antiquity well worthy of notice, and something besides their style 
well worthy of imitation. 

The Crypt of the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow (or de Arcubus), so 
called, it is said, from being the first church erected in London with 
stone arches ; now commonly called Bow Church, Cheapside. This 
crypt, consisting of columns and simple Romanesque groining, is said 
to be of the age of the Conqueror. It has long been used as a dead- 
house, and is now quite filled with coffins. 

Remains of St. Bartholomews Priory Church, Smithfield. — 
Singularly interesting, both in matter and in manner, is the 



132 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE— FIRST PERIOD. 

monkish legend that recounts the origin of this great monastery, 
and the adjacent noble hospital of the same name. With 
enchanting simplicity, it calls up a picture of an age so widely 
different from our own, as to be assigned by us the lowest rank 
in what we consider civilization ; yet such a picture as almost 
drowns its shady traits, ignorance and superstition, beneath its faith, 
earnestness, unselfishness, and genuine humility. The miraculous 
embellishments to Rahere's history are few, and readily eliminated, 
but we should hardly know where to stop this process, or how to 
credit the main facts, did we not remember that this was the age in 
which another zealot, infinitely more misguided than he, could set 
half Europe at war with half Asia. It was not many years after the 
memorable preaching of Peter the Hermit, that this Rayherus, or 
Rayer, another penitent son of dissipation (originally, it is said, a 
court wit or minstrel), addressed himself in a similar style, but for a 
far worthier object, to Henry I., and then to the London populace, 
whose attention he could fix only by at first feigning madness. Peni- 
tence for his earlier life had led him on a pilgrimage to Rome, where 
a dangerous illness extorted from him a vow, that, if spared, he would 
found an hospital for sick men ; and on his way back he had, in a 
vision, been commanded by the Apostle Bartholomew to commence, 
on an assigned spot in Smithfield, a house of prayer, to be peculiarly 
favoured and brought to a successful completion, if only begun and 
carried on in simple uncalculating reliance on the help of the patron, 
who declared himself the real doer of the work, and Rayhere only his 
humble instrument. The chosen spot was the most apparently irre- 
claimable bog in the suburbs, the place of public execution and all 
abominations, so that its cleansing was profanely ridiculed before, and 
regarded as a miracle after its accomplishment. With unquestion- 
ing faith, however, the king grants the two sites, and contributions 
of stone and labour pour in from all classes of the people, till he has 
completed, first the hospital in fulfilment of his vow, and then the 
church and convent in obedience to the vision*. 

The architect appears to have been named Alfune, and the works 
were commenced either in 11 13, 1123, or 1133, according to different 
versions of the above account, though the inscription on the modern 
hospital, not without authority we must presume, gives so early a 
date as 1102. Nothing remains of the ancient hospital, nor of the 
secular buildings of the monastery, though some beautiful cloisterst, 

* Most of this beautiful legend may be found in Dugdale's " Monasticon," and in 
Malcom's " Londinium Redivivum," the former copying from a Latin version, and 
the latter from one in a most quaint dialect, perhaps the very earliest that can be 
called English. Neither gives it quite entire, but they mutually supply each other's 
omissions. 

f Middlesex Passage leads under one defaced compartment of the vaulting of these 
cloisters. 



ST. BARTHOLOMEWS, SMITHFIELD. 



133 



and other fragments, 
remained as late as 
1815, but being of 
the complete Gothic 
style, they could 
not have belonged 
to Rayhere's work. 
Time and violence 
seem to have done 
their worst, and 
yet to have been 
partly baffled by the 
fortress-like masonry 
" of good stoone, 
table wyse," of this 
once noble temple. 
Houses are densely 
packed against its 
exterior, and the por- 
tions rising above 
them are entirely bar- 
barized, with a com- 
pleteness of which 
even modern London 
affords no other ex- 
ample. It will there- 
fore be with no small 
surprise and pleasure 
that the visitor, on 
entering this black 
and hideous pile, will 
recognise the ruins 
of a Norman choir, 
its sturdy cylindric 
columns, its lofty tri- 
forium or gallery(now 
shut out by a wall 
behind its pillars), and 
the four grand arches 
that supported the 
central lantern of the 
cruciform edifice. The 
north and south arms 
of the transept are 
entirely gone (though 
the site of the latter 
remains open as a 




COMPARTMENTS OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S CHOIR. 



134 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 

grave-yard), and of the western and longest arm, or nave, 
only part of the first bay or severy remains. This, together 
with the northern and southern of the four lantern arches, may 
possibly present the first examples of the pointed arch in this 
country. In undertakings of this nature, it was usual, in those days, 
to commence the building at the east end, and gradually extend it 
westward, by which means the work could be stopped at any point, 
and (being closed by a temporary front) serve the purposes of wor- 
ship till funds should be forthcoming to extend it further, without 
disturbing the consecrated altar or any part already finished. Hence 
the four grand arches are probably the work of a successor of 
Rahere, and the destroyed nave is not unlikely to have presented 
(like that of Romsey, Hants) a progressive record of the improve- 
ment of architecture up to the erection of the west front, which 
extended to Smithfield, where the arch of the doorway to the south 
aisle remains, and now forms the entrance to a passage called Bar- 
tholomew Close. This presents a specimen of the refined grace this 
art had attained in the early part of the thirteenth century. Wide, 
indeed, is the contrast between Rahere's rude work, and this deli- 
cately-finished production only a hundred years later. At no other 
period, and in no other art, can we find a parallel to this rapid pro- 
gress. Identical in their principles of construction, the two speci- 
mens of arch work present just that kind of difference which subsists 
between Stonehenge and the Parthenon ; nor shall we be straining 
our analogy if we add, that the most ornate Norman architecture 
bears to the finished Gothic (whether ornate or plain) precisely that 
relation which the Egyptian post-and-beam building bore to the 
Greek. In each case, the rude and the refined, the stationary and 
the progressive style, attempt the same problem, the elaboration and 
adornment of the same structural core, but they attempt it by widely 
different methods. In the first, beauty seems to be measured by the 
number of lines or surfaces; in the second, by the amount of thought 
and observation of nature, shown in the neatness, fitness, and congruity 
of every feature. One method is governed by fancy, the other by 
judgment ; one seems to aim at placing all the manual labour that 
can be afforded, where it may most show itself; the other, where it 
will display most thought, contribute most to the intrinsic excellence 
of the whole, and make it most resemble the works of nature. The 
first process is properly called ornamentation; the other, decoration 
(i.e., rendering decorous). The Norman, like all savages, for the 
sake of ornament neglects geometrical accuracy aud mechanical 
finish. The Greek and the Gothicist look on these qualities as of 
primary importance, and attempt nothing else till they are attained. 
As for the Norman ornaments, many of them (the zigzag, and 
especially the billet-moulding, the most common in this building) are 
worthy of Hottentots ; and the example of every savage tribe may 
show, that this mere fancy ornamentation has no tendency towards 



THE TEMPLE CHURCH. 135 

progressive refinement. When, indeed, the true path has been once 
found, the refinement originating in structural parts may be applied 
to such features as these, and thus, in the infancy of the Gothic sys- 
tem, some of these Norman fancies (the zigzag, for instance) were 
refined and polished (as may be seen in the arch in Smithneld), but 
a fuller admission of the principle of decorum soon led to their 
rejection, and before the complete development of the Gothic archi- 
tecture they all disappeared. 

The choir of St. Bartholomew's originally ended in an apsis, but 
that is now replaced by a straight wall, and the semicircle thus cut 
off is converted into a charnel-house. The surrounding aisle, or 
ambulatory, forming more space than the congregation require, is also 
partitioned off. It is perfectly similar to that in the White Tower, 
but its vaulting seems to have fallen, and been replaced by a plaster 
imitation. In judging of the proportions of the church, we must 
remember that the bases of the columns are hidden, by what depth 
of accumulation it is impossible, without digging, to say; yet we 
descend steps to enter, so that the external ground must have risen 
several feet. 

The present monument to Rahere was erected about 1410, and is 
a very poor specimen of a design very common at that time. The 
strange excrescence of an oriel window projecting from one of the 
triforium arches, was probably a whim of those to whom Henry VIII. 
appropriated the priory buildings after their seizure. 

St. Marys Church, Inner Temple. — The Knights Templars had 
an establishment in London as early as the reign of Stephen, 
and removed it to the place where their church now stands, in that of 
Henry II. This edifice (now belonging to two legal societies 
named after it) is one of those in which the plan of the Holy 
Sepulchre Church at Jerusalem was imitated, so far as regards the 
attaching a rotunda to the western extremity of an ordinary rect- 
angular church. The rotunda remains as built in 1185, but the pre- 
sent rectangular part, or choir, is one which replaced the original and 
was dedicated in 1240. Both are peculiarly interesting as monu- 
ments of a period of unparalleled activity and progress in original 
architecture. The rotunda is one of the earliest examples in this 
country, of that important step, the substitution of pointed arches for 
round ones ; and the other erection is one of the first examples of the 
exclusive use of the new arch, which thus took about half a century 
to establish itself completely and supersede the old one. Of course, 
so gradual, deliberate, and universal a change, and one which, when 
once adopted, maintained its ground for centuries, can be ascribed to 
no mere freak of taste or fancy. It was adopted because conducive, 
in several ways, to structural excellence ; and, like all improvements 
in building thus introduced, it appeared first in the larger parts, and 
gradually descended into all the details. 

In the plan of this rotunda there is a peculiar and beautiful sym- 



130* 



ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE— FIRST PERIOD. 




PLAN OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH. (THE NORTHERN ADDITION IS MODERN.) 

metry hinted at, but not carried out ; nor does any succeeding archi- 
tect appear to have appropriated the idea here suggested. The six 
pillars occupy the angles of a hexagon, on each side of which figure a 
square is constructed, and the outer corners of these six squares form 
twelve equidistant points in the external circular wall; these are 
occupied by u responders," or wall-pillars, and, if both these and the 
six isolated pillars had been joined to each other by ordinary arches, 
making the external circuit a regular dodecagon, and the inner a hexa- 
gon, the intermediate space would have consisted of six perfect 
squares and six equilateral triangles^ producing an exquisite symmetry 
and completeness in the ceilings. But for the sake of making every 
part of the building circular (a mere affectation), this beauty 
was sacrificed, by making the arches (both from pillar to pillar, 
and from wall-shaft to wall-shaft) arches of double curvature, almost 
the only ones in existence perhaps, which are at once circular in 
their plan and pointed in their elevation. This, which never can be 
required by any real necessity in building, only gives immense trouble 
and labour in the stone-cutting, to render the arches weak both in 
reality and in appearance, and, therefore, singularly unsightly. Nor 
is this the only instance here of the sacrifice of an excellence to a 
whim. The interlacing blank arches in the upper rotunda plainly 
belong to this class, and (unlike such inventions as the pointed arch) 
soon disappeared, however fashionable in their day. There were 
many such freaks about the time of the rise of Gothic architecture, 
but the sound judgment of those great, though nameless, artists 
who founded that system, and their unwavering pursuit of fitness 
and decorum, enabled them to weed out these superfluities. 

In every part of this structure, however (except, perhaps, the win- 
dows), we find the progress made during half a century shown, not 
merely in enrichment or complication of parts, but in the complica- 
tion of precisely those which could most harmoniously be so treated ; 
not of those which might present either the most obvious, the most 



TEMPLE CHURCH ROTUNDA. 



137 




INTERIOR OF THE ROTUNDA, TEMPLE CHURCH. 

usual, the easiest, or the newest field for such treatment. The changes 
are so well studied and thoroughly weighed that they seem merely 
necessary corrections to the former style, or to supply deficiencies in 
it, which we now see, but had not before noticed. Thus the great 
cylindric shaft was a form too massive to be proper in a pillar built 
up of numerous little stones. This is lightened by division into a 



138 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 

cluster of minor shafts, and these arranged to give the most con- 
venient outline, in the best position for not obstructing the light and 
view. The arches must partake of both these changes. Their mas- 
sive broad flat faces and square edges give place to delicate and 
deep-cut mouldings, with a general conformity to the shape of the 
pillar whence they spring. Again, in the vaulting (for whose support 
all this apparatus is provided), the sharp edges, or groins, which, in 
the White Tower Chapel, seem the mere chance intersection of the 
two surfaces, are really the parts on which the whole rests, and in 
strengthening them, the later artists, of course, give them the struc- 
ture and appearance of the other arches, only with smaller mass, 
(because they are subordinate in situation, and support less mass,) bat 
cutting them into the same species of deep mouldings ; and the same 
treatment is extended to all the bands and separating lines of the struc- 
ture, and vast study bestowed on the grace and fitness of all their 
various profiles. 

How much easier would it have been for these designers to have 
consulted novelty instead of fitness ; and, instead of these deeply- 
sought, slowly-discovered improvements in decorum rather than 
decoration, to have adopted every pretty fancy (every new-fangled 
form of arch that could be executed, for instance), and to decorate by 
sticking about carvings wherever there was most convenient room 
for them, or they would best display themselves. Greater variety, 
novelty, and enrichment, would have been attainable with far less 
trouble than they took, — but then we should have had no Gothic 
architecture. 

In the rectangular church, of 1240, we find this system pushed 
further, and assuming that completeness of simple elegance, peculiar 
to the early Gothic of this country, and which constitutes the style 
very fitly named the Early English. The windows are here not only 
decorated with mouldings, consistently with the other parts, but are 
arranged in groups to fit the contour of the vaulting, to which, indeed, 
everything else, both within and without, refers, and is subservient. 
The painting of the interior, lately renewed, unfortunately drowns 
some of its more permanent and substantial beauties, especially the 
exquisitely shadowing mouldings, and the mutual relief and contrast 
afforded by these objects, and the broad surfaces intermixed with 
them. It is probable that the archway from the rotunda into the 
choir was originally partly occupied by an organ, not entirely shut- 
ting out one part from the other, but softening the incongruous 
junction of two styles, and obviating the necessity for an unsym- 
metrical excrescence, such as that now added on the north side, for 
holding that necessary piece of furniture. We need not add, that 
the design of this and the other woodwork is a forgery ; its closeness 
of resemblance to the ancient forms preventing no one from seeing 
that, being entirely representative (of stonework), it cannot pass for 
the sign-manual of an age of non-representation. The glass painting 



THE TEMPLE CHUECH CHOIR. 139 

is also modern, and, by comparison with what it imitates, it would 
appear that the progress made in six centuries has been to render 
drawing rather more rude, expression more uncertain, composition 
much more confused, colours less clear and immensely fewer in 
number, their contrasts harsh instead of harmonious, the glass rather 
dirtier and obtainable in no larger pieces, the joints rather clumsier. 

The usual fault of Gothic building, ill-poised thrust of arches and 
vaults, has much injured the interior beauty, by bending all the pil- 
lars outward ; although the vaulting has an ingenious (perhaps unique) 
contrivance for obviating this, by loading the narrow side vaults more 
than the broad central one, with a view to equalise their thrusts. But 
having no means of calculating, the designer could only guess at the 
difference, and so did not provide sufficiently. Yet it does not appear 
that we can do any better. It is said, indeed, that mathematics and 
engineering have made some advances since the thirteenth century; 
but foreigners will say, if it were so, surely those who lately spent 
such vast sums on the decoration of this building, would have de- 
voted a portion of what they expended in paint to the correction of 
this glaring defect; and, if not restoring the pillars to their true posi- 
tion, would at least have arrested their further displacement, by the 
shifting of a little rubbish, to complete, numero pondere et mensurd y 
what the original architect could only arrange by guess. 

Outwardly, the importance of the buttresses and subordinate character 
of the walls in Gothic building, begins to be fully displayed. The prin- 
ciple of economizing stone, by reducing all the forces acting on it to 
compression alone, is sufficiently carried out to display within the 
wondrous lightness of this architecture*. The pillars are only 2 ft. 
thick through the whole deeply-hollowed cluster, and the outer walls 
are almost replaced by glass, being reduced from their original office 
of supports to that of mere enclosures. The matter is not wasted in 
tli em, but collected in the buttresses, whose depth from within to 
without exceeds 9 ft. at the base. As they rise, they diminish by 
offsets on the outer face only, and not on the sides, for their form 
and dimensions, each way, are regulated by the strictest economy. 
This upward diminution, in one direction only, was stigmatised by 
Wren as u uncomely," and, doubtless, it is so when left in un- 
redeemed rudeness, as in the less exposed parts of most English 
Gothic works, and in all modern imitations. But in condemning, on 
this account, " all Gothic buttresses," that great artist certainly over- 
looked the various expedients by which the Gothic designers suc- 
ceeded in obviating or polishing off this defect. In the finest foreign 
examples (as Cologne), the uncouth offset is studiously avoided in the 
plainer buttresses, and in the enriched ones it takes the form of 
a housing for a statue, or a cluster of pinnacles. In the Early 
English, or, at least, in its first examples (as Salisbury Cathedral, 
that great work which may be considered to have formed and fixed 
* Weale's Papers on Architecture. 



140 



ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 



this national style), the same thing is still more artistically effected, 
without ornament, by continuing the weatherings, required on the 
front of the buttress, round its sides also ; and afterwards only the 
lower weathering and moulding of each set was thus continued (as 
in the example before us), the expedient gradually giving place to 
that of a goblet, or miniature roof, sloping to each side from the middle 
of the buttress, and varied in many ways ; and finally, by giving but- 
tresses wholly or in part the form of polygonal turrets, as in Henry 
the Seventh's Chapel. Some of these contrivances (all having the 
same purpose) were rarely omitted in important buildings, and never 
in their principal fronts. We may add, that the evident care be- 
stowed not only to thus modify these features, but, whenever practi- 
cable, to dispense with them altogether, shows the idea of building 
buttresses as ornaments to be entirely of modern origin. 

The chief internal dimensions of this building are — the rotunda 58 
ft. in diameter, and the choir 58 ft. by 82. The clear breadth of 
the middle aisle in the latter, and the inner circle or lantern in the 
former, are each 23^ ft.; that of the side aisles, and the surrounding 
circular aisle, each 15^ ft.; and the vaulting of this last is 27 ft. high, but 

that of all three straight aisles 
is 37 ft. The lantern ceiling 
is modern* Its height is 60 
ft., which is also that of the 
central ridge of the three high- 
pitched roofs over the straight 
aisles. 

Lambeth Palace Chapel 
retains a crypt, a doorway, 
and its windows in the same 
style as the last part of the 
building just described. These 
features are of great beauty, 
but the chapel has otherwise 
been quite barbarized, and the 
remainder of this archiepisco- 
pal residence, though founded 
as early as the reign of Coeur 
de Lion (before which it was 
a residence of the bishops of 
Rochester), now forms only a 
confused medley of buildings, 
with no other fragment older 
than the 15th century. 

Remains of St. Mary 
Overy, now St. Saviours, 
Southwark. — A remote Saxon 
origin is assigned to this 




DOORWAY TO LAMBETH PALACE CHAPEL. 



ST. SAVIOURS, SOUTHWARK. 



141 



monastery, which was 
at first a nunnery sup- 
ported by the profits 
of the adjoining ferry 
on the site of London 
Bridge. After various 
changes, and being 
refounded as a priory 
of canons regular in 
the reign of Henry I., 
it was destroyed by 
fire in 1213, and re- 
built by Peter de 
RupibusJ Bishop of 
Winchester, and guar- 
dian of the young 
king Henry III. The 
present fragment con- 
sists of the eastern 
arm and transept of 
this church, which 
was cruciform, and 
(like St. Bartholo- 
mew's) of the second 
class as regards mag- 
nitude. Its style, 
wherever not patched, 
is therefore cooeval 
with that of the Tem- 
ple Church choir, but 
the exterior has great- 
ly suffered from the 
admixture of dates, 
especially the south 
transept, w r hich w T as 
probably remodelled 
after another fire 
that destroyed the 
prior v in the reign of 
Richard II. Of the 
same period, or later, 
is the design of the 
pinnacles over the 
choir aisles, and probably the carcase of the tower, which was bar- 
barized into its present aspect in the 17th century. The more 
shameless pauperism of yet later times obtrudes itself in the 




NOW DESTROYED. 



142 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE-- FIRST PERIOD. 

sides of the north transept; but its end*, and all the other parts 
of the exterior were, one by one, as funds could be afforded, under- 
going careful renovation in better stone than the original; when a 
sudden reaction of parochial opinion, more merciless than any of the 
conflagrations of old South wark, swept off the whole nave (till then 
less patched than any other part), and thus one of those priceless 
treasures, of which England, and its capital especially, had so few to 
spare — a piece of original building art — a thing which the whole 
power of the modern world cannot produce, yet thinks it worth while 
to imitate — was first petted for some years at great expense, and 
then reduced for ever to a mutilated fragment ; and this for the sake 
of a paltry rood of ground, on which to erect — we will not say what 
— but leave the visitor to form his own impressions of the metro- 
politan "Gothic'* of 1840. 

In the interior of the ancient fragment, the choir has an aspect 
remarkably firm and majestic for one of second-rate scale, chiefly on 
account of the lines retaining their straightness and verticality much 
better than is usual in Gothic buildings. This is attributable partly 
to the large mass and well-placing of the flying buttresses, and those 
large counterpoising pinnacles above mentioned, but more to the 
shortness of the aisle pillars, which, when made loftier (as at Salis- 
bury and Westminster), were liable to be thrust inward at their 
capitals by the vaultings of the aisles. This building is superior in 
permanence of equilibrium to either of those stupendous works, and 
is perhaps the best piece of engineering of its age; but this it mainly 
owes to retaining that proportion between the three stories which 
was usual in the round-arched, and particularly in the Norman 
buildings, instead of heightening the lower arches and aisles at the 
expense of the second story (or triforium), as was was done in most 
edifices after the change to the pointed arch, contributing to that 
general loftiness so proper in the new style, to accord with its tallness 
of features and aspiring character of forms. This Romanesque 
lowness of the aisles affects especially their windows, which become 
in consequence dwarfish. The central avenue, however, is nobly 
proportioned, and enables the spectator to realize the grandeur and 
unity of the whole, when the nave continued ihe same design 
throughout its seven compartments, and the tower formed a square 
lantern, open to double the height of the four avenues. 

The altar-screen is an addition, evidently belonging to an age of 
luxury and " effect." It is certainly not earlier than the 15th century, 
and said to be erected by Bishop Fox of Winchester. It is the least 
elaborate of four on the same general idea, of which the earliest is 

* It is curious to observe how short-sighted parsimony has outwitted itself. Along 
the north side of this building, the only two bits of finished exterior, stuck on to save 
appearances, are now precisely the only parts that can by no means be seen. The 
north end of the transept was well restored, but the reader has only our word for it. 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY CHURCH. 143 

at Christchurch, Hants, a larger at St. Alban s, and the largest and 
richest at Winchester Cathedral. The screen covers two archways 
of the original building, leading into the Lady Chapel. This is now r 
entered only from the ends of the aisles. It is remarkable for its 
position, lying across from north to southland (having three aisles 
of equal height) is almost an exact miniature of the Temple choir. 

The details throughout this building are perhaps less elaborate 
than in any contemporary works of the same class, but they regularly 
increase in quantity and depth of moulding, from the lower to the 
upper parts; and (like all works of original architecture) however 
plain, they never give the smallest impression of meanness or inabi- 
lity to make them as complete as the designers would have them. 
This expression, so subversive of all handsomeness, is peculiar to 
representative art ; for where nothing is represented, we cannot meet 
with any symptom of insufficient, poor, or starved representation. 

The tomb of Gower, in the south transept, is a favourable speci- 
men of the sepulchral memorials of that age. The poet contributed 
largely to the repairs of the building after the fire about 1400. 

Westminster Abbey Church. — Though singularly few in number, 
the remains of original architecture in this capital include one produc- 
tion, in many respects unrivalled even among works produced, like 
itself, almost at the very meridian of that art ; when it had nearly 
reached the very highest pitch of refinement ever attained perhaps in 
any country, without verging in its new direction towards representa- 
tive design. Not only does this national masterpiece exhibit, in its 
best parts (those erected by Edward I.), the very purest and most 
perfect Gothic style in existence (that which has its various mem- 
bers most equally developed), but the whole structure is (with the 
sole exception of the early English paragon at Salisbury) the most 
complete and uniform monument of original art in this country. 
Though standing on this score, however, second, it does so longo 
intervallo ; for while the early English fane was begun and finished 
in one lifetime, this (though on an uniform design) was carried on 
through many successive generations, all of whom left their stamp in 
the minutiae of details ; and still remains, like most of the mediaeval 
temples, at once unfinished and partly in ruins. While it requires, at 
the former edifice, a critical eye to detect the few and unimportant 
mutilations; here (owing to the unfortunate selection of the stone) 
every eye is offended by the wholesale patching of the exterior with 
rude makeshifts; the intended central steeple (no less requisite for 
stability than for beauty) is wanting, and its absence supplied by 
expedients that must eventually entail ruin on the whole; the eastern 
chapel is replaced by an incongruous erection ; the three end fronts of 
the building are all re-modelled, the cloisters patched in many styles, 
and the chapter-house virtually demolished ; all which members, hi 
the Salisbury group, remain intact. Still, the noble proportions and 
outline defy mutilation even on the exterior, and internally the whole 



144 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 

is almost of a piece, except the three great windows at the north, 
south, and west extremities. 

The site of this famous minster was originally surrounded by the 
Thames, and correctly described as " Thorny Island," on which, 
about the year 610, Sebert, king of Essex (including Middlesex), 
having embraced Christianity at the preaching of Augustine's mis- 
sionary, Mellitus, immediately founded the small church which 
was the nucleus of this splendid edifice. In the time of the last of 
our Saxon monarchs, the establishment still consisted only of " a few 
Benedict monkes under an abbote serving Christ; very poor they were, 
and little was given them for their reliefe." The royal Confessor, 
however, having vowed a pilgrimage to Rome, which he found no 
opportunity of making, sent a solemn embassy to Leo IX., to beg a 
dispensation, which was granted on condition of his giving part of the 
money allotted for his journey, to the poor, and with the remainder 
either building or rebuilding and endowing a monastery in honour of 
St. Peter. A tenth of his entire substance " as well in gold, silver, 
and cattle, as in all his other possessions," was forthwith devoted to 
this purpose, and sufficed to replace Sebert's little church by one 
" begunne in such sort as should become the Prince of the Apostles/' 
This w r as probably equal in extent (though perhaps not in height) to 
the present fabric, for a single arch of the venerable pile still appears 
at a considerable height, outside the south end of the transept ; and 
the grand remains at Winchester, as well as the measurements given 
in ancient chronicles, show that the works which Saxon piety con- 
sidered to " become the Prince of the Apostles," were not the mean 
erections that our pride would fain suppose them, but fully equalled 
our present cathedrals in scale and solidity. The devout king com- 
menced this building about 1050, and it was so far finished (perhaps 
without the nave), as to be dedicated on the Innocents' Day, 1065, 
only a week before his decease. 

A hundred and fifty years later, the young Henry IIL seems to 
have chosen this revered and now canonised monarch, as his patron 
and model ; and in 1220, being still only thirteen years old, he begun 
the rebuilding of Edward's church, in the new and beautiful style 
then in course of development ; but the part then erected was only 
the eastern or Lady chapel, now replaced by that of Henry VII. It 
probably resembled the works of the same nature, begun only 
the previous year at Salisbury, and about the same time at St. 
Mary Overy, or the somewhat later choir of the Temple Church. 
The oldest parts of the present building are in a more advanced style, 
the preparations for them, by pulling down the Saxon choir and central 
tower, not taking place till 1245 ; and the new choir and transept 
were opened with great pomp in 1269. As an advance beyond the 
triple groups of windows used in those buildings, we here have two 
tall arched lights, and a circular or rose- formed aperture between their 
heads, the whole formed into one window by one inclosing arch, and 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY CHURCH. 



145 



piercing the small 
triangular spaces left 
between the curves. 
England contains 
elsewhere examples 
of every stage of this 
process, the passage 
from a group of 
windows to a com- 
pound window, and 
thence to a divided 
or traceried window, 
— showing this to 
be a spontaneous 
growth of the Gothic 
constructive princi- 
ples, and not a mere 
fashion imported 
from the Continent : 
though it also sprung 
up there just as na- 
turally, and perhaps 
more quickly at- 
tained its utmost 
development ; for the 
windows at Cologne 
Cathedral (a work 
strictly contemporary 
with this) are more 
complete examples 
of tracery ; while on 
the other hand, the 
pillars, mouldings, 
and vaulting are 
more advanced and 
refined here than at 
Cologne. The upper 
vaultings present, 
perhaps, the first 
instance of a rib 
(or rather a band 
of deeply- hollowed 
foliage) running 

along each ridge ; but the general progress is seen less in the introduc- 
tion of new features than in the studious attention to give the last 
degree of polish and grace to the proportions both of the smallest detail 
and of everv larger division. This is almost the onlv Gothic building 




NORTH END OF THE TRANSEPT, WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

(The tracery and glass of the circular window is modem.) 



146 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 

(at least in England) in which there is nothing stunted or dwarfish, 
or over lengthy, compared with adjoining objects, and yet the 
forms are by no means monotonous. Externally the peculiar range 
of triangular windows lighting the triforium is a most masterly con- 
trivance, adding greatly both to beauty and grandeur, by its contrast 
with the tall stories above and below it, and by assisting us in a 
true estimation of the uncommon height of the whole. As for the 
interior of the same story, there is perhaps nothing else in the whole 
range of Gothic art so perfectly beautiful, whether seen in the sides 
of the building as a double colonnade with dark background, at 
the south transept end, where it is single and backed by windows, or 
at the north end by a plain wall. Hardly less elegant is the blank 
arcade that once continued round the whole interior under the lower 
windows, but of which faithless guardians have left only some small 
fragments unsold to gratify vulgar vanity. In a word, every feature 
and detail of this interior has a most rare completeness and harmony, 
whether viewed by itself or in connection with adjoining parts, or 
with the whole. Whether you take much or little, the portion thus 
separately viewed is beautiful and void of incongruity; and this, 
while it places beyond a doubt the unity and integrity of the original 
design, bears testimony to the wondrous amount of study bestowed 
on the adjustment of such various conflicting dimensions, every re- 
lation of which seems provided for and thought out. 

In justice to so truly noble a design, the abbots and royal patrons 
who gradually continued the works westward from the transept, did 
not deviate therefrom, as was unfortunately the practice of the other 
finishers of ecclesiastical buildings. Hence, though protracted even 
into the fifteenth century, this structure was less affected by new 
styles and fashions, than many others whose construction extended 
through a far shorter period. The rage for windows of many divi- 
sions and complex tracery was not allowed here to break in upon the 
unity of the old design; and the only innovations admitted were in 
mouldings and points of mere detail ; if we except the introduction of 
additional ribs (called tiercerons) in the main vault of the nave, a 
decided advance both in carrying out the Gothic constructive economy, 
and in producing a proper increase of intricacy and lightness toward the 
upper parts. The two circular windows were an alteration made in 
the age of Richard II., and the great western one, of the " perpen- 
dicular" fashion, as late as 1490. Of glass painting, that at the east 
end alone is antique ; that at the north and west ends, modern and 
very good of its kind ; that at the south, pseudo-antique presenting 
the same qualities as that of the Temple Church (p. 139). 

The effect of following Edward the Confessor's old foundations is 
seen in some awkward irregularities of the place. The choir contracts 
in breadth before beginning to form the apsis or round termination*. 

* This may, however, be intended, as well as the gradual decrease in the breadths 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY CLOISTERS. 147 

The transept and main avenue are of equal breadth, but the transept 
aisles are considerably wider than the longitudinal ones, and to disguise 
this, the general width of the arches is made intermediate between 
these two widths. This renders all the eight arches next the central 
crossing unlike the others, a defect which could only be remedied by 
forming this part into an octagon, as at Ely Cathedral, a change also 
conducive to convenience and stability, as it would admit a larger 
congregation within hearing distance, and avert the ruin which the 
iron ties now necessary across the arches and aisles must sooner 
or later occasion*. Sir C. Wren thought with much reason that 
the polygonal outer inclosures of the four chapels surrounding 
the apsis were an afterthought, adopted during the erection of that 
part, for, as he observed, the two buttresses standing in the nooks 
formed externally between these chapels are quite needless. 
Yet we find buttresses similarly placed and equally superfluous, in 
Cologne Cathedral and other contemporary works of this kind. Much 
difficulty seems to have attended the planning of the cloister, which 
could not be brought close enough to the building to cover certain 
revered graves, without some unique and bold expedients. The 
northern arcade so closely adjoins the wall of the nave, as to require 
the placing its buttresses outside this cloister, and spanning over it ; 
while the eastern cloister actually enters within the church, and is, for 
about half its length, inclosed in the south transept, and covered by 
its western aisle. These two arcades are of different periods in the 
reign of Edward I., but the two other walks (whose vaultings are of 
a most nice and finished geometrical character) are probably of the 
loth century. From the south walk, the view of that side of the 
nave is very remarkable, the Hxe tiers of arch buttresses (three span- 
ning over the cloister and two over the aisle) forming a display of 
those features quite unparalleled. 

In the centre of the eastern cloister, a gorgeously-enriched com- 
partment marks the entrance to the chapter-house, now a repository 
for records. It was, when perfect, almost a facsimile of that at 

of the successive arches in the eastern arm of the building, to obviate the sudden 
change from the straight colonnades of the sides, to the curved and much more thick- 
set range forming the apsis ; the abruptness of which change in most choirs of this 
kind (as at Cologne, Amiens, &c.) almost disjoins the apsis from the rest, and makes 
it appear an afterthought. 

* The dependence on these ties is entirely opposed to Gothic principles of building, 
but unavoidable here from the absence of the intended tower that was to steady its 
four supporting pillars against the thrusts that now bend them so perceptibly inwards. 
The removal of these four pillars and formation of an octagon would, as Sir C. Wren 
showed, answer this end still better, even without much superincumbent weight. But 
without the tower or the octagon, there is no remedy but either throwing four arches 
across in the middle height, like those at Wells Cathedral ; or else continuing the metal 
ties throughout every arch in the building, an addition no doubt most objectionable, 
but not more so than the present ties which subject the whole to the effects of their 
expansion and contraction by heat and cold, besides endangering it by their constant 
decay. 

H 2 



148 



ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 




GROUND PLAN OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 



CHANGES IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY CHURCH. 



149 



Salisbury; an octagon room, 
surrounded, first, with a 
blank arcade, or range of 
stone stalls, exquisitely en- 
riched, then with eight vast 
windows, each filling an 
entire side; and covered 
with vaulting springing from 
one central clustered pillar. 
The House of Commons 
usually met in this beautiful 
room (so admirably fitted 
for such an assembly) till 
the first year of Edward VI. 
A sort of fatality seems 
to have attended the devia- 
tions from the original de- 
sign, for every one of them 
has had in its turn to be re- 
placed or mutilated. The 
west front of 1480-90 has 
left only its general features 
recognisable amid the havoc 
caused by Wrens bold but 
abortive attempts to improve 
the Gothic by additions of 
his favourite classic features. 
The northern wheel window 
of the transept has fared 
little better, being renewed 
in 1722, but certainly not 
restored ; for, in Gothic 
building, all the stonework had a constructive meaning, the tracery 
of windows was not governed by fancy, and consequently they did not 
introduce inverted arches of stone hanging unsupported except 
by its adhesion. The corresponding south window has been twice 
restored; first, forty years before Wrens survey, who observed it 
was done well> which we may believe, from the purity of the present 
one, copied exactly from it by Mr. Gayfere, mason, in 1814. A fire 
in the roofs in 1803 led to a remodelling of the central rudimentary 
tower. The blank arches in its internal faces formerly opened into 
the roofs, and probably contained tracery. The whole is now much 
too bare, and the vaulting springing not only from the angles, but 
from the sides, where there is no bntment, betrays itself to be only a 
piece of plaster scenery. The last addition, however, the woodwork 
of the choir, erected in 1847, is a very happy imitation of the mode 
in which the artists of the purest Gothic times treated this kind of 




A COMPARTMENT OF THE CLOISTER WALLS. 



150 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 

semi-architectural furniture. Unluckily this is disfigured by puerile 
efforts to half suppress and half conceal the organ, in deference 
to the common notion that grandeur is measured by the number 
of feet we can see straightforward; this member having till then 
stood in its usual place, over the entrance from the nave, but with- 
out rising high enough to conceal either end of the building from a 
spectator on the floor at the other end. Its removal admits a view 
from the choir of nothing that was not previously seen, except the 
incongruous and meagre west window, the prominent advancing glare 
of which now marks the exact extent of the building, which formerly 
was most artistically concealed; for the vaulting of the nave being 
nearly all visible over the organ, but its length being just too great 
to be all seen, whether there were little or much beyond view, was 
left to the imagination ; whereas now we are at once shown how 
short the building is. 

The plan will show the chief dimensions of this structure, which 
is inferior to most of the English cathedrals in extent, but superior to 
any of them in height. Both in this respect, and in arrangement of 
plan, it resembles the ecclesiastical structures of France much more 
than those of England ; and the ruling idea, as regards proportions, 
was to make the height of all apertures or vistas thrice their breadth, 
as will appear from these measures. Breadth of the main avenues 34 
ft., height, 102; breadth of the tower arches, 33 ft., height, 99; mean 
breadth of aisles and their arches, 15| ft., height, 46-J-; lower win- 
dows (clear opening), 10^ ft., height, 31^; upper windows, 10 ft., 
height, 30; triforium apertures, 3| ft., height, 10^. 

The sepulchral memorials that nearly fill the lower parts of this 
edifice are a subject we would fain leave untouched. The wide world 
presents probably no other such contrast as that between this matchless 
temple and the contents that profane it. History hardly suffices to 
establish so incredible a fact, as that one and the same people could 
descend in five centuries from that height of refinement to this un- 
paralleled depth of vulgarity. In this spot are brought together, in 
their utmost intensity, the most opposite combinations of mental qua- 
lities — the noblest and the basest, the most lovely and the most odious 
that mute matter could by any torture be made to embody. Most 
humiliating is the thought that each of these things was once expected 
to please, was actually thought beautiful, when the very first step 
taken was the ugly brutal selfishness of hacking away the hard-thought, 
hard- wrought labour of pious heads and hands of old, to replace it by 
some rude mass of marble as a foil to u throw out" the new expression 
of private vanity. How revoltingly misplaced too is the shouldering, 
elbowing strife, with which, like advertising placards or rival shops, 
with every trick that can be devised for glaring prominence, they 
struggle to outstare each other, as if the very well-being of the defunct 
depended upon whose statue shall be seen first, or whose epitaph read 
oftenest. How calmly, amid all this feverish strife, lie the modest 



CHANGES IN WESTMINSTER PALACE. 



151 



retiring memorials of the mighty or the worthy of old, from the digni- 
fied reposing figures of the royal Plantagenets to the unpretending 
brasses of the untitled and humble, if indeed modern selfishness has 
left any uncovered. No other nation possesses, or if possessing, could 
suffer the presence of so clamorous a witness of its degradation ; and 
the time will probably come that the disgrace will be felt beyond 
endurance, the whole of the monuments since that of Islyp re- 
moved — those few that possess sculptural merit, to a fitter repository, 
the rest to be buried if possible in oblivion ; and when the beauteous 
temple, cleansed from these defilements, and with the mouldings of 
its original decoration restored — for the carvings never can be — will 
contain only modest mementos of those really great or really buried 
within its walls, none occupying the floor, and none filling more tban 
one window light, or one of the exquisite blank arches below ; each of 
which affords ample space for any Phidias to mark with appropriate 
beauty the resting-place of any Newton ; though not enough for vanity 
to supply the want of excellence by pomp and glare, nor to comme- 
morate persons whose memory a pyramid could not by itself preserve. 

St. Stephens Crypt, West- 
minster Palace, — This, which 
is also called " St. Marys Chapel 
in the vaults," formed the base- 
ment of St. Stephens Chapel, 
famous for inclosing the room 
in which the House of Com- 
mons assembled, from the ac- 
cession of Edward VI. till its 
destruction by the fire of 1834. 
That catastrophe, which swept 
off the flimsy representative 
erections of yesterday like 
stubble, raged in vain against 
the sterling reality of the old 
church- work. The chapel of 
the Plantagenets stood amid 
the wreck, not only unscathed, 
but purged of the rude accu- 
mulations of lath and plaster, 
and displaying the long-con- 
cealed beauties of its most 
elaborate and original decora- 
tion. The right-minded will 
not cease to deplore, nor ene- 
mies of England to remind 
her, that among the vast 
wealth devoted to her new 
Palace of Parliament, nothing could be done with this irrecoverable 
relic of the days of unpretence and sterling magnificence, but to raze 




PASSAGE FROM ST. STEPHEN'S CLOISTERS 
TO THE CRYPT. 



152 ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE — FIRST PERIOD. 

it to the ground ; to destroy another precious lump of the material 
salt of the earth, because, being a work of the fourteenth century 
(and therefore in the style of the fourteenth century), it would not assi- 
milate with — what ? — with the style of the nineteenth ? — no, with an 
unbuilt design in which it was our fancy to represent the style of the 
fifteenth. Now, if (as we have seen in the Abbey Church) those who 
wrought in the styles of their own times could respect the less perfect 
labours of their ancestors, and sacrifice a little uniformity to their pre- 
servation, it surely is rather hard that we, who pretend but to repre- 
sent the styles of other times, cannot show the same respect; especially 
as, with us, it necessitates no breach of uniformity, since we can assume 
the style of any age that fancy may dictate. This stickling for such 
rigid unity of style seems, moreover, quite peculiar to the case in ques- 
tion, for we know of no other modern building in which it is held at 
all important. No one proposes, for the sake of unity, to rebuild 
the incongruous parts of Greenwich, Somerset House, or the British 
Museum, though they are not relics of an extinct art, nor remarkable 
for either interest or beauty ; and considering that St. Stephens was 
very remarkable for both ; considering, too, that it would have been 
so inclosed in the courts of the new palace as never, by any chance, 
to be visible simultaneously with any of its principal parts, we can- 
not help thinking this complex pile might have retained in its bosom 
that one relic of an earlier age, with as much grace as the Capitol 
retained its thatched hut, the Jewish Temple its curtained tabernacle, 
or the adjacent abbey and most of our cathedrals their Saxon, Norman, 
or Semi-Gothic remnants. But we do not say this to beg the question. 
Let the necessity for an absolute unity of style throughout the palace 
and all it contains, be admitted in its full rigour — then we say, that 
if the representation of some past style were indispensable, that of the 
fifteenth century style was not indispensable ; and though it might 
have cost more to make a new design than to pull down this trouble- 
some chapel — though economy might have been consulted in sacri- 
ficing the stone building to save the paper design, still we cannot 
but think that, however late the difficulties were discovered, and 
whatever the cost of rectifying past blunders, the representative build- 
ings should have been assimilated to the real; and not the real re- 
built to fit the representative. 

Thus, then, fell St. Stephens, a prey not to the fire but to the re- 
building ; but happily the under-chapel, a specimen of a still purer 
style, escaped both ordeals, and now remains perhaps the most complete 
epitome of Gothic taste and science in existence. This little morceau 
just contains the rudiments, and no more, of every one of those me- 
thods of construction and design which Professor Willis has enumerated 
as essential to the completeness of the Gothic system ; so that if all 
other examples were lost, this one would possibly enable us to recon- 
struct that system. It does not contain them, indeed, highly developed, 
for it is not only small and simple in form, but singularly free from 
over intricacy. Still, there they all are, and unadulterated with any 



st. Stephen's crypt. 153 

of the whims that soon afterwards appeared and accompanied their 
fuller development. 

This work is somewhat older than St. Stephen's Chapel itself was, 
having heen commenced by Edward I. in 1292, and its incombustible 
structure withstood a fire that consumed the rest of the palace six 
years afterwards, as well as the catastrophe of our own days. Like 
other crypts, it is of course of low proportions, the height (which, 
cannot be exactly known, from the loss of the original pavement) not 
exceeding the clear breadth. It has no division by detached pillars ; 
but the masses projecting inwards, and, dividing window from 
window, take the form of short massive clusters, and the vault-ribs 
and all other members partake of the same bold thick character, so 
proper to a low interior, which, from the ceiling exceeding the sur- 
face of its supports, requires everywhere an expression of mass and 
strength. Such an example, coeval with what is commonly supposed 
the lightest and loftiest period of Gothic architecture, is a valu- 
able proof of the versatility of that style which, like all real and ori- 
ginal art, accommodates itself to these varying requirements, instead 
of sacrificing them — or else truth and consistency — to some supposed 
character of its own. The peculiar tracery of the windows is a 
masterly expedient to obviate the dwarfish effect of their low propor- 
tion. Though here exquisitely beautiful, it would be uncouth, because 
unmotived, in loftier -windows. The east end, now destroyed, contained 
three equal windows, of two lights each, the vaulting being beautifully 
varied to fit their heads. This vault is an advance beyond that of the 
abbey nave, not only having the ribs called tiercerons, but admitting 
the principle that they may divide in the middle of their course into 
separate branches. We here also find the beautiful subordination of 
first-rate, second-rate, and third-rate members, or lines of mouldings, 
not only in the tracery, but (perhaps for the first time) in the vaulting. 
It would be impossible for all these principles to be exhibited in any- 
work simpler or plainer than the present; and it is probably the only 
one that exhibits them all without displaying any symptom of decline, 
false luxury, or tendency towards representative design. If the Gothic 
architecture should ever again become a living art, should ever be 
readopted with a view to its future advancement, this is the point at 
which it would have to be taken up. 

The dimensions of this little edifice are, internal length 91 ft. ; 
breadth varying from 23i| ft. in the clear, to 33 ft. between the 
glass of the windows; height, to the springing, about 10 or 12 ft., 
above the springing, 12 ft. 

This is the last fragment in London that can be decidedly classed 
in the first or progressive period of English architecture. It will be 
observed, that every step hitherto in the progress of this art 
originated in ecclesiastical buildings, and could never have occurred 
but for the consistent adherence to certain principles, two of which, 
at least, were quite peculiar to the church-builders of those times. 

h 8 



154 APPROACH OF FALSE LUXURY, 

One of these was a certain spirit of sacrifice, that amounted to no 
less than the devotion of the first and best of everything, to a service 
that was supposed to 

" disdain the lore 

Of nicely calculated less or more." 

It was thought necessary for sacred edifices not only to excel all 
secular ones, hut to excel them in everything, in every imaginable kind 
of excellence. The other principle (no less peculiar to those times) 
consisted in the exclusive use, throughout all the visible parts of 
buildings, of a method of construction, which may be called the com- 
pressive method, because it makes use of only one kind of strength 
in the material, viz., its resistance to compression. It recognises no 
transverse, and no tensile strength, so that no portion of matter is 
allowed to bear a force, however small, tending either to bend or to 
stretch it. 

Now, up to the commencement of the fourteenth century, every 
novelty introduced into church architecture (and not rejected again as 
a mere passing whim) had consisted in a further development of one 
or both of these principles ; but in the next period, on which we are 
now to enter, every general and permanent change tends to a departure 
from the first of them, and generally from the second also. 

Nothing shows this more conspicuously than the frequent erection 
of works of considerable splendour (resulting from the application of 
all the subordinate features and decorations of the Gothic system), 
but without the fundamental excellence for the sake of which this 
whole system was contrived, and without which, it has no meaning. 
As walls and pillars do not constitute an edifice, so neither do walls 
possessing the merits of durability, resistance to decay, or to fire, 
constitute a durable, a permanent, or a fireproof building. It is the 
roof that makes the house, and therefore no edifice can be called per- 
manent which has not a permanent covering. Moreover, none can be 
comfortable, salubrious, or fit for constant use (uninterrupted by re- 
pairs) unless it have two independent coverings with a considerable 
space between (a necessity, which we admit in domestic buildings even 
to this day). Hence, as the early church-builders aimed at making 
those structures better than secular ones (not more effective)^ their 
efforts were directed first to little else than the accomplishment of this 
object, the covering of the largest and loftiest churches with a com- 
plete ceiling, independent of the external roof, and containing no 
combustible or decaying materials ; a problem not easy in an unscien- 
tific age, and not accomplished in the neighbouring continental countries 
till late in the eleventh century, nor in England till near the end of the 
twelfth. This done, the next problem (that of the twelfth and thir- 
teenth centuries) was the refining, beautifying, and harmonizing to- 
gether, of this and all the other members of the building. The inner 
and permanent covering then is the soul of the whole organism ; and 
the unity and congruity of what we call Gothic architecture consists in 



AND REPRESENTATIVE DESIGN. 155 

every feature being made for the vaulting ; either mechanically to fit, 
sustain, or balance it ; or aesthetically to harmonize with it. Hence 
arose that singular j structural principle above-mentioned, that of 
universal compression. Hence, also, when this chief and governing 
member of the building was omitted, both the above principles were 
plainly abandoned ; for, firstly, the innovation, instead of adding (as all 
previous innovations had done) a new excellence to sacred buildings, 
took away an excellence they hitherto had — and this without the 
smallest pretence of a substitute — simply grudged and denied it, for 
the sake of cheapness (or effect^ which means here the same thing) ; 
and, secondly, as a timber roof or ceiling could not, from the nature 
of the material, be constructed on the compressive principle (and as the 
idea was not yet entertained, of representing a sham construction), all 
that system of decoration, founded on univerally compressive structure, 
and which was so beautiful and fit in the vaulted building, was now 
worse than thrown away, being a mere incongruity, since it must be 
flatly contradicted by the chief member of all, the ceiling or roof. 

It is probable that the first important building in which this occurred 
was St. Stephen's Chapel. The great projection of its buttresses, in- 
deed, as well as the commencement of the internal treatment, shows 
that it was intended by its founder, Edward I., to have been vaulted, 
like the crypt below (in which case it would have stood entire to 
this day) ; but, notwithstanding the destruction of the whole palace 
by fire in 1299, it is evident that when the work was proceeded with 
by Edward III., neither durability nor unity of design were thought 
so well worth paying for, as a dazzling display of minute ornaments ; 
which must have cost more than would have sufficed to complete the 
original design, and to spare its finisher the distinction of being the 
introducer of makeshifts into ecclesiastical architecture — the first 
church-builder (probably in any country) who could not afford to 
build so well as those who preceded him. 

Without knowing how the interior of the roof (or ceiling, if it had 
one) of this building was treated, it is impossible to say whether it be- 
longed strictly to the class of representative works; but it will be observed, 
that so naturally and immediately does the new aim — effect — induce 
the new principle of design — representation — that, as soon as builders 
attempted to retain the Gothic character in works not intended to be 
vaulted, this principle might be said to appear ; for the walls, &c, de- 
corated in this manner, cannot be called Gothic architecture, but only 
a representation thereof, just as the Roman architecture was a repre- 
sentation of the Grecian*. Still, the works erected in the reigns of the 
second and third Edwards exhibit only the rudimentary tendency 
towards this new principle of design, and must therefore take an in- 
termediate place between the first and second periods of building. 

* That the Roman architecture (in the time of the empire) was entirely of the 
representative kind, like ours since the time of Edward III., has been observed 
above (note, page 122). 



156 



ELY €HAPEL — AUSTIN FRIAKS CHURCH. 



In London we have only two fragments of the works of this age, 
and these so modernized as to retain hardly a feature beyond the 
windows. 

Ely Chapel, Ely Place, Holborn, belonged to the splendid palatial 
town -residence of the Bishops of Ely, which was founded about the 
beginning of the fourteenth century, but the precise date of the chapel 
is not known. The style, however, points evidently to the reign of 
Edward II., though the east window appears somewhat later than the 
rest. The west window is more elegant, but the side windows have 
lost their tracery, and retain only their external mouldings, which, to- 
gether with the head of a very finished and beautiful doorway, in the 
south side, can be seen only by threading some narrow courts. The 
absence of buttresses, and disposition of the inside decorations, show 
that no vaulting was ever contemplated, and the representative 

character of these decorations is 
betrayed by their flatness, reminding 
one of the pilaster work applied to 
Roman and modern buildings, to 
represent, in shallow relief, the 
beauties of Grecian architecture. 
These walls now serve to inclose a 
Welsh place of worship. 

The Dutch Church, formerly that 
of the Augustine Friars, Broad 
Street, City, consists of the nave 
only of the ancient building, which 
was erected in 1354, and had a 
transept and central spire, considered 
for centuries a chief ornament of the 
capital. This building belongs to the 
same class as the Temple Church, 
having no clerestory, but all three 
aisles nearly of equal height, on 
which account they are also nearly 
equalized in breadth, to prevent the 
centre one appearing dwarfish. The 
exterior having every feature pared 
off, to render it genteel (on the 
packing-case principle), no beauty 
of course remains but that of the 
window tracery, which is of the 
flowing kind, the most uncommon in England, being confined to the 
reign of Edward III., and never in general use even then. These 
windows are all alike, except the central west one ; and, indeed, 
this style of tracery admits of far less variety than the preceding 
kind ; and also of less variation in the mouldings, whence arises a flat- 
ness and shallowness, for which its other beauties cannot compensate. 




<gv '^> s _h '■"".' J^fr' -- 



WINDOW FROM AUSTIN FRIARS. 



WESTMINSTER HALL REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE. 157 

Of the first period of Representative architecture, viz., that in which 
artists confined themselves to the representation of the indigenous 
Gothic style, London retains as few specimens as of the original style 
itself; but of these few, there are two not less remarkable for unique 
design, than for a degree of splendour that places them in the first 
rank among the works of their respective classes. 

Westminster Hall, — This most unique apartment — the greatest 
remnant in existence of Gothic palatial architecture — was erected by 
Richard II. between 1395 and his deposition in 1399. 

All the exterior, as now visible, is of modern design, except the 
north porch and the window over it. These, with the whole of the 
internal stone-work, form one of the earliest specimens of what is 
called (from the number or prominence of lines at right angles to 
each other), the perpendicular style. This name applies to English 
architecture for about half the period that the pointed arch was in 
>e ; for the tendency to convert curves into vertical and horizontal 
lines began at the close of the Edwardian era, and continually in- 
creased till the breaking up of the last vestiges of Gothic design, 
under Elizabeth. All the other changes by which the Gothic passed 
into its later modifications are similar in spirit and principle to those 
by which the features of Grecian building were Romanized. They 
show a general aim to abridge thought, by diverting it from those 
niceties which court and satisfy prolonged inspection, and confining 
it to such points as conduce to the effect of the first coup d'ceil. In 
every element (moulding, carving, tracery, &c.) there reigns the same 
tendency to find out, if not deceptive, at least compendious, mode 
of representing the admired effects of former art. In everything, 
even where there is augmented apparent enrichment and complica- 
tion, there is real simplification or saving of thought; and the 
accumulation of these compendious methods and artistic tricks, tended 
of course to increasing sameness, and the reduction of the art more 
and more to rule and routine. 

With regard to the gorgeous roof which forms the chief part of 
this edifice, we cannot bat regard it as holding that place among 
mediaeval structures which the Colosseum held among those of 
antiquity, and bearing that relation to the Gothic temples which 
that amphitheatre did to the Grecian ones; being the greatest and 
most magnificent instance of the representation of their features for 
the purpose of ornamenting by rudeness a new and totally-different 
kind of construction. We must, in neither case, allow the imposing 
effects to beguile us into a notion that the art is of the true kind. 
Columns and entablatures borrowed from Greek porticoes to be stuck 
against a Roman arcade are a fiction, without use or meaning; 
and consequently, though they may ornament, they do not decorate it, 
L e., render it decorous. In the same category are the arch moulding 
and spandril-work borrowed from Gothic masonry to be applied to 
beautify timber framing. 



158 BEPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — SECOND PERIOD. 

We see, then, as early as the fourteenth century, how representative 
design begins. Of course there are innumerable steps between 
the state of society that first necessitates it, and that which possesses 
nothing else and can produce nothing else ; but, if disposed to con- 
demn this anomaly in its latest and fullest manifestations, as a breach 
of common sense, we should trace it back through its various stages, 
and then we should see that our condemnation must, to be consistent, 
begin much earlier than many would be willing to allow. 

The dimensions of Westminster Hall (see " Westminister Hall") 
are, internally, 239 ft. by 68 (being the largest room in Europe 
without pillars, except that at Padua*), and 42 ft. high. The timber 
arches, however, spring from an internal cornice at only half this 
height ; while on the other hand, the central part is left open to the 
collar beam, half way up the external planes of the roof, which 
occupy somewhat more height vertically than the walls themselves. 
Thus the upper half of this edifice is entirely of timber, and only 
the lower fourth is entirely of stone ; the whole height being divided 
into four nearly equal parts, viz., from the floor to the commence- 
ment of the timber work, thence to the hammer-beams, or top of 
the stone-work, thence to the collar-beam, or top of the internal 
space, and thence to the ridge. The fine end windows extend 
through the second and third of these divisions ; but the original side 
windows are confined to the second of them. The dormers (added 
preparatory to the coronation of George IV.) have greatly improved 
the chiaro-scuro, and would have improved it yet much more if 
placed higher. The obvious place for them was above the collar- 
beam. Their exterior, compared with that of the lantern (also modern 
and of cast iron), will show that contrast is not neglected. 

The huge arch-buttresses to this structure, spreading to more than 
twice its own breadth, are a striking instance of costly sacrifice to the 
whims of representative design. They were yet insufficient, being 
placed only at each alternate truss ; and the places of four on the east 
side, and one on the west, were supplied by other buildings of the palace, 
the removal of which has endangered this extraordinary work, and led 
to the substitution of slates for the original covering of lead. Its 
thrust, or dependence on lateral propping T must still almost equal that of 
a Gothic vault of the same dimensions. The west buttresses are now 
all inclosed in the buildings of the law courts, and of the three on the 
east only one ever stood isolated- The material of this grand structure 
is chestnut (from Normandy, as Sir C. Wren thought), the workman- 
ship unrivalled for accuracy and perfection of moulded detail. 

Guildhall, King Street, Cheapside. — This first architectural attempt 
of the Londoners was built by subscription, and begun in 1411. The 

* The Paduan Hall is 240 ft. by 80. The comparison does not include clear 
spaces between the pillars of structures having them ; for both halls would be excelled 
by the middle aisles of some Roman basilicas, by that of St. Peter's (which would 
contain them both, endwise), and by some modern ship-building sheds. 



GUILDHALL. 159 

roof being destroyed, with nearly the whole city, by the great fire of 
1666, the interior was patched up by Wren, and again in the last 
century by Dance, who was permitted to add the present front, seem- 
ingly, like one or two later city architects, with a malicious intent to 
expose his worthy townsmen to ridicule. 

The finest part of this edifice is certainly the crypt, now a dark 
cellar, which has very elegant vaulting, with arches of the four- 
centred form, probably some of the earliest of that sort, which seems 
peculiar to this country, and has been commonly called the Tudor 
arch, though the time of its introduction would rather justify the term 
La n castrian arch* . 

With regard to the internal decoration of the hall itself, the chief 
if not sole model taken for imitation was evidently the nave of 
Winchester Cathedral, a very grand work, which, after many years' 
progress, was then lately finished. There is the same horizontal 
cornice, more large and prominent than is usual in Gothic buildings, 
the same boldness and largeness of feature in the "responders" (or 
wall-pillars), and the same kind of deep panelling, forming, between 
each pair of these responders, five vertical divisions, of which the 
three middle ones probably formed a window, though now in every 
case walled up. A cunning trick for effect is seen in the transom 
being placed a few inches lower in these three, than in the two lateral 
panels, so as to imitate, at the first glance, the effect of the former 
receding further than the latter (as they do at Winchester); and 
altogether, notwithstanding their strong resemblance in style, any 
one who sees both buildings cannot mistake which is the original, 
nor fail to perceive in the one a certain genuineness and delicacy that 
never entirely deserted the ecclesiastical Gothic; and in the other an 
air of coarseness and vulgar display, perhaps inseparable from the 
works of a busy commercial city. Yet it would be hardly possible to 
say what makes this difference. 

The dimensions of this hall are 153 ft. by 48 ft. The ends were 

* This ingenious refinement seems to have grown naturally out of the elaboration 
and exquisite finish which distinguished the English vaultings; for, notwithstanding 
our timidity in never attempting this art on a large scale, and our frequent disuse of 
it for the sake of the cheap gaudiness attainable in woodwork, yet this feature (else- 
where the most stationary part of the Gothic system) was with us the most steadily 
progressive, and by the end of the 14th century had reached a perfection and variety 
never attained by it on the Continent. Much wonder has lately been excited by the 
geometric skill shown in adjusting the invisible curves of Greek buildings, but great 
as it was, that shown in the English vaultings of the 14th century is greater. We 
may, without vanity, designate them the triumph of architecture ; for though the 
aggregate merit of each production of this art may not always be quite proportional 
to the geometric knowledge and thought put forth, it is so in general. Everywhere, 
hitherto, the exaltation or debasement of this art and its professors seems to have 
been always proportional to their geometrical science and the importance they attached 
to it. Hence it is lamentable to see the neglect and even contempt of geometry dis- 
played in the present architecture of England, which is now as singularly deficient 
on this point as it was formerly pre-eminent. 



160 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — SECOND PERIOD, 



to say 



probably lowered and much altered, so that it is difficult now to 
what was their original appearance, or how high was the roof, most 
likely a miniature of Westminster HalL The buttresses, though 
very prominent, hardly seem sufficient for such a roof, with the 
excessive bulkiness of parts that would be required to harmonize 
with the bold internal decorations. 

The panel-work round the dais is modern, and very poor. The 
monuments are on the orthodox principle, that every hero worth one 
at all, must excel all who preceded, and have a monument pro- 
portionally excelling theirs in size and conspicuousness, the only sure 
and ever ready and marketable modes of expressing importance. 
The two monstrous wooden figures called Gog and Magog have 
sprung up since the time of Stow, but when, how, or why, we have 
no record. 

St Bartholomews the Less, or the chapel of St. Bartholomew's 
Hospital, retains (among a mass of contemptible pseudo-Gothic) 
one genuine and noble arch of the Lancastrian era. 

The Gateway to the inner ward of the Tower, which has acquired 
the tragic name of " Bloody Tower/' from the room over the arch- 
way being the traditional scene of the murder of the royal infants 
of Edward IV., must have been erected before that time, but how 
long the simplicity of the external features does not permit us to say. 
The gates are genuine, and the portcullis is said to be the only one re- 
maining in England fit for use. The archway, by its slight curvature, 
angularity, and depth, forms a noble specimen of what may be called 
the Doric order of Gothic. For a prison entrance we know of no 
more perfect model. The vaulting within seems a later addition, and 
less artistic; but every detail being bold and strongly marked, without 
the intermixture of anything weak, thin, or shallow, there results 
that truth and consistency of expression which were then still con- 
sidered necessary, these qualities not having been abandoned till 
almost our own times. 

Crosby Place, Bishopsgate Street (immortalized by Shakspere as 
supposed residence of the infamous Richard), claims especial notice 
as the only remnant of the domestic architecture of Old London. It 
was built by Sir John Crosby, M.P., alderman and grocer, who 
obtained the ground on a lease of 99 years, in 146*6', and is sup- 
posed to have finished the erection before 1470. The present age 
of course condemns the folly of a person building what he cannot 
wear out, and what is certain to yield as much or more profit to 
others after him ; but it must be admitted that it was an amiable 
folly, and the inhabitants of most Italian and French cities owe some 
gratitude to those who were bitten with it. Though Englishmen at 
no time imbibed this spirit to nearly the same extent as the Vene- 
tians, or most other foreigners, still we were not without domestic 
architecture, and it reached its highest pitch about the time of 
Sir John Crosby. 



CROSBY PLACE. 



161 



The chief parts of this mansion surrounded three sides of a small 
deep quadrangle, open on the west end, to Bishopsgate Street, and 
having the whole east end occupied by the hall. The present remains 
consist of this hall (the ends of which, however, are modern); two 
rooms, one over the other, forming part of the north side; and 
extensive cellars under the whole mansion, covered with plain brick 
vaults, except that on the south side of the quadrangle, which has 
ribbed groining of stone. The hall (though some feet at each end 
are of modern design) retains its original proportions, viz., 54 ft. long, 
27 ft. wide, and fo?1y ft- high* Such was the sacrifice then thought 
worth making for majesty of proportion, though no sacrifice was made 
to " respectability," to sym- 



metrical regularity, or to pic- 
turesque irregularity. This 
hall is lighted from both 
sides, near the ceiling, by 
Lancastrian arched windows, 
of singular beauty both ex- 
ternally and internally. We 
doubt if there be any speci- 
men of domestic windows, 
in any style, more graceful, 
or more void of superfluities 
and affectations ; and all the 
others in Crosby Place ap- 
pear to have been similar, 
though rather shorter. The 
crowning beauty, however, 
is the vaulted semi-octagonal 
bay window, or oriel, as it is 
called. Its interior is one of 
the most perfect things do- 
mestic architecture ever pro- 
duced; and the exterior, one 
of the best of its class, though 
disfigured by the atrophied 
representative buttresses at 
the corners. 

The two north rooms had 
a bay window of similar 
form and size, but different 
external appearance, owing 
to the intervention of a band 
of solid wall between the 
upper and lower lights, both 
of which, being governed by common sense, were arched, like the 
heads of all the other windows, the affectation of making the little 




OUTSIDE OF THE CROSBY ORIEL. 



162 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — SECOND PERIOD. 

arches of the lights support, or appear to support, a straight mass 
of wall, having not yet come into vogue. Both stories of this oriel 
were vaulted; and the window side of both upper and lower rooms 
is lightened, as well as decorated, by deep Gothic panelling, which, 
like everything in mediaeval building (whether original or repre- 
sentative, decorous or nonsensical), rich or plain, is always handsome; 
because, prior to the rise in Europe of the principle of mechanical 
form-multiplying— of which brick-making was the first, and printing 
the most important instance — there was neither ready-made orna- 
ment nor ready-made design ; for it was never imagined that anything 
could be decorative or decorous which was not designed and made 
expressly for its place. These rooms measure 42 ft. by 22 ft., and 
about 20 ft. high. The upper has, like the great hall, an oak ceiling, 
of a depressed Lancastrian arch form, rising partly into the roof, though 
not high enough to prevent the latter being properly tied. The 
ornaments of the small ceiling have been renovated in papier mache, 
but those of the great hall ceiling, being less delicate and on a much 
bolder scale, remain. The arch-like curves, dipping into three rows 
of pendants, are playful, and consistent with the festive character of 
the building ; though the uselessness and falsehood of such append- 
ages should banish them from the purer and more severely decorous 
architecture proper to public, and especially ecclesiastical, buildings. 

The Guard-chamber of Lambeth Palace has a Gothicized roof, or 
rather roof-ceiling, of the simplest kind, and remarkable for its 
massive parts. It is probably of earlier date than Crosby Place, and 
seems to be an exact imitation of some extinct kind of stone roof. 
The same room has a Gothic (Lancastrian) window. 

The Gatehouse at Lambeth was rebuilt in its present form by 
Cardinal Morton in 1490. Though in a debased style, the design 
of the gateway itself is worthy of notice. The external archways 
give no idea of the inner one, which is finely proportioned ; and 
the interior has ribbed vaulting, a member which the mediaeval 
builders seem never to have omitted in any situation where the 
surrounding walls afforded sufficient butment. 

St. Johns Gate, Clerkenwell, is, with the east window of . the 
modernized church a little distant to the north-east, the only remnant 
of the great establishment of Knights' Hospitallers, who settled here 
in 1100, or some years before their rivals, the Templars. Their first 
hospital being burnt, was gradually rebuilt, and not finished till 1504. 
The present fragments cannot be referred to a much earlier date than 
this, as they have all the crabbed worn-out air of a very old and 
decrepid state of art. The gateway is not to be compared with that 
of the Bloody Tower, or even Lambeth; having, indeed, no beauty 
of proportion or detail ; but the universal groining was not omitted. 

The Porch of St. Sepulchre, opposite Newgate, marks the limit of 
the great fire in that direction, the church having been destroyed, 
but this fragment left. Its interior retains the original decorations, 



THE ROYAL TOMBS. 163 

among which the vaulting, the forms of which seem correctly pre- 
served in a plaster imitation, is remarkable as showing one of the 
first approaches towards a refined modification, peculiar to England 
and to the Yorkist and Tudor reigns, and commonly termed fan 
vaulting. The changes by which this was produced are similar in 
principle to those affecting the other Gothic features — abridgment of 
real labour, but increase of apparent elaboration ; loss of real richness 
but gain of eye-catching fritter; abandonment of sculpture for 
carving, and of carving for mere mechanical stone-cutting. This is 
seen in the omission of the bosses, that in the earlier vaultings 
were so rich and yet so retiring as hardly to be noticed; and the 
substitution of a more glaring but infinitely less genuine ornament, 
the unmeaning arch-like panel heads, all alike, and only repeating in 
an absurd situation the forms that fill the walls and windows. 

Henry the Seventh's Chapel. — Before describing this most gorgeous 
of mausolea, it may be as well to glance at the neighbouring series 
of royal sepulchres, and, indeed, all those in this abbey church, 
which exemplify the growth of that singular spirit of tomb-building 
rivalry, which finally reached its climax in this unparalleled manifest- 
ation. As the earlier tombs, though always adorned with archi- 
tectural forms, hardly come under the term works of architecture, 
they have not been noticed in their chronological places, but left for 
the present, that objects so similar and closely connected might be 
all brought together. 

The Royal Tombs. — The first is that erected by Henry III., 
the founder of the present church, to enshrine the remains of its 
former founder, the canonized King Edward the Confessor. This 
being the most venerated relic was placed in the most distinguished 
spot of the new edifice, viz., under the centre of convergence of the 
apsidal vaulting of the chancel. The whole of this apsis, or semi- 
oval termination, has its floor raised some feet above that of the 
surrounding aisles, and approached from the choir by a gradual 
ascent of steps, at wide intervals, at the head of which ascent stands 
a screen, made to form a back to the principal altar, and to part off 
the apsis (called " St. Edward's Chapel"); but low enough to allow 
a glimpse of the top of the shrine, on which the remains of that 
luminary were elevated, " as on a candlestick, to enlighten the 
church." We doubt if any temple of a sensuous worship, Pagan or 
Christian, afforded an instance of a more grand and imposing arrange- 
ment. This screen is now covered on both sides with elaborate 
fretwork of niches and canopies in the style of the 15th century; 
but it retains, on the inner or eastern side, a frieze of fourteen rude 
but deeply under-cut sculptures, representing events, real or legend- 
ary, in the life of the royal saint. It is almost the only English 
example of that beautiful species of monument, peculiar to an early 
and growing state of civilization, the historical frieze, in which 



164 SEPULCHRAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE FIRST AND SECOND PERIODS. 

picture-writing, almost superseded by letters, seems to put forth, in 
the last struggle, its utmost luxury and elaboration*. 

To the weak partiality of Henry III. for foreigners, we owe some 
beautiful, though un-English, peculiarities of his church, its apsidal 
chapels, and its lofty proportions; but the same weakness appears 
disadvantageously in the three tombs he erected; one to his infant 
daughter, in the south aisle of the chancel, one to his sainted 
ancestor, and one to himself. These, being the work of an Italian, 
named Cavalini, exhibit no resemblance to the growing beauty of the 
early Gothic, but are in the irregular uncertain style then prevalent 
in Italy (called by some Trecentine), an undigested mixture of classic 
Arabian and Gothic features, overlaid with tawdry mosaics, which, 
however, have mostly disappeared from these monuments, by the 
depredations first of violence, and then of relic-hunting. The shrine 
of St. Edward has, above the stone portion, which is about 9 ft. high, 
an oaken addition representing two stories of Italian architecture, 
and was finished, it is said, by a miniature roof. The tomb of Henry 
himself resembles two structures piled one on the other, and is 
surmounted by his recumbent figure in brass, and above that, a 
flat and very plain wooden canopy, which was, no doubt, gaudily 
painted or gilt. 

This occupies one of the seven inter-columns of the oval or horse- 
shoe-formed apsis, and the other six openings are filled by six later 
royal sepulchres, thus completing, with the screen above mentioned, 
the inclosure of St. Edward's Chapel. Taken in their chronological 
order, they well exhibit the regular progress in architectural luxury 
and false richness, and the no less regular decline in decorum, grace, 
and sculptural excellence. The first, that of the renowned Queen 
Eleanor, has its sides decorated with the heraldic insignia of the 
mourners ; and as these required to be sunk in panels for their pro- 
tection, the panels, &c, take forms of great beauty, not so much 
adopted from as assimilated to structural architecture, plainly for the 
sake of harmony therewith, not imitation thereof. The little pillars, 
blank arches, and hoods, may be said indeed to represent construc- 
tions that an object cut in solid stone does not possess; but on a 
larger scale it would require them; besides, they imitate no more 
closely than, in classic art, the pedestal imitates a building with plinth 
and eaves, or the balustrade a miniature colonnade. The principle 
cannot be called representative. The effigy (by Torelli, an Italian,) 
is considered the finest piece of mediaeval sculpture in England. The 
tomb of her husband, on the other side of Henry the Third's, 

* There is a much longer historical frieze surrounding the chapter-house at Salis- 
bury, which in a length of about 150 ft. represented the Old Testament history, 
brought down as far as the passage of the Red Sea, but the earlier parts containing 
the creation are quite effaced. This was executed in the same reign, and probably 
about the same time, as the Westminster frieze. 



THE ROYAL TOMBS — HENRY V.'s CHANTRY. 165 

appears never to have been finished by his unfortunate son, and 
forms a hiatus in the series ; but the next in date, that of Philippa, 
queen of Edward III. — in whose reign some have placed the 
culmination of English arts as well as arms — displays these mani- 
fest symptoms of decline ; the figure has less simple dignity, 
and more attempt to supply its place by minute imitations of 
costume, and florid surrounding accessories, in which we have the 
absurdity of architectural forms laid on their backs ; and in these, 
as well as those which decorate the sides of the tomb, we first 
find the overhanging niche-canopies representing arches and vaultings 
springing from nothing*. Edward the Third's own tomb is alto- 
gether a gorgeous composition; but here, in addition to the above 
instances of representative design, we first find mimic buttresses, 
those very defects w r hich the early Gothicists had taken such pains 
to overcome in the form of these necessary members, being here 
wantonly introduced as ornament, though certainly with such a 
change as to diminish greatly their unsightliness. All the former 
royal tombs are surmounted by wooden canopies, with such finish 
and decoration of mouldings, &c, as was appropriate to their con- 
struction, and, in one case (Queen Eleanor's), extremely elegant; 
but here we have this feature elaborated to a degree that almost 
throws the tomb into insignificance. Yet, how is this enrichment 
effected? Only by disguising the real with a fictitious structure, 
covering it throughout with forms w T hich would be beautiful indeed 
in the material for which they were invented (or any material 
possessed chiefly of compressile strength), and supported on appro- 
priate pillars ; but which, imitated in wood and hanging in the air, 
are false and absurd. In this mimic vaulting, however (which evidently 
afforded the model to that in St. Sepulchre's porch above noticed), 
we see, probably, the first hint both of the fan work construction of 
vaults and the absurd arched panel mode of decorating them. The 
next sepulchre is that erected by Richard II. to his queen, Anne of 
Bohemia; and into which his own remains were afterwards removed. 
Being nearly cotemporary with the last, it has nothing remarkable 
but the brass effigies of the king and queen, disgracefully mutilated. 
Lastly, the mausoleum erected by (or in pursuance of the will of) 
Henry V., who left the most minute directions concerning it, fills 
the eastern or central arch of the apsis, and is the only one 
that (after the example set by some ambitious prelates in their own 
cathedrals) expands into a complete edifice, a miniature chapel, or 
chantry as it was called, with an altar and every requisite for the 
ecclesiastics appointed to say masses, for ever, for the soul of the 

* The shields (one under each statuette, to describe whom it represented) had 
their bearings, not in relief, but in painting, which, having worn off, has afforded to 
modern builders a most valuable resource, the cheapest supposed ornament, for which 
precedent could be found, viz., Uanh shields ! Blank ribands for inscriptions had a 
similar origin. 



166 TOMBS OF THE FIRST AND SECOND PERIODS. 

deceased*. The tomb in this case stands under a richly-vaulted 
sort of gateway, flanked by two turrets of open fretwork containing 
winding stairs (the very unseen soffits of which are of fan vaulting) 
leading up to the chantry. This is a loft or gallery supported partly 
on the vaulting already mentioned, over the tomb, and partly on a 
continuation thereof eastward, across the ambulatory, or circular aisle, 
to the entrance of the Lady Chapel, now replaced by that of Henry 
VII. This loft is surrounded on all sides by screens of minutely- 
fretted niche and canopy work, that on the east now forming the 
extremity of the Abbey Church in that direction. 

The chronological gaps occurring in this series are filled up by 
other monuments in the adjacent parts of the building, and we believe 
the following list contains all those possessing any Gothic architec- 
tural features. The dates are added as nearly as can be ascertained, 
and also the situations, which are all confined to the portions of the 
church lying east of the transept. The terms north and south square 
chapel, apply to those formed in the rentrant angles (marked H and 
in the plan, page 148). 

Gothic Tombs in Westminster Abbey Church, 

1. Aveline, daughter-in-law of Henry III. . 1276 North side of chancel. 

2. Queen Eleanor 1291 North-east of apsis. 

3. William de Valence, half-brother to Henry III. 1296 South apsidal chapel. 

4. Two infants of Humphry Bohun. Temp. Edward I. North apsidal chapel. 

5. Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III., about 1300 North of chancel. 

6. King Edward I. (unfinished) . . . 1307 North of apsis. 

7. Sebert (King of Essex, original founder of the 

Abbey), erected by the monks in . . 1308 South of chancel. 

8. Aymer de Valence ..... 1323 North of chancel. 

9. John of Eltham, son of Edward II. . . 1334 South apsidal chapel. 
This had once a stone canopy on eight pillars, said to have excelled the beautiful 

ones of Aveline, Aymer, and even Crouchback. 

10. Two infants of Edward III 1340 South apsidal chapel. 

11. Queen Philippa 1369 South-east of apsis. 

12. King Edward III. . . . . 1377 South of apsis. 

13. Archbishop Langham 1379 South square chapel. 

14. King Richard II. and Queen . . . 1394 South of apsis. 

15. Eleanor de Bohun, Duchess of Grlocester . 1399 South apsidal chapel. 

16. Sir Bernard Brocas 1400 Ditto. 

17. Abbot William of Colchester . . . 1420 North apsidal chapel. 

18. King Henry V 1422 East of apsis. 

19. Philippa, Duchess of York .... 1431 South-east apsidal chapel. 

20. Lord Bourchier, standard bearer to Henry V. 1431 North-east apsidal chapel. 

21. Bishop Dudley or Sutton ... . . 1483 South-east apsidal chapel. 

22. Sir Thomas Vaughan, treasurer to Edward IV. North apsidal chapel. 

23. Abbot Fascet 1500 Ditto. 

24. Bishop Ruthall . . . .' . . 1522 Ditto. 

25. Abbot Islyp 1532 North square chapel. 

* This extravagant system seems to have begun with Bishop Edyngdon, who died 
in 1366, at Winchester, which cathedral contains no less than eight of these monu- 
ments of overgrown vanity and superstition, each excelling the last in costly magni- 
ficence, one erected by each bishop that occupied the see from that time down to the 
Reformation. 



ISLYPS CHANTRY HENRY VIl/s CHAPEL. 167 

The tomb of Islyp is destroyed, but bis chantry is remarkable for its 
fine vaulting, and curious rebuses expressing his name (an eye, with a 
slip for planting, and a boy slipping out of a tree). Some attribute 
to this abbot the design of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, while others 
divide that honour between the King and Bishop Alcock, of Ely; 
Bishop Fox, of Winchester (both of whom erected most gorgeous 
chantries in their own cathedrals) ; or, lastly, with Sir Reginald Bray, 
whose name is most commonly associated with it ; but the will of 
Henry VII. expressly mentions as "master of the works" the prior 
of St. Bartholomew's, whose name was William Bolton, and is 
known to have been a famous builder. The statement, however, 
that the king or his architects imported these forms " of more 
curious and exquisite building" from France is without foundation, 
for the Continent affords no instance of the fan-vaulting, or any other 
of the peculiar subtleties of this extraordinary work ; all of which 
grew naturally out of ideas which the florid Gothic of England, and 
of no other country, had latterly developed. 

Determining to outvie not only his royal predecessors, but all 
tomb-builders, lay or clerical, and English or foreign, in the splendour 
of his monumental chapel and its endowment, Henry VII. pulled 
down the Lady Chapel (the easternmost part of the church, and that 
first rebuilt in the pointed style), to replace it by this larger erection, 
which he began in January, 1503, and left directions for finishing. 
But the building itself, exclusive of the tomb and internal fittings, 
appears to have been completed before his decease. The plan of 
the chapel is neither complex nor unusual, a simple central avenue 
terminating eastward in five sides of an octagon, and flanked by 
lower aisles, which would continue round this octagon apsis, did not 
six solid wedge-shaped masses divide this curved portion of the aisle 
into five square recesses, or chapels, as they are called, open to the 
central apsis, but not to each other or the side aisles. The outer 
buttresses take the form of octagon turrets, and are continued nearly 
as high as the central building, terminating in clusters of niches and 
great pear-shaped pinnacles. These weighty masses obviate the 
necessity for an outward extension of the feet of the buttresses. The 
flying buttresses to prop the central vaulting are double, the upper 
and lower of each pair being connected by open tracery of circles, at 
once graceful and structurally true. These features alone would 
give an extraordinary intricacy to the upper part of the fabric, which 
is prodigiously augmented by covering every part with panelling. 
But what makes the unparalleled fritter of the exterior, is the 
replacement of the usual aisle windows by a sort of glazed screen 
broken into angles something like the plan of a modern fortification, 
and borrowed from the most fanciful kinds of oriels used in the 
domestic architecture of that time. With the octagon buttresses and 
the zigzag curtains connecting them, the outer inclosure is broken 
into about 160 parts, no two adjacent ones in the same plane. 



168 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE SECOND PERIOD. 

The puerility of this freak (which might be proper enough to obviate 
flatness in a greenhouse or an iron building) is contrasted by the 
simple grandeur of the upper story, which has common-sense win- 
dows of a tall and elegant form, and with hardly any of the perpen- 
dicular mannerism in their tracery. The mass of work above them 
serves a double purpose ; to fortify, by its load, the pillars against the 
inward thrust of the aisle vaultings ; and to afford headway between 
the main vault and the roof, which is very properly of a low pitch, 
for nothing could be more incongruous than a vast surface of plain 
roof, with its massive unbroken form, over the weak and delicate 
features of the late Gothic, even when interspersed with plain wall. 
The whole exterior of this edifice was renovated at the public 
expense, between 1809 and 1822. The cost, in the softest stone 
obtainable (which is unfortunately already perishing), was £42,000. 
The original forms are said to be strictly preserved; but this certainly 
cannot be the case with the upper parapet and pinnacles, which 
betray such extreme poverty of thought as never was tolerated by 
mediaeval builders. 

The interior does not disappoint, as is too often the case, the expecta- 
tions raised by a highly-enriched exterior, but keeps that predomi- 
nance over it in quantity of ornament which it always should keep. 
This more ornate character is obtained, not as usual, by its having 
less plain surface (for neither exterior nor interior has any surface 
not broken up with ribs and panels), but by the substitution, in 
many places, of carving for architectural forms, and sculpture for 
carving. The building is said to have contained 3000 full-length 
statues and statuettes, besides the cherubs and animal figures with 
w r hich there is "no jutty, frieze, buttress, nor coign of vantage" 
but seems alive. Nor is this sculpture much more remarkable for 
quantity than quality, for that art seems to have attained with us 
a second meridian about the time of the expiring Gothic ; and though 
the general mass of it found in rural buildings of this era displays 
a most depraved taste in those who suffered churches to be pro- 
faned wdth such trash, yet the specimens in this chapel, and that at 
Warwick, show that the immense demand did call up artists (most 
probably Italians), hardly inferior to those of the Edwardian era, 
though the style is far more artificial. Ranks of statues of saints, 
in close array, supported by cornices of angels equally crowded, line 
each of the five recesses round the apsis, and supply the place of 
a triforium round the whole interior. But the luxury of the English 
after-Gothic is most singularly displayed in the vaulting, which, 
in foreign buildings of this degree of enrichment, presents an incon- 
gruous baldness, but here a splendour altogether similar, in degree 
and kind, to that of the other parts. The eastern recesses present 
fan- work in its simplest form, though varied by a small central piece 
of flat ceiling, which is unnecessary and structurally false. In the 
side aisles, this central portion of each compartment is chiefly occu- 



st. Paul's cathedral. 191 

with the very grave one of ill-distributed light. Nothing can 
atone for the fact that the dome, which ought to be the lightest, 
is the darkest part of the interior ; an effect now sadly exaggerated 
by the lower parts having been cleaned, while all above the central 
circular cornice remains lined with dust and smoke, a dark undis- 
tinguishable cavity. The defect, however, is radical and irremediable; 
and it seems to us that its avoidance would have been worth any 
sacrifice of external beauty. So, indeed, the architects of St. Peter's 
and its dormer windows evidently thought. The only remedy, if any, 
would be some arrangement of reflectors ; and if the windows of 
the rest of the edifice were deeply coloured, as in the early Gothic 
churches, perhaps the due proportion of light between the dome 
and other parts might be obtained. 

The technical defects of the interior exceed those of the exterior; 
and perhaps the greatest of them is the eking out the height of each 
pilaster by an ugly isolated bit of entablature, which is the more inex- 
cusable from the number of ways in which it might easily have been 
avoided. With regard to the attic that takes the place of the Gothic 
triforium, it is doubtful whether its 19 feet adds anything to the 
effective height, which appears much the same as if the vaults sprung 
at once from the entablature. Of the two orders (that continue inter- 
mixed in the Palladian manner throughout), it is to be regretted that 
the principal is every way more enriched than the subordinate one; 
its pilasters being fluted and its mouldings carved, neither of which 
ornaments is possessed by the smaller order. This is directly con- 
trary to the general practice of the Italian architects, founded on 
nature, which always bestows most ornament on the subordinate and 
weaker parts. The treatment of these two orders should have been 
just reversed, except the entablature of the small order, which is 
meanly and disproportionately small. The few r columns used near 
the west end give an idea of the enchanting effects that would have 
resulted from an occasional use of such members (in the small order) 
elsewhere, as is done throughout St. Peter's. The four extremities 
of the interior are its finest parts. In the portion under the dome, 
the four segmental arches are obviously an after insertion, probably 
on account of some symptom of unequal settlement observed in one 
of the arches over them. Their introduction must ever be regretted, 
as a blemish to the integrity of the most important part of the edifice, 
apparently useless, and really useless to the equilibrium of the work 
as designed; consequently betraying a discrepancy between design 
and execution. The meeting and interpenetration of the mouldings 
of the eight main arches has been censured quite enough for so unim- 
portant a point of detail. No one has shown how it could be avoided 
(retaining the present ground-plan) without introducing greater evils; 
and we are. tempted to think it one of the very few points escap- 
ing Wren's notice till after the foundations were laid. 

The great architect had prepared schemes for consistently deco- 



192 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 

rating the bare surfaces, at least of the vaultings, if not of other 
parts ; and the inner dome was to glow with the perennial freshness 
of mosaic painting, for which has been substituted stage scenery, 
appropriately inclosing the wretched counterfeit sculpture of Sir 
James Thornhill, both now happily unintelligible, from smoke and 
damp. The house or theatre painters seem to have taken possession 
of the chancel and apsis. 

The exterior of this fabric, no less than that of its Italian rival, is 
remarkable (as seen from its immediate vicinity) for deceptive small- 
ness. Few spectators from the surrounding roads would believe the 
dimensions of any part, if stated to them, This defect (which some 
by singular sophistry have tried to prove a beauty) arises here chiefly 
from the want of a scale, owing to the fence preventing our seeing 
any human figures near the foot of the building, or even judging of 
the distance that separates us from it. The hiding of this space, 
and giving us scale-objects only close at hand, amounts to the fur- 
nishing of & false scale; and it is difficult to conceive any contrivance 
more effectual for diminishing the building, unless it be a concave 
lens. An equally injurious addition, however, was made by the puppy 
who supplanted Wren in the last few years of his long life (see 
Architects, Wren). A late writer on architecture has said, re- 
garding the effect of scale or no scale on works of nature or art, 
that u it takes very little to humble a mountain. A hut will do 
it sometimes." It takes still less to humble a cathedral, and 
this little, Wren's contemptible successor contrived to add, in 
his mock balustrade over the second cornice ; a thing protested 
against by Wren without seeing it — how much mofe had he 
seen its barbarous design ! —and, what is worse, a thing studiously 
contrived to give a false scale ; for this is one of the very few 
architectural features (perhaps the only one), whose use requires a 
limited and almost invariable dimension, and it is therefore taken by 
every eye as a perfectly safe measure or scale. We know that a 
balustrade is meant to lean upon, and therefore, wherever we see 
one, we conclude it to be about 3 or 4 ft. high. A mock balustrade, 
nine feet high, never enters our calculations, so that when we see 
such an absurdity, on a building 90 ft. high, if we have other scales 
we are simply puzzled, but if, as in this case, we have none, the building 
is at once reduced to 30 or 40 ft. Hence it happens that the west 
front of St. Paul's is the only part whose magnitude has a chance of 
being appreciated ; and here we have actually no scale at all, true or 
false ; no balustrade, no living figures, and not only the foreground, 
but the flight of steps (the only scale-object the front itself contains), 
shut out from view by the fence. 

St Stephens, Walbrook, is considered the most original and beau- 
tiful of the fifty parochial churches rebuilt by Wren in consequence 
of the same immense fire. In many, perhaps most, of these struc- 
tures, the doggedness of the authorities confined him rigidly to the 



HENRY VII. S CHAPEL. 



169 




HENRY VII. 'S CHAPEL. 



pied by that extraordinary design — a pendent mass of stone made to 
resemble the springing and supporting parts of the vault. Repre- 
sentations of these parts (supposed to indicate richness of fancy) are 
by some critics condemned; nevertheless, the effect is most en- 
chanting, and the beauty of its workmanship is of such extreme 
richness that the mind is filled with amazement and delight by the 
solidity and permanency of its ornamentation. Its unique and bold 

I 



170 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE SECOND PERIOD. 

style are evidences of the determination of its architect to avoid 
imitation in the execution of his task (see our illustrations in pages 
169 and 171, both drawn with exactness and engraved in wood with 
fidelity). 

These lower vaultings, however, betray the fact, that the em- 
bayed and zigzag outer inclosures are an afterthought, for the 
vaulting is in no way adjusted to them, but terminates in a single 
arch, spanning from buttress to buttress; and its edge (by having 
no greater prominence than the other ribs) gives an unfinished 
appearance. The great, or clere-story vaulting, consists of a most 
ingenious combination of arches and arch-w r ork, in which the com- 
pressile principle of building reaches the utmost elaboration and 
refinement it ever attained ; and of which there are only two other 
examples (both much less ornate), erected about the same time as 
this, in the Cathedral and Divinity-School at Oxford. This may 
may be said to be a final triumph of architectural science. 

The fittings of this building, and the tomb, by the celebrated 
Torrigiano, were added pursuant to the will of the founder. It 
has been conjectured that the celebrated Benevenuto Cellini executed 
some of the finest of this work, but this being doubtful we do not 
give it as a fact. The screen of brass surrounding it is a most unique 
work, and was intended to enclose the chantry, in which prayers 
were to be oifered on behalf of the deceased "for ever." Unequalled 
monument of human shortsightedness ! He knew not that this whole 
overgrown system, accumulated for ages, was now ripe to its fall. 
He little thought in how few years the growing enlightenment of 
the land, and the selfishness of his own son, would sweep off this 
whole vast machinery, for ever silence the masses, and leave these 
gorgeous aisles a gazing-stock and a glorious wonder. 

St. Stephens Cloisters and Oratory, Westminster Palace. — This 
portion of the old Palace (lying in the angle between St. Stephen's and 
the Great Hall) was rebuilt by the u Defender of the Faith" himself, 
before his momentous troubles of conscience, and is, therefore, the last 
fragment of splendid ecclesiastical building in England. It is also 
the last decidedly decorative work that is unmixed with Italian details 
(which had already been introduced pretty extensively), and the last 
that contains the great structural essential of the Gothic architecture, 
viz., the vaulting, which has ever since been so completely abandoned, 
that everything relating to it is become practically a lost art. This 
is indeed, at present, a fortunate loss, as it preserves this one part of 
the ancient buildings — incomparably their most important and varied 
part, as regards either science or taste — from the present grievous 
" restoration," a more ruthless catastrophe than any that befel them 
under the Tudor tyrant, the Eoundheads, or the churchwarden 
beautifiers. Parsimony or inability precludes our restorers from 
touching this main feature, and thus leads us to hope, that when the 
storm has done its worst, though all the rest of these precious me- 



ST. STEPHEN S CLOISTERS. 



171 




HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL. 



the 



mentos be worse than destroyed — falsified, and made a forgery 
vaultings and their carved bosses will remain genuine. 

The St. Stephen's cloisters are on a very minute scale, but on the 
usual plan, surrounding a square court, and are remarkable for 
having had two stories, of which the lower only was vaulted. The 
windows and their mouldings occupy the whole of each inter-buttress, 
so as to admit all the light possible, and hence the upper ones have 
each light carried up to reach the flat ceiling, and no general arch 
spanning from buttress to buttress to relieve the minor arches over 
the lights. There being no mass of wall to support, this construction 
is here fit and beautiful ; not so in other cases, where this " Tudor" 
window is evidently used merely as the cheapest means of retaining 
those Gothic peculiarities that had come to be considered essential to 
gentility; and where the necessity for a concealed arch (often in 
ancient and always in modern instances) renders the whole affair a 
masque and a deception. The vaulting of the lower cloister presents 
four beautiful varieties. That of the west side, which was the most 
frequented as a corridor of communication, is the richest; that of 

I 2 



172 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — SECOND PERIOD. 

the north and south rather plainer; and that of the east the plainest. 
These three modifications are all on the fan- work principle; but in 
the four corner compartments of the arcade a fourth design is used, 
similar in decorative style, but applied to an earlier form of vault, 
having greater appearance of strength. From the middle of the 
western arcade, between two of the immense isolated buttresses of 
Westminster Hall, a minute chapel or oratory projects into the centre 
of the quadrangle, and terminates in a semi-octagon apsis. It is 
divided into two stories, whose windows and decorations correspond 
to those of the upper and lower cloisters, the lower only having 
vaulting and arched windows ; and this forms, perhaps, the most com- 
plete architectural morceau ever compressed into so small a space. 
The whole design of this quadrangle (which we should be inclined 
to ascribe to Abbot Islyp) is a marvel of good taste for the age of 
its erection, being far more chaste and decorous than that of either 
Henry the Seventh's Chapel or those at Windsor and Cambridge. 

The Stalls of Henry the Seventh's Chapel, which, from their 
luxuriance of fancy, have a foreign air, form our latest effort in 
Gothic wood-work; and it will be observed, that this art never, even 
at so late a period, descended to that exclusively representative 
character which we remarked in the modern wood-work of the 
Temple Church, or anything approaching it. For here the artist, 
though borrowing many or most of his details, or rather the hints 
of them, from stone architecture, freely modifies, lightens, and 
varies them, and is as far as possible from being reduced to the 
most prosaic and starved expedient of making the whole (as a whole) 
representative, i. e., reducing it to a series of models of stone 
building. It took three centuries more to bring us down to that 
depth of inventive pauperism, and to give us, in a mock- Early-English 
" restoration," furniture whose details indeed may be Early English, 
but the governing principles and character more perfectly opposed 
to everything Early, than the latest Tudor, the Anglo-classic, or 
even the modern joiner's style. 

St. Peters in the Tower, the Savoy Chapel, near Somerset House, 
St. Helens, and St. Ethelburgds, near Crosby Hall, and the parish 
churches of Lambeth, St. Giles Cripplegate, St. Olave Hart Street, 
and Allhallows Barking, in Tower Street, contain remnants of the 
building fashion (for it cannot be called an architectural style) 
applied to the meaner buildings of the Tudor age. At this period 
all variety and invention was confined to works of regal splendour 
and luxury. Other structures, as those above mentioned, present 
only certain starved and withered vestiges of the Gothic system, 
now reduced, like the architecture of Roman Egypt, or of modern 
China, to a mere routine or fashion — a regulated costume for all 
buildings pretending to respectability, but having as little reference 
to beauty or design as the hat or coat of our present costume. 
It is curious to compare this effete state of art with the nascent 



TUDOR CHURCHES. 173 

art of the eleventh or twelfth century, as displayed in the White 
Tower Chapel, or St. Bartholomew's. If poverty be a characteris- 
tic of both phases, what different kinds of poverty ! Meanness 
belongs only to the latter phase ; for though both may be poor 
and feeble, only the latter is impoverished or enfeebled. It is 
impossible to mistake between the feebleness of infancy and that 
of dotage. The indescribable freshness and suggestiveness of a 
young and growing art, and the directly opposite qualities — the 
worn crabbed mannerism, graceless grotesqueness, and lean de- 
crepitude — of an old and perishing one, must, we think, when 
brought into contrast, strike every spectator, however ignorant 
of technicalities ; and it would be easy, both in the architecture of 
the ancient world, and in that of the mediaeval Church, to distinguish 
at least " seven ages" by the mere gradations of character between 
these two extremes*. 

St. Andrew Undershaft^ Leadenhall Street, is a large specimen of 
the latest Tudor fashion (about 1540), less known than it deserves to 
be, if we regard only the fact of its being perhaps the xeryfast church 
erected with a view to the Protestant worship. Though everything 
ornamental bears the melancholy impress of an effete system, and points 
evidently to a past beauty, of which it retains the feeble remnants, 
pared down to the extreme of niggardliness, yet there is common 
sense and judgment in the innovations made to suit the new ritual. 
The deep stage-like vista called the chancel, which would withdraw 
the minister during an important part of the service as far as 
possible from his hearers, is omitted ; the pillars reduced to the 
smallest practicable size ; the arches throughout so depressed as to 
harmonize with the flat forms of the ceilings ; the whole plan made 
less oblong than the mediaeval churches, and plainly tending more 
towards the form and proportions of the early Christian basilicas ; a 
class of buildings which it also resembles unfortunately in other par- 

* A comparison between the styles of ancient and of mediaeval architecture will 
show a decided correspondence between the four chief periods ; the infancy, youth, 
decline, and senility of each : — 

Styles of ancient building. Styles of mediaeval building. EngliS VS£ 1 ter Cati ° nS 

1. Egyptian, Pelasgic,&c. 1. Millennial .... J Saxon— Norman. 

' ' [ bemi-JNorman. 

2. Greek 2. Original Gothic . . ( S ar ! y lf lish ;. 

[ Jiarly Edwardian. 

3. Roman 3. Representative Gothic J Late Edwardian. 

[ Ricardian. 

4. Romanesque .... 4. Gothicesque . . . . i YorSsh— Tudor 
The characteristics of the first period, in each case, are rudeness, uncertain or un- 
methodical ornamentation, monotony in general design, and total absence of disguises ; 
of the second period, increasing decorum, consistency, and method, together with 
exquisite finish, and the highest art, without pretence; of the third, a tendency 
to save thought by compendious methods, and to seek striking effect rather than 
prolonged satisfaction ; of the fourth, increasing sameness in detail, quaintness, man- 
nerism, and uncertain graceless proportions. 



174 



REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE— SECOND PERIOD. 




HALL OF LAMBETH PALACE. 



ticulars, its taste and artistic character bearing about that relation 
to the Gothic system of art which those buildings bear to the classic. 
The great Hall of the Middle Temple (see " Halls " for one 
illustration), and that of Lambeth Palace^ as above represented, are 
curious examples of the Westminster Hall form of roof, dressed in 
Italian instead of Gothic details. The Middle Temple Hall was 
built in 1572. It omits the principal arched rib, and multiplies 
the pendents and smaller curves. An old writer says it "is very 
scientifically constructed, and contains a vast quantity of timber/' 
The Lambeth roof was not constructed till about 1662, by Arch- 
bishop Juxon, who left directions to have it finished in the " old 
style," which it is as regards general form, and absence of ceilings. 



LINCOLN S INN CHAPEL. 175 

Northumberland House, Charing Cross, is an example of the ulti- 
mate state of our degraded indigenous architecture at the time of its 
disappearance before the classic importations of Inigo Jones. Its 
front was commenced in 1605. 

St. Catherine Cree, Leadenhall Street, dates from the reign of 
James I., when the Italian fashion, already paramount in secular 
buildings, had just begun to invade churches; or rather when churches 
began again to be built, after nearly a century in which none were 
erected. With far more conceit and pretension than St. Andrew's, 
it has far less truth, and therefore less beauty. The windows 
are a sacrifice of every other quality to novelty, and remind one 
of the neighbouring Coal Exchange. The ceiling is perhaps the 
first example of a sham vaulting; the first example of our 
builders condescending to a direct lie as to the material of which 
their work is composed. It is the parent of our grained paint 
and jointed stucco, and all the tissue of falsehoods that make 
up the sum total of modern English building decoration — deceits 
that deceive nobody — ornaments that adorn nothing, and please 
nobody — that, it has been truly said, never attract or fix an eye 
except painfully ; and for which, no one pretends even to allege 
any reason but fashion ; or (the incendiary's reason for burning ricks), 
that they "give employment," that is, occupy and render useless a 
swarm of busy drones, who would otherwise have to learn and do 
something useful. 

The introduction of direct physical falsehoods, may be regarded as 
the main distinction between the second and the third periods of 
English architecture ; for the change of fashion from Gothic to Italian 
was comparatively a mere accident, though, being contemporaneous 
with this most decided change of principle, it forms altogether a 
convenient point of division between the first and second stages 
of representative design. This new period commences with the 
works of Inigo Jones. 

Lincoln s Inn Chapel, though not the earliest work in London 
by this master, is the only one in which he imitated (by the desire 
of his employers) the old national style. The interior, which is 
esteemed for its glass painting, has been so altered by the addition 
of a later ceiling (see illustration page 176) and end windows, that 
it cannot be viewed as Jones's work ; but the side elevation of 
the exterior plainly partakes of the boldness, stateliness, and harmony 
of his other designs ; and though the petty exactness of later 
imitators may yet find it convenient to make faults of every varia- 
tion from precedent in the details, this fragment has some rare 
qualities. We know of no mediaeval work even, in which apertures 
of so low and broad a proportion produce, as here, no ungraceful 
or mean effect ; and though most of the works of this scenic archi- 
tect differ from his masques only in being composed of more 
durable materials, there is an uncommon verisimilitude arising from 



176 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 




LINCOLN S INN CHAPEL. 



every deception being carried out as if it were a reality. Thus the 
buttresses here are as prominent and massive as if they sustained a 
real vaulting. To this, and the concavity of their outline, seems due 
much of the stately effect of this building. 

The Banqueting House, Whitehall (now used for a chapel), was the 
first structure from which all vestiges of Gothic forms were banished 
by the imported Italian taste, and is the chief work erected by Inigo 
Jones in London, though a very small portion of the vast palace 
projected by him and his patron James I. This will appear by the 
annexed block-plan, in which A represents the fragment executed. 
Of the remainder, no portion would have been lower than the 
present, while the parts shaded dark would have been higher by 
an entire order of columns, so that the imposing fronts of this 
building would have sunk almost into insignificance in the vast 
design. The extent of the northern and southern fronts was to 



WHITEHALL INTENDED PALACE. 



177 




PLAN OF WHITEHALL. 



be 1152 ft., and that of the eastern (on a river terrace) and the 
western, towards St. James's Park, each 874 ft. Of the seven in- 
closed courts, the smallest would have equalled in grandeur anything 
of the kind now existing ; while the largest, 740 ft. by 378 ft., and the 
circular one (surrounded by two stories of arcades, faced by colossal 
Persian and caryatid figures), would each have produced effects that 
modern architecture has never reached, hardly perhaps ever projected. 
The design of Whitehall is indeed the most stupendous for a secular 
building that has ever been actually commenced, at least since the times 
of the Csesars ; and, by excelling, in every respect, both Versailles and 
the Louvre, the Caserta and Escurial, it would have reversed the taunt 
that English sovereigns are the worst lodged in Europe. The variety, 
without breach of unity, that pervades the numerous fronts, external 
and internal, of this wonderful design, the well-studied adaptation of 
each to its aspect and light, together with the noble boldness, and 
total absence of petty breaks and divisions, are qualities that distinguish 
this greatest, but at the same time most un-English, of our architects, 
from all his successors ; and it seems marvellous that a work so ge- 
nerally in their hands, should have had so little effect on the national 
taste, which is chiefly distinguished by qualities exactly the reverse of 
those in which he excelled. 

Whitehall was to have replaced an older palace built by Henrv 
VIII., and was commenced in 1618, by the erection of the present 
apartment. Charles I. (who afterwards entered the scaffold from one 
of its windows) had its ceiling painted by Rubens, with mythic com- 
positions representing the apotheosis of his father, which have been 
retouched by Cipriani, but are now again too obscure to offend by 
their extreme unfitness to the place. The other portions of the 
Tudor palace remained till they were destroved by two fires in 

i 3 



178 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 

1691, 98. In Queen Anne's reign, it was again proposed to carry out 
the superb design. The ruins of the old work remaining, "for want of 
rebuilding the same, Mr. Weedon, an ingenious gentleman, supposed 
the city of Westminster was damnified above <£30 per cent, in their 
houses, trades, and properties. The same gentleman, therefore, of 
his own good will, to the reforming that most noble palace, for the 
honour and benefit of the queen and her kingdom, proposed in print, 
that an act of parliament should be made for the rebuilding of it, after 
the manner of a model or plan of Inigo Jones. "* He estimated the 
cost at £600,000, for raising which he proposed various means — 
the first was, "that the city of Westminster should be incorporated, 
to consist of a mayor, recorder, and twenty-four aldermen, and certain 
franchises and liberties to be granted them. That all profits arising 
to the said corporation, over and above all manner of expenses and 
charges the corporation would be at in supporting itself, be, for the 
next seven years, appropriated to carry on the said palace. That 
duties should be laid upon new improved rents within the said city of 
Westminster. That all officers that held two or more offices of above 
the value of £300 per annum, should pay so much in the pound. And 
that such as had any right or title to any house, or office, or lodging, 
within the said new intended palace, should pay likewise so much in 
the pound. That all improvements of any part of the ground of 
Whitehall, and the benefit arising to her Majesty of all future and 
new inventions, discoveries, and improvements, be for such a term 
appointed towards the said charge. And that all future forfeitures 
accruing to her Majesty, for a term of years, be likewise appropriated 
for the same charge ; but this work was thought fit to be laid aside 
for the present." This is to regretted, when we consider that all those 
public offices now scattered about, some under the grotesque chimney- 
pots of the half-built Somerset House ; some on the disjointed row of 
fragments of buildings facing the present (and occupying part of the 
site of the intended) Whitehall itself; some in rickety combustible 
builders' speculation hovels, about the neighbourhood ; and all ever 
craving more accommodation ; would all have had ample room in this 
building, of which any nation might be proud, instead of hiding in 
holes of which any one would be ashamed. Of the economy of 
Weedon's plan, compared . with the present, there can be no doubt; 
and this renders it perhaps not altogether hopeless that the design of 
the " British Solomon," and the British Hiram may even yet, at some 
future period (like that of the Cologne fane, after its slumber of cen- 
turies), be revived. 

St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, though twice almost rebuilt, 
retains the east front as in the original work, designed by Jones for 
the Duke of Bedford, who wished to erect for his tenants a church, 
but one " not much better than a barn." He accordingly en- 
deavoured to embody Vitruvius's description of the Tuscan temples, 
* Seymour's " Survey of London and Westminster/' 1735. 



jones's buildings — Greenwich hospital. 179 

and this portico is remarkable as being the only attempt closely to 
follow that account. It was extravagantly praised for a long time 
after its erection, as it might well be by those who had never seen 
another portico, and whose ideas of splendour in building were de- 
rived from such works as Henry the Seventh's Chapel ; of simplicity, 
from such as St. Andrew Undershaft. The letters of Goethe present 
a striking instance of the impression produced by any classic archi- 
tecture on those so circumstanced. The broad unbroken surfaces 
and deep shadows of this porch are still striking, though much loss of 
grandeur arises from the too great diminution and entasis of the 
columns, and especially of the antaa, or pilasters. The portico and 
doorway were not originally a sham, and the reason for making them 
so is to us involved in mystery. It seems that the mediaeval custom, 
or ceremony of praying towards the east, led to the placing churches, 
when in an open site (as all, perhaps, in this country were when 
built), with their chancel in that direction. This did not, however, 
in foreign countries at any time, nor here for long after the Reforma- 
tion, supersede either the common-sense rule that the entrance should 
be as near the street or road as may be convenient, or that the sanc- 
tuary should be removed from the entrance. But, at present, this 
orientation is considered a point of such vital importance that it re- 
quires not only these rules to be frequently violated ; but even (as in 
this case) a whole church, if it have the misfortune to look the 
wrong way, must be turned round, and its ostensible entrance made 
into a bit of scenery. 

The houses w4th arcades lining part of the piazza before or 
behind this church, were intended by Jones to be continued round 
that quadrangle, which would then (not being blocked up by market 
sheds) have resembled those of many Italian towns. He thus intro- 
duced the squares of modern London, and laid out, besides this, the 
largest of them, called Lincoln s Inn Fields, in which are some slight 
vestiges of his architecture, or rather of the influence it exerted on 
the successive rebuilders. The only other conspicuous remnant of 
his works in London is the water-gate to an intended mansion, 
now called York Stairs, east of Hungerford Bridge — a very graceful 
and appropriate morceau. 

Greenwich Hospital, for naval pensioners, on the south bank of the 
Thames, four miles below London Bridge, is considered the most 
sumptuous building ever devoted to a charitable purpose ; which is 
nothing remarkable when we know that it was designed for no such 
purpose, but for a palace of the luxurious Stuarts. Its conversion 
into a hospital by William and Mary, in 1694, was a happy mode of 
disposing of an unfinished and cast-off palace; but to render this 
piece of liberality complete, we cannot but think that it should either 
have been left in its half-built state, or carried on upon the original 
design. An unfinished and abandoned building cannot give such an 
impression of meanness, as one broken off during its erection and 



180 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE THIRD PERIOD. 

then eked out to the full dimensions with niggardly make-shifts, 
which (occupying the site of what was intended) prevent its com- 
pletion, and not only proclaim its abandonment, but seem to embody 
the sentiment " as we cannot finish this work, we will take care that 
nobody else shall." 

When we consider the entire dependence of every great work of 
this class on the caprice of successive rulers, we shall think it much 
more remarkable that every royal family, except that of England, 
should have been able to begin and finish a palace (and in some cases 
more than one), than that English sovereigns should have not yet 
achieved such a work. Greenwich is the attempt that most nearly 
reached realization ; and, as seen from the river, in some positions, 
the patchwork is out of sight, and the group becomes the most com- 
plete architectural scene we possess. The two northern masses of 
building are from a design of Jones, though the first was not erected 
till after his death, by his pupil and son-in-law Webb ; and the other 
not till Queen Anne's reign; after whom it is named. The older (or 
King Charles's) building was partly rebuilt in 1811-14, and distin- 
guished by sculpture of artificial stone in the pediment. The two 
southern masses are chiefly from a design of our second great archi- 
tect, Sir Christopher Wren, and were commenced by William and 
Mary, whose names they respectively bear; but their construction 
proceeding slowly, successive periods have left the melancholy marks 
of steadily declining taste and increasing parsimony; that which 
begins in Portland stone and Corinthian splendour, sinking at length 
into mean brickwork, or unable to afford in inferior stone the most 
ordinary degree of finish. The design of the brick portions is in the 
most corrupt taste of Vanbrugh, but whatever is visible from the 
centre of the group is by Jones or Wren. The inferiority of the 
latter is obvious in the comparative want of repose, and greater 
crowding and flutter of small and multiplied parts. The two pyra- 
midising masses crowned by domes are finely placed, and quite 
characteristic of his style, as is also the coupling of columns in the 
colonnades. There is nothing so majestic as either the inward or 
river elevations of Jones's work, but more picturesqueness and 
variety. The two not only show the distinction between the tastes 
of these masters, but also exemplify, in some measure, that between 
the Roman and Venetian schools of modern architecture, the northern 
buildings having some resemblance to the former; though, in general, 
both our great architects were followers of the latter. 

The chief dimensions of the exterior are : — the northern build- 
ings each 175 ft. by 290 ft.; the space between them 290 ft. 
square; the southern buildings each 205 ft. by 277 ft., exclusive 
of the attached colonnades, which project 19 ft. The avenue be- 
tween is 115 ft. wide, and the inner court of each of Wren's 
buildings 188 ft. by 150 ft. The general height of the buildings 
65 ft., and of the domes 130 ft. The hall and chapel originally 



ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL. 



181 



Loth resembled in arrangement the hall at present, which, but 
for its painted sham architecture, would be the fitter chapel of 
the two, being the more solemn and finely-proportioned room. The 
remodelling of the chapel with Grecian details was the work of 
James Stuart, the Athenian antiquary, 1780-90. 

St. Paul's Cathedral. — At length we are refreshed by the sight of 
an edifice fin ished, at least as far as regards substantial parts, though 
remaining without any of the numerous decorations for which its 
interior presents so splendid a field; and which the spirit that erected 
the structures which it emulates, would have continued to add and 
superadd, instead of thinking its office ceased when the last stone was 
laid. Commonly classed as the second of Christian temples, this 
cathedral is really the first in completeness, unity of design, and 
solidity of construction ; only the fifth in extent or capacity (being 
excelled by St. Peter's, Florence, Milan, and Amiens) ; and about 
the last in richness and variety of ornaments. 

The old cathedral having been patched in every style, and a plan 
by Wren for preserving the crazy fabric by still further innovations 
being under discussion, — in 1666, the memorable fire of London cut 
short these delibera- 
tions by placing the 
venerable pile evi- 
dently beyond repair. 
The self - taught 
architect of London, 
and greatest of archi- 
tectural constructors, 
now began various 
designs for a "fabric 
of moderate bulk, 
but of good propor- 
tion ; a convenient 
quire, with a vesti- 
bule and porticoes, 








** 




and a dome conspi 
cuous above the 
bouses." It will be 
observed that here 
is no mention of 
nave or aisles. In 
fact, he was plan- 
ning what, strange 
to say, the world 
has not yet seen — a 
solemn and real Pro- 
testant temple, not 
a counterfeit Roman 
Catholic one. He 
would have erected 



■ — - ~ "- 



lii 





ENCLISH TEET 



Sectiotis through the transept and d< me of St. Peters (1111), Florence Cathedral [2 £ , L 
ditto (3 3), aiid St. Geneciecc, Paris (4 4;, showing their comparative widths and heights. 



182 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 

an edifice on the principles and in the spirit of the mediaeval 
church-builders, viz., an edifice whose form should be governed, 
as theirs were, by fitness to the service for which it was built, and by 
nothing else. This fitness would be promoted, as it was in the old 
churches, by the unstinted devotion of the best of everything, by 
every excellence, and every useful and splendid addition that in- 
genuity could devise, but not by superfluities. Wrens idea 
seem to have been that the Creator is not honoured by superfluities 
— by things of which His own works afford no example. That 
his temple for - a reformed worship might truly resemble those 
once erected for the unreformed, it was not to be, like them, a 
church of altars and aisles, for masses and processions, but it was to 
consist chiefly of a clear space, large enough to contain the utmost 
number of persons that can hear one voice ; lofty enough for majestic 
proportion, and ample store of air ; approached by vestibules fit to 
intervene between the bustling world without and the solemn scene 
within; to guard one from the unseemly intrusion of the other by 
something more than a door ; to afford the church at least the acces- 
sories, that a cottagers room claims — vestibules proportioned to itself — 
naves, if we like to call them so ; but these were to be appendages to 
the prayer-house, not the prayer-house an appendage to them. 

Such were the leading ideas of the many designs Wren proposed 
for solving this new problem in building — still, alas, new and un- 
solved — a Protestant temple. He shrunk from the idea of mocking 
Heaven with a sham offering ; of worshiping in the cast-off clothes 
of an obsolete system ; or, rather, in a copy of them, made to save 
the trouble of cutting out new. But, though the king and the nation 
had abandoned the old system, there was a most important personage 
who retained it, and, of course, hoped to see its revival. The heir- 
apparent saw that, though the temples of his faith had, indeed, been 
made to serve for the new, they did so most imperfectly ; and only by 
shifts and fictions, such as his co-religionists would be too earnest to 
tolerate for a moment ; and he saw that an edifice built .for the new 
form of worship would be even less available for the old, than its 
cathedrals were for the new, which does just contrive to screw itself 
into one corner of them. It was, therefore, an object of his solici- 
tude to see that this costly structure should at least be of some use in 
the event of its expected change of destination, and in this he unfor- 
tunately succeeded most completely. 

No perplexity that can assail an architect can well equal the diffi- 
culty of Wren's task, between a Protestant nation and a Catholic 
future monarch, to plan a temple that might upon occasion serve for 
either religion, and therefore for neither well. Even in his ingenious 
plans for this purpose, however, he was baffled, not so much by the 
influence of the future king and his creed, as by that quality of his 
countrymen which, under the name of Conservatism, may be some- 
times a very useful one, but on this occasion became nothing less than 



st. Paul's cathedral. 183 

an unreasoning animal obstinacy, whose rule was "what has been 
shall be, whether now fit or not." The clergy insisted that 
the new building should resemble a cathedral ; by which term 
they could or would understand nothing but the peculiarities of 
an English mediaeval cathedral, as patched up and made to serve its 
new destination ; for many cathedrals, even St. Peter's itself, resemble 
Wren's earlier designs much more than they do the present edifice. 
Many a deep study had to be wasted, many a beautiful invention 
abandoned, before he could descend to a design sufficiently tame and* 
common-place to meet their notions. It seems they would oppose, 
as M unlike a cathedral," every plan that was shorter than 500 feet, 
every one whose central avenue was wider than 40 feet, or which 
was without a complete circuit of aisles. Neither would they 
admit, in any member, a proportion for which there was not 
Gothic precedent ; nor could any customary part of the old churches, 
even to the triforium, be allowed to pass unrepresented. We 
believe they would have stifled the only remaining loophole for 
Wren's genius, by insisting even on the four central piers at the 
crossing, had there not fortunately been a precedent, and that an 
English one, for their omission, in Ely Cathedral. However, out of 
this, the sole concession he could wrest from dogged routine, he 
managed to make his work a new and unique one ; and, what is 
far more important, one that might, at some future period, be made 
to serve the purposes of the reformed worship; not indeed with the 
decorum he had contemplated in his favourite designs, but without 
any very flagrant absurdity. He foresaw that a time must arrive 
when the common sense of his countrymen (to say nothing of taste 
or right feeling) would revolt at the idle mockery of a temple large 
enough to hold 20,000 people, barely affording an oratory for 200 
in one of its recesses, and these deafened with the tramp of gazers in 
other parts of the vast useless carcase. Though that time has not 
even yet arrived, he made provision for it, as far as they would let 
him. He provided a clear central space, loftier and far grander than 
the rest of the edifice ; large enough to serve conveniently for about 
4000 worshippers, all within sight and hearing distance of two or 
three points ; large enough, or at least important enough to be the 
evident nucleus or main body to which the other parts of the building 
are appendages ; and lastly, if fitted as an auditory, nearly free from 
extraneous noise, because itself occupying the place whence the echo 
and resonance of footsteps almost entirely originates. It must be 
allowed, indeed, that even with the auditory in this its obvious place, 
and enlarged to the utmost extent that the best voice can reach, the 
eastern and western arms of the building would still be preposterous] v 
lengthy, the one for a chancel, and the other for a vestibule or ante- 
church; but this, as we have seen, he could not help. Beino* rigor- 
ously required to fill out the complete cathedral length of 500 ft., 
and give something corresponding in place and dimensions to everv 



184 



REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 



part and member of the Gothic model, — in a word, to make a fabric 
perfectly adapted to every requirement of the old worship, — -he could 
not, at the same time, make it also perfectly and decorously available 
for the new. That he did so to such an extent as he has done, will 
be matter of no small admiration, whenever the building shall be 
adapted to this purpose; which it would be an insult to our readers 
to pretend that it now is. 

A model of one of Wren's earlier designs (we may with some 
reason suppose it his favourite) is extant, in a very mutilated state, in 
a loft over the north-west chapel of the nave, and is equally worthy 
of notice with the existing building itself, if not more so, as showing 
the great master's ingenuity in the higher branches of his art, which 
the executed fabric cannot be said to do, the general form and pro- 
portions being none of his, but settled, as we have seen, partly by 
Romish views, more by stubborn routine, and merely given him to 
construct and decorate as he best could. Against the fancied conser- 
vatism, but really unprecedented innovation, that required a building 
planned not for its own purpose, but to imitate those planned for a 
different purpose ; against the spirit of plodding dulness that would 
have nothing but a copy of the average Gothic skeleton, stripped of 
all individualities, and dressed in a different style, — he fought hard and 
long, and yielded only inch by inch. He was hedged in by barriers of 
fancied rules, unknown to the mediaeval designers from whom they 
were professedly drawn, and having no parallel but in the art-banish- 
ing dogmas of nineteenth-century ecclesiologists. Yet all this, though 
it sadly curbed, did not paralyse the genius of Wren, which yet 
struggles forth at every possible opening, and might meet most of the 




I'LAN OF ST. PAUL'S. 



ST. PAULS CATHEDRAL. 185 

criticism of his nation with the retort of the ancient artist, " What 
you admire is mine, what you condemn is your own." 

This vast work is the only one of its class begun and finished in 
one age ; and, what is still more remarkable, under one bishop by one 
master-mason, and (except a few contemptible super-additions) by one 
architect. It was commenced in 1675, nine years after the fire, and 
finished in 1711. The plan annexed will show that it resembles an 
Anglo-Gothic church of the largest class, except only in the breadth 
and fewness of the severies or compartments. The usual four piers 
at the crossing are omitted, so as to throw the weight of the dome on 
eight surrounding piers (as at Ely Cathedral), and the re-entering angles 
are strengthened by four massive towers, three containing vestries, 
and one a staircase, all continued to the height of the clere-story walls, 
or about 100 ft. from the ground. To the west front, which was 
intended for the principal entrance, are added laterally, beyond the 
breadth of the building (as at Wells and Rouen), two bell-towers which 
rise with pyramidal summits, to double the -height of the roofs ; 
and behind or east of them, are two oblong chapels rising no higher 
than the aisles, but having rooms over them, corresponding to the 
clere-story. On the eight central arches are built two concentric 
circular walls, the outer supporting a complete colonnade, 140 ft. 
in diameter, admirably contrived to abut the inner, which carries 
the domes. These with their lantern, crowned by a gilt copper ball 
and cross, rise altogether to thrice the height of the roofs, or 365 ft. 
from the ground, 35 6 from the floor of the church, and 375 from 
that of the crypts*. 

Simple ratios prevail between all the leading dimensions, and 
especially the ratio of 1 to 2 between the breadth and height of 
openings, avenues, and spaces. Thus the windows are chiefly 12 
ft. wide by 24 high; the aisles 19 ft. in clear width by 38 in 
clear height; the central avenues 41 by 84 1 (a deficiency of only 
one foot in breadth); the beautiful domed vestibule at the west end, 47 
square by 94 high; and lastly, the central space, 108 in clear width, 
by 216 high. In clear diameter, this space is exceeded by that 
between the four piers of St. Sophia, 162 ft.; between those of 
St. Peters, 157; the circular inclosure of the Pantheon, 144; the 
octagon (with four sides open) of Florence Cathedral, 138; and the 
crossing (with all sides open) of the mosque of Achmet, 130 ft. J 

* We cannot guess the origin of the 404 ft. copied into most accounts, unless it 
be taken from the bottom of the foundations, or the level of the Thames. The built 
structures (omitting framed ones) which exceed this in extreme height, are those at 
Strasburg, Rome, Landshut, Vienna, Salisbury. Chartres, Cremona, Freyburg, Ant- 
werp, and Brussels. But all these, except St. Peter's and Salisbury, are built from 
the ground, not suspended on arches. The only central or lantern erections exceed- 
ing St. Paul's are these two, and perhaps Florence or Milan, between which two last 
and our dome there seems an intended equality. 

f These avenues are (within a foot or two) half the width of those of St. Peter's, 
the widest, and half the height of those of Beauvais, the highest. 

X The common mode of comparison, by the diameters of the domes themselves, is 



186 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 

In height, however, it stands third, exceeding the Pantheon by 70 
ft.; about equalling St. Sophia, but falling short of the Florence 
cupola by 50 ft., and of St. Peter's by 150. To show what various 
proportions have been admired : — at the Pantheon, the clear height is 
equal to the breadth, and at Achmet's dome about the same ; at St. 
Sophia, one-third greater ; at Florence and St. Paul's, twice ; and at 
St. Peter's two and a half times the breadth. (See comparative 
section, page 181.) 

Our view, projected from a point in the steeple of St. Martin's, 
Ludgate, with the houses omitted, will show the external form and 
decorations of the dome, incomparably the finest part ; and the west 
front, which is next in merit. With regard to the rest of the exterior, 
it is to be observed that the aisles are included entirely in the height 
of the lower order of pilasters ; and that the upper, which has empty 
niches instead of windows, is merely a wall or screeji, erected, as 
some say, to hide the unclassical forms of flying buttresses, but we 
cannot attribute to Wren so very clumsy and disproportioned an 
expedient. He certainly had invention enough to have given those 
features a form harmonising with the style of the rest ; and if not, 
no necessary features would be considered, except perhaps in 
the nineteenth century, to justify so gross an extravagance. Be- 
sides, the massiveness of this wall, about 9 ft. thick, precludes the 
idea of a mere screen, and seems to suggest that its chief motive may 
be to furnish a load like that of the Gothic pinnacles, but much 
heavier, to steady the piers below it against the thrust of the vault- 
ings, without requiring very prominent buttresses. 

This mock story, which is the most objectionable thing in the 
fabric, swells out its exterior, and gives it a false magnitude, but at 
the same time a flatness and sameness very opposite to the play and 
variety that would have arisen from the view of the upper story 
receding behind the lower, as in Gothic buildings, and only coinciding 
with it at the sheer precipices of the end facades, w r hich owe half their 
grandeur to the contrast with this broken precipice elsewhere. The 
same falsehood too (of raising the outer wall everywhere to the full 
height of the building), has induced the shallow criticism in every 
mouth, that there should have been but a single order 90 feet high, 
instead of two of 50 and 40 feet. Now this would, in the first place, 
have been a further deception, for the building is not, as Wren's own 
designs were, of one story, but of three, answering in every way 
to the Gothic aisles, triforium, and clere-story. Next, an order 90 feet 
high could not be, with any materials this country affords (and indeed 
never has been in any country), so erected as to be really what it 
affects to be. The present orders are real, like those of the ancient 

unfair, and places them in a very different order, thus: the Pantheon, 144 ft.; 
Florence, 142; St. Peter's, 139; St. Sophia, 115; St. Paul's, 100; Achmet's 
mosque, 92. But the real boldness and amount of available space is in the order 
given above. The palm still rests with St. Sophia, the work of the barbarous sixth 
century. 



ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL. 



187 




WESTERN VIEW OF ST. PAUL'S, FROM LUDGATE STEEPLE. 

temples ; the 90 ft. order would have been a sham, for it would be 
impossible to make a real one on that scale. Lastly, to fancy the 



188 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 

building would have been grander, dressed in this colossal counterfeit, 
is utterly at variance with all experience. We estimate the magni- 
tude of a building, first, at a distance, by the number of parts ; after- 
wards, when we come nearer, by their individual size. Now, it is 
more important to make a good impression at last than at first — better 
that the work should improve on nearer inspection, than disappoint. 
Therefore, number of parts is to be sacrificed to size when we cannot 
have both, but the case is widely different when we can. It is essen- 
tial, indeed, to grandeur, that those features which the grand building 
has in common with others, should all be larger than in ordinary 
buildings ; but, provided they be decidedly larger, this is enough — any 
further enlargement of scale is mere waste, producing no commen- 
surate effect, as all our examples of orders on a very exaggerated scale 
testify, for no one gives them credit for their real dimensions. Now 
the lower Corinthian order of St. Paul's is decidedly the largest likely 
to be erected, in its neighbourhood; and one of 90 ft. would, in a near 
view, have appeared very little larger, and therefore have made the 
building appear very much smaller; while the fewness of parts would 
have precluded all originality of arrangement, and all that variety of 
combination in which Wren excelled, and without which a building 
(unless it have all the sculpture of a Doric or the minute ornament 
of a Corinthian temple) cannot amuse or occupy the mind two 
moments. This front is called by Mitford " the finest piece of 
[^complex]] external architecture in the world ; " the only one that 
caused him any hesitation in saying so being Perrault's front of 
the Louvre. More distance between the three chief planes, those 
of the portico front, the faces of the towers, and the small curtains 
connecting them, would have made it more striking ; but the vulgar 
demand for a prominent portico, like that for a colossal order, forgets 
to ask how it could be executed in the genuine, sterling, and imperish- 
able manner that characterises the whole of this noble work, no part 
of which depends for support or covering on either wood or iron. Its 
porticoes may be the least striking, but they are the only ones in 
England built, like those of antiquity, for all time. The chief real 
defect of this front is the coupling of the columns, for which 
there is literally no excuse. It is otherwise with the pilasters 
throughout the building, which, being in fact buttresses, required to 
be in pairs to give sufficient mass to each buttress, and also to avoid 
the solecism of the entablature making two external angles over the 
same capital, which gives whatever is below the appearance of total 
inutility, and, though common enough in nearly all other Italian and 
Anglo-classic architecture, never once occurs throughout the whole 
exterior of this vast work. The coupled and even overlapping 
pilasters are not nearly such an abuse as this. 

The porticoes of the transept fronts would be highly beautiful, if 
their columns were only equidistant, and the detail within them 
is the purest and most classic in the building. The upper parts 



ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL. ] 89 

of these fronts, however, are most corrupt; and the east end is the 
poorest part of the whole, singularly clumsy, and deformed by arches 
of double curvature. 

There is much nutter, or want of repose, about all the lower parts 
of St. Paul's, especially when contrasted with the simplicity of the 
dome and its accessories. These may safely challenge comparison 
with any composition of the same kind. The improvement on 
St. Peter's is no less remarkable in external design than in construc- 
tion, and renders the application of the epithet, a u copy," or an 
" imitation," simply ridiculous. It is such an imitation as Watt's 
steam-engine is of Newcomen's. The sectional view (see page 190) 
will enable the visitor to understand the form of this masterpiece 
of construction. Its great peculiarity is the invisible conical structure 
of brick, interposed between the inner and outer domes, resting on 
the lower circumference of the former, and serving to support the 
stone lantern, the size and weight of which air-suspended fabric may 
be conceived from the fact that, if placed on the floor of the churcb, 
it would not stand under the ceiling of the nave. The supporting 
cone is most ingeniously modified at its upper part, to leave eight 
windows, and support the concentrated weight of the eight masses of 
the lantern. Its remaining portions, though pierced with numerous 
apertures, form a mere shell, only two bricks or 18 inches thick, and 
its base is confined from spreading by a wrought-iron chain imbedded 
in melted lead. The surrounding butments, however, are so well 
placed and contrived, that this precaution is probably superfluous, as 
long as they stand complete. 

Every part of this building has, like the Gothic ones, two inde- 
pendent coverings, the inner of vaulted masonry, and the outer of 
oak framing, covered with lead. The beautiful outer dome, there- 
fore, cannot be called unreal; it corresponds in structure to the 
upper roofs of all the other parts, and is in the most economical (as 
well as beautiful) form for a timber roof to cover such a space. The 
waste of internal capacity, in the unseen spaces between tbe inner- 
most and outermost dome, is not nearly so great as in the roofs 
of Gothic buildings ; and no part of this structure can be said to 
be (like a Gotbic high roof or spire) erected for external effect alone, 
except the lantern. This, indeed, is so, for the highest windows visible 
from within, and which appear to form a lantern, are really situated 
below its base, in the upper part of the brick cone, and are inge- 
niously lighted from sunk areas, invisible from without, in the sum- 
mit of the timber dome. 

The interior of St. Paul's is very disappointing to those who, 
from the universal practice in the mediaeval and foreign churches, 
expect to find such an edifice adorned with the artistic contri- 
butions of every age since its erection. The want of ornament, 
however (which instead of exceeding, as it should do, falls short 
of the quantity lavished on the exterior), is a minor fault compared 



190 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE —THIRD PERIOD. 




SECTIONAL VfEW OF THE DOME OF ST. PAUL S. 



ST. STEPHENS, WALBROOK ST. JAMES S, PICCADILLY. 193 

Catholic routine of nave and aisles, and in these, of course, he could do 
little. The more licence he could ohtain to deviate from this everlasting 
mimic basilica, the better he succeeded; and to say that this is the 
building in which the greatest deviation therefrom was allowed, is 
tantamount to pronouncing it his masterpiece. Though the exterior 
and belfry of this church have uncommon grace and decorum for that 
age, it is the interior that constitutes its fame. Though a simple 
cell enclosed by four walls, the tameness of that form wholly dis- 
appears behind the unique and varied arrangement of its sixteen 
columns. They reproduce and unite almost every beauty of plan to 
be found in all the cathedrals of Europe. Now they form the 
Latin cross, with its nave, transept, and chancel ; anon they divide the 
whole space into five aisles, regularly diminishing from the centre to the 
sides ; again we perceive, in the midst, a square apartment with recesses 
on all its sides — a square, nay, an octagon — no, a circle. It changes at 
every glance, as we view the entablature, or the arches above it, or the 
all-uniting dome. With the same harmonious variety, we have every 
form of ceiling brought together at once — flat, camerated, groined, pen- 
dentive, domical — yet no confusion. The fitness to its destination is 
perfect ; every eye can see the minister, and every ear is within hearing 
distance of him, in every part of the service. It is the most beautiful of 
preaching-rooms; and though only a sketch, and executed only in coun- 
terfeit building, would, if carried out in Wren's spirit instead of his 
employers', form the most perfect of Protestant temples. 

St. James 's, Piccadilly^ is about the largest of Wren's churches, 
but at the same time the most meanly built, everything about 
it indicating such extreme parsimony, that he seems to have given 
up the exterior in despair, bestowing on it only a few of his 
favourite cherubs' heads. It has lately been improved by the addi- 
tion of a cornice, which it much wanted. But the fact is, that Wren, 
who had travelled no further than France, had, for want of seeing 
the Italian works, no idea of astylar architecture. He could do little 
without columns or pilasters. His taste was also thoroughly English 
in regard to projections and recessions, which are always petty and 
shallow. The interior of this church has an unique form of ceiling, 
contrived to mask an ingenious roof, which rests solely on the 
columns (independently of the walls), and has served as a model 
for that of some modern ship-building sheds. 

Christ Church, Newgate Street (see p. 195), is very similar to the 
last, but with an elliptic central ceiling, and is one of the best- 
proportioned churches on the basilican plan, with galleries. 

St. Anne and Agnes, north of the Post Office; St. Martins, 
Ludgate; St. Antholiris, Budge Row; and St. Swithins, Cannon 
Street, are among those which display the greatest originality of plan. 

In nothing was the fertility of Wren's invention so strikingly 
displayed as in the belfries of his churches, which, being frequently 
the only parts visible at all from a right distance, received much 

K 



194 



REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 




attention; and their extraordinary diversity of forms (as seen from 
either of the eastern 
bridges) has no parallel 
in any other city ; and 
contrasts strangely with 
the monotonous repeti- 
tion of two round tem- 
ples and an attic, per- 
vading the other parts 
of London, or the ever- 
lasting mock - Early- 
English pyramid that 
now succeeds them. 
Here, one self-taught 
man builds fifty things, 
strikingly different, and 
not one devoid of 
beauty ; there, fifty 
architects cannot make 
two that may be distin- 
guished by ordinary 
observers, nor one that 
is ever thought an or- 
nament, though built 
for nothing else. 

The steeples of Wren 
all rise from the ground, 
and not from the roof 
of a building; they all 
have a regular increase 
of decoration, from the 
plain and solid base- 
ment to the broken 
and fanciful finish ; 
they are all square and 
undiminished up to 
half their entire height, 
often more, 
but perhaps 
always to the 
middle of that 
portion ex- 
pected to be 
generally visi- 
ble above the 
houses; and 
in all, except 




ST. MAR\-LB-BOW. 




ST. BR. IDE'S. 



WREN S STEEPLES. 



195 



those of St. Paul's, the upper or pyramidal portion is so arranged 
that in almost every view its outlines may touch (and be confined 
bv) two straight * 

lines meeting at 
the summit. In 
later times all 
these rules have 
generally been 
reversed, espe- 
cially the last, 
our modern stee- 
ples affecting a 
convexity of out- 
line, whose pro- 
minent points 
are limited by 
the form of a 
pointed arch in- 
stead of a tri- 
angle. Wren 
employed this 
convex outline 
in the belfries of 
St. Paul's alone, 
plainly showing 
his sense of its 
fitness to a situ- 






requiring 
breadth 



CHRIST CHURCH. 



ation 
more 
and majesty; in 
fact, a character 
altogether dis- 
tinct from that 
of parochial 
steeples, where 
he has given a 
lighter and more 
feminine ex- 
pression by the 
triangular out- 
line» The pro- 
portions of his 
triangle vary 
from an equi- 
lateral to one 
whose height is 
six times its 
base. 




196 



REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE THIRD PERIOD. 



St. Mary - le - Bow, 
commonly called Bow 
Church, Cheapside (p. 
194); St. Bride s, Fleet 
Street (p. 194); Christ 
Church, Newgate Str 1 ., 
and St. Vedast's, Foster 
Lane (p. 195), have the 
steeples of the tallest 
proportion; and the two 
former are the tallest in 
London, having been 
apparently intended to 
equal exactly those of 
St. Paul's, or about 235 
feet, but St. Bride's, 
which has suffered 
much from lightning, 
has, in its repairs, been 
reduced a few feet. The 
diversity of these four 
steeples is admirable. 
Bow has been the 
general favourite, pro- 
bably from the variety 
of plan in its different 
stories. In the other 
three, one plan, differ- 
ent in each, is preserved 
throughout the pyra- 
mid : in Christ Church, 
a square ; in St. Bride's, 
an octagon ; in St. Ve- 



dast's, a figure of four 
concave quadrants. The 
depth of hollowing in 
this last does not, in an 
English climate, form a 
sufficient substitute for 
thorough piercing or 
detached members, so 
that the whole is too 
solid and flat, but would 
answer well in Italian 
sunshine. ChristChurch 
has one great merit, 
that of more connection 
and mutual dependence 
between the stories than 
usual; but its outline 
has been destroyed by 
the removal of a few 
vases. St. Bride's is, 
considered by itself, far 
from the happiest of 
*■ Wren's works, and, if 
it stood alone, would 
be justly called puerile, 
but it adds a pleasing 
B variety to the general 
TE assemblage; and though 
|| one design on this prin- 
ciple is enough, that 
one required to be on a 
M large scale to carry out 
st. james's, garlick hill, the idea thoroughly. 




St. James's, Garlick Hill ; St. Michael's, College Hill ; St. Stephens, 
Walbrook ; and St. Bennet's, Paul's Wharf, are some of the finest of 
his numerous steeples, whose upper part is limited by a pyramid of a 
lower proportion. 

St. Michael's, Cornhill, and St. Dunstan's, near the Custom House 
(p. 197), present, in their belfries, Wren's nearest approaches to the 
old Gothic style ; for his works present every shade of intermediate 
design between these and pure Italian. His faults, in the Gothic, are 
precisely the same as when following his usual style ; but the flatness, 
shallowness, and littleness of mouldings, become here far more 
glaring, simply because his tendency this way is not restrained by 
rules and proportional measures, such as the Italian systematizers 
had laid down. 



WRENS STEEPLES. 



197 



;:; 



ST. MTCHAKL'S, CORNHILL. 



It will be observed, 
that though Wrens 
constant profession was 
to imitate the ancients, 
such an idea as that of 
the mere revival, or 
histrionic representa- 
tion, of any ancient 
style, could never have 
been entertained by 
him ; otherwise, his 
great admiration of 
Salisbury Cathedral and 
Westminster Abbey, 
and long employment 
on the repairs of both 
those matchless fabrics, 
could not but have led 
him to the production 
of some mock-Early- 
English, which, how- 
ever, was reserved for 
this 19th century. His 
words, if taken in their 
modern sense, would 
strangely contradict his 
works, for his expres- 
sions of reverence for 
antiquity, and endea- 
vour to follow its rules, 
could not have been 
more modest if St. 
Paul's had been only 
a sham temple, like the 
Madeleine or Walhalla. 

The churches erect- 
ed by Wrens succes- 
sors, Hawkesmoor and 
Gibbs, were more libe- 
rally built and far more 
ornate than those of the 
great architect himself, 
especially their exte- 
riors, which, however, 
were not, as in latere 
times, enriched at the 
expense of the interior. 




ST. DUNSTAN'S 



198 



REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE — THIRD PERIOD. 



Five churches 
by these masters 
are worthy of 
notice : — 

St. Marys, 
Woolnoth, in 
Lombard St., 
is the master- 
piece of Wren's 
pupil, Hawkes- 
moor, and by 
far the most 
original 
erected 
his time, 
exterior 



work 

since 

The 

seems 



to have been 
designed with a 
view towards 
the foreseen 
opening of a 
new street, 
which has since 
taken place ; 
and both the 
north and west 
faces are well 
fitted, the for- 
mer to its as- 
pect, and the 
latter to its 
present situa- 
tion. The in- 
terior is unique 
for a church, 
and apparently 
imitates Vitru- 
vius* descrip- 
tion of one 
sort of ancient 
atrium. Its 

great merit is, 
that the gal- 
leries, though 
very capacious, 
are not offen- 
sive. It seems 




ST. MARTJN'S church. 

incredible, did we not see proof of it on every 



side, 



CHURCHES BY HAWKESMOOR AND GIBBS. 



199 



that a problem of daily 
requirement in mo- 
dern times should, 
though solved more 
than once, be now 
given np in despair 

St. George 's, Blooms- 
bury, by the same ar- 
chitect, is remarkable 
for the picturesque 
grouping of its front, 
and majestic effect of 
its portico, which is 
on the principle of the 
ancient Roman ones, 
which style, indeed, 
this artist seems to 
have studied more 
than the modern 
Italian. The crowning 
of the tower, how- 
ever, by a pyramid of 
steps, is a sad mistake. 
That form is (or repre- 
sents) the most massive 
and solid in all archi- 
tecture, therefore the 
most unfit form pos- 
sible for a finish, and 
it should be replaced 
by some light open 
composition, inclosing 
and sheltering the 
statue, instead of 
hoisting it aloft to the 
storms. 

St. Mary-le- Strand, the first church erected by Gibbs, shows, 
altogether, a very tawdry taste, and is remarkable for the very singular 
conceit of making a single apartment appear externally of two stories. 
Even counterfeit littleness, however, is perhaps better than counterfeit 
greatness. 

St. George's, Hanover Square, is the best, or rather the least 
faulty, of the works of James, who introduced the fashion of 
placing the belfry centrally behind a portico; which in this case 
was, perhaps, from the peculiar plan of the neighbourhood, its only 
good position, for it falls nearly in the axis of three streets, Grosvenor 
and Maddox Streets and Harewood Place, and seen from the latter, 




ST. BOTOL.PH, BISHOPSGATE. 



200 REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE THIRD PERIOD. 

forms part of one of the very few groups in London that can be 
called picturesque. This belfry is also well fitted to its novel 
situation, and not too high for the portico below. The north side 
shows by its boldness, that aspect was still considered, and allowed to 
influence architectural composition, which, perhaps, it has never since 
done. 

St. Martin's in the Fields (see p. 198), now in Trafalgar Square, 
and the most conspicuous church in London, is by Gibbs, and, though 
shining like a gem among more modern works, cannot be considered 
an improvement on anything preceding it. The steeple is here too 
much for the portico, and should have been placed elsewhere. The 
whole air is pompous and ostentatious, and the enrichment, which 
was now almost turned out from the interior to the exterior of 
churches, seems working itself to the surface, and introducing us to an 
age in which beauty should not even be skin-deep. The interior is 
in a style only fit for a theatre. 

St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate (see p. 199), is a favourable specimen of 
the less pretending churches of the same age (that of George L). 
It is the only known work of its architect, James Gold. 

Somerset House, in the Strand, was commenced in 1776, by Sir 
William Chambers, the last adherent to the systematic and regulated 
architecture introduced from Italy by Jones, and it may therefore be 
regarded as terminating the third period, the brazen age, of English 
design. It consists almost entirely of small rooms, used as public 
offices, and, therefore, presents only external architecture ; and this 
is confined to the clothing of the street front, 155 feet long, the 
river front about 600 feet, and the interior of the quadrangle, 319 
feet by 224 ; the east and west sides of the exterior (though the 
latter is now the most exposed of all) being abandoned to the 
ineffable hideousness of the deceits required by bricklaying re- 
spectability. All above the cornice also has been left to grow 
into a forest of the elegant and varied inventions of the chimney- 
doctor ; it having by this time become an admitted and esta- 
blished rule, that these, and many other parts of buildings (in 
fact, to define them in short, all necessary or useful parts), were ex- 
cluded from the architect's province — not expected to appear in his 
drawings, and, in the actual execution, made allowance for, as neces- 
sary evils, invisible to the practised and tutored eye, which is 
expected to see the building not as it stands (and always will stand 
while in use), but as it would appear with the necessary blots, the 
objects of vulgar utility, abstracted. In fact, architecture had now 
become, to all intents, a "fine art;" one whose business was orna- 
ment; not to make, but to apply and combine ornament; and the 
ornaments given it as its materials were — the useful members of 
ancient building. Strange, that an art professing only to adorn, and 
ignoring vulgar use, can find nothing to take as ornaments except 
objects of use! We thus learn, then, that when these ornaments were 



SOMERSET HOUSE. 



201 






. OHz L 



Jpr 




PL4.N OF THE CENTRE AND WEST WING OF SOMERSET HOUSE. 

made, the practice must have been just the reverse of the present; 
their ornaments must have been their objects of use, and their objects 
of use their ornaments; as we have seen was the case in the first age 
of English art : whereas, now, the very term ornament implies 
something useless, so that all the members of a building are divisible 
into two classes, — objects of use, and ornaments; i. £., things without 
beauty, and things without use; things which the eye abhors, but 
must suffer because they are necessary, and things which the purse 
grudges, but must pay for, because without them there would be no 
beauty. Out of these two opposite materials it is expected to make 
unity and harmony; harmony between utility and uselessness, and 
between beauty and ugliness. The task is utterly hopeless. Har- 
mony in building is peculiar to the ages that employed neither of 

K 3 



202 



ULTIMATE STATE OF REPRESENTATIVE ARCHITECTURE. 




SOMERSET HOUSE. 



these things — to those in which architecture was not a fine art — 
in which there were no fine arts — no distinction between useful and 
fine — because the two qualities had not been abstracted — because 
no one had entertained the idea of making things either without use 
or without beauty. 

Abstracting, then, its objects of use, the work of Chambers has 
much merit, excelling most of Wren's in breadth and repose, and all 
of them in purity of detail, which he studied more than any other 
English architect, and in which he excelled even Jones. In all 
qualities related to grandeur., however, he falls far short of the latter ; 
and in invention, whether constructive or decorative, cannot be 
named with the former. 

The total divorce of use and beauty seems to characterize the end 
of the third period, that of rule, .and to prepare or usher in the 



LONDON ARCHITECTS, MEMOIRS OF. 



203 



fourth, that of licence — that of many styles — that which can represent 
the works of every age but itself — and represent them not merely 
in details, but in whole things — the first age possessing only architec- 
ture, 

(< Which, looked on as it is, is nought but shadows 
Of what it is not." 

For an account of the chief buildings erected in this age, the 
reader is referred to their several names or general designations, as 
u Churches," " Public Buildings/' &c. 

Architects. — In connection with the above, we here add a short 
memoir of the three men who have contributed most to the modern 
architecture of London, or that of the third period. 

Inigo Jones, the father of modern 
English architecture, was born in 
3 572, under the shadow, some say, 
of St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield ; 
others, of St. Paul's ; the two no- 
blest edifices of old London. His 
father, Ignatius, is regarded by some 
as a poor tailor, by others, with more 
probability, as an opulent clothier; 
who gave his son his own name, but 
in the Spanish form, in compliment to 
some merchant of that nation. The 
former apprentice Inigo to a joiner, 
chiefly on account of some vague 
hints in certain satires of his subse- ! 
quent enemy Ben Jonson, which may 
more likely allude to his employ- 
ment on the court masques, which the same poet elsewhere calls 
" mythology painted on slit deal." In fact nothing certain is known 
of the original rank, education, or early life of Jones, except that he 
gave some promise of talent for painting landscape, of which a specimen 
is said to exist in the Duke of Devonshire's villa at Chiswick. Some 
say that this drew the attention of one or both of two noblemen, by 
whom the expense of his first journey to and residence in Italy was 
defrayed; but his son-in-law mentions no such patronage, and he 
himself opens a work inscribed to the king (they being alive), with 
the words, " Being naturally inclined, in my younger years, to study 
the arts of design, I passed into foreign parts to converse with the 
great masters thereof, in Italy," &c. His family seem, therefore, to 
have afforded him this advantage. 

During a residence of many years, chiefly in Venice, he is said to 
have become known for his architectural skill, throughout Europe 
(though the names of his foreign works are not known), so that be- 
fore 1604 he was invited to Denmark, by King Christian IV., who 
made him his architect-general. As he executed no works in that 




INIGO JONES. 



204 LONDON ARCHITECTS. 

country, his stay was probably not long ; and, in 1605, we first hear 
of " Mr. Jones, a great traveller," preparing a masque to welcome 
King James on his visit to Oxford. Others say he came over in the 
suite of the king's bride, Anne, sister of Christian IV., though she 
did not arrive till 1606. He was now for many years chiefly occupied 
on the royal masques above named, of which Chapman, Devonport, 
Daniel, and Ben Jonson wrote the poetry. A quarrel with the latter 
began in 1614, and led him to satirize Jones unmercifully as long as 
he lived. Before his second residence in Italy, Jones seems not to have 
contemplated the wholesale importation of the style of that country 
(or rather of Venice), but only to engraft its details, as Holbein had 
done, on the Tudor littleness and baseness of general design. The 
chief permanent works in this, his first style, were — Sherbourne House, 
Gloucestershire; Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh; and the inner court of 
St. John's College, Oxford, which have a piquancy and spirit vastly 
superior to the dull insipid uncouthness of the Elizabethan. Some 
ascribe to him partly the decoration of St. Catherine Cree, a much 
inferior work, but, like the others, displaying more search after mere 
novelty than anything else. 

It is unknown in what year he again left for Italy, from whence he 
was after some years recalled, as the King had already made him his 
" surveyor in reversion," and that office was now vacant. He then 
showed what Walpole calls a Roman disinterestedness. The office of 
works* had, under his predecessor, contracted a debt, " amounting 
unto several thousands of pounds," and, being consulted " what course 
might be taken to ease his Majesty of it, the exchequer being empty 
and the workmen clamorous," he offered u not to receive one penny of 
his own entertainment, in what kind soever due, until the debt was 
fully discharged ;" and not only performed this himself, but persuaded 
the comptroller and paymaster to do the same. 

The King, who, if a Solomon in wisdom, was the very reverse in 
other respects, was yet not prevented from undertaking that magni- 
ficent work, with which the name of Jones is chiefly associated, and 
erecting that fragment which the richest of nations has never found 
means to carry further. — (See " Public Buildings," Whitehall.) — 
Among the many merits of this design, not the least was its capa- 
bility of progressive erection, without impairing the unity and sym- 
metry of the portion at any time left. Thus, the present fragment 
being (see plan, p. 177) the west side of one of the smallest quad- 
rangles, the two adjoining sides of the same might proceed progres- 
sively from it towards the river, always preserving uniformity and 
completeness, whether the square were closed by its eastern side or not. 
Again, after this, the opposite corresponding square, on the site of the 
present Horse Guards, might have been erected ; or, what is better, 
the south-east square, on the site of Richmond Terrace, and in either 
case two grand corresponding masses, as at Greenwich, would result. 
Supposing the north-east and south-east quadrangles thus erected, 



INIGO JONES. 



205 



they might he joined by either or both of their connecting ranges, and 
in either case a complete palace ^ 

would have been formed, some- £> 

what exceeding the present 
Palace of Parliament in extent, 
(though not in amount of build- 
ing,) and with two very different 
fronts, towards the street and 
towards the river, the latter 
affording no small instalment 
towards the lining of quays 
proposed from time to time, 
but never attempted, to assimi- 
late London with other capitals. 
Even this realization of one third 
of King James's project sounds 
wild and chimerical, but we men- 
tion it to show a peculiar merit 
of Jones's great design, w r hich no 
other perhaps ever possessed in 
such a degree. 

In 1620 he was appointed to 
repair St. Paul's, to which he 
added the Corinthian portico, at 
which critics have been so 
aghast, though always forgetting 
to show What they would have 
done in its stead, to preserve 
greater unity in the patched and 
crazy fabric. This famous por- 
tico, the first in England, was 
not inferior in scale to the largest 
of antiquity, or the masque of 
the British Museum. It had 
twelve columns in front, and 
three on the flanks, with no 
pediment, but balustrades and 
a statue over each column. 
Jones, however, was not, as 
events proved, well chosen as 
a repairer, having, perhaps, of 
all great architects, the least 
skill in construction. To this 
we may partly refer the paucity , 
of his works now extant, though I 
he was much employed on man- ji 
sions all over the country. The" 





206 LONDON ARCHITECTS, 

chief remaining are, Wilton House, Wilts; the Grange, Hants; 
Cashiobury, Herts ; and Gunnersbury, Middlesex. In London, 
besides what we have mentioned, and old Somerset House> de- 
stroyed, there remain, much altered, Lindsay House, Lincoln's Inn 
Fields, and Ashburnham House near Westminster Abbey. We 
have elsewhere mentioned the water-gate of York Stairs, the two 
northern portions of Greenwich Hospital, and the exteriors of Lincoln's 
Inn Chapel, Coven t Garden Church, and the houses with arcades ad- 
joining it. 

Being both a royalist and a catholic, Jones felt heavily the troubles 
of Charles's reign and the Commonwealth. In 1640, under pretence 
of injury done to a little church abutting on the portico of St. Paul's, he 
was mulcted of <£545 ; and, though never rich, he had recourse to bury- 
ing money. He died in Somerset House, in 1652, his life shortened, it 
is said, by troubles, though it extended to eighty years. His tomb in 
the church of St. Bennet, Paul's Wharf, disappeared, like his portico, 
in the great fire fourteen years later. 

De Quincy observes of his style, that it was almost entirely founded 
on that of Palladio, but that " imiter comme il a su le faire, c'est etre 
toujours original." Neither were his works mimic Italian, nor those 
of his master mimic Roman. Yet they are representative to a degree 
exceeding all previous works, not indeed that the ornamental parts 
were more useless and foreign to the construction than in the later 
Gothic and Tudor, but that they were more cumbrous and costly. 
It would be hard if he could not make his works more effective than 
former ones, when incomparably more was spent on effect and mere 
superfluity. As a general rule, whatever renders them beautiful, is a 
sheer sacrifice of use to beauty ; but this was the fault of the age, not 
the man ; and it is unfair to charge it on him (as Walpole and 
Cunningham have done), for the art he practised did not profess to 
unite use with beauty, any more than our present architecture does, 
with its mimic buttresses, gargoyles, steep roofs, or sham belfries. 
But it did profess (which ours does not) to represent whatever it 
did represent, for the sake of beauty, not of mock antiquity; and to 
regard use and fitness in general form and arrangement, though not 
in details. Strip a modern Gothic church of its superfluous mock 
features, and where is its beauty ? Strip the Whitehall design of the 
same, and there remain the beauties of fitness, grace, variety, and 
unity in the general form and disposition. These make the differ- 
ence between the art of the brazen age and of the iron. 

Christopher Wren, one of the brightest exemplars of combined 
greatness and goodness that this or any country has produced, 
was born in 1632, at Knoyle, a village of which his father was 
rector, in the vale of the Nadder, west of Salisbury. The family 
had for more than a century been singularly fertile in men of talent 
or learning, the most famous of whom was the architect's uncle, 
Dr. Wren, Bishop of Ely, almost a martyr to the royal cause, and 



SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. 



207 




SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. 



imprisoned for twenty years for his 
fidelity thereto. His father, also, a 
was Chaplain to Charles I., Dean of 
Windsor, and Registrar of the Order I 
of the Garter. Christopher was his f 
only son, and so weak and delicate 
in his youth, that he was reared 
with difficulty, and educated at 
home hy a private tutor, except a , 
short preparation under Dr. Busby, ' 
at Westminster, before his admis- \ 
sion to the University of Oxford in 
his fourteenth year. Even before ; 
this, he had invented some curious 
astronomical and dialling instru- 
ments, a machine " that shall plant 
corn equally, without want, and 
without waste," a " pneumatic machine," &c, to which were soon 
added a " diplographic instrument for writing with two pens/' and 
another for writing in the dark, a " weather- clock," a " treatise 
on spherical trigonometry, in a new method," a theory of the 
planet Saturn, and other contributions to the fresh dawn of physical 
science, too little remembered in her steady meridian blaze. He 
was the associate of Hooke in drawing his micrographia, (or, as 
one account says, the " inventor artis micrographise,") and made for 
Dr. Scarborough the first anatomical models, as he did also the first 
model of the moon's surface ; and, in maturer years, the first model 
showing practically the optic action of the eye. He became known 
over Europe, both as a mathematician and experimentalist, even be- 
fore the age of eighteen, at which he was made B.A. Three years 
later, he was unanimously elected a Fellow of All Souls' College, took 
the next degree, and was one of that small but choice band of philo- 
sophers who laid the humble foundation of the Royal Society. (See 
the Article " Learned Societies," and " Royal Society.") In 1 654, 
Evelyn, no exaggerator, speaks of him as " that miracle of a youth," 
and afterwards, as "that rare and early prodigy of universal science;" 
and about this time he had a very great, if not the principal, share in 
the greatest discovery or invention of the time — that of atmospheric 
pressure and the barometer*. 

* Oldenburg, a Saxon then resident at Oxford, is known to have " betrayed the 
secrets" of this scientific club to his friends abroad, who have thus obtained the credit 
of many discoveries really belonging to this nation, and especially, it is said, those of 
the modest simple-minded Wren. The famous experiments of Otto Guericke are 
.said to have emanated partly from this source ; and in a register of the Royal Society 
in 1678, relating to some barometric experiments on heights, is this passage : — a Here- 
upon it was queried, how this experiment of the different pressure of the atmosphere 
came first to be thought of ; and it was related that it was first propounded by Sir 
Christopher AYren, in order to examine Mons. Des Cartes' hypothesis whether the 



208 LONDON ARCHITECTS. 

In 1657 he succeeded Hooke in the chair of Astronomy in Gresham 
College, London; and in 1659 he was made Savilian Professor of 
Astronomy at Oxford. In 1660, when the little society above men- 
tioned was consolidated under royal patronage, Wren, by desire of 
the rest, drew up the speech to be put into the mouth of the restored 
monarch, made ready their opening experiments on pendulums, and 
was desired to consider, with Dr. Petty, the philosophy of shipping, 
and report to them thereon. At this time we hear of fifty- three 
inventions, theories, or improvements by him, chiefly mechanical, 
but ranging through such a variety of subjects, that it would hardly 
be possible to parallel this curious list. There is an " hypothesis 
of the moon's libration," and a " way of embroidering beds, cheap 
and fair ;" " divers new musical instruments," and " inventions for 
making and fortifying havens ;* " easier ways of whale-fishing," and 
" the best ways for reckoning time, way, and longitude at sea." We 
believe a search among his forgotten studies would astonish by the 
number of famous inventions of later days that were present to his 
prophetic mind, but in vain, because the age was not ripe for them. 
It is singular that only two of this catalogue refer to the art that 
afterwards engrossed all his attention. We find among the crowd, 
" new r designs tending to strength, convenience, and beauty in build- 
ing," and " to build forts and moles in the sea." A year after this, 
however, he was made assistant to the office of royal surveyor, which, 
being held by Denham the poet, appears to have been merely nomi- 
nal. In 1663 he was ordered to repair St. Paul's; and now 
appeared the most extraordinary proof of his aptitude to learn. 
Never was a subject learnt at once so late in life, so quickly and 
so well, as building in all its most technical and practical branches, 
by this w r onderful man. 

In endeavouring to repair Jones's unscientific patching, and the 
original defects of the crazy pile, he made a most masterly proposi- 
tion, to remodel the centre on the plan of the octagon at Ely, and to 
replace the thin weak tower, By a majestic dome, which would pro- 
bably have most resembled that at Florence. To fit himself, how- 
ever, for his new office, he judged it necessary to glean instruction 
abroad, and therefore, in 1665, proceeded to France, but (to the 
great and irretrievable loss of our country) no further. What his 
geometric and constructive skill might have produced, if tempered 
with the pure taste to be drawn from the old Italian works, it is im- 
possible to overrate — we should have had buildings eclipsing all 
others in the modern world. But his taste, instead of being refined 

passing by of the body of the moon presses upon the air, and consequently also on 
the body of the water : and that the first trial thereof was made at Mr. Boyle's cham- 
ber in Oxford." Dr. Derham also says of the barometer, that, " to do every man jus- 
tice, the real use of it, and the discovery that it was the gravitation of the atmo- 
sphere which kept up the quicksilver to such a height, which the learned abroad, 
particularly Torricelli, had only before suspected, was first proved by Boyle, at the 
suggestion of Wren." 



SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. 209 

by the air of Italy, was only corrupted (in matters of detail) by that 
of France, where design was then nearly at its lowest ebb. His 
industry in drawing and noting what he saw in Paris and its neigh- 
bourhood was such, to judge from his letters, that he talks of 
bringing home " all France upon paper." He frequented the works 
at the Louvre, where 1000 artisans were then employed, and would 
have "given his skin" for a longer view of Bernini's design for its 
completion, of which that mean artist, the moral opposite of Wren, 
would only allow him a five minutes' glimpse. 

The next year saw that tremendous catastrophe which, sweeping 
off old London, its dark alleys, and overhanging plague-harbouring 
wooden dwellings, cleared the field on which all this lifetime of 
thought and observation was to be concentrated and thanklessly 
bestowed. There was no question about the architect of the new 
city. Fortunately for it, and for us, Wren was not the chief, but 
the only architect of his day. His design for rebuilding the 400 
acres of wasted town was the most practical of the few ever made 
for such a purpose, and equally removed from the lower than animal 
instinct-work of American chequers, or the fairy dreams of Piranesi's 
Campus Martius. It was no " air-drawn Babylon," as one of his 
biographers calls it, though containing as much thought and con- 
trivance as any. It is observable that there are no curved streets, 
for though Wren could not, even if the High Street at Oxford were 
the only example, be unaware of their beautiful effect, he thought it 
too dearly bought by irregularity in every room. His narrowest 
streets were to be 30 ft., and widest 90, for he knew that (as Portland 
Place shows) there is no advantage in roads wider than we can afford 
to keep clean and in repair. The design, however, though the most 
humble that the occasion would justify, was too great for those who 
dwelt in and could understand nothing but littleness added to little- 
ness. The one golden opportunity was lost, and London rose again 
the most meanly planned and meanly built of cities. Private cupi- 
dity triumphed over convenience, health, and every other public 
good — not convenience over architectural display, as Ralph most 
strangely puts it. What convenience he could see in the narrow 
winding lanes, it is difficult to imagine. 

Wrens first architectural works, or those first finished, are said to 
have been the old Custom House and Exchange (both burnt down), 
Temple Bar, and the Theatre at Oxford, remarkable for construction, 
but not for good taste. About the same time (1668) he visited his 
native valley to rescue from threatened ruin — which he did with per- 
fect success, and without a touch of "Restoration" — that national 
Parthenon, that beauteous and unique monument of Young England's 
own unborrowed art, the Cathedral of Salisbury. Thus do we owe 
to the same hand the present existence of the two only great and 
uniform temples in Christendom ; the only two, of the largest class^ 



210 LONDON ARCHITECTS. 

permitted, by a special favour to this nation, to resemble tbe Saviour's 
seamless robe*. The same genius preserved us one, and produced 
us the other. 

In 1673, Sir Christopher, as he was now become, resigned his 
astronomical chair, and in 1675 laid the first stone of his great work, 
after nine years' war against prejudice and parsimony that, actually, 
for no less than two years after the fire, would hear of nothing but still 
patching up the tottering ruins. Most of the fifty churches to be re- 
built in the city occupied him about the same time, to which were 
added, in 1682, the Military Hospital at Chelsea, of which he was 
not merely the architect, but contriver of its laws, regulations, and 
whole internal economy, which to this day are esteemed a model 
for similar establishments. About the same time Charles II. had a 
fancy to erect a palace on the site of that of his remote Saxon ances- 
tors, at Winchester, but it remains, of course, unfinished, and unsightly 
from the absence of the domes, and all other designed appendages. It 
occupies a space of about 300 feet square, and in style is very similar 
to Chelsea Hospital. Another abortive project of the same monarch, 
for which he made a gorgeous design, was a circular domed mauso- 
leum to Charles I.t With such an unparalleled amount of work on 
his hands, we cannot wonder that, in 1684, Wren resigned the 
Presidency of the Royal Society, of which, from its infancy, he had 
been the chief, often the only, working member. Till then, the care 
of all the public buildings rising in the new city, and the greatest in 
the provinces, did not prevent his supplying that body with nearly 
all the matter they received in pure mathematics, astronomy, and the 
laws of motion— with nearly all that rose above mere curious trifling, 
and that paved the way or received the grateful acknowledgment of the 
coming Newton, a name greater than that of his precursor in one respect, 
but not greater in breadth of genius, activity, or moral excellence. 

The disinterestedness of Wren was at least equal to that of Jones. 
His greatest failing was said to be his inability to enrich himself; and 
if success in an art is to be measured by the gain it brings the artist, 
he little deserved the place fame has assigned him, for never were 
the most paltry designer's labours sold so cheaply as his. His remu- 

* This expression, used by Bartholomew with reference to St. Paul's alone, applies 
equally to the Early English cathedral. Its central feature is not so different in style 
from the rest, as the corresponding part of St. Paul's from its other parts ; and has 
the advantage of differing in the right direction, the less simple style coming above 
the more simple, instead of the reverse. The only great foreign church comparable 
with these for unity, is probably the Cathedral of Pisa, far inferior to either as a work 
of art. The rarity of this excellence, even in churches of far smaller dimensions, is 
very remarkable. 

t The abandonment of this design cannot be regretted, as it was to have occupied 
the site of a work of the silver age of art, late indeed, but singularly fine and pure 
for its age, the small chapel east of St. George's at Windsor, commonly called the 
Tomb-housec 



SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. 211 

neration for the whole contrivance and superintendence of St. Paul's, in 
which he seems to have had only one assistant, was a salary of £200 
per annum, one half reserved till the completion of the work, as an 
incentive to diligence. For all the other fifty churches he had £100 
per annum. It must he remembered he was the only man in England 
capable of doing these things, and that the relative value of money 
and other commodities was nearly the same then as now. 

At the peaceful revolution in 1688 the fabric of St. Paul's seems 
to have reached the level of the aisle roofing, so that it was much too 
late to rectify any of the injurious modifications of plan required to 
suit the views of the deposed monarch. William and Mary employed 
Wren on the classical parts of Hampton Court, but their Dutch taste 
and crotchets so influenced this work that it is unfair to regard the 
design as his. For them he also commenced, in 1696, the southern 
portions of Greenwich, now first made a hospital, and to this, his 
second greatest work, that he might share in the charity, he gave all 
his services gratuitously. 

About this time he ceased to be the only English architect, his pupil, 
Hawkesmoor, and Vanbrngh, Gibbs, Archer, and some others having 
arisen, to show in the fifty new churches ordered for the metropolis in 
Queen Anne's reign, the wonderfully rapid decline of taste in the 
nation at large, and of every kind of skill in the artists, among whose 
increasing numbers it seemed to be divided ad infinitum. In 1710, 
he laid the last stone of St. Paul's, at the age of seventy- eight ; and, 
up to this time, seems never to have had an enemy. The anonymous 
pamplets that now appeared respecting his " frauds and abuses," he 
thought fit to answer, though to us at a distance they dwindle into their 
true insignificance, and contain their own refutation. The final 
shameful neglect of this great man, however, began with the accession 
of George L, soon after which he was actually degraded from the 
office he had filled for half a century as none else ever filled it, to 
make way for a glib pretender, whose utter incompetency required his 
almost immediate exchange for another of the same stamp. Classical 
antiquity, however, affords parallels to the treatment of this rare 
ornament and benefactor of his country, whose too long life, it has 
been well observed, enriched the reigns of many princes, and disgraced 
the last of them. From the age of thirteen to that of eighty-six, we 
search his memoirs in vain for any interval of time devoted to self, 
and even now, from his retirement at Hampton Court, the helpless 
old man was carried to see and superintend his last and only unsuc- 
cessful work, the west front of Westminster Abbey, of which it is too 
often forgotten that he did not live to direct the upper and more ob- 
jectionable parts. At length, in 1723, he gently sunk and expired 
without illness or pain, and was buried under his own great work, where, 
with a justice most rare in such matters, his memory is celebrated by 
an epitaph, one of the truest and noblest ever graven, one in the very 
taste he would himself have admired, and of which the only fault is 



212 LONDON ARCHITECTS. 

its not appealing to the eyes and arousing the emulation of all his 
countrymen by using a tongue common to them all. 

BENEATH IS LAID 
THIS CHURCH'S AND CITY'S BUILDER, 

CHRISTOPHER WREN, 

WHO LIVED ABOVE NINETY YEARS, 

NOT FOR HIMSELF, BUT FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD. 

READER, IF YOU SEEK HIS MONUMENT, 

LOOK AROUND. 

While the general character of this great but most modest man 
seems one of the most spotless brilliancy that history affords, his 
qualities as an artist were just those which his peculiar and imperfect 
culture for that vocation would lead us to expect ; with one remark- 
able exception. It might be supposed that a self-taught and late- 
taught architect, and one of unequalled general learning and classic 
polish, would be deficient (as Jones undoubtedly was) in the practical 
constructive skill commonly supposed to be best learnt by early 
association with operatives. But this was the very point in which 
Wren especially excelled. He realized the demand of the obsolete 
writer quoted by Vitruvius, that an architect should understand 
the business of each artisan more deeply than the artisan under- 
stands it himself. He knew more of carpentry than any of his car- 
penters, and more of masonry than any of his masons. He trium- 
phantly refuted the vulgar notions about " rising from the ranks," for, 
instead of rising, he descended from higher pursuits to that of build- 
ing, — descended from theory to practice, and there incomparably 
excelled all our " practical men," with their own weapons on their 
own ground. There is no bench-sprung architect, who, in this prac- 
tical branch of his art, has ever passed mediocrity ; to let alone all 
comparison with this most theoretic, yet most practical of builders. 
He is the champion of science against "rule of thumb." The other 
excellence in which he has never been approached by any other 
modern, is just what his inventive turn and geometric culture might 
have led us to expect, variety and novelty of geometric combina- 
tions. In this he resembled the Arab architects, in constructive 
science the Gothic, in decorative style the Classic; thus uniting 
something of each of the three great schools of this art, but some- 
thing excellent of the two former alone. Decoration was his great 
defect, his details being always in a faulty taste, his general decorative 
design mostly still worse. With one splendid exception, the dome of 
St. Paul's, it is nearly always frittered, crowded, or deficient in shadow; 
sometimes all three ; and none ever pushed further the English false 
taste for shallowness of relief. 

At a time, however, when there is much said about progression 
and retrogression in architecture, it is worth remarking that Wren 
was the most retrogressive artist we have ever had, at least since 



SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS. 



213 



the Gothic times; for none ever struggled so hard as he did to 
stem the torrent of time, and move contrary to the universal 
tendency of modern art, by rendering his works less representative 
than previous ones, instead of more so. He so far succeeded that, 
in the absence of history, we should take his works to be older 
than those of Jones; because they are more real, have more union of 
utility with beauty, less pretence, less sham construction, and less 
expenditure wholly for effect. These changes we hold to be truly 
retrograde, and Wren our last truly retrograde architect. 

William Chambers, the last of 
the Anglo-Italian school of archi-/ 
tects, and the English systematizer ' 
of this art, was the son of a] 
Scotch merchant, and born at Stock- 
holm in 1726. Two years after- 
wards his father returned to Britain, 
and settled at Ripon. The young 
architect's only education was at the! 
school of that town, till, at the age l| 
of 16, he was sent as supercargo ^:^ 
in a Swedish vessel proceeding to 
China. Having a talent for drawing, 
he brought home numerous sketches | 
of the singular architecture and gar- 
dening of that country, which were 
engraved and published. It is doubt- 
ful whether he abandoned commerce for the study of architecture imme- 
diately on his return from this voyage, or went on a second. In either 
case, his skill in drawing seems to have been thought a sufficient reason 
for the new pursuit, and, about the age of 22, he proceeded to Italy to 
examine and imbibe the taste of the antique works and of the early 
revivers of classic art, as well as to measure and draw them, a step very 
necessary then in the absence of engraved collections (but not so neces- 
sary as the former). He is said to have combined the excellences of 
Michael Angelo, Sangallo, Vignola, Palladio, Scammozzi, and other 
Roman and Venetian masters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; 
but we believe this really means nothing more than that he avoided 
the most glaring defects peculiar to each, especially in matters of detail, 
which were his forte ; while, in general design, he cannot be placed 
beside any one of those masters. He also examined the best works 
of the French architects — to one of whom, Perrault, his own style 
bears considerable resemblance, probably from having been formed 
much in the same way — and he studied under Clerisseau at Paris. 
Poverty is said to have finally driven him home, but he then soon 
obtained, through a friend of the Earl of Bute, the situation of tutor 
in architecture to the Prince, afterwards George III., who, on his 
accession, made him roval architect. 




SIR WILLTAM CH.AJJBERS. 



214 LONDON — ALMSHOUSES. 

His first and one of his best works was the villa of Roehampton, 
near Richmond. Others are scattered over the country, but the 
greatest, and that which fully exemplifies his general taste, is Somerset- 
house, London, begun in 1776. Early in his career, he had published 
two works singularly opposite in character and tendency. " Designs 
for Chinese Buildings," which were soon deservedly forgotten, and 
" A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture," which has 
ever since been a standard text-book to the architects of this country ; 
being the only original one in our language on the plan of those of 
Vignola, Palladio, Perrault, &c. It seems hardly credible, that while 
laying down the law in such a purist and systematic manner, he should 
be actually engaged on the most anti-classic work of converting Kew 
Park into a Chinese garden, for the Princess of Wales, which he 
finished in 1765.' In 1768, he was made Surveyor-General; and 
soon after helped to found the Royal Academy. In 1771 he was 
knighted by the King of Sweden; and, a little later, he published a 
" Dissertation on Oriental Gardening," remarkable for its pompous 
style; which called forth anonymously (it is said from Walpole), 
" An Heroic Epistle," and other satires, on the Knight of the Polar 
Star. These finally turned the tide of taste against the Celestial 
Empire; but could not stop the headlong plunge of building art 
into its ultimate phase of supposed liberty and real slavery to fashion, 
novelty hunting, and the extreme of mere representation. Having 
lived to see the commencement of this new era ; and to see his own 
chief work the last of its class, and, with all its inferiority to those 
of his predecessors, unlikely to be rivalled by anything producible 
under the new system; this artist died of asthma in 1796, and has a 
memorial, in what may be called the artists' corner of Westminster 
Abbey. 



ALMSHOUSES. 



Almshouses, in which aged men and women are lodged and in 
most of them pensioned, are peculiar to England. They exist to a 
considerable extent in and about the metropolis. Their origin is of 
an early date, and a considerable accession of them for the retirement 
of decayed persons belonging to the principal London trades, have 
of late been endowed and located in the villages near London. 
The establishment and purpose of these benevolent institutions 
have emanated from the truly Christian spirit of pious persons. 
The stranger may be compensated by a walk from Whitechapel 
Church: in the Mile End Road, by proceeding eastward, he will 
first come upon almshouses, endowed 1698, by Mr. John Pemel, 
citizen and draper; a similar endowment, the gift of Mr. Lewis 
Newbury, citizen and skinner, 1690; almshouses wherein reside 
decayed masters and commanders of ships, or the widows of such, 
erected by the Corporation of the Trinity House, 1695. In this 



LONDON — ALMSHOUSES. 215 

establishment of the Trinity House, there are thirty houses, most 
convenient and pleasant, with kitchen and outward entrances to the 
same; these quaint little houses are said to be from the designs of 
Sir Christopher Wren. There is a chapel at the extremity of the 
ground, and in the centre of the green is a statue to the memory 
of Captain Robert Sandes, who bequeathed a sum of money to this 
establishment. The Vintners' almshouses, founded and supported 
by the Vintners' Company, in the Ward of Vintry, 1357, erected 
and established here after the fire of London, 1676. Almshouses 
founded by Francis Bancroft, Esq. (grandson of Archbishop Ban- 
croft), who bequeathed a sum of money, and died March 19, 1728; 
patrons and trustees the Drapers' Company, who, in 1729 built the 
chapel and school and twenty-four almshouses, and in 1803 built a 
dormitory for 100 boys, and again, in 1832, built four additional 
ones ; these houses, with one story above the ground floor, are most 
convenient and neat, faced with red brick. The almshouses, the gift 
of Captain Cooke, 1733, for poor seamen and their wives; there are 
only four houses, apparently less exteriorly neat. Crossing the street 
approaching to Old Stratford Church, are almshouses for poor sail- 
makers; Mr. John Edmonson left an estate to the Drapers' Com- 
pany, who built a chapel and sixteen almshouses, date 1706. In the 
same avenue are eight almshouses, four for each of the poor of Bow 
and Stratford. Still further east, on the same side, are almshouses 
bearing date 1744, endowed under the will of Mrs. Mary Bowry, for 
poor seamen and their widows, of Ratcliffe, Poplar, &c. Also, in the 
Whitechapel Road, the almshouses established in 1558, by William 
Megg, further endowed by Benjamin Goodwin, 1767. These nine 
separate endowments are all embraced within the mile, on a great 
public road on the Middlesex side, approaching the county of Essex, 
within two miles of Aldgate. Those of the Trinity Company, and 
Bancroft, are particularly interesting objects, and worthy of a visit. 
The almshouses of more recent erection are, for the most part, well 
and pleasantly placed, and extremely well designed, principally of 
the styles Early English and Gothic, giving them an indigenous, 
consistent, and picturesque representations suitable to English scenery 
and English habits. The following is a short account of them, as 
near as can with authenticity be collected : — 

1. Alleyn's, Lamb's Alley, Bishopsgate Street, founded in 1614, by Edward 
Alleyn, for ten men and women, each to have 21. per year. — 2. Also, in Park Street, 
Borough Market, ten houses for the same number, each to have 6d. per week, and, 
every other year, a coat or gown. — 3. Ayre's Almshouses, White's Alley, Coleman 
Street, founded, in 1617, by Christopher Ayre; in the gift of the Leathersellers' 
Company, for six poor men. — 4. Susannah Amyas's Almshouses for eight poor persons, 
in George Yard, Old Street. — 5. Armourers' and Braziers' Almshouses, for the poor of 
the company, in Britannia Place, Bishopsgate Without, founded 1554, by Lady 
Elizabeth Morrice. — 6. Mrs. Allan Badger's Almshouses, Hoxton Old Town, founded in 
1698, for six women, who are allowed 205. per year. — 7. Bancroft's, as before stated. 
— 8. Rev. Mr. Basemere's Almshouses, Hoxton, founded 1701, for eight women. — 9. 
Bethnal Green Almshouses, founded by Thomas Parmettier, in 1722, maintaining 



216 



LONDON — ALMSHOUSES. 

wk\ - -=" - 




BOOT-MAKERS ALMSHOUSES, MORTLAKE. 

six men, provided with coals, and 51. annually ; fifty boys are educated also, and 
supplied with shoes, stockings, and books. — 10. Charles Boone's Almshouses, founded 
in 1623, for six persons, a schoolmistress, and schoolhouse, at Lee, Blackheath ; in 
the gift of the Merchant Tailors' Company. — 11. Boot and Shoe Makers' Almshouses, 
erected recently by that society, at Mortlake, in Surrey, John Turner, architect, for 
the reception of twenty-five inmates. The centre part of the building has two 
towers ; on the first floor is a committee room, with an open roof. It is a red brick 
and Bath stone building. The accommodation for the present is for fifteen persons 
(see view). — 12. Bromley Almshouses, or Bromley College, at Bromley, in Kent, 
is for forty widows of clergymen, who receive each SSL yearly, and other allowances. 
— 13. Nicholas Butler's Almshouses, Little Chapel Street, Westminster, founded 1675, 
for two men and their wives. — 14. Bakers' Company's Almshouses, at Hackney. — 15. 
Brewers' Almshouses, Oxford Street, Whitechapel Road, for the poor of that com- 
pany. — 16. Mrs. Bowry's Almshouses, as before written. — 17. Butchers' Almshouses, 
at Walham Green, Fulham. — 18. Camden and Kentish Town Almshouses, Little 
Randolph Street, Camden Town, for twenty-four aged and deserving women. — 19. 
L. Camp's Almshouses, 1612, for six persons of the parish of Allhallows, London 
Wall, and twelve persons in houses at Barnet. — 20. Curon's Almshouses, Vauxhall, 
founded 1622, by Noel Baron of Curon, Dutch ambassador, for seven women of the 
parish of Lambeth, of 60 and above years of age. — 21. Capt. Cooke's Almshouses, as 
before stated. — 22. Coopers' Almshouses, Schoolhouse Lane, Ratcliff, founded in 1616, 
by Tobias Wood, for six persons. — 23. Case's Almshouses, Park Street, Southwark, 
founded in 1584, for sixteen men and women, by Thomas Case. — 24. Cutlers' Alms- 
houses, Ball's Pond Road, Islington, twelve houses for twenty-four inmates for the 
poor of that company. — 25. Mrs. Davis's Almshouses, Queen's-Head Lane, Islington, 
endowed 1793, for eight widows. — 26. Drapers' Almshouses, or Queen ^Elizabeth's 
College, founded in 1576, at Lewisham Road, Greenwich, by William Lambarde, the 
antiquary of Kent. There are twenty dwellings, with gardens, and the inmates re- 
ceive 15/. each yearly. — 27. Dulwich Almshouses, Bath Street, St. Luke's, founded by 
Edward Alleyn, for ten women and men ; the first brick was laid by the founder 
himself; each inmate is provided with 6d. per week, and, every other year, a coat 
or a gown. — 28. Dutch Almshouses, Crown Street, Finsbury, endowed by wealthy 
Dutch merchants at different periods, a handsome and commodious building for 
twenty inmates of above 60 years of age; fourteen tenements are for the poor of the 
Dutch in Austin Friars; and each have a pension of 8s. weekly. This endowment is 
derived from property at Highgate, Hammersmith, &c. ; one of the testators was 
Egbert Gent, of Overyssel, Holland, who died at Highgate, 1733. — 29. Dyers' Alms- 
houses, City Road, erected by the company, in 1755, for sixteen of their poor. — 30. 



LONDON-— ALMSHOUSES. 2 17 

The same company have Almshouses for ten inmates in St. John Street, Spitalfields. — 
31. East India Almshouses, Poplar, established at the granting of the first charter in the 
17th century, for widows of mates and seamen dying in their service. The building 
consists of two quadrangles ; residences for thirty-nine persons, receiving each from 
9/. to 10/. per annum, with coals and meat in the winter. An upper square consists 
of eighteen houses, with gardens, for the widows of captains, receiving pensions 
varying from 30/. to 80/. yearly. Sir Charles Cotterell likewise bequeathed an 
endowment for six sailors' widows. — 32. John Edmondson's Almshouses, as before 
stated. — 33. Edward Edwards's Almshouses, in Church Street, Blackfriars, for decayed 
housekeepers or widows of that parish. — 34. Emanuel Almshouses, in James Street, 
Westminster, founded by Lady Dacre, in 1594, for decayed persons of St. John's 
parish, Westminster. The estate, Brainbinton, in Yorkshire, yielding now 3000/., is 
appropriated to this charity. — 35. Fishmongers' Almshouses, or St. Peter's Hospital, 
were extensive buildings at Newington, for the poor of the company above 50 years 
of age, founded in the time of James I. These houses have been pulled down, and 
are reconstructed in the Tudor style, occupying three sides of a quadrangle, about 
255 ft. by 235 ft., the fourth side opening towards the south, and upon the high 
road at Wandsworth, costing about 25,000/. Others are houses in distant parts.— 

36. Framework-knitters' Almshouses, Kingsland Road, for twelve poor freemen. — 

37. French Protestant Almshouses, founded in 1733, in Spitalfields, for supplying 
poor French Protestants with soup, meat, and bread. — 38. Also in Black Eagle 
Street, giving residence and allowance to forty-five poor men and women. — 39. 
Likewise for poor French Protestants and their descendants, in Bath Street, City 
Road, was founded in 1718. It is one of the relics of the great emigration after 
the revocation of the edict of Nantes ; at one time no less than 230 refugees were 
sheltered in it, but the number of inmates is now 54. — 40. Fuller's, Mile End 
Road, founded by Judge Fuller, 1502, for twelve ancient poor men of Stepney. — 
41. Also others in Old Gloucester Street, Hoxton, for twelve poor women.-— 42. 
Free Watermen and Lightermen's Almshouses, in Surrey, established in 1839, for 
sixty inmates. — 43. Girdlers' Almshouses, Bath Street, Old Street Road, founded 
by George Palyn, in 1609, for six poor members of the company. — 44. Goldsmiths' 
Almshouses, founded 1703, by R. Morell, for six aged liverymen, who receive 21/. 
annually, two chaldron of coals, and a new gown of the value of 2/ 10s. — 45. Also 
one at Woolwich, endowed by Sir Martin Bowes, 1565, for five poor widows, 
parishioners of Woolwich, who receive 25/. per annum, besides coals. — 46. Alms- 
houses at Acton, founded by John Perryn, rebuilt in 1812. — 47. Graham's, 
founded in 1686, in Crown Street, Soho, for clergymen's widows or unmarried 
daughters. — 48. Gresham's, City Green Yard, Whitecross Street, founded by Sir 
Thomas Gresham, in 1575, for eight poor persons. — 49. Haberdashers' Almshouses, 
founded by Robert Aske, Esq., in 1692, Pitfield Street, Hoxton, by bequest of 
31,905/., for twenty poor men of the company, each to be allowed 30/. per annum ; 
and for twenty boys, to be maintained, clothed, and educated, as much as would 
cost 20/. each. — 50. Harmar's Almshouses, founded in 1713, by Mr. Samuel Har- 
mar, for twelve single men and women. — 51. Heath's Almshouses, Frog Lane, Tib- 
berton Square, Islington, and at Monkwell Street, City, founded by John Heath, 
1648, for ten freemen of the Clothworkers' Company. — 52. Henry (King) the Seventh's 
Almshouses, Little Almonry, Westminster. — 53. Hill's Almshouses, Old Rochester 
Row, Tothill Fields, founded in 1708, by Emery Hill, for six men and their wives, 
and six poor widows. — 54. Also, he founded houses for three men and their wives, 
in Petty France, Westminster. — 55. Rev. Rowland Hill's Almshouses, in Surrey. — 
56. Hinton's Almshouses, Plough Alley, Barbican, founded in 1732, by Mrs. Alice 
Hinton, for twelve widows of the parish of Cripplegate. — 57. Holles's Almshouses, 
Curtain Road. — 58. Holles's Almshouses, Great St. Helen's, founded in 1539, by 
Lady Holies and Mrs. Alice Smith, for six men and women. — 59. Hopton's Alms- 
houses, Green Walk, Christchurch, founded in 1730, for twenty-six poor men who 
have been housekeepers, with 10/. and a chaldron of coals annually to each. — 60. 
Almshouses at Northfleet, just founded by Mr, Huggens, a merchant of large for- 

L 



218 LONDON — ALMSHOUSES* 

tune, who has appropriated very handsome apartments for unfortunate gentlefolks, 
allowance 11. per week. — 61. Jeffery's Almshouses, Kingsland Road, founded 1703, 
by Sir Robert Jeffery; fourteen houses, with a chapel in the centre, for fifty-six 
persons of the Ironmongers' Company. — 62. Judd's Almshouses, founded by Sir 
Andrew Judd, in 1551, for six men of the Skinners' Company. — 63. Leathersellers' 
Almshouses, Clark's Place, Bishopsgate Street, founded by John Haslewood, in 1544, 
for four men and three women, decayed merchants of that company. — 64. Also, by 
Christopher Lyre, in "White's Alley, 1617, for six men and their wives. — Q5. And 
Robert Rogers, in Hart Street, Cripplegate, founded in 1612, for six men and their 
wives. — 60. London Almshouses, Park Hill, Brixton, built in 1832, to commemorate 
the passing of the Reform Bill, for freemen electors of London and their wives. — 67. 
Lumley's, City Road, founded by Lady Lumley, in 1672, for six persons. — 78. 
Megg's, Whitechapel Road, founded in 1558, for the support of twelve widows, as 
before said. — 69. Melbourne's, Crutched Friars, founded in 1535, by Sir John Mel- 
bourne, for thirteen women. — 70. Mercers' Company are invested with several 
almshouses. — 71. Merchant Taylors' Company are invested with almshouses in Princes 
Street, Rosemary Lane, for twenty-six widows. — 72. On Tower Hill, founded 
by Richard Hills, for twenty-six widows ; and since erected new almshouses at Lee, 
in Kent, at a cost of 9480£., increasing the number to nearly forty. — 73. Lady 
Muir's Almshouses, Stepney Church Yard, for twelve widows, each to receive 121. 
per annum. — 74. Morden College, Blackheath, founded by Sir John Morden, 1695, 
for decayed merchants. The founder demised, at the death of his lady, the whole 
of his estate to this institution. An allowance is made of 721. a year, with coals, 
candles, washing, bath, medical and clerical attendance. The chapel has some wood 
carving by Grindlay Gibbons — 75. Monox's Almshouses, Walthamstow, founded 
1686, by George Monox, Alderman, for eight men and five women, with a school- 
house, and apartments for children. — 76. Mr. Lewis Newbury's Almshouses, 1690, 
as before stated. — 77. Norfolk Almshouses, or Trinity Hospital, near the "Waterside, 
Greenwich, an old Elizabethan building, founded by Henry, Earl of Northampton, 
in 1613. The Mercers' Company are the trustees; the revenue of which i3 about 
1200L per annum. — 78. Owen's Almshouses, Goswell Street Road, founded by Lady 
Owen, in 1609, for thirteen women. — 79. Overman's Almshouses, Southwark, 
founded by Mrs. Alice Shaw Overman, of Newington, for eight single women, 11. 
per month, and 10s. each on New-Year's-Day. — 80. Packington's, Whitefriars, 
founded by Lady Ann Packington, 1560, for eight women. — 81. Palmer's, West- 
minster, founded in 1654, by the Rev. James Palmer, for twelve persons, and a 
school for twenty boys. — 82. Parish Clerks' Almshouses, at Camberwell. — 83. 
Pemel's, founded 1698, as before stated. — 84. Poulterers and Fishmongers' Alms- 
houses, a very elegant structure in the Green Lanes, Southgate. — 85. Rogers's 
Almshouses, Hart Street, Wood Street, founded, in 1612, by the will of Robert 
Rogers, pension 41. per annum. — 86. Printers' Almshouses, Wood Green, Totten- 
ham, at a cost of 17501., a handsome building. — 87. Rippon's Almshouses, New 
Park Street, Southwark.— 88. Salters', Monkwell Street, founded in 1775, by Sir 
Ambrose Nicholas, for seven men and five widows. — 89. St. Benet's Almshouses, 
Peter's Hill, Doctor's Commons. — 90. St. Clement Danes, Foregate Street, St. 
Clement's. — 91. St. Giles and St. George's, Bloom sbury, Almshouses, Smart's Build- 
ings, for twenty widows, with an allowance of 7s. a week, provided with coals, 
candles, and bread. — 92. St. Leonard's Shoreditch, Hackney Road. — 93. St. Mar- 
tin's-in-the- Fields Almshouses, Bayham Street, Camden Town, consist of thirty 
houses for seventy almswomen on the parish foundation, and thirty-five out-door 
pensioners. — 94. St. Peter's Almshouses, or Fishmongers' Almshouses, Newington 
Butts, founded 1618. — 95. Sion College Almshouses, London Wall. — 96. Stafford's 
Almshouses, Gray's Inn Road, founded in 1613.— 97. Surrey Chapel Almshouses, 
Hill Street, Wellington Street, erected 1811, founded and principally endowed by 
the Rev. Rowland Hill, for twenty-three destitute females. — 98. Smith's, founded 
in 1584, by D. Smith, St. Peter's Hill, Doctor's Commons, for six widows. — 99. 
Smith's Almshouses, Hackney.— 100. Tabernacle Almshouses, Tabernacle Row, 



LONDON — ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 219 

City Road, consist of twelve houses. — 101. Tailors' (Journeymen) Almshouses, 
at Haverstock Hill, for forty persons and their wives. — 102. Trinity Almshouses, 
Mile End Road, as aforesaid. — 103. Trinity Almshouses, founded in 1537, at St. 
Nicholas, Deptford ; and another in Church Street, Deptford, founded by Sir 
Richard Browne and Captain William Maples, for decayed pilots and masters of 
ships or their widows. — 104. Vintners', Mile End Road, as aforesaid. — 105. Van 
Dun's Almshouses, York Street, Westminster, founded 1577, by Cornelius Yan 
Dun, a native of Brabant, for twenty widows. — 108. Weavers' Almshouses, Old 
Street Road, erected by Mr. Watson, for the widows of twelve weavers. — 107. Also 
an endowment in Blossom Street, Norton Folgate, founded by Nicholas Grarratt, 
1725, for six decayed members of the Weavers' Company. — 108. Westby's Alms- 
houses, at Hoxton, founded in 1749, by Mary Westby, of Barking, Essex, for ten 
women. — 109. Whittington's Almshouses, Highgate Archway, founded in 1421, by 
Sir R. Whittington, originally built on College Hill. The present structure is a very 
handsome one, in the old English style, erected at a cost of 20,000^. There is a 
resident clergyman, named the tutor ; the inmates receiving 30/. yearly, besides 
other privileges. — 110. Walter's Almshouses, founded by John Walter, in 1651, 
for sixteen men and women, in Cross Street, Islington. There are man}" others of 
recent erection. 

For the information of our readers we will add the Rules and 
Regulations for the Government of the Inmates, as applied specially 
to the city of London's Almshouses. 

1. The Inmates are expected to conduct themselves in a becoming manner; to 
appear clean in their persons, apparel, and apartments ; and to attend a place of public 
worship at least once on the Sabbath Day. 

2. The Inmates shall not be allowed to receive lodgers or have young children 
residing with them ; nor be permitted to keep school, take in washing for hire, follow 
any trade, or engage in any occupation which may tend to interrupt the quietude, 
decency, and good order which at all times should be preserved. 

3. No nails shall be driven into the walls ; nor shelves, cupboards, locks, or bolts 
be fixed or removed ; nor any alterations made in the rooms without the permission 
of the Committee. 

4. No Inmate shall keep dogs, rabbits, poultry, pigeons, swine, or any other 
animal which may occasion a nuisance to others*; no slops shall be thrown out, or 
accumulation of dirt or ashes be permitted, at or near the doors ; but all sweepings 
or other refuse shall be removed at once to the appointed place. 

5. The Inmates shall not be permitted to have any other residence than at the 
Almshouses, or to be absent from their apartments for more than a fortnight at one 
time without the special sanction of the Committee. 

6. In the event of an Inmate marrying, he or she shall cease to derive any benefit 
from the charity ; and the next Ward in rotation shall be called upon to nominate 
and elect for the vacancy thus created. 

7. The Warden is required to lock the outer gates at 10 o'clock in the evening, 
and unlock them at 6 o'clock in the morning, from Lady-day to Michaelmas ; and at 
9 in the evening and 7 in the morning from Michaelmas to Lady-day. 

8. The Warden shall keep a register of any deviation from these rules ; and make 
a monthly report of the conduct of the Inmates to the Committee. 

9. Every Inmate is expected to conform to these rules and regulations, for the 
better observance of which a printed copy shall be given at the time of admission. 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 
In attempting to convey to the reader a general idea of the state of 
the useful Arts, Manufactures, and Trades of London, we are tempted 
not unnaturally, to cast a glance at England as a manufacturing nation, 

L 2 



220 LONDON. 

for it is a somewhat remarkable fact that the metropolis is by no 
means a fair exponent of the state of manufactures throughout the 
country. Our large manufacturing districts are, for obvious reasons, 
located in the vicinity of our coal-fields, and although large portions 
of the manufactured products find their way to, or are in some man- 
ner represented in London, yet very much larger portions obtain out- 
lets, and are diffused over the country, and over the world, without 
any direct reference to the metropolis. London may be regarded as 
a vast trading and commercial, rather than a manufacturing town, and 
hence, from the great subdivision of employments, and the multiplicity 
of objects to be noticed, it is much more difficult to convey a general, 
and at the same time an accurate idea of the useful arts and trades 
carried on in this great city, than it would be to describe the industry 
of a town devoted to large and important manufactures. 

As the eyes of the whole world are now being directed to London 
as the scene of the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations , the 
inquiry becomes deeply interesting as to what position this country is 
likely to occupy in that momentous trial of skill. It is not difficult 
to foresee that the contributions of Great Britain to the Palace of 
Glass, itself a triumph of manufacturing and constructive skill, will 
be calculated to display our superiority in the production of machinery 
and of machine-made goods. As respects taste in design, and a feeling 
for the beautiful in the application of artistic skill to manufactures, 
she will probably have to yield the palm of superiority to some of her 
continental rivals. 

But why, it may be asked, if England is inferior to some other coun- 
tries in so important a matter as taste, is her power in the production 
of machinery sufficient to give her so much celebrity as a manufac- 
turing nation ? This question will find its solution in a brief consi- 
deration of the causes which have led to the superiority of this coun- 
try in the production of machinery, and its results. These causes are, 
however, somewhat complex. But it may be stated as one of the 
chief advantages of England, that she possesses within herself abund- 
ance of raw material. She has vast subterranean stores of iron, 
copper, tin, lead, and other useful metals. The habits of the people 
lead to the production of much wool and leather. Flax is also grown 
in considerable quantities. If we had depended upon foreign nations for 
the supply of heavy and bulky articles, such as these, our advance must 
have been slow ; but having these, we have the materials of machinery 
at hand, and can supply them in a thousand different ways which ad- 
vancing science and improving experience from time to time suggest. 

But the possession of those important raw materials would have 
been comparatively valueless, but for another bounteous gift of Pro- 
vidence, without which we must have been importers of iron and the 
other materials of machinery. We have an almost inexhaustible sup- 
ply of coal. Had it not been for this, our steam-engines and spin- 
ning mules could not have had a profitable existence ; but having the 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 221 

ores and the means of working them in greater abundance than 
any other people in the old world, if not in the new, our superiority 
in the production of machinery seems to be tolerably secure. The 
steam-engine is, as it were, the right hand of manufactures, and our 
coals are the muscles which set it in motion. Hence, our coals have 
been appropriately termed " vast magazines of power^ warehoused 
and ready for use." Waterfalls have now lost much of their value, 
except under peculiar local circumstances ; for steam may be supplied 
with greater regularity than water. It is under command at all sea- 
sons, while water is not. Any number of steam-engines may be 
erected in the immediate vicinity of each other, so that all the depart- 
ments of manufacturing industry may be brought together in the same 
town, thereby producing a combination and adaptation of employ- 
ments to each other, and a consequent saving of labour. 

The value of steam-impelled labour may be illustrated by the fol- 
lowing statement, which we borrow from Dr. Ure's " Philosophy of 
Manufactures." A manufacturer in Manchester works a 60-horse 
Boulton and Watt's steam-engine, at a power of 120 horses, during 
the day, and 60 horses during the night ; thus extorting from it an 
impelling force three times greater than he contracted or paid for. 
One steam horse-power is equivalent to 33,000 pounds avoirdupois 
raised one foot high per minute ; but an animal horse-power is equi- 
valent to only 22,000 pounds, raised one foot high per minute, or, in 
other terms, to drag a canal-boat 220 ft. per minute with a force of 
100 pounds, acting on a spring; therefore, a steam horse-power is 
equivalent in working efficiency to one living horse, and one-half the 
labour of another. But a horse can work at its full efficiency only 8 
hours out of the 24, whereas a steam-engine needs no period of 
repose ; and therefore to make the animal power equal to the physical 
power, a relay of 1^ fresh horses must be found three times in the 
24 hours, which amounts to 4^- horses daily. Hence a common 60- 
horse steam-engine does the work of 4^ times 60 horses, or of 270 
horses. But the above 60-horse steam-engine does one-half more 
work in 24 hours, or that of 405 living horses ! The keep of a horse 
cannot be estimated at less than Is. 2d. per day ; and therefore, that 
of 405 horses would be about 24/. daily, or 7500/. sterling in a year 
of 313 days. As 80 lbs. of coals, or one bushel, will produce steam 
equivalent to the power of one horse in a steam-engine during 8 
hours' work, 60 bushels worth about 305. at Manchester, will main- 
tain a 60-horse engine in fuel during 8 effective hours, and 200 
bushels worth 100s., the above hard-worked engine during 24 hours. 
Hence the expense per annum is 1565/. sterling, being little more 
than one-fifth of that of living horses. As to prime cost and super- 
intendence, the animal power would be greatly more expensive than 
the steam power. There are many engines made by Boulton and 
Watt 40 years ago, which have continued in constant work all that 
time, with very slight repairs. What a multitude of valuable horses 
would have been worn out in doing the service of these machines ! 



222 LONDON. 

and what a vast quantity of grain would they have consumed ! Had 
British industry not heen aided by Watt's invention, it must have 
gone on with a retarding pace, in consequence of the increasing cost of 
motive power, and would, long ere now, have experienced in the 
price of horses, and scarcity of waterfalls, an insurmountable barrier 
to further advancement: could horses, even at the low prices to which 
their rival, steam, has kept them, be employed to drive a cotton-mill 
at the present day, they would devour all the profits of the manufacturer. 

14 Steam-engines furnish the means, not only of their support, but 
of their multiplication. They create a vast demand for fuel ; and 
while they lend their powerful arms to drain the pits and to raise 
the coals, they call into employment multitudes of miners, engineers, 
ship-builders and sailors, and cause the construction of canals and 
railways ; and while they enable these rich fields of industry to be 
cultivated to the utmost, they leave thousands of fine arable fields free 
for the production of food to man, which must have been otherwise 
allotted to the food of horses. Steam-engines, moreover, by the 
cheapness and steadiness of their action fabricate cheap goods, and 
procure in their exchange a liberal supply of the necessaries and com- 
forts of life, produced in foreign lands." 

The possession of raw materials, the abundance of coal, and the 
steam-engine, have been powerful auxiliaries in erecting this country 
into a great manufacturing emporium for the whole world ; but these 
causes would probably not have been sufficient in themselves to produce 
so wonderful a result. We owe much to our insular position which 
enables us to maintain intercourse with all parts of the world, so that 
our manufacturers can obtain the raw materials and industrial products 
of other countries, and give in exchange for them the produce of our 
own manufactures. Surrounded as we are on all sides by the sea, 
the " great highway of nations," we can deal with the most distant 
as well as with the nearest people, by the cheapest method of transit. 
The soil and climate of this country are also highly favourable to 
industry. Although fertile, our soil produces few articles of value 
without the laborious exertions of man. Our climate is sufficiently 
severe to compel us to provide for wants which are less felt in more 
genial regions. Thus the difficulties of our situation call forth and 
stimulate our industry and develop qualities which produce a beneficial 
influence on the progress of society. 

Nor is all this manufacturing and commercial industry checked 
and impeded by oppressive fiscal regulations. Ever since the acces- 
sion of the House of Hanover, this country has enjoyed a free form 
of government, which has given a freedom to native industry, and at 
the same time has protected it by its strong arm. The manufacturer 
feels that the capital invested in his factory is as secure as if it had 
been laid out on an estate in one of the rural districts. If this were 
not the case, our mines of rich ore, our coal mines, the advantages of 
our insular situation, would all have been bestowed in vain ; for the 
moment the idea came to be generally entertained that property was 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 223 

insecure, our career would be at an end. Ever since the celebrated 
Act of 1624, for the abolition of monopolies, industry, with some 
trifling exceptions, has been left quite free. It is true that we have 
not always been allowed to buy in the cheapest, nor to sell in the 
dearest market, but the most intense competition has always existed 
among producers at home. While France, Germany, Italy, Spain, 
and other countries, have had their industry clogged and their ener- 
gies impeded by feudal and corporate privileges, every man in Eng- 
land is left to exert his own energies in his own way, to adopt every 
device by which he can best attain his object, and he is free to carry 
his labour and his produce to good markets. 

The influence of taxation on manufactures is supposed by some to 
be beneficial rather than otherwise, exerting a healthy stimulus, and 
actuating the manufacturer by the fear of falling, while the desire of 
rising is natural to him : he is stimulated to increased exertions to 
meet the burden which taxation imposes, and in this way a much 
larger amount of wealth is produced than is abstracted by the tax. 
The most injurious influence of taxation arises not from its being 
oppressive in amount, but from the partial manner in which it is 
assessed; from its inequality, and its interference with the processes and 
details of industry. Much, however, has been done* of late years to 
remove these injurious impediments, thus giving an assurance that 
those which still remain cannot long continue. 

One of the most precious results of the free institutions of this 
country is religious toleration. Every man's conscience is left free, 
and he can adopt whatever form of worship accords with his notions 
of the revealed will. Hence the religion of this country being 
founded on Scripture, and not on dogmas or tradition, partakes of the 
practical character of the people. The precept which requires the 
individual to be " true and just in all his dealings," has been adopted 
by the nation, and hence we have unbounded credit, the consequence 
of a strict maintenance of public faith, and almost illimitable wecdth, 
the effect of industrial and commercial enterprise. The progress of 
this country since the peace of 1815 has been perfectly marvellous. 
We have reformed our national system of representation — given free- 
dom to municipalities — extended the limits of religious liberty — given 
freedom to the press — conferred political privileges on the great bulk 
of the population — and by an extensive system of cheap and healthy 
literature, enlarged their views and elevated their tastes. We have 
enlarged our commerce, expanded our powers of production in manu- 
factures, and increased our agricultural wealth. The salutary con- 
sequence of all this has been, that the mind having been left free 
and independent, science has made gigantic strides, and enriched our 
useful arts and manufactures with most valuable discoveries. Our 
manufacturing towns have grown up into great cities — villages have 
expanded into towns — gigantic enterprises have been undertaken and 
completed with vigour, strength, and perfection — canals, docks, rail- 
roads, and other useful works, have been produced at an expense 



224 LONDON. 

which must be estimated by hundreds of millions of pounds sterling. 
All these effects have naturally increased our power abroad, and our 
colonies have shared in the prosperity of the mother country. 

One of the consequences of this freedom is displayed in the con- 
test which has long been carried on, and now more fiercely than 
ever, between the rural districts and the great cities and towns— 
between land and trade — between the advocates of protection and 
the friends of commercial freedom — between the old and the new. 
The advocates of the old draw upon ancient associations for a 
standard by which to measure the imperfections of the present age. 
" The wide and pastoral valley, with all its flocks and spreading 
trees, sheltered and bounded by wooded hills, on the sides of which 
the hazel copse and wild hedge-rows are blended with the gorse, the 
bracken and heather; the white walls of the embowered cottage; 
the village-church ; the gray ruins of the ancient abbey overhanging 
a bright and living stream — these remembrances of natural beauty, 
now in many instances defaced, make the contrast between the past 
and the present still more harsh. In the same valley the green turf 
may now be disfigured by banks of coal or black shale ; the wood- 
lands on the hilly slope may have given way to a succession of lime- 
works, with their trailing fires creeping along the surface of the earth, 
and effacing all trace of vegetable life. In the room of the pic- 
turesque and consecrated ruin, the ungraceful lines of a dark factory, 
with its gigantic chimneys alternately breathing flame and smoke ; 
and, as if the pollution of all the elements was in a condition inse- 
parable from this great revolution, the air is loaded with murky 
clouds, and the waters of the river, no longer transparent, are stained 
with the dye-stuffs and refuse of a hundred mills. The rural cottage, 
with its roses and woodbine, is replaced by a stiff and formal line of 
square brick houses, the foundations and walls of which have given 
way, and disclose in their rents and fractures the excavations of the 
land beneath. The change in the appearance of the inhabitants is 
equally great. The begrimed and sooty collier, the artizan, the 
colour of whose skin can scarcely be seen through stains of ochre or 
indigo, seem but sorry representatives of the sbepherd or the plough- 
man. Peace, simplicity, virtue, order, stability, reverence for the 
laws of God, respect for the laws of man, are held up by the lovers 
of the poetic and romantic as the characteristics of the system which 
has passed, or which is passing away; whilst discontent, violence, 
love of change, an arrogant self-reliance, vicissitudes of pinching 
want, and vulgar indulgence, are, by the same class of reasoners, con- 
nected with our trading and manufacturing system."* 

One of the witnesses examined some years ago before the Hand- 
loom Weavers' Committee, gives in a very few words a satisfactory 
answer to the arguments of the Protectionists : — " If I make a piece 
of cloth, and meet a Frenchman with a sack of corn on his back, I 
should be glad to exchange ; but up steps a custom-house officer and 
* " Edinburgh Review," No. clv. 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 225 

won't let me, and I may eat my cloth if I can." Now, unless Eng- 
land can produce a sufficient supply of corn for the whole of her 
immense population, which she cannot do under the best system of 
agriculture, and at the lowest rents, or with land free from all rent, 
we must supersede this custom-house officer, and allow the foreigner 
to exchange his sack of corn for our piece of cloth. 

But the prosperity of our home manufactures not only affords 
direct subsistence to immense numbers of individuals, but acts power- 
fully on the agricultural and other classes, supplying them with an 
infinite variety of useful and necessary articles at low prices, and 
creating an almost boundless market for their own peculiar products. 
Some dairy farmers in Cheshire informed Dr. Taylor * that they had 
not discovered the inseparable connection between the two interests, 
until the closing of a mill in their neighbourood deprived them of all 
their best customers. In periods of manufacturing distress, the sale of 
agricultural produce, particularly milk, cheese, and butter, is greatly 
depressed. Nor is the influence confined within the limits of the 
manufacturing districts. It extends throughout the land. The her- 
rings of Sunderland ; the wools of Sussex, the butter of Cork, the 
malt of Hants and Essex, offer a standard by which to judge of the 
state of industry in Yorkshire and Lancashire. 

There is no doubt that at the present time the low price of corn is 
operating disastrously on the corn-growers of this country. Every 
great change in our social relations calculated to benefit the great bulk 
of the population must prove injurious to a class. The few must 
suffer for the benefit of the many. The chief burdens of this 
country are borne by the manufacturing and operative population : 
it is by taxes collected from them that we keep faith with the public 
creditor, and support our army and navy. The burdens on land may, 
just now, be felt to be oppressive ; rents imposed during the long 
period of protection, cannot now be paid; but, the time cannot be 
far distant when the farmer will find it to his interest to grow some- 
thing more profitable to him than corn, and to throw into his pro- 
ceedings a portion of that energy and scientific skill which has had 
such powerful influence in raising our manufactures to their present 
point of perfection. 

The charge that has been brought against our manufacturing towns, 
that they are the seats of vice, turbulence, and infidelity, is not true. 
Large cities and small villages have their vices, for these belong to 
human nature. If the village is not disgraced by a gin-palace, it 
has its beer-shop. If the mill has not always been safe from the 
violence of refractory operatives, the rick-yard has not been secure 
from the midnight incendiary. In short, the vices of one system 
have their counterparts in those of the other. And may not their 
virtues be also similarly counterbalanced ? There is no doubt that if 
large towns are bad, they would Lave been much worse but for fac- 
* * Tour through the Manufacturing Districts." 1842. 

L 3 



226 LONDON. 

tories. Factories have been the best academies for poor children, 
for they have thus been taken out of the streets, and brought up in 
habits of order, regularity, and industry : they have been regularly 
taught in the factory schools and in Sunday schools. Their health 
has been improved by working in spacious well- warmed and venti- 
lated mills, and their earnings have enabled their parents to feed and 
clothe them comfortably and respectably. 

A thoughtful and suggestive writer remarks, " As men con- 
gregate in large numbers, it is inevitable that the strong should 
act as an impetus on the weak ; in other respects also the pre- 
sence of numbers is mainly on the side of intelligence. It is a mistake 
to suppose that minds of the same class possess no more power 
collectively than they do separately."* A practical illustration of this 
position is to be found in the fact, that publishers consider Lancashire 
as the most book-buying county in Eugland, and the depression of 
manufactures is always found by its depressive effect on literature. 
The large number of writers engaged in popular literature look for 
readers more among tradesmen and artizans than among farmers and 
peasants; and, if it were necessarj^, numerous instances of this state 
of things might be quoted : one may suffice : — The Revising Barrister 
for Leicestershire stated a few years ago, that on the east or agri- 
cultural side of the county it was very common for overseers of 
parishes not to be able to write, and that generally when the 
population was exclusively agricultural, he found a degree of ig- 
norance he was utterly unprepared for in a civilized country. 

In coming now to notice the manufactures and trades of London, 
it will be found that the preceding details are by no means irrelevant. 
A very large proportion of the trade and commerce of the metropolis 
consists in receiving, appropriating, and distributing into innumerable 
channels the manufactured products of the provinces. There is 
scarcely a large factory in the kingdom that is not represented by 
some house in London, and many manufacturers have each their own 
special agent in London. 

In order to convey an accurate idea of the trade of the metropolis, 
we have gone carefully through the Trades' Directory of that useful 
and laborious annual, the London Post-Office Directory. \ We have 
summed up the numbers of houses or firms engaged in any one par- 
ticular occupation, and have re-arranged the whole into eight distinct 
and tolerably well defined sections, namely — 
Section I. — Trades, Manufactures, and Occupations, relating to the production of 

Food ; which is further subdivided into Solid Food, Liquid Food, 

and Miscellaneous. 
II. — Trades, Manufactures, and Occupations, relating to Dress and Personal 

Decoration. 

* Dr. Vaughan.— " The Age of Great Cities." 

f It will be understood that in this list housekeepers only are entered. The 
chief influence of this fact is upon section vi v a very large number of teachers in the 
metropolis not being housekeepeers. 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 227 

Section III. — Trades, &c, relating to Houses and Furniture. 

IV. — Trades, &c, relating to Locomotion by land and water. 
Y. — Trades, &c, relating to the production of Artificial Heat and. Light. 
VI. — Trades, &c, relating to Literature, Education, Science, and the Fine 

Arts. 
VII. — Trades, &c, relating to Medicine, Surgery, &c. 
VIII. — Miscellaneous Trades, Manufactures, and Occupations. 

Some explanation will be required under each of these heads. By 
far the largest number of individuals who exercise any occupation are 
those engaged in ministering to our daily wants ; such employments 
fall naturally under the three denominations of Food, Skelter^ and Cloth- 
ing. With respect to one of the most important articles of food, 
Bread, the arrangements for its production do not in the metropolis 
partake of the character of a large factory. There are 430 dealers 
who trade in corn. The millers in the vicinity of London deal largely 
in corn, which they grind and prepare for their customers, the bakers, 
2408 in number, each of whom has an oven and arrangements for 
baking immediately below the shop in which he supplies his customers 
With bread. Each baker employs one or more journeymen, the num- 
ber of whom cannot of course be ascertained until the census of this 
year shall have been taken, and the classified results published ; but 
it may be stated that in 1841, the date of the last population returns, 
there were 9110 bakers in London, including, of course, masters as 
well as journeymen. Meat is also supplied in a somewhat similar 
manner. The market salesmen, 158 in number, are the agents be- 
tween the grazier and the butcher. The London butchers, 1634 in 
number,'either kill their own meat for the supply of their own immediate 
neighbourhood, or they purchase meat at the markets ready killed and 
prepared for sale. At the present time about two million head of 
sheep and cattle are sold every year in Smithfield. In 1841, there 
were 6450 butchers in London, including journeymen. The skins of 
the slaughtered animals are collected chiefly in the skin market of 
Bermondsey, where a class of agents called Fellmongers prepare them 
for the Tanners, vrhose works exist in considerable numbers in 
Bermondsey and its neighbourhood. The entrails of sheep, pigs, &c, are 
transferred to the catgut makers, several of whom have establishments 
in or near White chap el, Smithfield, &c. Billingsgate is the chief 
market for fish; Leadenhall Market for poultry and game; Newgate 
Market for eggs and butter ; Covent Garden Market for vegetables. 
(See article u Markets/') In all these, and other articles, there are 
regular salesmen who act as agents between the growers and pro- 
ducers and the retail dealers. 

In the second division of this section we find manufacturing details 
unequalled in the world for extent and magnificence. The large 
London Breweries are among the wonders of the metropolis, and we 
may form some idea of the extent of their operations from the fact, 
that in 1849-50, Messrs. Meux and Co. consumed 59,617 quarters of 
malt, and Messrs. Reid and Co. 56,640 quarters, for porter only ; while 
in the same period, for ale and porter Messrs. Barclay and Co. consumed 



228 LONDON. 

115,542 quarters; Truman and Co. 105,022 quarters; Whitbread and 
Co. 51,800 quarters ; and other firms in decreasing proportions. 
In a large brewery lately visited by the writer the quantity of malt 
wetted during the winter brewing season, every Tuesday and Friday, 
is 320 quarters, and in the four other days of the week, 230 quarters. 
There are in this brewery three coppers of the capacities of 350, 500, 
and 600 barrels. The coal consumed per day is 10 or 12 tons, 
and the capacity of the largest store vat is 1568 barrels. Admission 
to these breweries is not difficult, provided the applicant be properly 
recommended. (See also separate article on " Breweries.") 

The produce of these large factories is distributed to the public 
through the medium of 4416 publicans, whose houses are distinguished 
by some sign which is often remarkable for its oddness, and the 
strange collocation of objects, as well as illustrating the loyalty or the 
prevailing public topic of the time. For example, among the public- 
house signs we have, as illustrative of loyalty, 66 Crowns, 19 Crown 
and Anchors, 5 Crown and Cushions, 8 Crown and Sceptres, 48 Rose 
and Crowns. We have also the Crown and Shears, the Crown and 
Shuttle, the Crown and Still, the Crown and Sugar Loaf, the Crown 
and Thistle, and the Crown and Two Chairmen. There are 92 King 
Georges, either alone or connected with some object more or less in- 
congruous. The sign of the King and Queen occurs 12 times. There 
are 86 King's Arms and 67 King's Heads, 7 Royal Georges, 2 Royal 
Sovereigns, 2 Royal Williams, 1 Royal Victoria, 22 Royal Oaks, 5 
Queen Victorias, 1 Queen Elizabeth, 1 Queen Charlotte, 1 Queen Cathe- 
rine, 2 Queen Adelaides, 18 Queen's Arms, 47 Queen's Heads, 16 
Prince Alberts, 28 Prince of Wales's, 9 Prince Regents. Then we 
have these signs again multiplied with the prefix Old y such as the Old 
Crown, the Old Crown and Cushion, the Old George, the Old King's 
Head, &c. We are also reminded of the times of the late war by 
finding 13 public-houses dedicated to Admirals, 117 to Dukes, of 
which 22 are Dukes of Wellington, and 31 Dukes of York. There 
are 18 Lord Nelsons, and 7 Rodneys. Anchors are also numerous and 
of various colours, and there are 84 Ships. There are 12 Kings of 
Prussia, and Pitt has contributed his head 9 times, Shakspeare 6 
times. But perhaps the most curious are those which set natural 
history at defiance. There are 7 Flying Horses, 12 Pheenixes, 
79 Red Lions, 26 White Lions, 7 Black Lions, and 16 Golden 
Lions; 18 Green Dragons, 29 Green Men, 5 Elephants and Castles, 
and 5 Griffins. Then there are Magpies with Stumps, or with Punch 
Bowls, or Pewter Platters, or Horse Shoes; 21 Nag's Heads, and 2 
White Horse and Half-Moons. There are 26 Bull's Heads, 56 
Coach and Horses, 21 Cocks, 19 Angels, 9 Angel and Crowns and 
2 Angel and Trumpets; 21 Castles, and 6 Jacob's Wells; 65 Grapes, 
22 Feathers, 22 Fountains, 26 Rising Suns, 29 Swans, and 26 Horse 
and Grooms. But we must pause, with the remark, that a glance 
at the list of public-house signs is amusing, and perhaps has its moral. 
The great distillers rank next to the brewers as important manu- 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 229 

facturers, and their processes are in many respects the same. There 
are only 60 distillers and rectifiers in the metropolis, the numher 
being probably limited by the large outlay required for the carrying 
on of their business, and by the constant presence of the excise. 

The large number of grocers and tea-dealers, 2676', will show to 
what an extent tea and coffee drinking is carried on in the metropolis. 
The coffee-rooms of London are a great boon to many thousands of 
persons, who, thirty years ago or less, would have had no other public 
resort for their leisure hours than the tap-room or parlour of a public- 
house, or the gallery of a theatre. But in these warm and comfortable 
rooms they can sit for hours and employ themselves in reading the 
periodical literature of the day, or the more solid literature which 
many of these establishments provide. 

The sugar which is brought into this country consists entirely of raw 
or brown sugar. It is converted into white or refined sugar in the sugar 
refineries, which are situated at Whitechapel and its neighbourhood. 
These are conducted on a very large scale, and may rank among the 
most important and interesting manufactories of the kingdom. Both in a 
commercial and a scientific point of view, they well deserve a visit. 

The number of wine-merchants in London is large; but these are 
almost exclusively persons who import foreign wines, and dispose of 
them to their customers. British wines are manufactured by the 
vinegar-makers, whose operations are conducted on an extensive 
scale. There are only nineteen vinegar-makers in the metropolis ; 
and the reason why the two articles are associated, is, that the refuse 
of the British wine manufacture is an essential article in clarifvins: 
vinegar, so that in this way the vinegar-maker insures a constant 
supply of stalks and skins of raisins, &c. (called rape). 

In our second list, which comprises articles of dress and personal 
decoration, we may refer the manufacture of four great articles of 
clothing — cotton, linen, silk, and wool — entirely, or almost so, to the 
provinces. Cotton and cotton goods are manufactured in Man- 
chester and its neighbourhood; linen at Leeds and the north of 
Ireland; silk at Derby, Manchester, Macclesfield, Congleton, Leeds, 
and a few other towns ; woollen cloth in the West Riding of York- 
shire, and also in the west of England. Worsted goods are also 
produced in Yorkshire, hosiery at Liecester, hosiery and lace at 
Nottingham, crape at Norwich, ribbons at Coventry, silk gloves at 
Derby, leather gloves at Worcester. Now, when we find in our 
London list a large number of manufacturers of these and other 
articles, it must be understood that they are either the agents of the 
country manufacturers, or wholesale or retail dealers in the articles 
in question. It is true, that, to a certain extent, there are manu- 
facturers of textile fabrics in London ; in Spitalfields, for instance, 
the handloom silkweavers still struggle on, and, with much suffering 
and privation, maintain a feeble competition with the power-looms of 
the north. Most of the silk used in the umbrella and parasol manu- 
facture which belongs to London is woven in Spitalfields; but in 



230 LONDON. 

this, as in many other cases, the employments belong rather to handi- 
craft trades than to manufactures. 

Hats are manufactured to a considerable extent in London. The 
beautiful and curious processes concerned in the manufacture of a 
beaver hat are fast disappearing before the cheaper and more expe- 
ditious processes of the silk hat-maker. The silk plush used for silk 
hats is largely imported from Lyons, and is also manufactured to a 
considerable extent in Spitalfields, Coventry, and Banbury. London 
produces annually about 150,000 dozen silk hats; and the number 
manufactured in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Glasgow, 
is estimated at 100,000 dozen more. 

There are 308 dyers in London ; but their establishments are very 
different to the vast establishments of the north. They are for the 
most part small workshops, where old, faded dresses are revived by 
being dyed a second time. The leather-dying establishments of Ber- 
mondsey are, however, important. 

Dunstable is the seat of the strawplat manufacture. The 352 
London houses which deal in this article sometimes employ persons 
to make up the plat; but probably the art of making the plat is 
unknown in the metropolis. 

Sewing-cotton, thread, and silk are all produced in the north. 
Needles are manufactured almost entirely at Redditch, and pins at 
Birmingham and a few other places. Sheffield is the great seat of 
cutlery ; Birmingham of the cheaper kinds of jewellery, together 
with buttons, buckles, clasps and studs, hooks and eyes, and other 
small articles pertaining to dress. But a large quantity of superior 
jewellery is manufactured in London. Watches are manufactured 
in Clerkenwell ; and the great subdivision of the watch trade is very 
curious. There are no less than thirty distinct trades connected with 
the making of a watch ; and these, for the sake of convenience, are 
clustered together in a sort of colony. Nevertheless, a good deal of the 
wheel and pinion work of watches and clocks is made in Lancashire. 

In our third list some important manufactures belong to the metro- 
polis, but are by no means peculiar thereto. Of the raw materials of 
building many are imported into London : thus, we get stone from 
Yorkshire, Scotland, and Portland; slate from Westmoreland and 
Wales; timber from Norway and Canada; but, as the materials 
for bricks and tiles are at hand, these are largely manufactured in the 
vicinity of London. Building is carried on very extensively in and about 
the metropolis, giving almost constant employment to the bricklayer, 
the mason, the carpenter and joiner, and the slater. Marble is now 
worked by machinery; and ornaments in wood are carved by the 
same means. Flint-glass has always been one of the most im- 
portant of the London manufactures; but window and plate-glass 
are most extensively manufactured in the north. The glass 
for the Palace of Glass was manufactured at Chance's extensive 
works at Oldbury, near Birmingham. There are saw-mills for 
timber in London. The materials for the painter are, to a certain 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 231 

extent, prepared in London ; but the great whitelead-works, colour- 
works, oil and varnish and turpentine- works exist in other parts of 
England. Carpets and rugs, grates, fenders, fire-irons, and various 
implements of iron and brass, plates, dishes, cups, saucers, knives 
and forks are chiefly produced in Kidderminster, Halifax, Sheffield, 
Staffordshire, &c. &c. ; but there are considerable manufactures of 
coarse pottery at Lambeth. Floor-cloth and paper-hangings are 
extensively manufactured in London ; as are also tables, chairs, bed- 
steads, beds, mattresses, glass-frames, and picture-frames. Furniture 
for hangings, &c, is made almost entirely in the north. 

In our fourth list, we may speak of coach-building as a London 
manufacture ; many of the persons concerned therein being congre- 
gated in Long Acre, Drury Lane, and the neighbourhood. Railway 
carriages and railway engineering generally are not confined to Lon- 
don, each company having its own workshops either at the London 
station, or at some distance from town. Ship-building is carried on 
somewhat extensively below Bridge, on the banks of the river, 
together with rope-making and other necessary trades. 

The gas companies, entered in our fifth list, are prominent features 
in London manufactures. (See separate article on " Gas.") A visit 
to one of the large London gas-works is full of interest. Candle- 
making has also, of late years, risen into an important manufacture. 
Price's patent candles are made at a very extensive factory at Vaux- 
hall. They are made from a beautiful white solid fat obtained 
from palm-oil, which has now become an important article of 
trade. It is obtained from the western coast of Africa to the 
extent of upwards of 20,000 tons annually, in exchange for goods 
of British manufacture ; and the cause of humanity requires that 
this traffic should be encouraged, since it has proved a most 
important instrument in the reduction of the slave trade, the native 
Africans being profitably engaged at home in the preparation of the 
oil ; thereby rendering it a matter of interest to retain their services, 
instead of disposing of them to the slave-dealer. 

The coal trade of London is also of great importance, between 
three and four million tons being introduced everv vear. A lar^e 
portion of this is used by the manufacturers of gas; but it is a curious 
fact, that, although gas-lights are used for street illumination, thereby 
superseding oil lamps, and gas is commonly used in shops, offices, 
counting-houses, and even in private dwellings, the consumption of 
oil for lamps, and of wax and tallow for candles, has increased in a 
greater proportion than the population. This increase may depend 
on the greater brilliancy of the streets leading us to be dissatisfied 
with the amount of light previously thought sufficient within our 
houses. Certain it is, that our houses are much more brilliantly 
lighted than they were before the introduction of gas. 

The trades and occupations entered under our sixth section are 
carried on to a much greater extent in London than in the provinces, 
or indeed in any other part of the world. A visit to one of our great 



232 LONDON. 

printing offices, or to one of the large bookbinders, will show the 
amazing extent to which the arrangements and machinery for the 
mechanical production of books is now carried. At several print- 
ing offices arrangements are made for founding the type, for stereo- 
typing, and for printing by steam-driven machinery. At various 
bookbinding establishments it is not unusual for the whole im- 
pression of 1000 copies of an octavo work to be folded, sewed, and 
handsomely bound in cloth covers in the course of ten or twelve hours. 
The cloth covers with the gilt lettering, the blind and gilt tooling, are, 
however, prepared a few days before the sheets have left the printers' 
hands. The paper used by the printer is not made in London, but a 
few miles away, where abundance of pure water is to be procured. 
The same remark applies to writing paper. Account-book makers 
and vellum binders are distinct from bookbinders properly so called. 
It will be seen from our list that there are a large number of trades 
and occupations subsidiary to printing and bookbinding, and it may be 
stated that the consumption of calico or linen for the cloth cases of 
books is now very large. This is supplied by Manchester. 

Scientific apparatus is also made in large quantities in London, and 
it is curiously subdivided. Cheap barometers and thermometers are 
made by Italians, who reside in Leather Lane and the vicinity of 
Hatton Garden; and in passing through this district one is struck 
with the poetical names of the makers, such as Albino, Serafino, Cal- 
derara, Corti, Negretti, Pastorelli, Tagliabue and Zambra, Somalvico, 
Gugeri, Grimoldi, Martinelli, and so on. The instruments made by 
these poetical gentry are of very little scientific value. Compasses 
and metallic mathematical instruments are made by a distinct set of 
men. Ivory and box-wood scales and rules occupy another set. 
Lenses are made in large quantities by machinery at Birmingham and 
elsewhere. The brass parts of instruments also form a distinct trade. 
Nautical instrument makers occupy the regions of Wapping, but 
sellers of instruments and apparatus (who grandly style themselves 
opticians) are scattered over the metropolis. 

Musical instrument makers are important personages in London. 
It is doubtful whether a piano -forte maker would succeed out of the 
metropolis, but an instrument with the name of a celebrated London 
maker stamped upon it passes current everywhere. In this case, 
" warranted London made" is as much a recommendation as " Shef- 
field made" ought to be to a pie<?e of cutlery. 

Steel pens, entered in our list, are almost entirely made at Birming- 
ham. Quill and pen manufacturers still exist, one scarcely knows 
how, and the sealingwax and wafer trade seems to be threatened 
with speedy annihilation by the system of adhesive envelopes. 

The 10 ticket writers entered in our list are persons whose pro- 
vince it is to write tickets for the shops in large attractive characters, 
so that u he who runs may read." 

We need only remark in our seventh list that the surgical instru- 
ment makers of London compete successfully with those of Sheffield. 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 233 

In onr eighth list we have grouped together a number of trades and 
occupations which do not fall conveniently into any of the preceding 
divisions. Agricultural instrument makers are only sellers, the in- 
struments themselves being made at Norwich, Colebrook-dale, and 
elsewhere. Bone dealers, blood driers, and manure manufacturers 
carry on an important trade, the refuse of this vast metropolis af- 
fording abundant raw material for the purpose. Guns and fire-arms 
are chiefly manufactured at Birmingham : gunpowder is made at mills 
some distance from London. Fireworks are made in London, and it 
is surprising, after the repeated disasters which have occured, that the 
trade is permitted to exist in crowded districts. One firework maker, 
Joseph Winterburn by name, resides in Providence Buildings ; Mrs. 
Pensa carries on this dangerous trade in Clerkenwell ; and three other 
females work at it in Lambeth. Cigars are made in large quantities 
in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, and it is strongly suspected 
that the makers do not deal exclusively in the leaf of the tobacco 
plant. Marine store dealers are those who deal in everything which 
is supposed to exist on board a ship, including bones, rags, and old 
bottles. They are, in short, dealers in those articles which are of no 
value because they are not in the right hands. Soap is an important 
article of London manufacture. Some of the soap makers at Lam- 
beth boil the bones collected by the marine-store dealers, skim off the 
fat which they use in making soap, and then crush the bones for manure. 

There are 1696 merchants resident in the city of London, together 
with 248 warehousemen. Many of them are wholesale dealers 
in the articles manufactured in the provinces, and included in former 
lists. 

Our limits will not allow us to proceed with our comments ; we, 
therefore, conclude with the remark, that a large number of females 
are engaged in pursuits which seem but little adapted to the habits of 
the fair sex, while men, for the most part, engross trades which 
would seem well fitted for women. Thus, of the 15 bonnet shape 
makers only one is a woman. Of the 12 book and card edge gilders 
two are females, viz. Mrs. Mary Bullwinckle and Mrs. M. H. Page. 
Of the 15 chiropodists 4 are ladies, and doubtless attend upon ladies 
who will insist upon wearing tight shoes. Of the 5 fan makers only 
one is a lady. Of the 116 farriers 6 are females. We find also that 
Miss Mary Pottle makes military feathers and hair plumes for those 
dashing fellows who wear them so jauntily. London claims 16 file 
cutters, and one of them is Miss Mary Hughes. Among the 172 
lightermen who ply on the Thames, there are several females. One 
calls herself Widow Williams, which sufficiently explains that she 
carries on her husband's trade, which is probably the case with many 
other female traders. This, however, cannot be the case with Miss 
Martha Smart, who is a mathematical instrument maker (and why 
not ?). An unmarried lady is also a maker of razor strop paste. The 
art and mystery of carmine and rouge are appropriately conducted by 
ladies, as also to a certain extent the art of making artificial flowers; 



234 



LONDON. 



and that they think highly of their art is evident from the fact that a 
lady acquaintance of the writer's, on purchasing some of these flowers 
remarked, that they did not resemble natural flowers. "Oh, no! 
madam," was the reply, " these are very superior to any that grow!" 
We And one female entered as a veterinary surgeon ! Miss Lockey 
and Mrs. Massey are watch escapement makers. There are several 
female wheelwrights, and one female whiting manufacturer. There 
are also female wig-makers, as there should be. We once knew a 
female engraver who earned such good wages that, when she married, 
her husband did not see any reason why he should work too, so he 
remained idle, and the poor woman had to strive hard to keep the 
wolf from the door. 



TRADERS, MANUFACTURERS, ETC. 



I. Food. 

Solid. 



Agents.— Corn, 3. 

Colonial, 21. 
Annatto manufacturers, 6, 
Arrowroot dealers, 3. 
Bacon driers, 8. 
Bakers, 2408. 

Of these, 96 are biscuit 
bakers, and 15 are muffin 
and crumpet bakers. 
Bakers' peel maker, 1. 

,, biscuit tool maker, 1. 
Bolting cloth manufacturer, 1. 
Butchers, 1634. 

Brokers, — Fruit, 11 — provi- 
sion, 12— sugar, 21. 
Cheese factors and agents, 18. 
Cheesemongers, wholesale, 52. 

„ retail, 900. 

Cocoa-nut merchant, 1. 
Confectioners, wholesale, 49. 
,, and pastry 

cooks, 473. 
Corn dealers, 430. 

„ and flour factors, 133. 

,, merchants, 117. 
Dining rooms, 301. 
Drysalters, 41. 
Egg merchants and salesmen, 

56. 
Farina makers (digestive 

food), 6. 
Fishmongers, 378. 
Fruiterers and green-grocers, 

1134. 
Granary keepers, 19. 
Ham and tongue dealers, 93. 

„ merchants, 7- 
Lard manufacturers, 5. 
Maccaroni makers, 2. 
Market gardeners, 45. 
Mould makers (jelly, &c), 7- 
Orange merchants, b'2. 
Pepper work, 1. 
Pine and grape grower, 1. 
Pork butchers and porkmen, 

246. 
Poulterers, 101. 
Preserved fruit importer, 1. 
Provision merchants, 77« 
Rice merchants, 7. 
Salesmen.— Butter, 11. 
Carrot, 4. 
Cattle, 259. 
Fish, 58. 
Fruit, 112, 



Salesmen.— General; 51. 

Hay and straw, 24. 

Meat, 153. 

Potato, 200. 

Poultry and game, 
22. 

Watercresses, 3. 
Salt merchants and manufac- 
turers, 13. 
Scotch oatmeal factors, 4. 
Ship biscuit bakers, 17. 
Spice merchants, 22, 
Sugar refiners, 40. 
Tripe dressers, 52. 
Venison dealers, 6, 

Liquid* 

Agents.— Coffee, 2. 

Ale and porter merchants and 
agents, 82. 

Back and vat makers, 11. 

Beer retailers, 731. 

Brandy merchants, 8. 

Brewers, 122. 

Brewery agents, 5. 

British wine makers, 19. 

Brokers. — Tea, 20— wine and 
spirit, 32— coffee, 5. 

Capillaire, and wine and spirit 
colouring makers, 14. 

Chicory importers, 9. 

Chocolate and cocoa manu- 
facturers, 15. 

Cyder and perry merchants, 17. 

Coffee dealers, wholesale, 40. 
„ roasters, 16. 
,, roaster makers, 3. 
,, rooms, 860. 

Coopers, 240. 

Dairymen- and purveyors of 
asses' milk, 989. 

Dantzig spruce importers, 6. 

Distillers, 60. 

Distillers' chemists, 4. 

Filter makers, 9. 

Fish sauce makers, 15. 

Groat manufacturers, 5. 

Grocers, wholesale, 56. 

„ and tea dealers, 2676. 

Hop factors, 42. 

Hop merchants, 43. 

Inspector of tea, 1. 

Isinglass importersand dealers, 
27. 

Malsters, 23. 

Malt roaster makers, 2. 

Mineral water warehouses, 14. 



Mustard manufacturers, 15. 
Pearl barley manufacturers, 2. 
Publicans, 4416. 
Soda water and ginger beer 

makers, 71. 
Soda water engine makers, 5. 
Tea dealers, wholesale, 135. 
Treacle makers, 2. 
Vinegar makers, 19. 
Whisky merchants, 17. 
Wine merchants, 884. 
Wine fining makers, 9. 
Yeast dealers, 19. 

Miscellaneous. 

Hotels, inns, taverns, and prin- 
cipal coffee houses, 385. 
Lodging and boarding house 

keepers, 820. 
Ice merchants, 7. 
,, pail maker, 1. 
,, safe maker, 1. 
Italian warehouses, 87. 

II. Dress and Personal 
Decoration. 

Agents.— Cotton, 6. 
Cloth, 4. 
Manchester, 25. 
Shawl, 2. 
Shoe, 6, 
Silk, 21. 
Woollen, 7» 
Army accoutrement makers,32. 

,, clothiers, 48. 
Artificial eye makers, 4. 

,, leg and arm makers, 

4. 

Artificial florists, plumassiers, 

and ostrich feather makers, 

91. 

Artificial florists' material 

dealers, 7« 
Bandana manufacturers and 

printers, 10. 
Bead and bugle makers and 

importers, 11. 
Beaver cutter, 1. 
Berlin warehouses, 96. 
Black reviver maker, 1. 
Blacking makers, 38. 
Blackwell Hall factors (wool- 
len), 29. 
Bleachers, 8. 

Bleaching powder manufac- 
turer, 1. 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES, 



235 



Blue manufacturers, 12. 
Bombazeen manufacturers, 2. 
Bonnet block and stand 

makers, 2. 
Bonnet shape makers, 15. 
Boot closer, 1. 

,, and shoe factors, 2. 

,, ,, makers, 2150. 

Boot-top maker, 1. 
Brace and belt makers, 42. 
Braid makers, 13. 
Breeches makers, 31. 
Brokers. — Cotton, 7. 

Hide, fur, and skin, 

8. 
Wool, 17- 
Indigo, 21. 
Buckle maker, 1. 
Buckram manufacturer, 1. 
Bunting and say manufac- 
turers, 5. 
Button and trimming sellers, 

28. 
Button manufacturers, 30. . 
Calenderers, 12. 
Calico glazers, 4. 
„ printers, 30. 
,, printers'blockcutters,2. 
Cap makers, fur, cloth, and 

fancy, 47. 
Cap peak and cockade makers, 

12. 
Cap spring makers, 3. 
Childbed linen warehouses, 64. 
Clear starchers, 4. 
Cloth workers, ] 9. 
Clothes salesmen, 202. 
Cochineal merchants, 2. 
Comb makers, 43. 
Coral merchant, 1. 
Coral and jet workers, 5. 
Cotton merchants, 12. 

,, and cotton yarn manu- 
facturers, 31. 
Court plaster makers, 2. 
Crape dressers, 4. 

,, manufacturers, 10. 
Curriers and leather dressers, 

172. 
Dentists, 277- 
Diamond cutters, setters, and 

workers, 5. 
Diamond merchants, 18. 
Doll makers, 13. 
Dyers, 308. 
Embroiderers, 34. 
Embroidery silk maker, 1. 
Fan makers, 5. 
Feather, military, and hair 

plume makers, '3. 
Flannel factors, 9. 

,, manufacturers, 13. 
Flax merchants, 3. 

,, spinners, 3. 
Fringe and lace makers, 89. 
Fur and skin dressers and 

dyers, 29. 
Fur and skin merchants, 6. 
Furriers, wholesale, 21. 

retail, 144. 
Galloon and double makers, 1 1 . 
Gauze dresser, 1. 

,, manufacturers, 3. 
Gilt jewellers, 7. 

,, metal worker, 1. 
Glove cleaners, 2. 
Glovers, wholesale, 17. 

,, retail, 49. 
Goffered ruche manufacturers, 



Gold and silver lacemen, 30. 
„ ,, thread makers, 

9. 
Gold chain makers and jewel- 
lers, 29. 
Goldsmiths and jewellers, 144. 
Haberdashers, wholesale, 18. 

retail, 280. 
Hair dressers and perfumers, 

684. 
Hair manufacturers (human), 

11. 
Hair merchants, 4. 

,, workers (device), 16. 
Hat band makers, 3. 
„ block makers, 1. 
,, dyers, 5. 
„ lining and leather cutters, 

6. 
„ spring maker, 1. 
,, tip maker, 1. 
,, varnish maker, 1. 
Hatters' bow string makers, 3. 
,, furriers, 5. 
,, trimming manufac- 
turers, li. 
Hat manufacturers (whole- 
sale), 99. 
Hat manufacturers (retail) ,376. 
Helmet makers, 4. 
Hemp and flax merchants, 9. 
Hone importers, 2. 
Hook and eye makers, 3. 
Hosiers, wholesale, 21. 

„ and glovers, 297. 
Indigo merchants, 8. 
Jewellers, 357- 
Jewelry case makers, 26. 
Lace cleaners, 28. 
,, manufacturers, whole- 
sale, 52. 
Lacemen, 107. 
Lapidaries, 30. 
Last makers, 30. 
Lasting makers, 2. 
Leather cutters, 51. 
,, dressers, 69. 
,, dyers, 8. 
„ enamellersandjapan- 

ners, 9. 
,, factors, 51. 
,, sellers, 95. 
,, splitter, 1. 
,, stainer, 1. 
,, stripers, 2. 
Linen manufacturers and fac- 
tors, 55. 
Linen drapers, wholesale, 9. 
„ ,, retail, 860. . 

Lint manufacturers, 6. 
List dealers, 2. 

Mangle and press makers, 13. 
Man's mercers, 6. 
Marking ink makers, 4. 
Masquerade and fancy dress 

warehouses, 8. 
Measuring tape makers, 2. 
Milliners, 1024. 
Mourning warehouses, 13. 
Mourning and wedding ring 

makers, 5. 
Mousseline de laine printers 

and manufacturers, 2. 
Muslin manufacturers, 14. 
Needle manufacturers, 22. 
Orchil and cudbear makers, 3. 
Ostrich feather makers, 21. 
Outfitters, 76. 

Patten and clog makers, 28. 
Pattern drawers, 24. 



Pearl stringers, 4. 

,, workers, 12. 
Perfumes, wholesale, 45. 

,, retail, 76. 
Pin makers, 15. 
Pink saucer maker, 1. 
Plush manufacturers, 8. 
Putty powder and jewellers' 

rouge makers, 7- 
Razor strop makers, 13. 

,, „ paste makers, 2. 

Readv made linen warehouses, 

42.' 
Respirator depots, 2. 
Ribbon dressers, 6. 

,, manufacturers, 29. 
Robe makers, 9. 
Rouge and carmine makers, 3. 
Sealmakers, 3. 
Sewed muslin manufacturers, 

17. 
Sewing cotton manufacturers, 

9. 
Sewing silk manufacturers, 9. 
Shag manufacturers, 12. 
Shawl manufacturers and 

warehousemen, 55. 
Shawl border and fringe 

makers, 5. 
Shirt makers, 56. 
Shoe and stay mercers, 6. 

,, thread/twine, and canvas 
manufacturers, 11. 
Shroud manufacturer, 1. 
Silk dressers, 10. 

,, and velvet manufacturers, 
110. 
Silkmen, 6. 
Silk mercers, 91. 

„ merchants, 15. 

,, printers, 7- 

,, purse makers, 4. 

,, warehousemen, 18. 

,, winders, 2. 
Silver thimble makers, 4. 
Slipper manufacturers, 10. 
Slop sellers, 86. 
Smelling bottle makers, 8. 
Snuff and fancy box makers, 

27. 
Spangle and tinsel makers, 5. 
Spectacle makers, 12. 
Starch makers, 9. 
Stay and corset makers, 272. 

„ lace makers, 4. 

„ and shoe makers, whole- 
sale, 9. 
Stick makers, 7. 
Stock makers, 25. 
Straw, Leghorn, and Tuscan 

hat warehouses, 352. 
Straw, Leghorn, and Tuscan 

hat cleaners and pressers, 14. 
Straw, Leghorn, and Tuscan 

plat dealers, 20. 
Stuff manufacturers, 30. 
Tabinet warehouses, 2. 
Tailors, 2641. 
Tailors' fashions, publishers 

of, 3. 
Tanners, 55. 
Tassel and fringe mould 

makers, 6. 
Teeth dealers, 7. 
Thread manufacturers, 7« 
Tooth powder makers, 3. 

,, ,, box makers, 1. 

Trimming manufacturers and 

sellers, 157. 
Truss makers, 41. 



236 



LONDON. 



Umbrella and parasol makers, 

132. 
Umbrella furniture makers, 5. 

,, silk makers, 9. 
Upholsterers, 439. 

„ warehousemen, 

5. 
Valentia warehouse, 1. 
Velvet manufacturers, 6. 

,, wire drawers, 3. 
Wadding and cotton ware- 
houses, 10. 
Watch makers, 697- 

,, balance makers, 2. 

,, cap makers, 7» 

,, case makers, 52. 

,, dial plate makers and 

finishers, 17* 
„ and clock dial silverer, 

1. 
,, engravers, 9. 
„ escapement makers, 13. 
„ finishers, 8. 
,, fuzee makers, 4. 
,, and case gilders, 21. 
,, and clock glass makers, 

16. 
,, hand makers, 15. 
„ jewellers, 32. 
„ joint finishers, 3. 
„ key makers, 3. 
,, material dealers, 9. 
„ motion makers, 26. 
„ pallet jeweller, 1. 
,, „ makers, 3. 

,, pendant makers, 4. 
„ pinion makers, 2. 
„ secret springers, 39. 
,, spring makers, 11. 
„ and clock tool makers 

and dealers, 13. 
,, wheel makers, 7« 
Water proofers, 26. 
Whalebone cutters, 13. 
Widows' cap makers, 7» 
Wig makers, 19. 

,, spring maker, 1. 
Wool merchants, 16. 

,, staplers, 27. 
Woollen drapers, 97* 

„ warehousemen, 108. 
Worsted manufacturers, 21. 
Yarn merchants, 14* 
III. Houses and Furniture. 

Agents.— Carpet, 13. 
Stone, 5. 

Basket makers, 93. 

Bath makers, 15. 

Bed and mattress makers, 35. 
,, sacking makers, 13. 
„ screw maker, 1. 

Bedstead makers, 54. 

Bellows makers, 8. 

Bent timber manufacturers, 16. 

Billiard and bagatelle table 
makers, 16. 

Birch and alder dealers, 2. 

Birch and heath broom makers, 
5. 

Bird and beast stuffers, 28. 

Bird-cage makers, 16. 

Birmingham and Sheffield 
agents, 24. 

Birmingham and Sheffield 
warehouses, 22. 

Blind spring-roller manufac- 
turers, 4. 

Bottle merchants and dealers, 
63. 



Brass founders, 140. 
,, manufacturers, 55. 
,, turners, 11. 
Brick agents, 7. 
,, and tile makers, 31. 
„ ,, merchants, 21. 

,, mould makers, 2. 
Bricklayers, 387- 
Bristle merchants, 8. 
Britannia metal manufac- 
turers, 2. 
British plate mannfacturers, 9. 
Brokers. — Ivory, 2. 
Metal, 16. 
Timber, 27. 
Brush makers, 321. 
Bug destroyers, 2. 
Buhl cutters, 13. 
Builders, 817. 

„ of portable houses 
for exportation, 2. 
Building material dealers, 32. 
Cabinet carvers, 45. 
,, inlayers, 7. 
,, makers, 516. 
„ „ fancy, 36. 

Cane dealers, 14. 
„ workers, 13. 
Card and cardboard makers, 

22. 
Carpenters, 1066. 
Carpet and rug warehouses, 86. 

,, planners, 6. 
Carpet-bag frame maker, 1. 

,, makers, 15. 
Carvers and gilders, 318. 
Chasers, 49. 
Chimney sweepers, 33. 
Chimney sweepers' machine 

makers, 3. 
China dealers, foreign and 

fancy, 5. 
China mounter, 1. 
„ painters, 2. 
,, glass, &c. rivetters, 8. 
,, glass, and earthenware 
dealers, 337. 
Chiropodists, 15. 
Clay merchants, 4. 
Clock makers, 74. 

„ case makers, 16. 
Cock founders, 6. 
Cocoa nut fibre importers, 8. 
Coffin furniture makers, 7* 
Colour manufacturers, 43. 
Composition ornament mak- 
ers, 14. 
Coppersmiths and braziers, 86. 
Copper companies and mer- 
chants, 20. 
Cork cutters, 81. 

,, „ knife makers, 2, 
Curiosity dealers, 51. 
Curtain rod manufacturer, 1. 
Cutlers, 172. 
Desk and dressing case makers, 

97. 
Door plate makers, 5. 

„ spring makers, 3. 
D'oyley warehouse, 1. 
Electro gilders and platers, 24. 
Electrotypists, 3. 
Embossers, 20. 
Enamellers, 28. 
Fan and sky light makers, 7. 
Feather dealers, 7. 
,, merchants, 8. 
,, manufacturers, 26. 
,, purifiers, 9. 
Fender and fire iron makers,ll. 



Fireproof box makers, 14. 
Fire-wood dealers, 32. 
Flock manufacturers, 17- 
Floor cloth manufacturers, 35. 
Foreign and fancy goods im- 
porters, 103. 
French polish manufacturers^. 
French polishers, 72. 
Fuel manufacturers (patent) , 4. 
Furniture brokers and fixture 

dealers, 475. 
Furniture japanners and 

painters, 13. 
Furniture printers, 8. 
General dealers in hardware, 
26. 
" factors, 17. 
Glass benders, 5. 
,, cutters, 60. 
,, drillers, 2. 
, , engravers, 9. 
„ grinders, 4. 
,, manufacturers, 52. 
„ mounters, 5. 
,, shade makers, 18. 
,, stainers, 25. 
Glazier's diamond makers, 7. 
Glue makers, 11. 
Gold and silver beaters, 68. 
„ „ burnishers, 7- 

,, „ casters, 6. 

,, ,, mounters, 5. 

,, ,, piercers, 6. 

,, ,, wire drawers, 

11. 
,, cutters, 21. 
,, size makers, 4. 
,, swivel makers, 4. 
,, weavers, 3. 
Hair merchants, 4. 
Hand rail makers (patent), 2. 
Hand screw makers, 3. 
Hardwaremen, wholesale, 14. 

„ retail, 37. 

Hearth stone makers, 3. 
Hempen cloth makers, 2. 
Hinge (patent rising) makers,4. 
Horsehair merchants and 

manufacturers, 38. 
Hot water apparatus makers, 

21. 
Hydrostatic bed makers, 6. 
India mat warehouse, 1. 
,, rubber manufacturers, 
21. 
Inlayer (flooring), 1. 
Iron and brass bedstead 

makers, 25. 
Ironmongers, wholesale, 68. 

,, retail, 420. 

Iron and tin plate workers, 27. 
Ivory, hard wood, and tortoise 

shell dealers, 16. 
Ivory turners, 66. 

,, workers and cutters, 14. 
Japanners, 44. 
Lacquerers, 2. 
Lath renders, 25. 
Lead merchants, 41. 

, , pipe manufacturers, 4. 
Leather cutters, 51. 
,, dressers, 69. 
,, dyers, 8. 
, , enamellers and j apan- 

ners, 9. 
,, factors, 51. 
,, gilders, 6. 
,, japanners, 5. 
,, sellers, 95. 
Lock (patent) makers, 12. 



ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND TRADES. 



237 



Locksmiths and bell hangers, 
127- 

Looking glass makers, 51. 

,, , , silverers, 4. 

Lucifer match makers, 18. 

,, ,, box makers, 3. 

Mahogany merchants, 31. 
Matting and hassock makers, 8. 
Mattress makers, 8. 
Mohair manufacturers, 2. 
Mop makers, 4. 
Nail makers, 15. 
Ormolu frame makers, 3. 
Paint manufacturers, 11. 
Painters and glaziers, 302. 

,, paper hangers, and 

house decorators, 164. 
Paper-hanging manufacturers 

and hangers, 192. 
Papier-mache manufacturers, 

14. 
Pewterers, 55. 
Picture and looking glass frame 

makers, 89. 
Piece brokers, 21. 
Pipeclay merchants, 5. 
Plasterers, 53. 
Plasterers' hair manufacturers, 

8. 
Plaster of Paris manuf actu rers, 

10. 
Plate case makers, 7- 

„ polisher, 1. 

,, glass manufacturers, 36. 
Platers, 14. 
Plumbers, 820. 
Polishing paste makers, 4. 
Potters, wholesale, 28. 
Pump makers, 26. 
Quilting warehouse, 1. 
Roasting jack makers, 14. 
Roman cement makers, 29. 
Rout furnishers, 4. 
Rug manufacturers, 29. 
Russia mat warehouses, 8. 
Sash line makers (patent), 3. 
Sash makers, 9. 
Saw mills, 67. 
Scagliola manufacturers, 7« 
Sheffield and plated ware- 
houses, 29. 
Silver polishers, 4. 

„ spoon and fork makers, 
10. 
Silversmiths, 130. 
Size manufacturers, 7. 
Slate merchants, 29. 
Slaters, 13. 

Small ware manufacturers, 2. 
Smiths, 295. 
Stencil cutter, 1. 
Stencillers, 6. 
Stone and marble masons, 164. 

s, ,, merchants, 

57. 
Stove and range makers, 92. 
Table cover makers, 17. 
Table knife makers, 9. 
Tassel and fringe mould 

makers, 6. 
Tea canister makers, 4. 
Teapot handle makers, 3. 
Tea tray makers, 6. 

,, urn makers, 11. 
Timber merchants, 252. 
Time and hour glass maker, 1. 
Tin foil maker, 1. 

,, merchants, 9. 

,, plate workers, 237- 
Transparent blind makers, 7. 



Turners in general, 207- 
Varnish makers, 73. 
Vegetable ornament cutter, 1. 
Veneer cutters, 7. 
Water closet makers, 16. 
"Water companies, 9. 
Water gilders, 19. 
Water pipe makers, 13. 
White lead manufacturers, 25. 
Whiting manufacturers, 20. 
Window blind makers, 136. 
„ glass cutters, 38. 
,, ,, merchants and 

manufacturers, 53. 
Wine cooler makers, 2. 
Writers and gilders on glass, 13. 
Writers andgrainers, 107- 
Zinc merchants and workers, 

68. 

IV. Locomotion. 

Anchorsmiths and chain cable 
makers, 19. 

Axle tree makers, 13. 

Blanket and horse cloth ware- 
houses, 9. 

Boat and barge builders, 54. 

Bridle cutters, 6, 

Bridle, bit, stirrup, and spur 
makers, 9. 

Child's carriage makers, 2. 

Coach and carriage lamp 
makers, 20. 

Coach and cart grease manu- 
facturers, 16. 

Coach body makers and 
benders, 3. 

Coach and harness makers, 263. 

Coach headers, 2. 
„ brokers, 8. 
„ carvers, 7. 
,, ironmongers, 12. 
,, draughtsmen, herald 
painters, and japan- 
ners, 53. 
,, joiners, 6. 
,, painters, 24. 
,, platers, 21, 
,, smiths, 43. 
,, spring makers, 20. 
,, trimmers, 3. 

Collar makers (horse), 14. 

Farriers, 116. 

Fire-engine makers, 6. 

Funeral coach masters, 12. 

Harness makers, 50. 

,, polish makers, 4. 

Horse and carriage reposi- 
tories, 11. 

Horse dealers, 32. 
,, slaughterers, 8. 

Iron steam-boat and ship 
builders, 6. 

Job masters, 172. 

Lightermen, 172. 

Liven* stable keepers, 191. 

Mariners and pilots, 37. 

Mast, &c. makers, 51. 

Pedometer maker, 1. 

Railway signal maker, I. 

Riding schools, 7« 

Road and dust contractors, 5. 

Rocking horse makers, 3. 

Rope, line, and twine manu- 
facturers, 117. 

Rubbish carters, 34. 

Saddlers, 240. 

„ ironmongers, 11. 
„ tree makers, 13. 



Sail cloth factors, 28. 
„ makers, 51. 
Salesmen, hay and straw, 24. 
Ship block makers by ma- 
chinery, 2. 
Ship breakers, 5. 

,, builders, 22. 

„ carvers, 3. 

„ chandlers, 32. 

,, hearth makers, 5. 

,, joiners, 10. 

,, modeller, 1. 

,, owners, 58. 

,, riggers, 4. 

,, smiths, 35. 

,, surveyors, 7. 

,, wrights, 28. 

,, tank makers, 8. 
Shipping butchers, 20. 

,, biscuit bakers, 17- 
Steam engine boiler makers, 13. 
,, and navigation com- 
panies, 46. 
Tow yarn maker, 1. 
Travellers, commercial, 688. 
Trunk and packing case 

makers, 132. 
Veterinary surgeons, 121. 
Wharfingers, 104. 
Wheelwrights, 186. 
Whip makers, 47. 

,, mounters, 3. 
Windlass makers, 3. 

V. Artificial Heat and 
Light. 

Agents.— Coal, 5. 

Brokers Oil, 14. 

Candle mould makers, 4. 
Charcoal makers and dealers, 9. 
Coal dealers, 301. 

,, dust makers, 2. 

,, factors, 25. 

,, merchants, 688. 

„ shovel maker, 1. 
Cocoa nut lamp oil and candle 

makers, 2. 
Coal (also corn) measure 

makers, 7- 
Cotton and rush makers, 8. 
Gas apparatus makers, 23. 

,, burner makers, 8. 

„ fitters, 207. 

, , lantern makers and fitters, 
5. 

, , light companies, 24. 

,, meter makers, 12. 

,, pipe makers, 13. 
Gasometer maker, 1. 
Insurance companies, 162. 
Lamp makers and oil ware- 
houses, 59. 
Lamp, lustre, and chandelier 

manufacturers. 45. 
Lamp cotton makers, 5. 
Lantern leaf and horn plate 

manufacturers, 2. 
Lighthouse lamp makers, 2. 
Lucifer match makers, 18. 

,, ,, box makers, 3. 
Melters and tallow chandlers, 

49. 
Melters' utensil maker, 1. 
Xaphtha distillers, 8. 
Oil merchants and factors, 101. 
,, and colour men, 645. 
Spermaceti refiners, 4. 
Turpentine and tar distillers, 

11. 



238 



LONDON. 



Wax bleachers, 10. 
„ and tallow chandlers, 21G. 

VI. Literature, Education, 
Science, Fine Arts. 

Account book makers, 33. 
Agents.— Paper, 9. 
Alabaster warehouses, 4. 
Artists' colourmen, 38. 
Barometer and Thermometer 

makers, 36. 
Bill sticker, 1. 
Black borderers, 9. 
Black lead importers and 

manufacturers, 15. 
Black lead pencil makers, 28. 
Book and card edge gilders and 

marblers, 12. 
Book edge lock and clasp 

makers, 10. 
Bookbinders, 2G6. 
Bookbinders' cloth makers, 4. 
„ leather seller, 1. 

„ plough knife 

maker, 1. 
,, press makers, 2. 

„ tool cutters and 

engravers, 18. 
Booksellers in general, 774. 
,, Agricultural, 2. 
,, Architectural, en- 
gineering, and scientific, 5. 
Booksellers, botanical, 4. 
„ foreign, 27. 

,, medical, 6. 

,, theological, 9. 

Bronze powder makers, 5. 
Bronzists, 13. 

Camel hair pencil makers, 5. 
Chemical apparatus makers, 10. 

,, stopperers, 11. 
Chemists, manufacturing, 62. 
Copper plate makers, 18. 
„ ,, printers, 61. 
Die sinkers, 38. 
Draughtsmen, lithographic, 
zincographic, and carriage, 
25. 
Engravers, 437. 

,, heraldic, 5. 
,, historical, 10. 
,, map, 11. 
,, seal, 55. 

„ wood, 35. 

Ever-pointed pencil makers, 4. 
Fancy repositories, 58. 
Globe makers, 8. 
Glyphographer, 1. 
Herald painters, 19. 
Hot pressers, 19. 
Hydrometer and saecharome- 

ter makers, 7- 
Ink makers (writing), 36. 
Inkstand makers, 10. 
Letter cutters, 27. 
Libraries, 80. 
Lithographers, 132. 
Lithographic press makers, 7. 
Manifold writer makers, 13. 
Map and chart sellers and pub- 
lishers, 22. 
Map dissector and puzzle 

maker, 1. 
Map and print colourers, 25. 

,, mounters, 8. 
Mathematical instrument 

makers, 78. 
Medallists, 14. 
Millboard makers, 5. 



Mineralogists, 2. 
Modellers, 25. 
Music copyists, 4. 

,, engravers and printers, 

8. 
, , plate manufacturer, 1 . 
,, printers, 11. 
„ smiths, 8. 

,, and musical instrument 
sellers, 116. 
Musical box makers and im- 
porters, 4. 
Musicalinstrument makers, 84. 
Ditto string makers, 18. 
Ditto reed maker, 1. 
Ditto tube maker, 1. 
Nautical instrument makers, 

12. 
Newspaper and advertisement 
agents, town andcountry,24. 
Newsvenders, 222. 
Optical braziers, 2. 
„ turners, 4. 
Opticians, 139. 
Organ builders, 35. 

,, metal pipe makers, 3. 
Paper cutting machine maker, 
1. 
„ makers and warehouses, 

33. • 
,, mould makers, 4. 
Parchment and vellum mak- 
ers, 13. 
Pasteboard makers, 7- 
Pianoforte makers, 191. 
Pianoforte feet cutters, 6. 
Pianoforte hammer and 
damper cloth manufacturer, 
1. 
Pianoforte hammer rail 

makers, 5. 
Pianoforte key makers, 9. 
,, pin makers, 2. 

„ silkers, 5. 
,, tuners, 23. 
Picture dealers and importers, 

75. 
Picture restorers and cleaners, 

36. 
Plaster cast figure makers, 11. 
Pocket book makers, 38. 

,, ,, lock makers, 2. 
Print cutters, 2. 
,, sellers, 77« 
Printers, 553. 

„ numerical, 1. 
,, auctioneers, 5. 
„ blanket makers, 2. 
„ ink makers, 22. 
,, joiners and material 

dealers, 17. 
,, press makers, 14. 
„ smiths, 10. 
,, wood type cutter, 1. 
Quill and pen manufacturers, 

13. 
Rule makers, 14. 
Ruling machine maker, 1. 
Schools (private), 830. 
Sculptors, 66. 
Sealing wax and wafer makers, 

33. 
School slate makers, 6. 
Stationers (fancy ) andenvelope 

makers, 60. 
Stationers, wholesale, 139. 

„ retail, 624. 

Steel, &c. penmakers, 27. 
Stereotype founders, 10. 
Teachers of dancing, 58. 



Teachers of drawing, 13. 

,, elocution, 4. 

„ fencing, 2. 

,, languages, 55. 

,, mathematics, 7- 

,, music, 258. 

,, navigation, 3. 

,, writing, 15. 

Telescope makers, f. 
Terra cotta manufacturers, 2. 
Ticket writers, 10. 
Tracing paper makers, 9. 
Type founders, 16. 
Vellum binders, 20. 

VII, Medicine, Surgery, 
&e. 

Anatomical preparer, 1. 
Bougie and catheter makers, 5. 
Brokers (drug), 22. 
Chemists and druggists, 748. 
Chiropodists, 15. 
Cuppers, 12. 
Dentists, 277. 
Drug grinders, 3. 
Druggists, 76. 
Herbalists, 21. 
Leech importers, 12. 
Medical galvanists, 2. 

,, glass dealers, 13. 

,, labellers and fitters, 11. 

,, plaster makers, 8. 
Medicine chest makers, 3. 
Metallic capsule maker, 1. 
Midwives, 5. 
Oculists, 6. 
Patent medicine warehouses, 

33. 
Physicians, 355. 
Pill box makers, 9. 
Surgeons, 1806- 
Surgicalinstrumentmakers,71 . 
Teeth dealers, 7. 

VIII. Miscellaneous. 

Agents. — Alum, 6. 
Colour, 2. 
Metal, 8. 
Mineral and mining, 

19. 
Tin and tin plate, 4. 
Agricultural implement mak- 
ers, 13. 
Assayers, 3. 
Awl blade makers, 2. 
Backgammon board makers, 2. 
Black (Frankfort) manufac- 
turers, 6. 
Bladder dealer, 1. 
Blood drier, 1. 
Blowing machine maker, 1. 
Bone dealers, boilers, and 

crushers, 16. 
Bullion and jewel brokers, 4. 
Brokers. — Colonial, 74. 
India, 29. 
Indigo, 21. 
Rag, 2. 
Russia, 35. 
Bullion dealers, 11. 
Busk maker, 1. 
Canteen makers, 2. 
Chandlers' shops, 195. 
Cigar and tobacco importers, 

109. 
Clay merchants, 4. 
Coffin furniture makers, 7. 
Congreve rocket maker, 1. 



ASSURANCE OFFICES. 



239 



Cotton waste merchants, 5. 
Crane manufacturer, 1. 
Cricket bat, ball, and stump 

makers, 11. 
Dutch rush importers, 4. 
Emery and glass paper makers, 

14. 
Engine turners, 28. 
Engineers, Mechanical, 301. 

„ Civil, 155. 
Farmers, 6. 
Fellmongers, 12. 
Felt makers (patent), 8. 
File cutters, 16. 
Firework makers, 1 1 . 
Fishing tackle makers, 43. 
Flatting mills, 8. 
Grindery dealers, 37. 
Gaugers' instrument makers, 3. 
Gun and pistol makers, 85. 
Gun barrel makers, 4. 

,, ,, prover, 1. 

,, carriage makers, 

,, case makers, 8. 

,, flint maker, 1. 

„ lock makers, 4. 

,, ,, polishers, 6. 

,, stock makers, 3. 

,, makers' tool dealer, 1. 

,, wadding makers, 6. 
Gunpowder manufacturers, 9. 

,, flask makers, 2. 
Gutta percha warehouses, 17. 
Harpoon makers, 2. 
Heel ball makers, 3. 
Hemp and flax tackle maker, 1. 

„ ,, merchants, 9. 

Hoop merchants and benders, 

10. 
Horn and bone merchants, 8. 

,, pressers, 3. 
Horticultural builders, 20. 
Hose makers, 3. 
Hydraulic machine makers, 5. 
Inspectors of weights and mea- 
sures (for the City), 6. 
Iron chain maker, 1 . 
Iron fence and hurdle makers, 

11. 
Iron founders, 119. 
Iron founders' pattern makers, 

4. 
Iron and steel merchants and 

agents, 105. 
Ladder makers, 4. 
Lamp black makers, 9. 
Land surveyors, 30. 
Lathe and tool makers, 21, 
Lead ash melters, 2. 
Leash manufacturer, 1 . 



Leather bottle maker, 1 . 

Leather pipe and bucket 
makers, 12. 

Lime merchants, 27. 

Lodging and boarding house 
keepers, 820. 

Loom makers, 2. 

Lunatic asylum proprietors, 12. 

Machine rulers, 35. 

,, strap makers, 8. 

Machinists, 61. 

Manure merchants and manu- 
facturers, 32. 

Marine store dealers, 92. 

Meerschaum pipe importers, 6. 

Melting pot and crucible 
makers, 11. 

Merchants, 1696. 

Metal perforators, 7. 
,, warehouses, 29. 

Metallic hole maker, 1 . 

Meters, 2 (one for fruit). 

Millboard, paper and hat, &c. 
box makers, 26. 

Millers, 48. 

Mill makers, 14. 

Millstone makers, 4. 

Millwrights, 32. 

Mining companies, 94. 

Mother of pearl manufac- 
turers, 6. 

Nursery and seedsmen, 110. 

Oil bag maker, 1 . 
,, cake merchant, 1, 
,, refiners and seed crushers, 

12. 
,, of vitriol manufacturers, 
11. 

Ordnance store manufacturer, 
1. 

Oven builders, 9. 

Packers, 13. 

Packing case makers, 35. 

Paper bag maker, 1. 

Paviors, 26. 

Pawnbrokers and silversmiths, 
297. . 

Percussion cap makers, 8. 

Pitch and tar makers, 7. 

Plane makers, 15. 

Platina smiths, 2. 

Powder barrel maker, 1 . 

Quicksilver merchant, 1. 

Rag merchants, 75. 

Reed and stay makers, 4. 

Refiners of antimony, 3. 

,, gold and silver, 30. 

Refining powder makers, 5. 

Rod merchants, 4. 

Sack and bag makers, 31. 



Sack collectors and sack hire 

warehouses, 7. 
Saltpetre refiners, 3. 
Sand merchants, 9. 
Savings banks, 30. 
Saw makers, 35. 
Scale and weight makers, 68. 
Scale board makers, 9. 
Seed crushers, 10. 

,, factors, 3. 

,, merchants, 13. 
Seedsmen and florists, 53. 
Servants' registry offices, 15. 
Shot manufacturers, 3. 

,, pouch and belt maker, 1. 
Skin and hide merchants and 

salesmen, 23. 
Skinners, 15. 
Snuff manufacturers, 16. 
Soap makers, 58. 
Soap frame maker (patent me- 
tallic), 1. 
Soda merchant, 1 . 
Soda manufacturer, 1 . 
Sponge dealers and merchants, 

19. 
Stave merchants, 5. 
Steel workers, 4. 
Sugar iron mould makers, 2. 
Surveyors, 294. 

,, of pavements, 18. 
,, of taxes, 12. 
Sword cutlers, 14. 
Tan dealers, 2. 
Tarpaulin manufacturers, 19. 
Tobacco manufacturers, 0*5. 
Tobacconists, 997. 
Tobacco pipe makers, 60. 

,, ,, mould maker, 1 . 
Tool grinder and polisher, 1 . 
Toolmakers and dealers, J] . 
Toy dealers, 107. 
Toy makers (tin, pewter, gilt, 

gun and drum), 20. 
Tube drawers, 12. 
Undertakers, 420. 
Vice makers, 2. 
Warehouse keepers, 17. 
Warehousemen, 248. 
Well sinkers, 5. 
Willow square makers, 5. 
Wine coopers, 57. 
Wire cartridge makers, 2. 

,, ribbon maker, 1. 

,, drawers, 19. 

,, rope makers, 4. 

,, workers and weavers, 85. 
Wool merchants, 16. 

„ staplers, 27. 



ASSURANCE OFFICES. 

Assurance Offices exist to some considerable extent in London ; 
some are ancient, and most of them extremely wealthy. Assurance 
on human life is a contract by which a certain amount of capital is 
secured at the expiration of the life of the insured, or taken at stipu- 
lated periods, either by the payment of a specified sum at the time of 
effecting the assurance, or by the annual payment of an agreed sum, 



240 



LONDON. 



according to age or period. Some offices take insurance on ships, 
both British and foreign. These companies conduct their business 
upon the fairest and most liberal principle. For further description, 
see also pp. 111-113. The accompanying example of the Imperial 
Fire Office was designed and carried out by Mr. Gibson, architect. 




IMPERIAL ASSURANCE OFFICE, BETWEEN BROAD STREET AND THREADNEEDLE STREET. 



TABLE OF LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANIES IN LONDON (1851). 

[The Premiums, with very few exceptions, are with Profits.] 



TITLE AND OFFICES. 



Aberdeen, 36, Essex St,, Strand. 
JEgis, 41, Moorgate Street. 
Albert, 11, Waterloo Place. 
Albion, New Bridge St.,Blkfrs. 
Alfred, 7 3 Lothbury. 
Alliance, Bartholomew Lane. 
Amicable, Sergeants' Inn, Fit. St. 
Anchor, 67, Cheapside. 
Argus, 39, Throgmorton St., \ 

and 14, Pall Mall. J 

Asylum, 72, Cornhill. 
Atlas, 92, Cheapside. 
Australasian, &c, Leadenhall St. 
Britannia, 1, Prince's St., Bank. 
British, 2, King St., Cheapside. 
British Commercial, 35, Cornhill. 
British Empire Mutual, 37, New 1 

Bridge Street, Blackfriars. J 
British Mutual, 17, New Bridge •» 

Street, Blackfriars. J 

British Provident, 4, Chatham *t 

Place, Blackfriars. J 

Caledonian, 27, Moorgate Street. 
Cambrian and Universal, 6l, \ 

Moorgate Street. J 

Catholic, 8, New Coventry Street. 
Church of England, Lothbury. 
City of Glasgow, 120, Pall Mall. 



ACTUARY, 
OR SECRETARY. t 



James Davidson, Esq.f 
William Scott, Esq.f 
H. W. Smith, Esq. 
John Le Cappelain, Esq. 
Charles Jellicoe, Esq. 

F. A. Engelbach, Esq. 
Thomas Galloway, Esq. 
T. Bell, Esq. 

Professor Hall. 

G. Farren, Res. Diren. 
Charles Ansell, F.R.S. 
E. Ryley, Esq. 
Andrew Francis, Esq.f 
John Reddish, Manager. 
Francis F. Sanderson. f 

W. S. Gover, Esq. 

Charles J. Thicke, Esq.f 

C. T. Rouse, Esq.f 

E. F. Sealy, Esq., Man. 

Thomas Walker, Esq. 

W. H. Archer, Esq. 

William Emmens, Esq.f 
ArchibaldBorthwickjEsq. 



fcS 



1825 
1849 
1838 
1805 
1839 
1824 
1706 
1842 

1833 

1824 
1808 
1839 
1837 
1847 
1820 

1846 

1844 

1850 

1805 

1849 

1846 
1840 
1838 



1 18 
1 17 
1 17 

1 18 

2 3 



ANNUAL BBEMIUM FOR ASSURIN 
£ 100. 



Age 20 Age 30 1 Age 40 Age 50 Ag< 



1 16 11 

2 6 
1 19 6 
1 11 10 

1 11 9 
2 

1 17 

2 

1 18 9 

2 1 5 

1 17 6 



2 9 



7 
2 9 

2 13 
2 

2 10 
2 9 



3 7 



9 2 



2 7 

2 2 

2 13 5 

2 8 2 

2 9 10 

2 8 5 

2 10 9 

2 8 3 



2 1 

2 7 

2 9 10 

2 7 



1 15 8 

1 16 10 

1 19 5 

1 15 6 

1 17 3 2 8 2 

1 17 ■ 4 l 2 6 10 

1 19 52 



7 9 

3 11 
2 10 

7 9 
7 11 
6 6 

5 

6 6 

14 10 

17 1 

7 11 

4 
6 

4 6 
4 



2 14 9 

3 5 1 
3 4 2 
3 4 2 
3 5 10 



4 19 9 

4 9 8 

9 

19 

10 

14 

16 6 
10 9 

4 11 

4 2 
4 10 
4 11 
4 15 
4 11 
4 11 

4 11 1 
4 1 7 
4 15 11 
4 7 
4 10 8 

4 10 
4 13 



6 I? 



6 
6 1^ 

7 



7 K 
6 1/ 

7 



ASSURANCE OFFICES. 



ACTUARY, 
OK SECRETARY. f 



ANNUAL PREMIUM FOR ASSURING 
^100. 



Age 20 Age 30 Age 40 ! Age 50 Age60 



City of London, 2, Royal Ex- "i 

change Buildings. J 

Clergy Mutual, 41, Parliament St. 
Clerical, Medical, &c.,99, Greats 

Russell St., Bloomsbury. J 
Colonial, 4 a, Lothbury. 
Commercial and General, 1 12, \ 

Cheapside. J 

Consolidated, &c, 45, Cheapside. 
Crown, 33, New Bridge St., Blkfrs. 
Defender, 34, New Bridge St., do. 
Eagle, 3, Crescent, New^BridgeT 

Street, Blackfriars. J 

Economic, 6, New Bridge St., do. 
Edinburgh, 11, King William "1 

Street, City. J 

ngineers', &c, 345, Strand. 
English and Cambrian, 9, New "1 

Bridge Street, Blackfriars. J 
English and Scottish Law, 12, "> 

Waterloo Place. J 

English Widow's Fund, Fleet St. 
Equitable, Bridge St., Blackfrs. 
Equity & Law, Lincoln's Inn Fids. 
European, 10, Chatham PL, Blkfrs. 
Family Endowment, 12, Chat- "l 

ham Place, Blackfriars. J 
General, 62, King William St. 
General Benefit, 4, Farringdon St. 
Globe, Pall Mall, and Cornhill. 
Great Britain, Waterloo Place, T 

and King William St., City. / 
Gresham, 37, Old Jewry. 
Guardian, 11, Lombard Street. 
Hand-in-Hand, 1, New Bridge 1 

Street, Blackfriars. ~ j 

Imperial, 1, Old Broad Street, 
[ndia & London, King William 1 

St., and 14, Waterloo PI. J 
Indisputable, 72, Lombard St. 
[ndustrial & General, 2, Water- "l 

loo Place. j 

Kent Mutual, Old Jewry. 
Law Life, Fleet Street. 
Legal & Commercial, J3, Cheapside 
Legal & General, 10, Fleet St. 
Life Association of Scotland, 64, \ 

Old Broad Street. J 

Liverpool & London, 20, Poultry. 
London Assurance Corp. 7, Royal "i 

Exchange, & 10, Regent St. J 
London Lite Association, 81, "l 

King William Street. J 

London Mutual, 63, Moorgate St. 
London & Provincial, Nicholas ~i 

Lane, Lombard Street. J 

London & Provincial Law, 32, "i 

Bridge St., Blackfriars. J 
Medical, Invalid & Gen., Pall Mali, 
Medical, Legal & Gen. ,120, Straud, 
Mentor, 2, Old Broad Street. 
Merchants & Tradesmen's, 5, "» 

Chatham Place, Blackfriars. I 
Metropolitan, 3, Prince's St., Bnk 
Metropolitan Counties, &c, 27, "> 
Regent St., Waterloo PI. J 
Minerva, 84, K. William St., City. 
Mitre, 23, Pall Mall. 
Monarch, 4, Adelaide Place, City. 
Mutual, 39, King St., Cheapside. 
Mutual Insurance, 51, Thread- \ 

needle Street 



iNational Assurance, &c, 7, St. \ 
Trafalgar Sq. J 



Martin's PL, 



G. J. Farrance, Esq. 

Charles Ansell, F.R.S. 

G. H. Pinckard, Esq. 

W. T. Thomson, Esq. 

James Daniel, Esq.f 

William Clarke, Esq. 
J. M. Rainbow, Esq. 
George Howard, Esq. 

Charles Jellicoe, Esq. 

J. J. Downes, F.R.A.S. 

C. Staniforth, Res. Direc. 

Frederick Laurence, Esq. 

C. W. Bevan, Manager. 

J. Hill Williams, Esq. 

Thomas Walker, B.A. 
Arthur Morgan, F.R.S. 
J. J. Svlvester, F.R.S. 
W. B.'Ford, Esq.f 

William Lewis, Esq. 

David Oughton, Esq. 
John Brydie. Esq.f 
Fred. Hendricks, Esq. 

A. R. Irvine, Man. Direc. 

T. A. Pott, Esq.t 
Griffith Davies, F.R.S. 

James M. Terry, Esq. 

Samuel Ingall, Esq. 

A. R. Irvine, Manager. 

D. Alison, Esq.f 

F. G. P. Neison, Esq. 

W. E. Hillman, Esq. 
W. S. Downes, Esq. 
T. W. Farnell, Esq. 
T. R. Edmonds, Esq. 

Thomas Fraser, Esq.f 

B. Henderson, Esq.f 
Peter Hardy, Esq. 

Edward Docker, Esq. 
Henri C. Eiffe, Esq. 
Charles Ingall, Esq. 

John Knowles, Esq. 

F. G. P. Neison, Esq. 
F. G. Bigg, Esq.f 
Louis More, Manager. 

T. Musgrave, Esq.f 

R. Heathfield, Esq., Sup 

W.S.B.Woolhouse,Esq 

W. T. Robertson, Esq. 
S. P. Plumer, Esq.f 
J. T. Clement, Esq. 
Samuel Brown, Esq. 

Mr. James Bishop. f 
William Whitfeld, Esq. 



1845 1 
1829 1 

1824 ; 2 
1846' 1 



1841 



1846 l 
1825 l 
1342 1 

1807:2 

1823 1 

1823 1 

1848 1 

1850.1 



IS 
15 

13 
19 62 
16 7-2 
19 IIP 



7 9 



10 
9 

9 9 
,ni 

10 4 3 



16 

1 7 
14 7 

17 4 
19 2 
16 11 



6 

3 
4 

4 10 4 

5 3 4 
19 94 

3 24 



9 3|3 

9 o ! 3 



9 4 



10 2 

7 

7 3 

13 

10 9 

8 9 

8 11 

10 8 

11 4 

7 6 

9 

12 1 



6 18 

7 1 e 

7 2 

7 1 

4 6 



1 10 
7 



6 15 
6 17 
6 7 

6 15 

7 1 
6 18 



14 S 



1839'l 19 6 

1847 1 
1762 2 
1«44 
1819 



1835 
183T 
1820 
1799 
1844 

184S 
1821 

1836 

1820 

1846 

B48 

1849 

1849 
1823 
1845 
183fi 

1839 

1836 

1720 

1806 
1848 
1846 

1845 

1841 

1846 
1848 

1844 

1835 

1848 

18 

1846 
1835 
1834 



18 3 

i; 9 

18 2 

14 7 
3 7 

1 9 

18 8 
1 

3 7 

3 7 

13 11 

17 4 

17 5 
15 
3 

16 10 


17 

19 

2 

9 3 

17 3 

15 8 



13 53 

8 103 

8 0j3 

2 9 7|3 

8 53 

4 3 
13 

11 



2 8 



1 17 5 

1 15 

1 13 

1 17 

1 19 

1 17 

2 1 



9 9,3 6 64 



.1 4 

6 4 

64 

4 

4 
9 4 

11 4 



4 6 
11 10 



10 9 7 

8 0:6 

10 8,6 

10 9| 

8 3.6 13 3 

10 6!6 7 11 
13 



5 

1 

1U 

7 5 
5 

13 53 

7 S3 

10 9 3 



9 5 
10 8 



19 3 

7 11 



1 

9 6 



9 4 



1 11 

1 18 10 2 
1 19 11 



7 10 

3 8 
5 

7 11 

7 11 

16 4 

5 

2 10 

2 5 
11 

11 
1 
5 



4 17 8 



10 11 

8 

10 8 

10 8 

1 11 

10 7 

8 11 

12 

10 8 

15 10 
9 



10 
13 
12 
10 

7 
9 
9 



4 10 6 



16 7 

5 11 

364 



1844 1 IS 02 9 5 3 7 5 4 18 7 7 14 



8 11 

7 

3 

11 11 

12 

14 2 

8 
1 11 

9 

12 

10 8 



19 3 

7 2 

7 

7 

s 

4 
15 

4 6 

7 4 

10 8 

15 5 

18 1 



15 
3 

7 6 

16 4 

15 7 

19 

11 6 

6 11 

11 6 

18 6 
7 

17 9 

2 






ASSURANCE OFFICES. 



ACTUARY, 
OR SECRETARY. f 






&ta Age 20 Age 30 1 Age 40 Age 50 Age 60 



ANNUAL PREMIUM FOR ASSURING 

^100. 



National Friendly Society, 18, *i 
Red Lion Square. J 

National Guardian, Moorgate St. 

National Life Society, 2, King') 
William Street, City. J 

National Loan Fund, 26, Cornh.* 

National Mercantile, Poultry. 
National Provident, 48, Grace- i 

church Street. J 

New Equitable, 450, West Strand. 
North British, 4, New Bank Bdgs. 
North of England, 11, Cheapside. 
Northern, 1, Moorgate Street. 
Norwich Union, Crescent, New\ 

Bridge St., Blackfriars. J 
Palladium, 7, Waterloo Place. 
Pelican, Lombard St., and 57, 1 

Charing Cross. J 

Professional, 76, Cheapside. 
Promoter, 9, Chatham PL, Blkfrs. 
Provident, 50, Regent St., & 2, *> 

Royal Exchange Buildings. J 
Provident Clerks', 42, Moorgate St. 
Prudential Mutual, 14, Chatham *i 

Place, Blackfriars. J 

Reliance, 71, K. William St., City. 
Rock, 14, New Bridge St., Blkfrs. 
Royal, 29, Lombard Street. 
Royal Exchange, Royal Ex- "1 

change, & 29, Pall Mall. J 
Royal Farmers', 346, Strand. 
Royal Naval, &c, 13, Waterloo PI. 
Scottish Amicable, 43, Lombard St. 
Scottish Equitable, Moorgate St. 
Scottish Provident, 12, Moorgate \ 

Street. / 

Scottish Widow's Fund, 4, Royal *) 

Exchange Buildings. j 

Scottish Union, 37, Cornhill. 
Solicitors' & General, 57, Chan- 1 

eery Lane. J 

Sovereign, 49, St. James's Street. 
Standard, 82, K. William St., City. 
Star, 48, Moorgate Street. 
Sun, Threadneedle Street. 
Times, 32, Ludgate Hill. 
Trafalgar, 454, West Strand. 
Union, Cornhill, & Baker Street. 
United Guarantee, 36, Old Jewry. 
United Kingdom, 8, Waterloo PI. 
United Kingdom Temperance, \ 

39, Moorgate Street. J 

United Mutual, 54, Charing Cross. 
United Service and General, 20, "1 

Cockspur St., Charing Crss. J 
Universal, 1, K. William St., City. 
University, 24, Suffolk St., PI. Ml. 
Victoria, 18, K. William St., City. 
West of England, 20, NeWi 

Bridge St., Blackfriars. / 
Western, 3, Parliament Street. 
Westminster, Adelaide St., Strnd. 
Westminster and General, 27, "» 

King St., Covent Garden. J 
Yorkshire, Wellington St., Strnd. 



W. G. Reynolds, Esq.f 
W. E. Hillman, Esq. 
Mr. Charles B. Smith. 

W. S. B. Woolhouse, Esq. 

Jenkin Jones, Esq. 

C. Ansell, F.R.S. 

Sydney Crocker, Esq. 
H. T. Thomson, Esq.f 
George Stewart, Esq. 
A. P. Fletcher, Esq.f 

Richard Morgan, Esq. 

Jeremiah Lodge, Esq. 

Robert Tucker, Esq. 

Edward Baylis, Esq. 
Michael Saward, Esq.f 

J. A. Beaumont, Man.D. 

William Ratray, Esq. 

David Jones, Esq. 

Osborne Smith, F.S.A. 
John Goddard, Esq. 
Percy M. Dove, Esq. 

John A. Higham, Esq. 

W. Shaw, Man. Direc. 
John Finlaison, F.S.A. 
J. E. C. Koch, Esq.f 
W. Cook, Esq., Agent. 

George Grant, Esq.f 

J. Mackenzie, Manager. 

James Barlas, Esq.f 

F. G. P. Neison, Esq. 

J. J. Sylvester, M.A. 
Peter Ewart, Esq.f 
W. E. Hillman, Esq. 
C. H. Lidderdale, Esq. 
H. B. Sheridan, Manager 
Edward Baylis, Esq. 
Thomas Lewis, Esq.f 
Edward Ryley, Esq. 
John King, Esq. 

Theodore Compton, Esq. 

W. S. B. Woolhouse, Esq 

Charles Ingall, Esq. 

David Jones, Esq. 
C. M. Willich, Esq. 
William Ratray, Esq. 

James Anderton, Man. 

A. Scratchly, M.A. 
John Helps, Esq.f 

W. M. Browne, Esq. 

W. L. Newman, Esq. 



1846 
1850 
1830 

1837 
1837 
1835 

1850 
1809 
1844 
1836 



IS 

1824 

1797 

1847 
1826 

1806 

1840 

1848 

1840 
1806 
1845 

1720 

1839 
1837 
1826 
1831 

1837 

1815 

1824 

1846 

1845 
1825 
1843 
1810 
1849 
1850 
1714 
1849 
1834 

1840 

1849 

1850 

1834 
1825 
1838 

1807 
1842 
1792 
1836 
1824 



15 1 

15 10 

8 

17 4 
19 
19 7 



7 
6 10 
10 



17 9 

18 2 
14 

18 10 

19 6 



2 3 7 
19 3 
16 8 
16 1 

3 7 



3 6 

16 10 
3 

1 
15 8 



13 



33 
43 



10 



8 
9 10 

4 8 

5 8 



6 4 



1 

18 

19 

19 
1 
17 
16 11 

15 1 
16 

3 
19 
18 

15 
18 

19 6 
18 
1 

16 11 

11 

16 7 
3 7 
1 

14 4 



11 1 
9 11 
9 5 

9 4 

10 

8 

9 

5 

5 
13 
11 



2 9 3 



8 10 

10 9 

9 2 

11 3 

6 11 

13 4 

10 7 

5 



7 
6 

4 12 

13 

5 1 
4 12 

34 11 
104 12 
04 7 
4 10 
5|4 7 
04 6 



5 
9 
3 

5 
3 

1 3 
13 



7 11 
6 5 
1 3 



3 7 11 



5 10 
7 11 
4 1 



4 10 

4 10 

4 9 
4 14 

4 10 

4 12 

4 5 

4 14 
4 10 
4 8 



10 
4 14 
4 8 



3 5 6 

3 5 

5 6 



5 2 
4 11 

4 11 

6 6 
2 

11 

7 11 

5 11 

3 4 

1 6 

5 7 

4 10 

3 

4 7 

6 6 

6 1 
11 

7 11 

4 6 

19 



7 1 
6 18 i: 

6 19 

7 8 
7 18 
7 l 

6 11 

7 5 

6 13 

7 3 
6 12 

6 7 

7 
7 

7 14 1: 

7 11 
6 13 
6 18 
6 7 
6 14 

7 

6 18 

7 



6 5 



7 
12 
12 



8 11 
8 1 

10 8 

11 11 
10 7 



7 1 

6 19 

6 11 

7 4 

7 14 1 
6 15 

6 18 
7 

7 6 

6 17 
6 

7 7 
6 12 



66 13 

m 7 
6 19 



4 9 1 
5 11 
10 10 



9 11 

4 9 



6 7 

6 7 

6 7 



* On the higher rates of the National Loan Fund the Assured may at any time receive an immediat 
advance to the extent of one-half the amount of the paid annual premiums, on paying interest thereon 
without personal liability or deposit of the Policy, but simply by endorsement. Or one-half of every annua 
premium may be retained, at interest from the commencement of the Assurance for any length of time, or fo 
the whole period of life. And should the Assured at any time desire to give up his Policy, one-half of th 
laid annual premiums would be immediately returned on application. 



ASYLUMS. 245 



ASYLUMS. 



Asylums in and about London are also numerous. They are esta- 
blished for the maintenance and protection of deserving persons, in 
a degree of superior comfort to that of most other charitable esta- 
blishments. They are also applicable for the lodging, sustaining, and 
the education of indigent children left as orphans, or otherwise. 

There are no government institutions for bringing up the blind, or 
the deaf and dumb ; and though there are children so afflicted in the 
union houses, yet the system of district schools for pauper children 
has not yet been sufficiently extended to admit of special establish- 
ments. The schools and asylums for these two classes throughout 
the country are the spontaneous result of private benevolence. 

Although the School for the Indigent Blind in St. George's Fields 
was founded in 1799, yet Liverpool set the example to the metropolis. 
These schools are partly supported by the work of the inmates, and 
partly by chapel receipts. The school we have just named has 85 
males and 89 females, — altogether, 1 74. The candidates must not be 
under 10 years of age, nor above 25 ; nor must they be able to dis- 
tinguish light from darkness. The Committee prefer pupils between 
12 and 18, as the education is partly industrial, several trades being 
taught, as basketmaking, cordworking, &c. The pupils are to be seen 
at work between 10 and 12, and 2 and 5, except Saturdays. They 
acquire some proficiency in music, so that three have been lately 
appointed church organists. The inmates are educated, boarded, 
clothed, and lodged, at a yearly charge of 8000/., of which 2000/. is 
derived from investments, and 1300/. from the sale of work. 

The London Society for Teaching the Blind to read have a new school for 
boarders in the Avenue Road, St. John's Wood, near the New Finchley Road. 
The terms are low, and for a charge of 11. 10s. a child is in six months taught to 
read the raised character for the blind, suggested by Mr. Lucas. In this raised 
character a considerable part of the New and Old Testament has been printed by 
public subscription. Sometimes a blind man is to be heard in the thoroughfares 
reading one of the Gospels aloud, feeling the character with his fingers. The 
number of inmates of the school is 55, — 27 males and 28 females. Of the funds 
450/. are contributed by the pupils, 750/. by subscription. The school can be 
seen daily. The society have an evening school near Gray's Inn Lane. 

The Indigent Blind Visiting Society supplies about 200 blind yearly with Testa- 
ments in the raised character, and with conductors to lead them to church. They 
are likewise visited by readers of the Scripture. On Sundays a group of blind is 
sometimes to be seen, led by a little boy or girl, on their way to church. 

Hetherington's Charity give annuities of 10/. to above 600 aged blind of the 
better classes. Mr. Charles Day (the blacking manufacturer) left 100,000/., from 
which annuities ranging from 12/. to 20/. are given to 271 blind persons. The 
Painters' Company distribute annuities of 10/. to 173 blind; the Clockmakers' and 
Cordwainers' Companies likewise relieve the blind. The Jews have an institution 
for giving 15/. a year to 12 blind. 

The Asylum for Deaf and Dumb Children is in the Old Kent Road, and was 
founded in 1792, but the example was taken from Edinburgh. The children are 
taught to speak by signs, to read printed books, and to draw. 290 children are 



244 LONDON. 

hoarded, clothed, and lodged by the charity, besides about 20 boarders at 20/. 
yearly, and private pupils. The school can be seen every day, except Sunday, 
the best time being between 11 and 1 o'clock. The income is 10,000/. yearly. 

There is an Institution for relieving the Adult Deaf and Dumb at 26, Red Lion 
Square, with a shop at 21, Theobald's Road, for the sale of articles made by the 
inmates. The trades taught are tailoring, shoemaking, dressmaking, &c, in which 
nearly 20 persons are instructed, besides 30 who are weekly assisted. There is 
a Charitable and Provident Society for the Deaf and Dumb, and the Cordwainers' 
Company have a small fund for their relief. 

The Asylum for Idiots is in its infancy, having been instituted only in 1847, be- 
fore which no attempt was made in England to teach idiots. The asylum is at 
Park House, Highgate, and the number of inmates about 60. The age is unlimited. 

It will be observed that the union houses, and district schools in connection with 
them, provide for orphans of the poorer classes. In 1849 an Act of Parliament 
came into force, authorizing and enjoining the associations of unions for the estab- 
lishment of district schools for union children, several of which are now in progress. 

For the orphans of the better classes there are many schools established, in 
which they are boarded, lodged, and educated, such schools being supported by 
subscription (except Christ's and Foundling Hospitals), and the scholars being 
chosen by the votes of the subscribers or governors. 

Asylum for the reception of Friendless and Deserted Orphan Girls, Bridge Road, 
Lambeth, instituted in 1758, incorporated 1800, for females only, the settlements 
of whose parents cannot be ascertained, or of deceased parents. No child is ad- 
mitted under the age of 8 nor above 10 years of age. Upwards of 2500 children 
have been supported, lodged, and educated since its establishment. 

Asylum and School for Female Orphans, Church Street, Paddington, instituted 
1786, for bereaved and destitute orphans from 9 to 12 years of age. 

Incorporated Clergy Orphan Society, St. John's Wood, Marylebone, founded 
1749, incorporated 1809, for clothing, maintaining, and educating orphans of 
clergymen of the established English Church. 

Bayswater Episcopal Chapel Female Orphan School, established 1839, for the 
maintenance and instruction of from 15 to 20 females. 

Orphan Working School, Haverstock Hill, instituted 1758, incorporated 1848, 
for the reception of 20 female and male orphans. 

Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea, instituted 1801, for orphan children of British 
soldiers, 350 of whom are supported, lodged, and educated (usually called the 
Duke of York's School). It is a most gratifying sight to see parade the boys of 
sufficient age to learn the military exercise, w T ith their military band, in the morning. 

The Foundling Hospital, Guildford Street, no longer answers to the name ; be- 
cause as there is now a full provision for orphan and deserted children, it would 
be mischievous to admit foundlings by means of a box or tour, and therefore it 
has become an asylum for poor illegitimate children whose mothers are known. 
This hospital is now richly endowed from the neighbouring houses belonging to 
it, and which have been built since 1739. The chapel, in which is an altar-piece 
by West, and which has a good choral service and good preachers, likewise adds 
to the funds, as the pew rents are high, and each visitor is expected to give 6d. 
or a larger coin. The income is about 10,000/., and the number of children main- 
tained 500, who are, while infants, sent out to nurse, and are afterwards kept until 
15. In connection with the hospital is a society for the relief of foundlings, their 
widows and children. The kitchen of the Foundling, with Count Rumford's 
cooking apparatus, and the court-room, with pictures by Hogarth and others, 
are worth seeing. 

The London Orphan Asylum, at Clapton, founded in 1813, for children from 7 
to 14 years of age: there are about 400 boarded and educated. The average 
expense of each child is — Food, firing, and washing, 10/. 18s. 6d.; clothing, 
3/. 10*. §d. ; salaries and wages, 3/. 2s. 2d. ; building and repairs, 3/. 13s. 4d. ; outfit 



ASYLUMS. 245 

and rewards on leaving, 11. 9s. 10d.; altogether, 221. lis. id. The income is about 
8000Z. yearly. 

The British Orphan Asylum, Clapham Rise, was founded in 1827. There are 
nearly 100 children. 

The Adult Orphan Institution, St. Andrew's Place, Regent's Park, founded 1818, 
maintains about 80 orphan daughters of officers and clergymen, from the ages of 14 
to 19. They are brought up as governesses, the instructions being of a superior 
description. 

The Merchant Seamen's Orphan Asylum, New Grove, Bow Road, brings up 110 
children. Some of the boys are sent to sea. 

The Sailors' Orphan Girls' School, 29, Cannon Street Road, maintains 20 orphans, 
and educates and clothes 20 more. The Sailors' Female Orphan Home is another 
small institution. 

The Royal Asylum of St. Ann's Society, Streatham, Surrey, was founded 1709. 
It maintains and educates 151 boys and 76 girls, who are orphans or the children of 
necessitous parents who have seen better days. The income is QiOOl. 

Raine's Charity, St. George's in the East, provides an Asylum for some of the girls 
brought up in the school, who are eligible to receive a marriage portion of 100Z. 

The Ladies' Charity School, 30, John Street, Bedford Row, founded 1702, main- 
tains 51 poor girls. — The Hans' Town School of Industry, 103, Sloane Street, main- 
tains 50 girls till the age of 16 ; but a partial payment is required from each of 1/. 5s. 
per quarter. — St. John's Servants' School, 22, New Ormond Street, maintains 113 
girls, who are trained as servants for two or three years. Some are kept till they 
are 18. Each child is paid for by its friends or other benevolent persons, the charge 
being 121. a year. The establishment is strongly supported. 

The Yorkshire Society's School, Westminster Road, maintains 34 boys and 13 
girls.— The Westmoreland Society, founded 1746, maintains 26 children. 

The Welsh Charity School, Gray's Inn Road, founded 1715, maintains 200 
children, born in London of Welsh parents. — The Royal Caledonian Asylum, 
Copenhagen Fields, founded 1808, provides in like manner for 72 boys and 47 girls, 
children of Scotchmen. They are clad in what is called the Highland garb, and 
have a band of music and some pipers, who occasionally attend charitable festivals. — 
The Benevolent Society of St. Patrick, Stamford Street, Blackfriars Road, does not 
maintain any children, but clothes and educates 300 boys and 200 girls, born of Irish 
parents. — The Jews maintain 55 boys and 20 girls in their hospital ; and others in 
their orphan as} T lum, and in the School of the Gates of Hope. — The Westminster 
French Protestant Charity School, Bloomsbury, maintains girls, descendants of the 
refugees ; and they have an hospital and alms-houses. — The Dutch have alms-houses. 

The Royal Freemasons' School, for Girls, Obelisk, Westminster Road, maintains 
the daughters and orphans of decayed brethren. — The Royal Masonic Institution for 
boys, 7, Bloomsbury Place, maintains 70 of the other sex. 

The Licensed Victuallers' School, Kennington Lane, Lambeth, maintains 117 
children. — The Commercial Travellers' School, Wanstead, maintains 70 children. 

The Marine Society, founded in 1772, is a peculiar institution. It has a ship, the 
Venus, lying off Woolwich, in which 100 boys are kept and trained for the sea 
service. In 1849, 40 were sent into the Indian navy, and 209 into the merchant 
service. The boys attend, with their flags, drums, and fifes, at the Lord Mayor's 
Show. 

St. Margaret's Hospital, Tothill Fields, Westminster, or the Green-coat School, 
founded 1633, maintains 25 children of the parish. — The Blue-coat School, Tothill 
Fields, founded 1688, maintains children of St. Margaret's and St. John's. — The 
Grey-coat Hospital, Tothill Fields, founded 1698, maintains 67 boys and 33 girls 
of the same parishes. — The Burlington Charity School, Boyle Street, maintains 110 
girls, of St. James's, Westminster, till the age of 15. 

Infant Orphan Asylum, Wanstead, 1827, incorporated 1843, to board, clothe, 
nurse, and educate, on the principles of the Church of England, destitute children 
who are fatherless ; and, if necessary, to receive them from their birth. 



246 LONDON. 

New Asylum for Infant Orphans, Stamford Hill, founded 1844, to receive the 
infant from its birth until 8 years of age. 

Cholera Orphan Home, Ham, Richmond, established 1849, at the present time for 
females only who have lost both parents, and for boys when the funds will allow. 

The Agricultural Orphan School is in the course of establishment. 

Corporation of the Royal Caledonian Asylum, Chalk Road, Copenhagen Fields, for 
supporting and educating the children of soldiers, sailors, and marines, natives of 
Scotland and of indigent Scotch parents, resident in London, not entitled to parochial 
relief. Admitted between the ages of 7 and 10, and are retained until 14. Insti- 
tuted 1813, incorporated 1815. President, the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury. 

Aske's Hospital and Episcopal Chapel, affording board, clothing, and education for 
20 boys, from the ages of 7 to 14. 

Asylum for 20 men, who must be bachelors or widowers, and 16s. per week each, 
with an additional allowance in sickness. Founded by Robert Aske, 1690. 

Hoxton Orphan Asylum and Ladies' Charity School, for educating, clothing, and 
maintaining 51 poor girls from all parts of the United Kingdom, whether orphans or 
not. Admitted between the ages of 8 and 10. 

The trade asylums and alms-houses are of modern origin. — 

The Licensed Victuallers' Asylum, Old Kent Road, was established 1827, and is 
one of the finest of the modern foundations. The asylum contains 126 dwellings and 
143 inmates; and for this purpose 25,0001. was collected within six years. Each 
dwelling has three rooms. 

The Bookbinders' Provident Asylum is at Ralls Pond. 

The Builders' Asylum is not yet erected. 

The Metropolitan Benefit Societies' Asylum, Balls Pond, Islington, was built in 
1836, for members of benefit societies, of whom there are 50 inmates. 

The Asylum for Aged and Decayed Freemasons was opened in 1850, at Croydon. 
It is for 36 inmates. 

The Aged Pilgrims' Asylum, Camberwell, is for 42 members of a religious society 
of the same name. The Christian Union Alms-houses, John Street, Edgware Road, 
is another dissenting foundation for 36 inmates. 

The Jews' Hospital, Mile End, provides for aged Jews. — The Spanish and 
Portuguese Hospital, Mile End Road, likewise provides for aged Jews, besides sick. 

There are many others which our space does not permit further to enumerate. 
The reader searching into the knowledge of these establishments, as well as charities 
generally of London, should procure a very painstaking and accurate work, entitled 
"The Charities of London," by Sampson Low, Jun. 1850. 



BANK OF ENGLAND. 



This, like most institutions of any stability or permanence, has 
grown from a very small beginning. The revolution of 1688 was 
followed by various schemes for the establishment of a national bank, 
chiefly to relieve the government from the very ruinous terms on 
which alone money could then be obtained ; the expense very fre- 
quently 20 or 30 per cent., and never less than 8 per cent., even to 
be repaid from the first returns of the land-tax. The difficulty and 
trouble of obtaining very moderate loans, even on these terms, was 
also very great, the citizens having to be solicited from house to house. 
William Paterson, a Scotch gentleman, suggested, in 1691, the plan 
which was finally adopted; and in 1694 an Act was passed, enabling 
government to take subscriptions for 1,200,000/. towards carrying 



BANK OF ENGLAND. 247 

on the war with France ; some new taxes being expected to yield 
1,500,000/. The interest to be paid was 8 per cent, and 4000/. 
a year was allowed for management. This subscription was raised 
in ten days, and the subscribers were incorporated under the name of 
" the Governor and Company of the Bank of England," and enabled 
to purchase lands, and deal in gold and silver bullion, and bills of 
exchange. The first Charter incorporating this company was dated 
2?th of July, 1694; and its usefulness soon became so evident in 
various ways, that Bishop Burnet says, " all people saw into the 
secret reasons that made the enemies of the constitution set them- 
selves with so much earnestness against it." 

The original Charter was for fourteen years ; and it has since been 
renewed seven times, for terms varying from 21 to 33 years. On the 
first renewal, in 1708, the Bank was protected against the competi- 
tion of other large companies by prohibiting the formation of banking 
partnerships of more than six persons, a restriction which was removed, 
in 1826, for all places beyond 65 miles from London; and, in 1833, 
this exclusive right was surrendered entirely. 

The most dangerous crisis in the history of the Bank were — first, 
about three years after its foundation; again, after the South Sea bubble; 
thirdly, in the rebellion of 1745, next in 1797, and, lastly, in 1825. 
But the only occasions when it virtually suspended payment were in 
1697 and 1797. The first crisis was occasioned by a recoinage, in 
which the old coin was called in and replaced by notes, which, being 
payable on demand, were returned faster than the new coin could be 
got ready. Coin was therefore given for them only by instalments, 
at first fortnightly, and afterwards at intervals of three months ; and 
the value of these notes sunk at one time to 20 per cent, discount. 
The difficulties commencing in 1797 were a far more serious affair, 
and sprung from a complication of circumstances, that drained off the 
precious metals from this country. The state of foreign exchanges, 
the commencement of war, and the necessity of importing corn at 
extravagant prices, all conspired to this effect The alarm of invasion 
caused a desire to withdraw and hoard money, and the country bank* 
were breaking on every side, when, on the 26th of February, the trea- 
sure in the Bank being reduced to 1,086,170/.; a council was held 
(the first, it is said, that George III. had even attended on a Sunday), 
and an order issued that the Bank should "forbear any cash in pay- 
ment until the sense of Parliament can be taken on that subject," &c. 
This was the beginning of a reign of paper-money that lasted no less 
than 21 years. The first Bank Restriction Act, which was passed 
about two months after the above order, continued the prohibition 
for 52 days. Fifty days having expired, the term was extended to 
a month after the commencement of the next session, then till six 
months after the peace, which was that of Amiens. On the occur- 
rence of this, however, the restriction was continued till March 1803, 
then till the conclusion of the war, and lastly, till July, 1818. Even 



248 LONDON. 

then, in 1819, it was found necessary to renew partial restrictions, and 
the Bank did not finally resume its regular functions till May, 1823. 
During this long period of difficulty, various Acts were also passed to 
prohibit the taking of bank notes for less, or of gold for more, than 
their nominal value. 

The business of Government loans first began to be transacted 
at the Bank instead of the Treasury in 1718, and is now entirely 
managed at this immense establishment, which received for that 
service at one time as much as 250,000/. a year, but the rate of this 
allowance has been gradually much diminished. In 1822-23 the in- 
terest on a portion of the National Debt, amounting to 215,000,000/., 
was somewhat reduced, and the Bank paid off those who were dis- 
satisfied. This is supposed to have led to the excessive speculation of 
every kind in the years 1824-5, which ended in the celebrated panic 
of the latter year. The Bank had then a narrow escape, its treasure 
being at one time reduced to less than it contained at the memorable 
suspension of cash payments in 1797. Government, however, would 
not sanction the repetition of any such step ; and the storm being met 
with unparalleled boldness and spirit, at length it providentially blew 
over. Indeed it is curious to observe the different modes of treatment 
applied on the three last occasions of extreme pressure in 1745, 1797, 
and 1825. On the first occasion the Bank condescended, in order to 
gain time, to dole out its payments in silver, and even in sixpences. 
On the last this policy was reversed, and the gold paid away in bags 
of 25 sovereigns each. Bullion continually arrived, and the Mint 
was kept at work day and night. 

The Bank authorities consist of a governor, deputy-governor, and 
24 directors, eight of whom are renewed every year, being nominally 
elected by the proprietors of 500/. or more, but the election is never 
contested. The governor must be a proprietor to the extent of 4000/., 
the deputy-governor of 3000?., and a director of 2000?., but they are 
not generally chosen from among the largest holders of bank stock 
nor the richest men, and in 1837 the governor was actually a bankrupt. 
A full meeting of the directors is held weekly, a court of ten sit every 
Wednesday, and the governor and a select committee of three, who 
have passed the chair, meet daily. A general meeting of the company 
takes place four times a year. 

The clerks, porters, engravers, printers, &c., employed in the Bank 
amount usually to about a thousand. Their salaries vary from 50/. at 
the age of 17, and increase yearly till they reach a maximum of 260Z.; 
the average of the whole being about 225/. They are promoted 
according to seniority. There are also about 200 superannuated 
pensioners, receiving on an average less than 200Z, a year each. 
The allowance to the directors is altogether about 8000/. a year. 
The accounts of the Bank, which, during the first year of its ex- 
istence, were kept in one ordinary ledger, now fill 300 such volumes 
daily, so that the mere bookbinding carried on within its walls is 



BANK OP ENGLAND. 24.9 

no ordinary business. The notes, of which the circulation now com- 
monly amounts to 18,000,000/. or 19,000,000/., are no two alike, 
both in number and date, and the Bank never issues the same note 
twice, although the average period of their remaining in circulation 
does not exceed a few days. The printing and numbering, as w r ell 
as the weighing of sovereigns, is all performed by most ingenious 
self-acting machinery. 

Up to 1736 the business of the infant bank was carried on in the 
small building called Grocers' Hall, in the Poultry. It was then 
removed to a new building, erected by George Sampson, architect, 
near the church of St. Christopher, and on the site of what is now 
the centre of the Threadneedle Street front of the present immense 
building. To this nucleus two wings were added, between 1766 and 
1786, from the design of Sir Robert Taylor, which enlarged that front 
to its present extent of 365 feet. Lastly, in 1788, Sir John Soane 
began to extend, modify, and rebuild, till the present structure, occu- 
pying not merely the site of St. Christopher's Church and Cemetery, 
but very nearly the w 7 hole parish, was complete, and may be said to 
be entirely of his design, except some of the faces of some internal 
courts which retain the work of Taylor, and the large office in the 
south-west angle, lately remodelled by the present bank architect, 
C. R. Cockerell, Esq., Prof, of Architecture in the Royal Academy. 

The accompanying plans and references will show that the building 
consists of an irregular assemblage of rooms on the ground-floor, 
rarely having any upper storey, and lighted chiefly by lanterns or 
skylights. The parts built by Soane are mostly vaulted, to avoid risk 
of fire, and many have no timber about them. Beneath are cellars, 
said to exceed in capacity the w r hole of the buildings above ground. 
The entire group is enclosed by a wall, too low, compared with its 
extent, to make any striking appearance in the centre of a city, but 
decked throughout its circuit with a variety of sham porticoes, sham 
windows and doors, and empty niches. The amount of this deco- 
ration, and its entire superfluity, must impress an idea of magni- 
ficence and profusion ; though it must be admitted that whatever 
objects of use will peep out are excessively mean. Still it is, perhaps, 
the most sumptuous piece of mere scenery ever erected, except that 
which has been found necessary to hide the British Museum. The 
details of this screen-enclosure, and of all Soane's parts within, 
consist chiefly of grooves, derived apparently from tattooing, w T ith 
other forms of extreme singularity, invented by himself. On the 
exterior this singularity, however, is not fully seen, being diluted or 
overpowered by the presence of the ordinary apparatus of column* 
and entablature. It is curious that an artist affecting so much ori- 
ginality should, for this most important part of the design, have 
merely used a ready-made pattern, the whole order being an exact 
reproduction of that of the round temple at Tivoli (only omitting the 
frieze sculpture). We doubt whether the practice (wholly peculiar 

u 3 



250 



LONDON. 



Mould-makers. 
Note office. 

Accountants' drawing 
office. 

Note store-room. 
Nightly watch. 
10. Secretary's office and 
room. 

Chief accountant's par- 
lour. 

Secretary's house. 
Power of attorney office. 
Interior office. 
Silver office. 
Private room, Branch 
banks office. 
Deputy accountant's 
office. 

Chief accountant's. 
Chief cashiers.' 
Governor's rooms. 



Deputy governor's. 
36. Committee rooms. 
Secretary's. 
Officers' rooms. 
Three per cent, reduced. 
Rotunda. 
Bullion office. 
Pay hall. 
Drawing office. 
Cash-book office. 
Posting ledgers. 
Store-keeper's. 
Servants' room. 
Coffee room. 
Discount office. 
38. 53. 56, &c. Open courts 
for light. 

23. 24. 33. 42. 60, 61. Pas- 
sages, lobbies, &c. 
31. 62, 63, Waiting rooms. 



GROUND PLAN 



BANK 



ENGLAND. 



Jrom a 
Drawing in Sir 
John Soane's 



BY 
JOHN WE ALE, 

1851. 




BANK OF ENGLAND. 



251 




252 LONDON. 

to this age, and, we believe, to England, or, at least, to the Anglo- 
Saxon race) of thus taking a ready-designed order, just as we find it, 
will ever succeed. All these things were designed for their places ; 
and, in this case, the fitness of the whole order to its original pur- 
pose is most admirable and deeply studied. Everything (including 
the bossy frieze, plainly an essential part) has been contrived for 
distant rather than near view, a small scale, and an edifice of light 
and airy form — rather a toy than a building. We certainly can see 
no fitness in its new application. 

The change which half-a-century, or less, produced in the general 
opinion of the architecture of Soane is perhaps without a parallel in 
the history of taste, fashion, or fickleness in any country. That it 
should at one time be only admired, at another only condemned, 
would be nothing strange. The mere fluctuation of fashion, which 
esteems now one kind of merit, now another kind, all important, 
would naturally lead us to expect this. But it is the peculiarity of 
English fashion, that its favourites are, during their brief hour, 
extolled either for every excellence for which language can find a 
name, or specially for those identical qualities in which the next age 
finds them specially deficient. Perhaps no observer at present will 
be brought to believe, without some difficulty, that the Bank, how- 
ever much admired, could ever have been so on the score of " clas- 
sical purity" " severe chasteness" and " beauty of detail; 1 still less 
on that of " grace" " majesty" " grandeur of manner," " air of 
sublimity" " solemn repose" " simple grandeur," or, lastly, " the 
poetry of the art." Yet all these expressions we quote from a 
description written during the architect's life, in a work of standard 
authority, and perhaps the fullest account of this building extant. 
This document is a true specimen of its time ; and, though not thirty 
years old, will soon become, if it be not already, one of the greatest 
curiosities in criticism. The research with which our language has 
been ransacked for terms of applause, and the industry with which 
the changes on them have been rung, render it such a complete pat- 
tern of adulation, that we doubt if any of the epistles dedicatory 
addressed to monarchs in the seventeenth century can equal it in 
extravagance. The misfortune is, that the writer, in his eagerness 
to exhaust the subject, attributed sometimes excellencies that are 
plainly incompatible; but still the whole would serve as a store 
from which to extract and recombine as many descriptions of this 
kind as can ever be wanted. 

The step from the sublime to the ridiculous seems in this case to 
have been short indeed ; for, twenty years later, we find almost the 
only writer that condescends to comment on this artist and his works, 
declaring, without fear of contradiction, that " Sir John was, in 
general, a sound constructor, but none of his works show one spark 
of superior science ;" " he could not, for the soul of him, fall into 
grandeur of style; he could not leave a surface of six inches without 



BANK OF ENGLAND. 



253 



tattooing it over ;" " all his works are a collection of littleness ; many 
of them are picturesque, but still littleness is the character of them." 
The fact seems to be, that, in the present state of their art, architects 
labour under the same disadvantage as kings, viz. entire exemption 
from any adverse judgment of their works while living. All other 
classes of men have a chance of self-improvement and progress ; but 
with these, whatever defects they begin with, great or small, must 
" grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strenth," for in 
their case a common adage is reversed, and is read de viventibus, 
instead of " de mortuis" &c. The impossibility of any progress, 
individual or general, under such a system, is evident. As long as 
it lasts, the public must be content to be perpetually making afresh 
the discovery, that all which it paid for and idolized twenty years 
before was trumpery, and all of which it then boasted a disgrace. 

By far the finest (if not the 
only graceful) thing in the ex- 
terior of this building, is the 
mock-entrance at the north-west 
angle. It well conceals the ob- 
liquity of the two sides ; and, at 
a distance sufficient to prevent 
the obtrusion of the Soanean de- 
tails, is certainly harmonious, and 
might pass for the work of a 
master. Chance plays curious 
freaks of this kind occasionally, 
as portraits in pebbles, &c. Yet, 
perhaps, the various features 
used in this vast building, if 
shaken into as many combina- 
tions as they here are, could 
hardly fail to produce one as 
fortunate. 

As respects the ground plan given in pages 250 and 251, it is that 
of the period of Sir John Soane, when architect to the Bank of Eng- 
land. It was too interesting a feature to be omitted in this work, 
although the drawing of it is publicly exhibited in the Soane Museum. 
The present architect to the Bank has made many very important 
alterations, not only in the exterior, but more particularly in its 
interior arrangements; yet, as an example of the interior of this 
building in a former age, it sets forth by contrast, the superior skill, 
in all probability, of existing arrangements. Much has been said of 
the skill of the plan-drawing of Sir Robert Taylor and Sir John Soane: 
architects, and others conversant with the present arrangements, may 
now judge of the merits of either, or both; and as the Introduction 
to this work is addressed to those capable of appreciating such 
matters, the plan is here presented for their judgment. 




ANGLE OF TUB BANK OF ENGLAND. 



254 



LONDON. 



BATHS AND WASHHOUSES FOR THE INDUSTRIOUS CLASSES. 
These institutions, which are now rapidly increasing in London as 
well as in the country, originated in a public meeting, held at the 
Mansion House in 1844, when a large subscription was raised to 
build an establishment to serve as a model for others, which it 
was anticipated would be erected, when it had been proved that the 
receipts, at the very low rate of charge contemplated, would be suffi- 
cient to cover the expenses, and gradually to repay the capital invested. 
The Committee then appointed partially completed the Model Establish- 
ment in Goulston Square, in 1847, and opened 40 baths to the public, 
the demand for which by the working-classes has established beyond 
doubt the soundness of the principles which actuated the Committee ; 
and such was the attention attracted to the subject by its proceedings, 
that the government, at the suggestion and instigation of Sir H. 
Dukinfield, Bart., induced Parliament to pass an Act to enable 
boroughs and parishes to raise money on the security of their rates, 
for the purpose of building baths and washhouses in all parts of the 
country. 

The provisions of this act have already been adopted by seven 
parishes in London. St. Martin-in-the- Fields (constructed by Mr. 
Baly), of which Sir H. Dukinfield was then the rector; St. Mary-le- 
bone (constructed by Mr. Eales); St. John and St. Margaret's, West- 
minster (constructed also by Mr. Baly); St. James's, Westminster; 
Poplar; Greenwich; St. Georges and St. Giles's, Bloomsbury, as 
well as in several boroughs in the country. The general arrange- 
ments of these establishments are based upon those of the model. 




No. 1. 



BATHS AND WASHHOUSES. 



255 




No. 2. 

The success of the bathing department, as well as the necessity 
which existed for such means of cleanliness among the industrious 
classes, is to he found in the numbers who have used them since 
their first opening. At the Model, the St. Martin, and the George- 
Street establishments, 1,300,000 baths have been given in little more 
than 3 years, of which above 550,000 have been given in the year 1850. 

The laundry at the Model Establishment, the completion of which 
has been delayed from the want of funds, was not even in partial 
operation till after the erection of the parochial establishment in St. 
Martin-in-the-Fields, and that erected by private subscription in 
George Street, St. Pancras. 

The anxiety of poor women to use the laundry has proved to be 
fully equal to that of the men to use the baths ; for in the short 
period which has elapsed since the opening of the three laundries 
referred to the clothes of nearly 1,500,000 persons have been 
washed, dried, and ironed. 



256 



LONDON. 



' The progress of the ^ 
washing department, %= 
however, has been 
slowest in the dirtiest 
and poorest district, show- 
ing how difficult it is to 
induce those who have 
never known the luxury 
of cleanliness to adopt a 
new system, even when 
it is provided exclusively 
for their benefit, and the 
charge for its use is so 
low as to place it within 
the reach of all but pau- 
pers. 

Thus, in 1849, no 
charge was made at 
Whitechapel. The tubs, 
well supplied with hot 




and cold water, 
were opened gra- 
tuitously to the 
poor during the 
whole period that the 
cholera was raging, and 
yet but few availed them- 
selves of the advantages 
so offered; the numbers 
attending in the six 
months, from July 1 to 
December 30, 1849, being 
only 5695. 

In 1850, the tariff of 
charges was agreed to, 
viz. Id. per hour for the 
two first hours, and Id. 
per half-hour afterwards, 
for an unlimited supply of 
hot and cold water, well- 




No. 3. 



arranged drying closets, and irons and ironing boards. In the first 
six months but 4350 women attended, while in the second six months 
the number increased to 10,352 ; and this increase has been, and con- 
tinues to be, progressive week by week ; a progress so steady, and 
accompanied by such thankfulness on the part of the washers, that the 
committee feel satisfied they will soon be called upon to complete the 
remaining half of the wash-house, which is still unfinished for want 
of the necessary funds — about 1500/. 

The floors of the bath rooms and washing rooms, the divisions be- 



BATHS AND WASHHOUSES. 



257 



tween the baths and||^ 

wash-tubs, are all slate. ^%x|j^. 
The baths are of zinc, ^^fife* 



The baths are of zinc, 
and each bath room con- 
tains 36 superficial feet 
of surface, and is pro- 
vided with a looking- 
glass, seat, pegs to hang 
up the clothes, and other 
little conveniences. The 
quantity of clean and 
fresh water for each 
bath is between 50 and 
60 gallons. The price 
for a first-class warm 
bath is 6rf., providing 2 
towels; and for a second- 
class warm bath, 2d., 
providing 1 towel. 
We cannot afford 




more space than is ' 
required for this 
hasty description of 
these useful institutions. 
In the largest sense they 
are charitable institutions, 
for they provide, by 
means of the super- 
abundant capital of the 
richer class, for the com- 
fort and health of the 
poorer class ; but whijst 
thus benefited, the poor 
have the satisfaction of 
feeling that they pay a 
price for tbis luxury and 
means of health fully ade- 
quate to reward the capi- 
talist, and to encourage 
the philanthropist to pur- 




No. 3*. 
sue his search for opportunities to benefit the poor without sacrificing 
their independence, or lessening their inducements to continue with 
cheerfulness their daily toil. 

We have now only to add, that foreign countries are following 
with alacrity and zeal the example we have set them. France, 
through the recommendations of a commission appointed by her 
President, has already voted 24,000/. to aid in the erection of 
Public Baths and Laundries in Paris. 

Belgium and the United States are also alive to the importance of 



258 



LONDON. 



the subject, and, as well 
as France, are in corre- 
spondence with the Com- 
mittee and Mr. Baly for 
plans which thus far have 
been stamped with the 
approbation of England, 
France, and America. 

The Model Establish- 
ment is open at all times 



to visitors; and by appli- 
cation at the committee 
room the assistant secre- 
tary will make arrange- 
ments to attend, and to 
afford every information 
in his power to foreigners 
who may wish to examine 
the apparatus in detail. 




o 

Tf-rrh- 



We will now proceed to explain the drawings with which we have 

been favoured by Mr. Baly. 

No 1. is the elevation of the Westminster Parochial Establishment, the most recently- 
erected. Its style is plain and bold ; simple, but conveying the idea of a 
public building erected with a view to durability and utility. It contains 
64 Baths and 60 Wash-tubs, and 2 Plunge Baths ; and, including the pur- 
chase of the site, will cost 13,000£. 

No. 2 is a view of a woman at a wash-tub ; and of a woman, having washed her 
clothes, hanging them up to dry. 

No. 3 and No. 3 *, showing the linen in the drying chamber, heated by hot-water 
pipes, immediately above the wash-tub, as well as a woman hanging up for 
drying previous to sending them to the drying chamber, as at St. Martin's. 

No. 4. Section through the ironing chambers. 

No. 5 is the general ground plan of the Westminster establishment : — 

A. The boiler room, where the water is heated for the baths and wash-tubs. 
m. The chimney and the ventilating flues, which carry off the vapour and foul 
air from the bath rooms. 



BATHS AND WASHHOUSES 



259 




s --a£>3»™*— -14 o#— ■*<-• -IA.O&— * W^-- 



*B0 /BE 7 



No. 5. 



b and c. The second-class men and women's waiting rooms and baths. 
D. The first-class men's baths and waiting room. The first-class women's baths 
are in an adjoining house, and not shown on this plan. 

F. The first-class plunge bath and dressing rooms. 

G. The second-class plunge bath and dressing rooms. The baths will contain 

respectively 20,000 and 40,000 gals, of water, will be 3J ft. deep at one 
end, gradually increasing to the depth of 5 ft. at the other. 
H and i are the washing tub and boiling tub, for the women washing, and are 
supplied with cold and hot water, and steam. 

K. The ironing boards. 

L. The drying chamber, heated by flues ; the temperature of which, when in 
full work, will be maintained at above 200°. 

N. The situation of the wringing machines, by the use of which the wet linen 
is deprived, by a small expenditure of time and labour, of above half its 
water before being put into the drying chamber. 
No. 6 and No. 6 *. The section of the building through the washing department, the 
letters on which correspond with those on the ground plan, and therefore 
require no further notice ; but we may call attention to the very ingenious 
construction of the wrought-iron roof, covered with glass and slate. Its light- 
ness and simplicity, the elements of cheapness, fit it especially for a building 
of this kind. 
No. 7 and No. 7 *. Section through the bath room. 



260 



LONDON. 




No. 6. 




No. 7 



[Scale— 10 ft. 



BATHS AND WASH HOUSES. 



261 




c. J. 234567 89 10F££T 

..LI L-l t-l 1-J L-T UJ 



No. G*. 



£*M 



7 \ 




to an inch.] 



No. 7*.' 



2tf2 



LONDON. 



No. 8 and No. 8 *. The details of the roof over the bath department, showing how 
these chambers are connected with the ventilating shaft; a large flue A being 
formed in the apex of the roof, into which the foul air and vapour are drawn, 
through the interstices of the ceiling boards b. 

The number of bathers and washers 
at three of the principal esta- 
blishments now open in 
the metropolis are 
steadily progress- 
ing. The 
receipts 




■ ' I ' i ' c 



± 



FEET 



No. 8. 



of this year have been as follows :- 



ESTABLISHMENT. 


Total 

number of 

bathers. 


Total 
number of 
washers. 


Total 
receipts. 


The Model, Whitechapel, for 1850 . . . 
St. Martin-in-the-Fields . „ ... 
St. Mary-le-bone ... „ ... 

Totals 
For 1849 they were — 

The Model, Whitechapel 

St. Martin-in-the-Fields 

And for 1848 they were — 

The Model, Whitechapel 


137,519 
212,602 
159,079 


14,702 

40,427 

5,025 


£ s. d. 
2059 11 3 
3722 9 5 
2051 12 


509,200 

108,082 
189,749 

48,637 


60,154 

5,695 
3,375 


7833 12 8 

1404 19 10 
2877 19 1 

580 9 4 



Committee Room, 5, Exeter Hall ; and Model Establishment, Groulston Square, 

Whitechapel. 
Chairman of the Committee. — The Rev. Sir H. R. Dukinfield, Bart. 

Deputy Chairman. — William Hawes, Esq. 

Honorary Secretaries. — James Farish, Esq., and John Bullar, Esq. 

Engineer. — P. P. Baly, Esq., C.E. Assistant Secretary. — Gfeorge Woolcott, Esq. 

To those born in a sphere of life far removed from want, and living 
in ignorance of the miseries of the masses of human life located in 
many districts of this vast metropolis, more especially in the most 
eastern parts of it, where Jew and Christian, infidel and sceptic, live, 



BATHS AND WASHHOUSES. 



263 



or rather exist, in houses badly constructed, ill ventilated and drained, 
and huddled together in filth — men, women, and children in the one 
room, and in many cases sleeping in one bed ; — it will scarcely be 
credited by those living in comfortable and cleanly houses that such 
vice, misery, and discontent daily and nightly occur at so short a 
distance from the palaces and houses of the rich. Can it be 
wondered that the epidemic of the year 1848 should have prevailed 
so fatally, and that its anticipated return is so alarming to us all? 
Yet these direful calamities still remain among our poorer countrymen, 
and the moral degradation of this numerous class furnishes inmates for 
the prison and union workhouse. The value of labour in the pro- 
duction of several articles of daily use is reduced by the monopoly of 
the more wealthy trader, and the tendency of the improvement of 
street architecture operates most injuriously to those ar- 
tizans living in lodgings, — the house occupier, either as 
freeholder or leaseholder, is compensated, whilst the 
poor must turn out and seek shelter in a more ex- 




No. 8*. 

pensive lodging, and in a more densly-thronged neighbourhood, with 
no provision for him whose voice is too feeble to be heard. The 
benevolent establishments of baths and washhouses and model lodg- 
ings are, however, a great step in advance towards amelioration. 
It is Christian, and it is politic in a w r orldly sense ; it is a beginning 
towards the salvation of soul and body, by cleansing the body and 
purifying the mind; it is an earnest in part payment of a debt due 
to those who labour for us. There is another and a most essential 
help yet required — the visitation by district committees of all houses 
wherein the casual nightly lodger is sheltered, the separation of the 



264 LONDON. 

sexes, and the separation of children from the contamination of the 
thoughtless and the depraved. These good things are yet to he 
done, and it is the duty of the government, as well as of individuals, 
to aid in forming and carrying out measures to assuage these crying 
evils. 



BAZAARS AND SHOW ROOMS. 

London is not so largely supplied as might he supposed with insti- 
tutions in the nature of Bazaars ; the trade is too widely spread in 
the leading thoroughfares, which are here devoted to trade. What 
are here called Bazaars and Arcades, have shops for the sale of articles 
of female and fashionable demand. The shops of the Old Exchange, 
of the New Exchange, and of Exeter 'Change, were the predecessors 
of the present establishments, not one of which is of very old date. 

The Pantheon, in Oxford Street, was originally built for a theatre or concert-room. 
It now presents a large hall fitted up with stalls for millinery, jewellery, knicknackery, 
toys, and music, with an upper gallery similarly fitted, and affording a view of the lower 
area. The attendants of the stalls are young women, and the visitants chiefly 
women and children. Towards Oxford Street are galleries of pictures for sale. The 
most remarkable work is a great painting by Haydon, of the Raising of Lazarus. On 
the ground floor on the Marlborough Street side, by which there is another entrance, 
is a pretty conservatory, in the oriental style, partly occupied for the sale of florists' 
flowers and exotic plants, and partly for the sale of parrots, love birds, singing birds, 
monkeys, loris, white mice, squirrels, and gold fish. This is one of the prettiest 
parts of the scene. 

The Soho Bazaar, in Soho Square, does not present architectural features, but has 
fashion in its favour, and its stalls are a favourite female resort. There are no less 
than 400 saleswomen. The rent of a counter, 4 ft. long, is only a few shillings daily. 

The Bazaar in Baker Street, is best known by Madame Tussaud's Exhibition, and 
a carriage repository. At Christmas, the Smithfield Club show of fat cattle and 
agricultural implements is held there. There is a show of ironmongery, stoves, &c. 

The Burlington Arcade, in Piccadilly, is laid out in shops, and is occupied by 
tradesmen, principally foreigners, of some standing. Here are shops for foreign 
shoes, flowers, millinery, books and prints, and for hair-dressing. 

The Western Exchange, 10, Old Bond Street, may be considered an accessory of 
the Burlington Arcade. 

The Lowther Arcade, in the Strand, has less pretensions, but is thronged with 
children and their attendants, buying toys at the French, German, and Swiss shops. 

The Lowther Bazaar, opposite to it, in the Strand, has stalls for the sale of toys, 
and there are many objects of interest for the amusement of visitors. 

The Exeter Arcade, in Wellington Street, Strand, is only lately opened, and has 
as yet neither trade nor visitors. 

The Opera Colonnade runs round the four sides of the Queen's Theatre, in the 
Haymarket, and is occupied with shops, but is little frequented. In the range, en- 
tirely covered in, and parallel with the Haymarket, are several hairdressers' and 
other shops, where opera glasses and books of the opera can be hired, and great 
coats, bonnets, &c, left during the opera performances. 

The Piazzas, Covent Garden, formerly a fashionable lounge, have now no peculiar 
trade feature. 

The Hungerford Arcade is a short range of inconsiderable shops attached to Hun- 
gerford Market. 



BUILDINGS (MODEL) FOR THE LABOURING CLASSES. 265 

The Pantechnicon, in Pimlico, is a bazaar for the sale of carriages, pianos, furniture, 
&c. Furniture and other goods can be warehoused. 

The New Bazaar, about opening in New Oxford Street, promises to be upon a 
splendid scale ; also a new one is now near completion for the use of the good people 
of Islington, in the Islington Road. 



BUILDINGS (MODEL) FOE THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDITION 

OF THE LABOURING CLASSES. 
It is a pleasing sign of the present times, that the condition of the 
labouring classes is attracting unwonted attention, and that the 
interest excited is of a thoroughly practical kind. The example has 
been set by the Sovereign, and it has been followed by the most 
influential and revered names in the kingdom; so that, within the 
last few years, united and effectual exertions have been made to 
better the condition of working men and women, in town and 
country, by the improvement of their dwellings, and by the ex- 
tension of the allotment system, wherever practicable. Of these 
praiseworthy efforts, the former is that which here demands our 
notice, so far, at least, as it relates to the metropolitan dwellings of 
the labouring classes. 

That there is great and urgent need for the exertions of the benevolent is abundantly proved 
by the facts recently brought to light. The filthy and crowded state of the common lodging- 
houses, and other dwellings in those parts of London where the great masses of the people con- 
gregate, is a disgrace to a Christian country, and a constant source of physical and moral evil. 
Those, who in the course of their philanthropic exertions have explored the ordinary lodging- 
houses, both in the metropolis and the provincial towns, describe the majority of them as the 
very hotbeds of vice and crime, a disgrace to humanity, a reproach to the Christianity of Eng- 
land ; and yet it is in such sinks of iniquity and contamination that the young artizantoo often 
takes up his abode on first arriving in London, or when quitting the paternal roof, and there 
has every good principle undermined by evil associates, until he becomes a pest to society, and 
either sinks through disease and want into an untimely grave, or forfeits his freedom "to the 
laws of his country. In fact, to use the words of the noble lord now at the head of the govern- 
ment, " As civilization progresses, we have not only the advantages but the evils of civilization, 
and unless we exert ourselves to counteract these evils among the people — and the greatest of 
these evils is over-crowding in insufficient dwellings — unless we exert ourselves from time to 
time to counteract such evils, our boasted civilization, instead of promoting religion, morality, 
and obedience to the laws, will tend to leave a great class of the population of this country 
without sufficient means for the comforts which they ought to have — without sufficient means 
of education — and, above all, without sufficient means for religious instruction and improve- 
ment." 

Such considerations as the above gave rise, in 1844, to the foundation of the " Society for 
Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes," under the patronage of the Queen, Prince 
Albert, the late Queen Dowager, and a large body of the nobility and clergy. This society en- 
deavours to advance its objects by the following means : — 

1st. By arranging and executing plans, as models, for the improvement of the dwellings of 
the poor, both in the metropolis and in the manufacturing and agricultural districts; by estab- 
lishing the Field garden and cottage allotment system, and also friendly or benefit and loan 
societies, upon sound principles, and reporting the results, with a view to "rendering them avail- 
able as models for more extended adoption. 

2ndly. By the formation of county, parochial, and district associations, acting upon uniform 
plans and rules. 

3rdly. By correspondence with clergymen, magistrates, landed proprietors, and others dis- 

f>osed to render assistance in their respective localities, either individually or as members of 
ocal associations. 

That this society has already done good service in the metropolis, is proved by the fact of its 
having erected three new model lodging-houses, and renovated and adapted three others, during 
the six years of its existence. These are : — 1. George Street, Bloomsbury, for 104 single men. 
2. Streatham Street, Bloomsbury, for 43 families. 3. Model Buildings, Bagnigge Wells, for 23 
families, and 30 aged women. 4." No. 76, Hatton Garden, for 57 single women. 5. At 2, Charles 
Street, Drury Lane, for 82 single men, with a small lodging-house also for men, in King Street, 
Drury Lane. Besides these undertakings, it has also commenced an important and substantial 
building in Portpool Lane, Gray's Inn Lane, to be called, Thanksgiving Buildings, being in- 
tended as a lasting memorial of "the deliverance of our country from the ravages of cholera', and 
mainly raised by the offerings of the people of the metropolis on the occasion of the General 

N 



266 LONDON. 

Thanksgiving in 1849 ; offerings which were thus appropriated at the suggestion of the Bishop of 
London. In all these buildings the arrangements are of the most admirable kind; we give those 
of the George-Street " Lodging House for Working Men," as an example. 

The kitchen and washhouse are fvirnished with every requisite and appropriate convenience; 
the bath is supplied with hot and cold water ; the pantry-hatch provides a secure and separate 
well-ventilated safe for the food of each inmate. In the pay-office, under care of the superin- 
tendent, is a small, well-selected library, for the use of the lodgers. The coffee, or common- 
room, 38 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 10 feet 9 inches high, is paved with white tiles laid on 
brick arches, and on each side are two rows of elm tables, with seats ; at the fireplace is a con- 
stant supply of hot water, and above it are the rules of the establishment. The staircase, which 
occupies the centre of the building, is of stone. The dormitories, eight in number, 10 feet high, 
are subdivided with movable wood partitions, 6 feet nine inches high; each compartment, en- 
closed by its own door, is fitted up with a bed, chair, and clothes bok. In addition to the venti- 
lation, secured by means of a thorough draught, a shaft is carried up at the end of every room, 
the ventilation through it being assisted by the introduction of gas, which lights the apartment. 
A ventilating shaft is also carried up the staircase for the supply of fresh air to the dormitories, 
with a provision for warming it if required. The washing closets on each floor are fitted up 
with slate, having japanned iron basins, and water laid on. 

The contrast from their former wretched abodes to these most comfortable dwellings is so 
great, that workmen flock to the model lodging-houses in greater numbers than can be accom- 
modated. The rent is neither more nor less than they have been accustomed to pay, for it is an 
object with the society not to excite enmity, by appearing as rivals of other landlords. In their 
model lodgings for families the society has endeavoured to preserve domestic privacy and inde- 
pendence to the inmates, and also to prevent the communication of infectious diseases, by dis- 
connecting the apartments. This is done in the Streatham- Street houses by dispensing alto- 
gether with separate staircases, and other internal communications between the different stories, 
and by adopting one common open staircase leading into galleries or corridors, open on one side 
to a spacious quadrangle, and on the other side having the outer doors of the several tene- 
ments, the rooms of which are protected from draught by a small entrance lobby. The galleries 
are supported next the quadrangle by a series of arcades, each embracing two stories in height, 
and the slate floors of the intermediate galleries rest on iron beams which also carry the en- 
closure railing. 

These improvements in the dwellings of workpeople, taken in conjunction with the system 
of baths and washhouses already described, are the more valuable, because, although originating 
in the kind and charitable feelings of the upper classes, they are yet maintained by the exertions 
of the labouring classes, and keep alive in the people a spirit of honest independence. It has 
been well remarked by Lord Ashley, the excellent chairman of the society whose operations we 
have been describing, " All that is done by the wealthier classes is to provide that for the work- 
ing man which he cannot obtain for himself, namely, capital. But having provided the capital, 
and the institution founded upon it, they leave the working man the duty, and the pleasure also, 
of maintaining it entirely. These institutions are, therefore, of singular value, because they do 
not place the working man in any state of dependence whatever. They enable him to turn to 
account his wages and receipts. They enable him to do what is more — namely, to develope all 
his resources, physical, moral, and intellectual." 

The object contemplated by the Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes 
has been the erection and completion of one model of each description of building required to 
meet the varied circumstances of the labouring classes, and at the same time the demonstration 
that such buildings may, with proper management, be made to yield a fair return on the outlay. 
This is all that can be expected from a society depending on the public benevolence for the 
funds necessary to the undertaking; but the good example thus set, and the experiment thus 
satisfactorily tried, has been taken up and followed in various quarters of the metropolis, in 
a way that is calculated vastly to improve the state and prospects of the working classes of Lon- 
don. And not only so, but our example is spreading on the Continent, and structures are rising 
in Berlin and Paris, similar in character to the model lodging-houses of our great city. A valu- 
able essay on the dwellings of the labouring classes having been published by Mr. Henry Ro- 
berts, Architect, Honorary Architect to the society of which we have been speaking, it is grati- 
fying to learn that it has been translated into French, and published by order of the President of 
the Republic, with the following prefatory remarks : — 

" This work is addressed to all good men, to all who love their country. It is offered to them 
as a sign of the lively interest which is awakened in another country for the amelioration of the 
condition of the labouring classes — it is offered as an example which may inspire them to imitation. 

" To provide for labourers in this country, as well as hi towns, dwellings well lighted, well 
ventilated, dry, and clean : such is the first problem to be solved. 

" We do not hesitate to say, that long since this problem would have been solved if every 
person was fully convinced that, these conditions once realized, a multitude of the causes of 
sickness, of misery, of disorder, and of corruption would disappear. 

" Who is the physician, ignorant of the fact that the want of light, vitiated air, dampness, 
and surrounding dirt, are as many causes which, singly, and with much greater certainty" when 
united, contribute more than everything else to shorten life, and to render it miserable, by in- 
flicting on those who are exposed to them, a multitude of personal and hereditary infirmities ? 
Who is the moralist who does not admit that the human soul itself becomes degraded under the 
prolonged influence of such conditions ? Who is the statesman who has not sighed to see all the 
hospitals and the prisons overcrowded with the wretched people which these causes have been 
the means of producing ? 

" Yet it is almost, always easy to obtain for rural dwellings the necessary amount of light. 
With regard to dwellings in towns, this is a feature most deserving the attention of the commis- 
sioners charged by the authorities with this important oversight. 

" The regular renewal of the air in dwellings is a new problem for science, — it has never ap- 
proached it. But is it not sufficient to propose such a problem, in order that it should give to it 
speedily, a happy and practical solution ? 



BUILDINGS (MODEL) FOR THE LABOURING CLASSES. 267 

c ' In reference to dampness, the healthiness of dwellings is everywhere a desideratum, even in 
the houses of the middle classes. Let us, then, direct the attention of our young architects to- 
wards this important subject. It is a great honour to be judged worthy of going to Rome ; it is 
a great merit, in returning, to bring back the plans of some palace, destined to become the orna- 
ment of our cities ; but he who finds, or who invents the art of driving away the humidity 
which renders unhealthy so large a number of the dwellings of our town and country labourers, 
will have gained a right to the gratitude of the country, and will have prepared for himself a 
source of imperishable satisfaction. 

" In the meantime, let good men, especially let young men. teach the workmen by whom 
they are surrounded, to set some value on those habits of cleanliness which are the first steps 
taken in the path of progress towards well-being. 

" It would be so easy to have in each quarter the necessary implements for washing, for 
sponging, for whitewashing a room or a staircase; to hang paper", to stop up holes, in order to 
destroy insects ! The acquisition of these implements, impossible for every single workman, if 
made by a benevolent association, would serve to ameliorate the condition of the whole neigh- 
bourhood, almost without expense. 

" At first, the persons to whom the implements would be lent, might use them badly or indif- 
ferently ; but soon, with mutual instruction, every one would be able to mike a good use of 
them. " Now all this is practicable : let us then practise it. 

" When our so well-disposed and ingenious population consecrates itself to such works, they 
will soon understand their extreme importance, and their benefits will spread with rapidity over 
the whole country, for the greatest happiness of the working classes." 

The Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes was 
incorporated by royal charter in 1845, and seems destined to carry out in the highest degree the 
aims and intentions of the benevolent party who first attempted the bettering of the prospects 
of working men. This association is established on a principle which, in this business-like age, 
is sure to be duly appreciated, and will doubtless ensure its permanence and success, namely, 
that of an investment of capital, with a prospect of a fair return. It is, in fact, a commercial 
speculation of a very safe and honourable kind. The capital of the association is 100,000/., in 
4,000 shares of 251. each. The rate of interest to be paid to shareholders is not to exceed 51. per 
cent, per annum ; and the liability of the shareholders is limited to the amount of their respective 
shares. The first buildings erected by this association were those in the Old St. Pancras Road, 
whose lofty and imposing appearance must have arrested the attention of every one pasdng that 
way. These were arranged to accommodate 110 families, and were opened to the tenants in 1848. 
They have been constantly occupied since their completion, to the great advantage and improved 
health of the inmates. And it is a pleasing fact, that out of the rent accruing to the association 
from these dwellings during two years, and which amounts to the large sum of 2418/., there was 
only the sum of 1/. \9s. ~d. which could be pronounced a bad debt. This building was speedily 
followed by another in Albert Street, Spicer Street, Spitalfields, which was first opened for 234 
single men, but also includes sixty dwellings for families, each with three rooms and a small 
kitchen, with water, water-closets, store. places, and every possible convenience. The building 
is five stories in height from the basement. The latter is surrounded by an open area, and con- 
tains baths and washhouses, with all the requisite appurtenances, extensive cellarage, and 
ample space for workshops. Upon the ground floor, the entrance hall is commanded by the 
superintendent's apartments, which are placed on the left, while the store-room and cook's 
apartments occupy about the same space on the right. Immediately in front of the entrance are 
the stairs, of fire-proof construction, which lead to the three stones of sleeping apartments ; 
and opposite the stairs, on the ground floor, is a good-sized lavatory for day use. The coffee 
room is directly in front of the staircase hall, and extends to the back of the building, commu- 
nicating on one side with a reading room, and on the other with a kitchen for the use of the in- 
mates. It is a lofty room, divided into aisles by iron columns supporting an open roof of stained 
timbers, lighted by a large window at the further end, two smaller side windows, and sheets of 
rough plate in the roof. Boxes are fitted with tables and seats round three sides, and the room 
is warmed by hot-water pipes. A cook's bar opens into the coffee room, for the supply of coffee, 
etc. The reading room, size 00 ft. by 21 ft. 9 in., is warmed by open fires, and" furnished 
with some of the daily papers and popular periodicals. The kitchen, 45 ft. by 21 ft. 9 in., 
for the use of the inmates, contains two ranges, provided with hot water, a sink with cold 
water, and common apparatus for cooking purposes. From this kitchen a stone staircase leads 
to a portion of the basement, containing 234 small meat safes, ail under lock and key, raised on 
brick piers, placed in ranges back to back, with ample space for ventilation. The cook's shop 
is connected with the men's kitchen by a bar, from which cooked provisions may be obtained at 
almost any hour of the day. The three upper stories are fitted with sleeping apartments on 
each side "of the corridors. Each compartment measures 8 ft. by 4 ft. 6 in., and is lighted 
by half a window, the upper portion only opening, and this is hung* on centres. These rooms 
are all furnished with iron bedsteads and'suitable bed furniture. There is also in each a locker 
for linen and clothes, with a false bottom for the admission of fresh air, so that the sleeping 
berths can be ventilated at the pleasure of the lodgers. All the doors are secured by spring 
latches, of which each inmate has his own key, and no key will open the lock of any other in 
the same wing. On each floor are lavatories," fitted with cast-iron enamel basins, set in slate 
fittings. The partitions forming the sleeping compartments are kept below the ceiling for the 
purpose of ventilation, and the corridors have windows at each end to ensure a thorough draught 
when necessary. With respect to ventilation, the principal agent is a shaft, which rises nearly 
100 feet, into which several of the smoke flues are conveyed, and by which means a powerful 
upward current is maintained. The sleeping apartments and other" principal rooms are con- 
nected by vitiated air flues with the ventilating shafts, and the current is regulated at pleasure 
by means of dampers, placed under the control of the superintendent. Water.— Large cisterns 
in the roofs, and smaller ones in other parts of the building, afford an ample supply of water to 
every part of the premises. Dust. — Every floor has an opening, secured by an iron door, into a 
dustshaft, communicating with a dust cellar in the basement. Gas.— The whole building is 

N 2 



268 LONDON. 

well lighted with gas. This building has been erected from the designs and under the superin- 
tendence of Mr. W. Beck, 33, Broad Street Buildings, and the builder is Mr. S. Grimsdell. The 
terms 3*. per week, payable in advance. Each inmate has, besides his sleeping apartment, 
the use of the coffee room, reading room, and the public kitchen, where he may cook his own 
food, or he can obtain ready cooked provisions from the cook's shop. Every lodger is furnished 
with a small larder under his own lock and key, has free access to the washhouse at certain 
times of the day, and can, by the payment of a small sum, have a hot or cold bath. 

The opening of these new buildings was thus noticed in a leading article in the " Times," of 
Dec. 13th, 1849. — " The Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industri- 
ous Classes, some time since opened a handsome building, containing more than a hundred sets 
of rooms for as many families, near Old St. Pancras Church, and after a year or two's trial is 
able to show the most happy and profitable results. It has now brought to completion a build- 
ing of a similar character for single men in the eastern outskirts of Spitalfields. Yesterday, 
the Earl of Carlisle and the shareholders inaugurated their work for its useful purpose; and at 
this moment any man working in Spitalfields, or Whitechapel, or even in the city, may have, 
within a mile of his work, for 3s. per week, a good bed and a convenient partition in a well- 
ventilated dormitory, the use of a spacious, handsome, and comfortable coffee room and read- 
ing room, a commodious cooking room, of a washing, rinsing, and drying apparatus, of baths, 
and twenty other conveniences. The place is so clean, so airy, so wholesome, and altogether 
so inviting, that one almost longs to live in it one's self, and make use of its endless accom- 
modations in continual succession. The warming and ventilation are complete ; the latter 
being accomplished by a lofty shaft, which discharges smoke and foul air fifty feet above 
the roof of the building. Ecce signum. Several hundred persons yesterday met in the coffee 
room, which was not cold when the meeting began, nor too warm when it ended. 

" By the side of this pile another is rising as rapidly as hodmen and bricklayers can carry it, 
for the use of families, with much the same arrangements as those in the Metropolitan Build- 
ings of St. Pancras. The association is extending its labours, and has already spent 40,000?. 
in substantial buildings, calculated to last a thousand years, to continue in order at a very 
trifling cost, to pay ultimately five per cent., or even more if the constitution of the society 
allowed. Nay, already, with a staff too large for what it has to do, it pays as much as 2 per 
cent, on the outlay. "For the further designs of the company, for its sober and business-like 
character, for its incidental benefits in provoking imitation and rivalry, for its effect on the 
house and lodging market, and many other points of interest, we must refer to our report of 
the proceedings. We can add but little to what was said yesterday, but we cannot help ex- 
pressing our very warm sympathy with an undertaking which, at comparatively so little ex- 
pense, and so little effort, shows results so magnificent, so substantial, so complete, and so 
satisfactory to all the parties concerned. It quite grieves one's heart to think of the millions 
wasted in useless and unprofitable railways, besides a thousand other national follies, when 
forty thousand pounds has produced so much happiness, health, and goodness to the inha- 
bitants of these buildings, besides the never-to-be-forgotten profit to the shareholders. We 
do not hesitate to add ' goodness' to the benefit already achieved. It is a good and improv- 
ing thing to be quiet, domestic, methodical, and clean ; to live by rule ; and, above all, to 
f)ay one's rent punctually at the stipulated time. On this last point the results of the specu- 
ation are so marvellous, that one is ready to ask where the tenantry come from, as they can- 
not be of common mortal mould. Excepting a few shillings, there are no arrears still due on 
a rental of more than 2000?. paid by more than a hundred tenants. Weekly tenants, however, 
are now known to be the most punctual as well as the most profitable. This association only 
proceeds upon a principle known to many hundreds of low speculators in the metropolis and 
all our principal towns. Nothing is more usual than for men and women to double or treble 
the rent they pay their own landlord by subletting their houses to the poor. This they do 
with an utter disregard of comfort, health, morality, or any other proper consideration. The 
Metropolitan Association merely steps into their place, and by supplying a better article at a less 
cost, drives them either to improve their accommodation or to give up their trade." 

Besides the extensive and important operations of the Metropolitan Association, independent 
efforts have been commenced in Soho, in St. James's, in Marylebone, in Chelsea, and in the 
Borough ; and it is gratifying to learn that the example is spreading to such an extent, that 
we may look forward to see the old system well nigh destroyed, for who but the most de- 
praved is so completely lost to all sense of domestic comfort, as not to prefer a light, dry, 
clean, and wholesome abode, to a dark, damp cellar, when he can have the one on the same 
terms as the other ? 

In connection with this subject it should be known that as long ago as 1835, an effort was 
made in behalf of the seamen of the port of London, which, to a certain extent, led the way 
for the model lodging-house system, as now practised. In this effort one energetic naval 
officer was conspicuous for his unwearied and self-denying zeal, so that the buildings erected 
in Well Street, London Docks, may be considered a monument to the memory of one whose whole 
life was devoted to the good of sailors. This was the late Captain R. J. Elliot, R.N., whose 
open-hearted kindness and Christian charity are strong in the remembrance of the writer of 
this notice. How earnestly did he labour to procure a home for sailors, where they might be 
safe from the snares laid to entrap them as soon as they came ashore, and how zealously did he 
promote the building of an asylum for the sick and destitute ! Nobly was he seconded by 
other officers and friends of sailors, while the design of an asylum was generously bestowed 
by the same architect, H. Roberts, Esq., who has since given his honorary services to the 
Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes. 

The Sailor's Home was opened in 1835, the cost of fitting up the last dormitory having been 
defrayed at the sole expense of her lamented Majesty, the Queen Dowager, a munificent 
patroness of the society just named, as well as of numerous other charities, and who is well 
known to have taken an especial interest in the well-being of sailors ! The Sailor's Home will 
lodge three hundred inmates, and is altogether admirably conducted. The Destitute Sailors' 
Asylum, in the same street, is likewise a useful institution, and its arrangements are well worth 



BREWERIES. 269 

imitation in lodgings for the lowest class, such as ragged school boys, and common beggars — a 
description of lodging-house much needed, and which has not yet /as far as we know," entered 
into the plans of either of the great societies now in operation. To make the whole system for 
the good of sailors complete, a church for seamen frequenting the ports of London has been 
erected in Dock Street, London Docks, where the sittings are all free, and where commanders 
of vessels, mates, seamen, apprentices, and friends of sailors are invited to attend. The incum- 
bent of this church is the Rev. C. B. Gribble, M.A. The services are on Sunday morning at 
half-past ten, evening at six, and on Thursday evening at seven o'clock. 



BREWERIES. 

The Breweries of the metropolis may be considered as amongst its 
most important manufacturing establishments, whether in reference 
to the capital employed, to the extent of their premises, or to the 
age of the eight great establishments known as the London porter 
reweries. 

Before we proceed to a description of the process of brewing, 
or of the establishments themselves, we will give a slight sketch 
of the history of beer and brewing, which will enable our readers 
better to appreciate the extent of the present trade in beer than 
they would be able to do if we confined ourselves simply to a 
description of the process of brewing or to a statistical notice of 
the quantities of beer brewed by certain houses. 

Beer, then, was known to the Egyptians; but this was a fermented 
liquor without the addition of any bitter, made from corn of various 
kinds, but principally from barley. The same description of beverage 
is mentioned by Tacitus, and it continued to be manufactured until the 
Germans, from whom we learnt the art of brewing, made the first great 
improvement in the quality of beer, by adding to the saccharine solu- 
tion an infusion of hops with a view to its preservation, and to give 
it that beautiful aromatic bitter flavour which now so thoroughly distin- 
guishes the beer of England from that of every other country in the 
world. Were no other evidence at hand, the name at once denotes its 
origin, leaving no room to doubt, that in adopting the beverage we also 
adopted the name, corrupting the German word "bier" into our 
English " beer/' We also learn from Stowe that so lately as the reign 

. JO 

of Elizabeth more than one-half the brewers of the metropolis were 
foreigners. Long, however, before beer as it is now brewed was 
known, England was famous for its ale. Shakspeare tells us " A quart 
of ale is a dish for a king ;" and numerous proofs might be afforded to 
show how popular this beverage has always been in this country. 
We cannot, however, spare space to trace the gradual improvement 
in the quality of beer to the time when the virtue of the hop plant 
was thoroughly known. We must therefore confine ourselves to 
the simple statement of the fact that, until a bitter principle was 
added to malt liquor, no beer worthy the name was brewed ; the 
,le of our forefathers being the fermented extract from malt, 
weet and luscious in flavour, very intoxicating, would not keep 
for any length of time, and various extracts from herbs and berries 
were added to it with a view to preserve it sound and in good 



270 LONDON. 

condition. The introduction of the hop plant, however, to this 
country, in the 14th century, and its subsequent careful cultivation, 
not only altered the character of the beer, but, from its preservative 
properties and delicious flavour, made the business of brewer one 
of commercial importance, requiring for its full appreciation a sound 
knowledge of chemistry, and that practical turn of mind which 
distinguishes in all trades the successful, because practical, from 
the theoretical manufacturer. The extent of the trade in beer so 
far back as 1585 is shown by the fact that 650,000 barrels were then 
brewed in the metropolis ; a quantity, it is true, but little greater than 
is now delivered annually by one brewery, that of Messrs. Barclay, 
Perkins, and Co., but still a very large quantity when the period is 
considered. We may mention here that the Brewers' Company was 
incorporated in 1427, just the period of the first cultivation of the 
hop plant in this country, and therefore no doubt an era in the trade, 
thus well marked, when a beverage w r as first brewed, that was cal- 
culated to displace the use of other fermented liquors by the working 
classes ; it being essentially suited to supply a healthy stimulus to 
them, without necessarily encouraging habits of intemperance, and 
thereby want and misery; and being, in the w r ords of Pennant, "a 
wholesome liquor, which enables London porter drinkers to undergo 
tasks that a gin drinker would sink under." Happy, indeed, would 
it have been had they been able, in the early part of this century, 
when food w r as dear, and the means of obtaining the necessaries of 
life almost beyond their reach, if they could have resisted the 
temptation which was most artfully placed before them, to displace 
this truly English and wholesome beverage for that ardent spirit gin. 
Fortunately, however, this fatal passion, which seemed to have taken 
possession of the working classes for a time, is gradually dying away ; 
and whilst the consumption of spirits, if not decreasing, is stationary, 
with an increasing population, that of beer, the purity and quality of 
which is now superior to that of any former period, is steadily in- 
creasing. 

Beer has always contributed largely to the revenue of the country. 
An excise duty was first placed on beer in the reign of Charles II., 
but was, happily for the industrious classes, who are the great con- 
sumers of malt liquors, repealed in 1830. The duties on malt and 
hops are of a later date, that on hops having been imposed by the 
9th, and that on malt by the" 12th of Anne. These duties now 
produce nearly 5,000,000/. annually to the revenue. 

We will now proceed to give a general outline of the process of 
brewing as adopted in our great breweries. 

The art of brewing consists mainly in the extraction of a saccharine 
solution from grain, and boiling it with certain proportions of hops, 
by which the aromatic bitter is extracted from them, and in con- 
verting this mixed solution into a fermented and sound spirituous 
beverage called beer (porter and stout) and ale. It is for porter and 



BREWERIES. 271 

stout that the London brewers have obtained a world-wide reputation, 
and our brief account of the process will refer principally to that 
description of beer. 

The malt used is generally a mixture of pale brown and roasted, or 
pale and roasted malt, the proportions depending upon the quality of 
the pale malt, which varies with the season. It is first crushed 
(not ground) between cylindrical iron rollers, nicely adjusted so as to 
break every corn. The malt so bruised is then thrown into the 
mash-tun, where it is intimately mixed with warm water by means 
of a stirring or mashing machine worked in all large establishments 
by the steam-engine. The mash-tun is a circular wooden vessel with 
a pierced and movable false bottom, into which the water, or liquor, 
as it is called by brewers, is admitted, and from which the wort is 
afterwards drawn off into an under back, from whence it is pumped 
into the copper, where, the hops being thrown in, boiling commences. 
This is continued until the wort is of the specific gravity required, 
when the contents of the copper are let off through a large valve into 
a vessel called the hopback, from whence it runs into the coolers. 
This vessel, like the mash-tun, has a movable perforated false 
bottom, through which the wort runs, leaving the hops only partly 
spent, ready for use again with the second wort from the malt. 

The coolers are large shallow wooden vessels exposed as much as 
possible to the air ; but as it is of great importance that the cooling 
should take place very rapidly, various mechanical means are used to 
accomplish this object. Large fans, revolving with great rapidity, and 
driven by the steam-engine, create a strong current of air through 
the floor over the hot worts ; but as in the greater part of the year 
this would not produce the required effect with sufficient rapidity, 
all large breweries have a refrigerator — a worm of copper pipes placed 
in a shallow trough, through which a constant stream of cold water 
passes, entering at one end and running away at the other, the hot 
wort running into the trough in which the refrigerator is placed at 
that end where the water passes away. By these means united, 
where there is a good supply of cold water, and powerful machinery 
to drive the fans, the worts are cooled from the boiling temperature 
to about 60° in a short time, even in summer weather. 

From the cooler the beer runs into the fermenting tuns, and 
here the difficult and delicate part of the brewer's duty begins; 
for as each description of beer requires a fixed degree of attenu- 
ation (as the result of fermentation is called), and as the pro- 
gress of fermentation is more or less active according to the 
state of the weather, a large quantity of beer may be spoiled 
and rendered useless unless the brewer be always on the spot 
ready to stimulate or check the process, as the circumstances re- 
quire. The appearance of a large tun in a state of active fer- 
mentation is curious — a creamy scum first arises, which soon curls 
and assumes the appearance of a thick froth ; it then becomes 



272 LONDON. 

coarser, and looks rocky and rugged, and the small bubbles or vessels 
swell and become large bladders charged with carbonic acid, which 
burst and cause that sweet pungent flavour familiar to every one 
who has been in a brewery. At this stage of the fermentation the 
beer is run out of the large tun into small vessels containing about 
five barrels each, called " pontos," where the heavy yeasty head is 
thrown off and is received into vessels below. When the fermenta- 
tion ceases the beer is " cleansed " and fit for storing. Here the 
business of the brewer ceases — the storing, the fining before send- 
ing out or in the cellar of the dealer, are subsequent processes which 
are determined by special circumstances, quite irrespective of the 
brewer or brewing, and into which we cannot stop to inquire. 

The machinery and apparatus required for a large brewery is ex- 
tensive and costly. The size of the apparatus necessary to produce the 
1000 or 1200 barrels, or nearly 50,000 gallons of beer, delivered daily 
by Messrs. Barclay and Co., and Messrs. Truman, will be best conveyed 
to the readers mind by stating that 150,000 gallons of water must be 
pumped daily, from sources of supply 200 to 300 feet below the surface 
of the earth to a height of 80 or 90 feet above it ; that they grind and 
brew above 100,000 quarters of malt annually; employ 200 to 300 
horses ; have vats in which they store the beer brewed in the winter 
for the supply of the trade in the summer, containing from 4,000,000 
to 5,000,000 gallons of beer; use steam power to the extent of 100 
or 120 horses; consume from 4000 to 5000 tons of coal annually; 
have 80,000/. or 100,000/. invested in casks alone; employ from 400 
to 500 persons ; and require, at the two large establishments we have 
referred to, from 8 to 10 acres of ground on which to conduct this 
vast amount of business. 

We have already stated that until lately London was only famous 
for its porter and stout. The release of the beer trade in 1830 from the 
shackles of the excise first gave an impetus to the ale trade, and 
soon raised it into importance. Before that time beer as well as 
spirits was only sold in houses licensed by the magistracy. The 
new Beer Bill, by allowing it to be sold under an excise licence only, 
opened the trade to a new class of dealers, who at once took up the 
ale trade, and were the immediate cause of the success of several 
new breweries which at first devoted themselves to the production 
of a class of malt liquors to compete with the old-fashioned porter and 
stout of the old-established porter brewers. The effect of this com- 
petition was so striking, that nearly all the porter brewers soon be- 
came ale brewers also, and the new ale brewers became also porter 
brewers, so that by referring to the list we shall introduce hereafter, 
it will be seen, that whilst the old brewers have rapidly extended 
their trade from 370,000 quarters in 1830, to 500,000 quarters in 
1850, or 33 per cent., the six new breweries have risen in the same 
time, from 57,000 quarters in 1830, to 110,000 quarters in 1850. 
But for the wise alteration of the law in 1830, this enormous in- 



BRIDGES. 273 

crease of trade must have been monopolized by the first houses, the 
public would neither have had such cheap nor such good beer, and 
the retail trade would have been confined now, as it then was, to 
licensed public-houses, nine out of every ten of which either belong 
to, or are under the control of, the large porter brewers. It is quite 
a different state of things with the best beer retailers, who buy their 
beer where they can get it the best and the cheapest, and whose 
business, confined as it is to the sale of beer, can only be retained, 
as in all other trades, by the supply of the best and cheapest article. 

The rapidity with which two or three of the new breweries have 
risen is one of the evidences of the facility with which capital is 
found in this country for every enterprise which shows a fair pros- 
pect of realizing a profit; though rapidly as these have extended 
their operations, it hardly equals that of their older rivals, for it is 
scarcely 70 years since that the vast establishment of Messrs. Bar- 
clay, Perkins, and Co., now employing a million and a half of capital, 
was bought of the executors of Thrale, the friend of Johnson, for 
the sum of 135,000?., Mr. Perkins having been previously to that 
time the manager of the brewery at a salary of 500/. per annum. 
The rise of Messrs. Truman and Co. has been equally wonderful. 
We will close this account of the London breweries, almost national 
establishments from their vastness, by a table showing the quantity 
of malt used in the fifteen largest houses in each of the three years, 
1830-1, 1840-1, 1849-50. 

1830-1 1840-1 1849-50 

Barclay and Co 97,198 106,345 115,542 

Truman and Co 50,724 88,132 105,022 

Whitbread and Co 49,713 51,482 51,800 

Reid and Co. 43,380 47,980 56,640 

Coorabe and Co 34,684 36,460 43,282 

Calvert and Co 30,525 30,615 28,630 

Meux and Co 24,339 39,583 59,617 

Hoare and Co 24,102 29,450 35,000 

Elliott and Co 19,444 25,275 29,558 

Tavlor 21,845 27,300 15,870 

Goding 16,307 1.4,631 13,064 

Charrington 10,531 18,328 21,016 

Courage 8,116 11,532 14,469 

Thome 1,445 20,846 22,022 

Mann 1,302 11,654 24,030 



433,655 559,613 635,562 



We believe we may state that most of these establishments will 
be open to the inspection of respectable foreigners during the period 
of the Exhibition. We are sure they will find them well worthy 
of their attention, and will amply repay the time and trouble required 
to visit them. 



BRIDGES. 



There are few constructions in our metropolis capable of com- 
parison with the bridges which span the broad waters of the Thames, 
whether we regard them as mere works of art, or as ensamples of 

n 3 



274 LONDON. 

the skill of our engineers. Some of them, such as the Westminster 
and Blackfriars' Bridges, were, it is true, erected before the peculiar 
action of our tides was ascertained (in fact, they were designed for 
a river with a totally different regime to that which now prevails), 
and before the nature and properties of the different materials were 
so well studied as they have been of late. Serious movements have 
been observed in them, of sufficient importance to "menace their 
instant ruin ; but, nevertheless, even these bridges were remarkable 
proofs of the boldness and skill of their projectors; and their con- 
struction, equally with their failures, have proved useful lessons to 
all interested in such studies. 

Foreigners often remark with surprise the small number of these 
structures over the Thames; and really the contrast between the 
innumerable bridges over the Seine with those, so few and far 
between, upon our river, is very striking. But, at the same time, 
the difference between the width and the volumes of the two rivers 
is equally striking ; and it is, undoubtedly, on account of the great 
difficulties attending the foundations of such structures in the Thames, 
that we possess so few points of communication, between its opposite 
shores. The Seine, in its progress through Paris, is traversed by 
twelve or thirteen bridges within a distance certainly not equal to 
half of that traversed by the Thames through London, yet the latter 
can only cite seven such structures. The character of the bridges is, 
however, totally distinct ; and it is not too much to assert that the 
cost of the latter has far exceeded that of the former, and that the 
difficulties overcome have been immeasurably superior. 

Taking the bridges over the Thames in a geographical order, they 
are — 1, London; 2, South wark ; 3, Blackfriars; 4. Waterloo; 5, 
Hungerford; 6, Westminster; and 7, Vauxhall. Battersea, Putney, 
Hammersmith, Kew, Richmond, and Staines Bridges, with the Rail- 
way Bridges at Barnes and Richmond, can hardly be considered 
connected with the metropolis. They merit attention for divers 
reasons however. Battersea and Putney on account of their supreme 
ugliness and great inconvenience; Hammersmith and Staines Bridges 
upon precisely opposite grounds ; the Railway Bridges on account of 
their economical construction; Kew and Richmond Bridges, as 
samples of the bridge-building of some fifty years since. 

1. London Bridge. — This magnificent structure was erected under 
the superintendence of Mr. George and Sir John Rennie, upon the 
designs prepared by their illustrious father, Mr. John Rennie. Old 
London Bridge, after nearly a century of discussion, had been almost 
universally condemned as a nuisance to the navigation, and a disgrace 
to the architectural character of the town. In spite of serious oppo- 
sition, it was at length decided that it should be removed ; and, in 
1823, an Act of Parliament was obtained regulating the mode of 
execution of the new bridge, and creating the ways and means of 
defraying the expense. The first pile was driven on the 15th of March, 



BRIDGES. 



275 







fit 



LOXDO-V BRIDGE. 



1824; the foundation stone of the first pier was laid on the 15th of 
June, 1825; and the bridge was opened by King William the Fourth 
on the 1st of August, 1831. 

The elevation of the New London Bridge consists of five semi-ellip- 
tical arches, with their respective piers and abutments. The centre arch 
is 152 ft. 6 in. span, with a versed sine of 29 ft. 6 in. above high-water 
mark ; the piers between it and the second and fourth arches are 24 
ft. thick each, measured on the longitudinal axis of the bridge. The 
second and fourth arches are each 140 ft. span, with a versed sine of 
27 ft. 6 in. ; their piers on the respective land sides are 22 ft. thick 
each. The first and fifth, or the land-arches, are 130 ft. span each, 
with a versed sine of 24 ft. 6 in. ; the abutments on either side being 
73 ft. thick. The upper portions of the piers form square pilasters 
upon the face of the bridge; their lower portions are protected bv 
advancing cutwaters, which are described by portions of circles, 
meeting at an angle of 60 c . The arches and piers are surmounted 
by a bold plain blocking course, which corresponds with the incli- 
nation of the roadway of the bridge, and is terminated by a solid 
parapet. At each extremity, and upon both sides of the bridge, are 
two straight flights of steps, with two intermediate landings for the 
facility of embarkation in each. 

The width of the carriageway is 36 ft. ; that of each of the foot- 
paths is 9 ft. ; that, measured from outside to outside of the parapets, 
is 56 ft. The total length of the waterway is G92 ft. ; including the 
abutments and piers, the bridge is 928 ft. long. The total height of 
the carriageway in the centre above the low- water line is 55 feet. 

The whole of the exterior masonry of this bridge was executed in 
granite obtained from Aberdeen, Haytor, and Peterhead, without any 
apparent reason for the mixture. The workmanship is as well exe- 
cuted as it is usual to see it in works executed under the control of 
engineers; though the manner in which many of the voussoirs were 
flushed, even at first, would rather indicate that proper attention was 
not paid to the mode of placing them. The filling-in was of Bramlev 
Fall, Derby, and Whitby stone, mingled with the materials derived from 
the pier of the old bridge, demolished previously to commencing the new 



276 LONDON. 

one. The footpaths are of 'granite flagging, from the Haytor granite ; 
and the roadway is paved with deep narrow granite stones. Details 
of the very beautiful centering, and of the mode of carrying down 
the thrust of the land-arches to the horizontal surfaces of the abut- 
ments, are to be met with in Britton and Pugin's London^ in 
Tredgold's Carpentry, &c. 

It is to be regretted that greater precautions were not taken to 
guard against the danger to be apprehended from the alteration 
expected to be produced in the bed of the river by the removal of 
the dam formed by the old bridge. The nature of this, and the 
importance of its action upon the flow of the river, may be estimated 
from the fact, that the waterway at low- water was so contracted by 
the starlings of the old bridge as only to leave a clear space of 231 ft. 
at low- water, and to give rise to a cascade of not less than 5 ft. 7 in. 
between the low-water above and below the bridge, at certain 
periods. The removal of this dam has necessarily modified the flow 
of the river to an extent alluded to in the introductory part of this 
work ; one of its most disastrous effects has been to compromise the 
safety of several of the bridges; amongst which, unfortunately, the 
magnificent structure under notice must be included. 

It is also very much to be regretted that the city authorities have 
not prevented the encroachments, alike remarkable for their bad 
taste and their opposition to public interest, which have lately been 
allowed to mask the proportions of the noble structure erected at 
such an expense. 

The great works connected with the approaches to the New Lon- 
don Bridge were so intimately connected with it, that it would be 
impossible to state precisely its cost. As an approximation, we may 
consider it to have been about one million pounds sterling. 



SOUTHWARK BRIDGE. 



2. Southwarh Bridge. — This bridge was also designed by the late 
Mr. John Rennie, who directed its execution throughout. At the 
time of its erection it was regarded as a master-piece of engineering 
science ; and even at the present day, although the late researches of 
such men as Tredgold and Hodgkinson have led to a knowledge that 
the material has not been employed in the most economical condi- 



BRIDGES. 277 

tions, yet still Southwark Bridge must ever remain a monument 
of the genius and practical skill of the eminent engineer who de- 
signed it. 

Southwark Bridge consists of three segmental arches of cast iron, 
the centre one of which is 240 ft. span hy 24 ft. versed sine; the 
piers are 24 ft. wide; the two land arches are each 210 ft. span, 
with 21 ft. rise ; the width hetween the parapets is 42 ft. The abut- 
ments have nights of steps to the water, as at the London Bridge. 
The middle arch is composed of eight ribs, of 13 voussoirs in each, 
whose depth at the crown is 6 ft., and at the springing is augmented 
to 8 ft. ; they are bolted to diagonal cross bracing, maintaining the 
rigidity of the system. The total height of the centre arch, from 
the low-water line to the roadway, is 55 ft. The side arches are 
constructed upon the same principle as that in the centre, and the 
courses of the masonry are radiated in the thickness of the abut- 
ments, so as to bring the thrust upon the horizontal bed of the foun- 
dations. 

The total weight of the cast iron in this colossal structure is said 
to be 5780 tons ; the weight of the wrought iron is at least 50 tons. 
The piers and abutments are of Bramley Fall, and Whitby stone ; 
and the sheet piling originally driven round them appears to have 
effectually protected their foundations. 

The clear water way is 660 feet ; the width from face to face of 
the abutments is 708 ft., the Thames being narrower at this point 
than at any other during its passage through the metropolis, properly 
so called. 

The works of this bridge were commenced on the 23rd of Septem- 
ber, 1814 ; the first stone was laid on the 23rd of May, 1815 ; and the 
bridge was opened on the 7th of June, 1S17. It was built by a 
joint- stock company, who have a right to levy toll upon all parties 
using it. The total expense of the bridge, and of the approaches, 
amounted to about 800,000/. sterling. 



BLACKFRIARS' BRTDGE. 



3. Blackfriars Bridge. — On the 7th of June, 1760, the first pile of 
this bridge, for many years the only means of communication between the 
Middlesex and Surrey shores, from Westminster to London Bridges, 
was driven into the middle of the river. The first stone was laid on 



278 LONDON. 

the 31st of October in the same year, and in 1770 the work was 
completed, having thus occupied no less than ten years and three 
quarters. 

It was built upon the designs of Mr. Robert Mylne, and consists 
of nine semi-elliptical arches ; the central one being 100 feet span, and 
those on each side diminishing gradually. Their spans are respect- 
ively 98, 93, 83, and 70 ft. The total length of the waterway is 
thus 788 ft. ; the distance from face to face of abutments is 996 ft.; 
the width of the carriage way is 28 ft., and there are raised footpaths, 
on each side, 7 ft. wide. Originally the cornice was surmounted by 
an open stone balustrade, which returned in the recesses formed over 
the Ionic columns and pilasters placed, somewhat incongruously, 
upon the projecting portions, or cutwaters of the piers. The ends 
of the bridge widen out into quadrant corners, and they have flights 
of steps leading to the water. 

The original net expense of building this bridge was about 152,840/.; 
but owing to the nature of the foundations, and of the materials em- 
ployed, it has been repaired so often as almost to have given rise to 
an outlay equal to the first cost. The foundations were laid by Mr. 
Mylne upon caissons, sunk upon piles driven so as to leave an even 
surface ; the upper structure was executed in Portland stone. Such 
settlements took place in consequence of these defective systems of 
construction, and of the decay of the stone, that Mr. James Walker 
was employed, about 1833 and 1834, to repair the bridge thoroughly. 
This work was effected with great skill and ingenuity ; but unfor- 
tunately not in so perfect a manner as to secure the bridge against 
future accidents, for in the present day its state inspires serious 
apprehensions. The taste of Mr. Walker's alterations upon the or- 
namental parts of Mylne's original design is, perhaps, questionable. 
Columns and pilasters are always out of place in the elevation of 
a bridge; but as long as they were retained it certainly appears that 
it would have been preferable to have retained at the same time all 
the other details connected with them, and not to have altered their 
proportions. 

4. Waterloo Bridge. — Can ova used to declare that this was the 
finest work of modern times ; but the subsequent erection of London 
Bridge, and of more modern railway constructions, have diminished, 
to our eyes, the beauty and merit of this noble bridge, for which we 
are again indebted to the genius and skill of Mr. John Rennie. 

It consists of nine semi-elliptical arches of equal span and rise 
(namely, 120 ft. span by 35 ft. versed sine), with piers 20 ft. thick. 
The width of the carriageway is 28 ft., with two raised footpaths, 
each 7 ft. wide, defended by an open balustrade, with a frieze and 
cornice. 

The piers are made with a batter from their foundations to the 
springing of the arches. At the former level they are 30 ft. thick, 
at the latter 20 ft., as above stated. Their width from point to point 



BRIDGES. 



279 




WATERLOO BPvIDGE. 



of the cutwaters is 85 ft. ; and they are surmounted, in the parts 
where they project beyond the line of the bridge, by two Grecian 
Doric columns on each pier, supporting a recess upon the roadway 
of the bridge. The total waterway thus left is 1080 ft., measured 
on the line of the springing of the arches. The clear height above 
high water is 30 ft., measuring to the underside of the keystone. 
The abutments are 40 ft. thick at the base, and 30 ft. thick at the 
springing; they are 140 ft. long, including the stairs on each side. 

The roads or approaches to this bridge are nearly as remarkable as 
the bridge itself. They are carried upon a series of semicircular 
arches, 16 ft. span. On the Surrey side there are not less than 
thirty-nine of these arches, besides an elliptical one of 26 ft. span 
over the Belvidere Road, and a small embankment about 165 yards 
long. The whole length of the brick approaches on the Surrey side 
is 766 ft.; that on the Middlesex side is 310 ft. ; and the total length 
of the bridge from the ends of the abutments is 1380 ft., making a 
total length of 24.56 ft. 

The total cost of this bridge was about 1,000,000/.; and it has 
proved a sad speculation for the shareholders, who erected so noble 
a monument. Their only consolation must be that the works were 
so judiciously executed as to enable them to remain intact notwith- 
standing the changes in the bed of the river. It is to be remarked, 
that the works entirely constructed by the late Mr. Rennie have re- 
sisted these changes better than any others. 

5. Hungerford Bridge, — A very remarkable adaptation of the 
suspension principle has been lately made at this bridge, by Mr. I. 
K. Brunei. The span is, perhaps, the largest of any existing work 
of the kind ; but the economy in the materials is far from being 
equally admirable with the conditions of their employment. 

The Hungerford Bridge consists of a main span of 676 ft. 6 in. 
between the piers, with a clear distance between the abutments of 
1352 ft. 6 in. The main chains have a deflection of 0*074 of the 
chord line considered as unity, or about 50 ft. They are double on 
each side, or there are four chains in all, consisting of alternatelv 
ten and eleven links, each of which are 24 ft. long, and of iron 
? 7/ X 1 ;/ ; excepting upon the piers, where the number of links in 
each chain is respectively eleven and twelve. The side chains enter 



280 LONDON. 

the abutments below the roadway, which is supported upon the lower 
parts by standards, and in the upper parts by rods If in. diameter. 

The piers are of ornamental brickwork, of very questionable taste, 
and apparently of doubtful solidity, if compared with the enormous 
mass of the chains. The platform is 14 ft. wide, with a clear height 
of 32 ft. 6 in. above high water in the centre, and of 28 ft. 6 in. 
at the sides, presenting thus a rise of 4 feet. The span of the 
centre division of this bridge is, however, the only part worthy of 
notice, for there is little co-relation between the dimensions of the 
different parts of the work. The chains w T ould support any possible 
load of carriage traffic; but the suspension rods are barely more than 
sufficient for the purposes the bridge is actually used for, and the 
piers are comparatively feeble. 

Hungerford Bridge places the west end of London in direct com- 
munication with the worst part of Lambeth. The construction of 
this bridge is indeed a phenomenon, when we consider the state of 
its southern access ; and the enormous expense it gave rise to has 
certainly not been justified by its commercial results. It is said to 
have cost not less than 100,000/. 

6. Westminster Bridge. — This structure, which will soon either 
be demolished, or fall of its own accord, was for many years regarded 
as a triumph of engineering. Had it been erected in a river with a 
less changeable regime than that of the Thames, or had the original 
conditions of the flow of that river been still maintained, Westmin- 
ster Bridge might still have resisted, until the natural decay of its 
materials had rendered its removal necessary. But when the dam 
created by the Old London Bridge had disappeared, the scouring 
action of the tides soon affected this, the nearest bridge chrono- 
logically. 

Labelye, the architect of Westminster Bridge, introduced a system 
of foundations which has answered very well in numerous cases, but 
which failed utterly here. It consisted of dredging the intended 
position of the piers, and sinking caissons with the lower courses 
already built upon them. During the progress of the works some 
trifling disturbances of the bed of the river gave rise to settlements, 
which were easily repaired at the time. Upon the enlargement of 
the tideway, however, the increased scour of the river became such 
as to carry away the substratum of several of the piers; and now, 
after many years' labour, great expense and much discussion, it seems 
to be allowed on all hands that the total demolition of the bridge is 
necessary. The great waste of public money on these repairs may, 
perhaps, be accounted for by the fact of the existence of a commis- 
sion for the superintendence of the works, paid out of the proceeds 
of the bridge estates. 

Westminster Bridge is 1223 ft. in length by 44 ft. wide, and con- 
sists of a carriageway with two footpaths. There are thirteen large, 
and two small, semicircular arches, springing about 2 ft. above low- 



BRIDGES, 



281 



water mark. The centre arch is 76 ft. span, and the others decrease 
on each side by regular intervals of 4 ft. each, excepting the small 
arches, which are 25 ft. span each. The clear waterway at the 
springing line is 874 feet. 

The material employed in the superstructure of this bridge is the 
Portland stone, which has certainly not withstood the action of the 
moisture and atmosphere it has been exposed to. 

The first stone of this structure was laid on the 29th of January, 
1739; and the last on the 10th of November, 1750 ; the time occu- 
pied in its erection being thus eleven years and nine months. The 
total expense, including the repairs of the pier, which sank during 
the erection, was 389,500/. 

7. Vauxhall Bridge, — The second cast-iron bridge erected over 
the Thames is far from being of an equally monumental character 
with its contemporary at South wark. It is, in fact, very plain, if not 
decidedly ugly, the disagreeable effect being attributable to the ver- 
tical spandril filling, and the balustrade. 

There are nine arches of equal span, whose chord line is 78 ft., 
and whose versed sine is 11 ft.; the width of the piers is 12 ft. at 
the springing of the arches; the breadth of the roadway is 36 ft.; 
and the whole length of the bridge, from face to face of the abut- 
ments is 798 ft., measuring from the springings. There are ten 
girders in each opening, of three pieces each. The height above 
high water to the under side of the arch is 29 ft. 

The first stone was laid the 9th of May, 1811, and the bridge was 
opened July, 1816. The engineer was Mr. James Walker, who 
completed it for the sum of about 300,000/. 



Tabular V 


'ew of the Bridges across 


the Thames. 






Length. 


Width. 


Height. 


Arches. 


Span, 
centre. 


Materials. 


Waterway. 


London . . - 


928 


56 


55 


5 


150 


Granite 


690 


Southwark . . 


700 


42 


53 


3 


240 


Iron 


660 


Blackfriars . . 


996 


42 


62 


9 


100 


Portland 


793 


"Waterloo . . . 


1326 


42 


54 


9 


120 


Granite 


1080 


Hungerford . . 


1352 


14 


32 


3 


676J 


Iron 


— 


Westminster . . 


1066 


42 


58 


15 


76 


Portland 


820 


Vauxhall . . . 


798 


36 


— 


9 


78 


Iron 


702 



We may mention that, in consequence of the requirements of 
modern locomotive habits, piers for the embarkation of passengers 
by the river steamers have been erected at several of the above 
bridges. They are many of them very remarkable for the construc- 
tive ability displayed in their designs, especially those at Blackfriars 
and Hungerford Bridges. The piers at Southwark, Waterloo, West- 



282 LONDON. 

minster, and Vauxhall, are simpler; but under their peculiar local 
conditions equally efficacious. The engineer who would desire to 
stud}' this class of constructions, would do well to examine those at 
East Woolwich and on the opposite Middlesex shore. 

For further information upon this subject consult Weale's Work upon Bridges, 
and the Supplement; "The Public Works of Great Britain;" " Tredgold's 
Carpentry (the Centres) ;" etc. 



CANALS. 
The canals of London have lost much of their importance, both in a 
political and commercial point of view, like all similar constructions, in 
consequence of the more rapid means of transport offered by railways. 
That they are susceptible of still rendering great service to the public, 
and of producing a better interest to their shareholders, if managed 
upon other principles than those hitherto adopted, is, however, certain. 
But it is also to be observed, that in no country in the world is the 
maxim that, " time is money," so invariably practised as in England ; 
and it is to be feared that its universal application will lead to the 
gradual abandonment of the cheap but comparatively tedious mode of 
transport offered by canals. 

The works for the improvement of the internal navigation of the 
streams leading to London appear to have occupied the attention of 
government at an early period of our national history. In 1423 a com- 
mission was issued for the improvement of the river Lea, and shortly 
afterwards the present system of management of the navigation of the 
Thames was established in its essential details. In the reign of James 
the First, the upper portion of the river as far as Oxford was rendered 
navigable. In the reign of Charles the Second many such works were 
executed. It was not, however, until the latter end of the eighteenth 
century that extensive works connected with the creation of lines of 
artificial navigation were undertaken. At the present day it is calcu- 
lated that there are not less than 2400 miles of navigable canals in 
England. 

Near London, however, the number of such works is very limited. 
The Thames, the Lea, the Kennet, and some of the other tributaries of 
the main stream, have been canalized, as already mentioned in our intro- 
duction. The artificial canals which lead into the Thames, or pass 
directly into London, are the Grand Junction, the Oxford and Birming- 
ham, the Thames and Severn, the North Wilts, the Kennet and Avon, 
and the Basingstoke Canal. The Thames itself is canalized as far as 
Lechlade ; the Lea, as far as -Ware ; the Wey, as far as Godalming. 
The canals which really pass through London are the Paddington Canal, 
the Regent's and the Surrey Canals, and the Lea Cut and Sir George 
Ducket's Canal. The Croydon, and Thames and Medway Canals have 
been diverted from their original destinations to be turned into rail- 
ways. 

Examining these canals in a geographical order, we meet firstly the 
Thames and Severn, which leads from the Stroudwater Canal at Wall- 
bridge, near Stroud, to the Thames navigation at Lechlade. It was 
executed under the orders of R. Whitworth about 1793, and is about 30 
miles long. The breadth on the water line is 42 ft.; at the bottom it 



CANALS. 283 

is 30 ft., with a depth of 5 ft. The barges used on this canal are 
80 ft. long, and draw 8 ft. of water when at their full load of 70 tons. 
From Stroud to Sapperton, in a distance of 7 miles 3 furlongs, there are 
28 locks to overcome a rise of 241 ft. 3 in. ; the summit is passed 
by a tunnel 4500 yards long, and only 15 ft. wide, the rock above it 
being in some parts as much ,as 250 ft. The difference of level down 
to Lechlade, 136 ft. 6 in., is overcome by 14 locks. There is a branch 
from this canal to Cirencester, and at Lutton it receives a branch from 
the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal. 

The Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal makes a junction from the upper 
part of the Thames to the Kennet and Avon Canal, through Wantage, 
Calne, and Chippenham. The point where it locks into the Thames is 
about 180 ft. 4 in. above the sea ; from thence to a point near the com- 
mencement of the Wantage River, in a length of 7f miles, it rises 96jft.; 
thence to the east end of the summit level, in a length of 15 miles, it 
rises 71J ft. The head level is 9f miles long. From the west end to 
the branch to Calne, the fall is 130 ft. in 10 J miles ; thence to the Chip- 
penham branch, in 1J mile, there is a fall, of 17 ft.; thence to the 
Junction with the Kennet and Avon Canal, there is a fall of 54 ft. in 
7f miles. This canal was constructed in 1795 ; its total length being 
52 miles nearly, with a total rise of 168 ft., and a total fall of 201 ft. 

The Oxford Canal, executed in 1769, commences at Longford, on the 
Coventry Canal, where it is 312 ft. above the level of the sea. The 
summit level is at Marston Wharf, where it is 387J ft. above the sea ; 
from thence it falls towards the Isis at Oxford, where it is still 192 ft. 
above the same level. In the valley of Brinklow there is a viaduct of 
twelve arches, each 22 ft. span ; at Cosford and at Clinton are two 
others. There is a short tunnel at Newbold 125 yards long, and another 
at Fenny Compton 1118 yards long. The total length of the canal 
itself is 84 miles. On the water line the width is about 28 ft., with a 
depth of water of about 5 ft. The smallest locks are 75 ft. 6 in. long 
by 7 ft. wide. 

The North Wiltshire Canal is merely a connection between the 
Thames and Severn, and the Wiltshire and Berkshire Canal. It begins 
on the latter, near Swindon, at an elevation of 345 ft. above the sea, 
and falls into the former at Weymoor Bridge. Its total length is about 
8J miles ; the total fall is 58 ft. 6 in. ; the date of construction 1813. 
There are no very important works upon it. 

We next meet the Kennet and Avon Canal, by means of which Lon- 
don is placed in direct water communication with Bath and Bristol, and 
the lower part of the Severn. It was executed in 1794 by the late Mr. 
John Rennie. The total length is 57 miles from the point where the 
canal locks into the Kennet at Newberry, in Berkshire, to the junction 
with the Avon about one mile beyond Bath. The rise from the Kennet 
to the summit level is 210 ft., which is effected by 31 locks ; the descent 
into the Avon is 404 ft. 6 in., with 48 locks ; the summit is 474 ft. above 
the level of the sea. At the bottom the canal is 24 ft. wide j on the 
water line it is 44 ft. with a depth sometimes of 6 ft., but usually only 
of 5 feet. The locks are 80 ft. long between the sallies of the gates by 
14 ft. wide, to suit barges carrying from 50 to 70 tons. There are two 
aqueducts of some importance in the valley of the Avon, but no other 
works calling for particular notice. The total cost of this canal is said 
to have been 881,369/. nearly, or about 15,4:631, sterling per mile. The 



284 LONDON. 

Kennet is canalized from Newberry to Beading, a distance of 18 J miles, 
in the course of which a fall of 126 ft. is overcome by means of 20 
locks. From the town of Reading itself to the Thames, there is a 
navigable cut about 1J mile long, with a lock into the river. The 
width of the cut is about 54 ft. on the average ; the depth 5 ft. ; the 
locks are 120 ft. long by 19 ft. wide, and they receive boats drawing 
4 ft. of water. 

Further down the river we meet the Basingstoke Canal and the Wey 
Navigation. This affluent of the Thames is rendered navigable from its 
junction near Weybridge to Godalming. In the portion from the 
Thames to Guildford, a distance of about 20 miles, there is a rise 6f 
68 ft. 6 in ; thence to Godalming the rise is 34J ft. At a point between 
Guildford and Godalming, near Shalford Powder Mills, the Wey and 
Arun Canal begins, and by it the Thames is placed in connection with 
the south coast of England, for this canal terminates in the Arun Biver, 
after a course of 18 miles. The locks upon the Wey are 81 ft. long by 
14 ft. wide ; the boats intended to navigate it, as well as the Wey and 
Arun Canal, have only a draught of water of 3 ft. 1 in. At 3 miles from 
the junction of the Wey and the Thames is the point at which the Basing- 
stoke Canal locks into the former river. This canal, constructed in 
1778, is 37 miles long, and it rises to the summit level near the river 
Blackwater 195 ft., within a distance of 15 miles, by means of 29 
locks. The canal then keeps upon a level to Basingstoke for the re- 
mainder of its course. In the former part of the canal the width upon 
the water line is 36 ft., with a depth of 4 ft. 6 in., the locks being 72 ft. 
long by 13 ft. wide ; in the latter portion the width is 38 ft., with a 
depth of 5 ft. 6 in. At Aldershot is a large reservoir for supplying the 
canal, which is also fed in some parts of its course by the Loddon. 

At Brentford the Grand Junction Canal locks into the Thames, and 
places the metropolis in connection with the midland coal and iron 
fields. It was one of the principal works of Mr. William Jessop ; and 
its execution led to the construction of some of the most remarkable 
engineering works antecedent to those upon the modern railways. 
There are two summits upon the line, the first near Braunston Mill, 
which is 37 ft. above the point of junction with the Oxford Canal. 
The canal then runs for about 4^ miles on a level ; it then falls 60 ft. in 
rather more than § of a mile ; it then runs on a level about 13f miles ; 
then falls 112 ft. in a length of 6| miles. A rise of 192 ft. in 21^- miles 
succeeds, with a summit level near Tring 3| miles long ; the fall is 
thence resumed towards the Thames, being 395 ft. in a length of 34J 
miles nearly, broken by a level reach 4| miles long. The total rise 
from the Oxford Canal is thus 229 ft.; the total fall towards the Thames 
is 567 ft., which together are overcome by 90 locks. 

There are several very extensive cuttings in the line of this canal, 
and two very remarkable tunnels. The one upon the first summit level 
is in the lias, and is 2045 yds. long ; that of Blisworth is 3080 yds. 
long, and in the blue clay. The internal width is 16 ft. 6 in. ; the 
depth below the water line is 7 ft.; from that line to the soffit the 
distance is 11 ft. In the total length of the canal there are not less 
than eight reservoirs for the supply of water, whose united capacity is 
assumed to be about 260 millions of cubic ft. There are steam engines 
at several of them to pass the water from one to the other. Numerous 
branches were also made from the main line ; as, for instance, to Strat- 



CANALS. 285 

ford, Northampton, Buckingham, Newport Pagnell, Aylesbury, Wen- 
dover, and, lastly, from Uxbridge to Paddington. ^ This last-named 
branch is 14 miles long, and level throughout, maintaining an elevation 
of 90 ft. above low water at Limehouse. It terminates in the very 
centre of the new part of the town, springing up near the Great Western 
Railway Station. The date of the execution of this canal was 1793 ; 
its total length is 90 miles ; its cost above two millions sterling, or about 
22,2231. per mile. 

The width of the canal upon the water line is 43 ft. ; at the bottom 
24 ft. ; the depth of water 5 ft. The length of the locks is 82 ft., the 
width 14 ft. 6 in., the barges generally carrying 60 tons. At Padding- 
ton the basin is 400 yds. long by 30 wide, with wharfs let to private 
merchants and carriers on either side. 

Regent's Canal joins the Grand Junction Paddington Branch at a 
point near Maida Hill ; and after skirting the north side of London, it 
falls into the Thames near the Commercial Road, where a large dock has 
been constructed to receive colliers. The total length is 8J miles, and 
the difference of height between it and the low-water mark at Lime- 
house (90 ft.) is gained by 12 locks. The width upon the water line is 
about 48 ft. ; at the bottom it is 30 ft., with a mean depth of 6 ft. The 
towing-paths are about 12 ft. wide, and upon the opposite bank is a foot- 
path 3 ft. wide. All the locks have double chambers, and they receive 
similar barges to those used upon the Grand Junction Canal. 

At a short distance from the junction with the latter, the Regent's 
Canal passes under Maida Hill by a tunnel 370 yds. long. At Islington 
there is another tunnel under White Conduit Street 900 yds. long. 
Several short branches, forming in fact so many basins, are also con- 
structed in the length. Thus there is one on the east side of the 
Regent's Park, near Cumberland Market ; another near the Great 
Northern Railway Terminus ; a third near the City Road ; a fourth 
called the Wenlock Basin, a little to the east of the last. The tidal 
dock near the Commercial Road was originally 10 chains long by 6 
chains wide ; but, as new works are in progress for its aggrandisement, 
these dimensions must only be considered approximate. 

The advantages of water communication with the river were so much 
appreciated some years since, that several other short canals or basins 
were formed from it upon the north and upon the south shore. Thus, 
the Kensington Canal was made from the Thames a little on the west of 
Battersea Bridge, terminating near the Hammersmith Pvoad. The 
Grosvenor Basin, from near the Chelsea Hospital to the Commercial 
Road, Pimlico, enables barges to enter the heart of that rising district 
of our enormous metropolis. 

On the southern shore of the Thames, in its course through London, 
the Surrey Canal, which formerly served as the terminus to the Croydon 
Canal, may be said to be the counterpart to the Regent's Canal on the 
north. It commences at a point nearly opposite the eastern entrance of 
the London Docks ; and after forming a large basin able to accommodate 
300 ships, round which are immense stores and granaries able to hold 
4000 tons of grain, it follows nearly the line of the canal cut by Canute, 
the Dane, for the purpose of transporting his vessels into the upper 
part of the river, past the defences of old London Bridge and the 
South-work. The Surrey Canal runs as far as the Camberwell Road, and 
has a branch towards Peckham. It would be very easy to convert the 
Mill-pond to some such useful purpose. 



286 LONDON. 

The last canal in the district we are examining is that formed for the 
regulation of the river Lea. The navigation of the river itself is 
about 26 miles in length, from Hertford to the outfall in the Thames, 
with a series of locks to overcome the fall from the former place, where 
the Lea is 111 ft. 3 in. above the level of the sea. The barges are 
limited to 40 tons burthen by an Act of Parliament, dated 1805. The 
Stort and Lea are connected above Hertford by a canal 5 miles long. 
We have already mentioned the canal called Sir George Ducket's Canal, 
and the Lea Cut, which were made for the purpose of facilitating the 
intercommunication between the upper portion of the Lea and the 
Thames. 

Some years since the city of London sold a canal they possessed 
across the Isle of Dogs to the West India Dock Company ; it now forms 
a portion of that splendid establishment, and is principally used as a 
timber dock. 

With the exception of the tunnels upon the Grand Junction line, and 
the ship basins of the Regent's and Surrey Canals, there are few works 
upon these lines which may be considered worthy of notice. Indeed, 
the only merit they possess lies in the choice of the directions they 
follow, although some of them, especially the Basingstoke, would well 
justify considerable outlay to secure a better line. The bridges are 
usually very mean, contemptible structures on most of our canals near 
London : the towing-paths are badly kept ; the lock-gates are clumsy 
and ill-maintained ; the beds of the waterway, as in all old canals, are 
entirely formed by the awkward and expensive process of puddling. 
The commercial movement is, however, very astounding, and a visit to 
the establishments of some of the large carriers would be a source of 
great interest and instruction. Perhaps the Regent's Canal basin and 
Messrs. Pickford's wharf at the City Road basin, may be consideredthe 
most worthy subjects for examination. 

Foreign engineers are invariably much astonished to find that nearly 
all our canals are constructed of different dimensions, so that boats 
which suit one cannot pass upon another. It is very much to be re- 
gretted that such should be the case ; but as we have no central admi- 
nistration of public works, this inconvenience was almost inevitable. 
Our consolation must be that, owing to the uncontrolled liberty of 
action thus left to capitalists, we have been long in possession of a 
system of navigation so perfect that we may almost assert that no place 
of note in England is at more than ten miles distance from water car- 
riage. 

The tolls authorized to be raised by Acts of Parliament are rarely 
enforced ; the opposition of the railways, in fact, is so great, that the 
canals have been obliged to lower their tolls lately, and as the working 
of railways becomes more and more economical, they must be lowered 
still more to retain the present traffic. 



CEMETERY COMPANIES. 

From an early period it was the practice in London to bury without the 
abodes of the living. The Romans and Britons had their graveyards in Good- 
man's Fields and Spitalfields. When our fathers took London from the latter 
people, they formed a small village on the ruins, and buried at Aldermanbury, 
Lothingbury, and Bucklersbury. In the middle ages, the mischievous plan of 
burying in the churches was largely followed, and so it has been until, in 1850, 



CEMETERY COMPANIES. 287 

this was partially forbidden by Act of Parliament, In the 17th century, the city 
of London opened a graveyard in the Bunhill Fields ; and large parishes, as St. 
George's, St. James's, and St. Martin's, have likewise opened graveyards in the 
outskirts ; but London has grown beyond what could have been foreseen, and 
these intended extramural cemeteries have become intramural nuisances. 
Within the last twenty years the wish for extramural cemeteries, fostered by 
the example of Pere la Chaise, has become very strong, and such establish- 
ments have been formed in the neighbourhood of London, and now have the 
countenance of royalty. 

The General Cemetery Company was that first formed in 1832, and has an 
establishment at Kensal Green, in the western suburbs. Here are buried 
H.E.H. the Duke of Sussex, H.E.H. the Princess Sophia ; and there is a vault 
purchased by the Queen. The tombs of Andrew Ducrow, the equestrian, and 
George Eobins, the auctioneer, are among the largest and most showy. 
There are likewise buried the Eev. Sydney Smith, Thomas Barnes, editor 
3f the Times for many years till 1841, Thomas Hood, Allan Cunningham, 
J. C. Loudon, George Dyer, the historian of Cambridge, Dr. Birkbeck, the 
promoter of mechanics' institutions, Sir A. Calcott, E.A., T. Daniell, E.A., 
Sir W. Beatty (Kelson's surgeon), Sir Anthony Carlisle (Surgeon), Dr. Talpy, 
John Murray, the publisher, Anne Scott, and Sophia Lockhart, daughters of 
Sir Walter Scott and John Hugh Lockhart, his grandson, the " Hugh Little- 
ohn" of the "Tales of a Grandfather," Liston, the actor. There are 
likewise tombs of Dwarkanauth Tagore, a Calcutta baboo, Sir Edward Hyde 
East, an Indian Judge, the Baroness Feueheres, Eight Hon. Joseph Planta, 
Right Hon. Sir George Murray, Sir John Sinclair, Lord Granville Somerset, 
Chief Justice Tindall, Eight Hon. P. H. Abbot, Charles Buller, M.P. Of 
Admirals and Generals, Sir Chas. Rowley, Sir William Anson, Hon. Mr. 
Bathurst, Sir A. Brooke, Sir James Cockburn, Sir Moore Disney, Sir E. W. Otway, 
Sir M. Maxwell, Sir Hector Maclean. — The Duchesses of Argyll, Leeds, and 
Roxburgh. — Marquisses Graham, Sligo, and Thomond. — Marchioness Head- 
? ort. — Earls of Athione, Cavan, and Galloway. — Countesses Castle Stuart, Clare, 
Galloway, Kinnoul, and Westmeath. — Lords C. S. Churchill, De Eos, Fitz- 
gerald, Garvagh, Hartknd, Glentworth, Howden, Hallyburton, Langford, W. 
Lake, Portarlington, St. Helen's, Arthur, and Allan Stewart. — Bishops of 
St. David's and Quebec. — Ladies Elizabeth Arrnsbury, F. Anson, H. T. Ash- 
aurnham, M. C. Bentinck, C. and L. Browne, A. Baynes Baker, H. de Bla- 
miere, Briggs, E. Colville, Spencer Churchill, C. Campbell, S. dimming, Cole- 
aine, C. Capel, F. Cole, M. Cockburn, E. Dundas, M. Drummond, T. Dillon, 
De Clifford, C. M. Dallas, East, E. Elliott, Fitzroy, H. Fitzgerald, M. Gardiner, 
A.. Garrett, AnnF. and E. D. Hamilton, Hughan, G. M. A. Hope, Juliana Howard, 
i. Treby, Jane Lyon, M. Lamb, Louisa and A. C. Murray, C. Morrison, E. 
Monck, H. Pringle. A. Palmer, M. M. Paslev, Eossmore, Helen Stewart, J. 
Stanley, Stuart, J. Tuite.— Sirs H. Bell, G. M. Cox, C. Colville, T. Corsellis, 
Herbert Compton, W. Douglass, H. Duncan, W. Erskine, Francis and G. H. 
Freeling, E. C. Ferguson, T. Fuller, G. Farrant, T. Gambler, James Leighton, 
T. Hamilton, J. Hawker, G. W. Lefevre, E, Macfarlane, H. W. Martin, Wm. 
Vlurray, D. Macleod, Arthur Pigott, N. L. Peacock, M. W. Ridley, T. B. St. 
jleorge, E. Stanley, T. A. Wright, H. Y. Webster, Marchese Brancaleone. — 
founts de Pollon, De Lusi, Eeventlow, Yon Sehivylenburg. — Countess Bat- 
hyany, De Yalmer, De Dourville, De Charlespont, De Wints. — Baroness De 
£atzleben. — Honourables F. Bowles, Elizabeth A. Buchanan, Pierce Butler, 
Charles Cholmondeley, W. Is. E. Colborne, Eobert Claxton, Anne Dunning, 
IT. Fraser, Margaret Fraser, A. G. Hood, Blanche Howard, Miss Charlotte 
rby, Caroline C. Kennedy, John Kennedy, Katherine King, F. Leslie, D. 
Hacdonald, Thos. H. Xugent, J. Steward, Chas. Stuart, James Stuart (85th 
jight Infantry), Mary Tollemache, John Tollemache, Arthur C. Tollemache. 
The Cemetery of the West London and Westminster Cemetry Company is 



288 LONDON. 

in Fulham Road, Brompton, and has little variety of surface. Here is a con- 
spicuous marble tomb with a lion couchant to Jackson, a pugilist. 

The London Cemetery Company have cemeteries at Highgate to the north, 
and Nunhead to the south, each in a most picturesque situation, and command- 
ing a fine view of the giant city, lying below. 

Abney Park Cemetery is at Stoke Eewington, and has entrances from Stoke 
Newington Eoad, and from the high road to Edmonton. It has some fine trees. 
A statue of Dr. Isaac Watts, by Bailey, R.A., is in memory of his residence in 
the house now included in the cemetery, and after which it is named. 

The City of London and Tower Hamlets Company has a cemetery at South 
Grove, Mile End. 

Another cemetery in the eastern suburbs is that of the East London Com- 
pany, White-horse Lane, Stepney. 

The South Metropolitan Company has a cemetery at Norwood, in a most 
picturesque situation on the southern range of hills. 

Bunhill Fields burying ground, in the City Road, was opened as a suburban 
cemetery in 1665, in the time of the great plague, and was a favourite bury- 
ing place with the dissenters. There is no tomb of artistic pretension. Here 
are buried Daniel Defoe, author of " Robinson Crusoe ;" John Bunyan, the 
author of the " Pilgrim's Progress ;" Dr. Isaac Watts ; Joseph Ritson, the anti- 
quary ; Dr. Thomas Goodwin, the chaplain who attended Cromwell's death-bed ; 
George Fox, the founder of the Quakers ; the mother of John Wesley ; Lieut.- 
Gen. Fleetwood, a son-in-law of Cromwell ; Thomas Hardy, tried for sedition 
in 1794 ; Thomas Stothard, R.A. ; William Blake, the painter ; Dr. Daniel 
Williams, founder of the Public Library in Redcross Street ; John Dunton ; 
George Whitehead, a Welsh bard ; and other minor literary men. 

In the burial ground of the Wesleyan Chapel opposite are buried John 
Wesley and other authors of Methodism. 

The churches and churchyards which contain the most interesting tombs 
are Westminster Abbey (poets, statesmen, and generals), St. Paul's (artists 
and admirals), St. Saviour's, Southwark, St. Giles's, Cripplegate (literary), St. 
Paul's, Covent Garden (actors), the Temple (literary), Marylebone, St. Pancras, 
Paddington, Lambeth (ecclesiastical), St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, Stepne}^ 
Chelsea, Battersea, St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, St. Margaret's, Westminster, St. 
James's, Westminster, and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 



THE CHARITIES OF LONDOK. 

Notwithstanding our remarks in pages 263, 264, it is gratifying to observe, that amidst all 
our luxuries of life, the ways and means for enjoying the " luxury of doing good" is advancing. 
London, .for this, as for most other purposes, forms the grand focus from which the great ma- 
chinery of charitable usefulness emanates ; and it is no slight test of the spirit pervading our 
country, and a cause almost we might say for national congratulation, that in the face of heavy 
taxation and poor-rates, there are in and near the metropolis no less than 491 charitable in- 
stitutions, exclusive of charity schools, and mere local and district funds. These institutions 
are supported at an annual cost of 1,764,733/., of which amount 746,8697. arises from secured 
sources, and 1,023,864^. is derived from present voluntary contributions. This bare fact appears 
eminently calculated to excite a corresponding feeling of thankfulness and contentment amongst 
the poorer classes, and we would, for this, as well as for other reasons, that the little volume 
from whence we gather the information * should find an extensive circulation. We believe that 
in the hands of the benevolent, wealthy, or actively charitable, it would be found invaluable. 
To the former it serves to point out a system of almsgiving, and to the latter a means of as 
great usefulness, by imparting the requisite information whereby the benefits of each charity 
may be obtained for the objects of their solicitude ; and beyond this, it will, it is hoped, form a 
successful advocate of many a needy but deserving charity, and serve to develope at once what 
remains, or is still required , to be done. The following appears the summary of the 491 metropoli- 
tan charities referred to, each of which is treated of in detail : 12 general medical hospitals, making 
up beds to the number of 3326, relieving a total number of patients in 1849 (out and in 
patients) 329,608; 50 special medical charities (including hospitals and infirmaries for consump- 

* " The Charities of London, their Orgin and Design, Progress, and present Position, by 
Sampson Low, Junior," London. See also pages 240, 246 of this work. 



CLUB-HOUSES. 289 

tion, asthma, fever, distortions, &c. &c.), granting relief last year to 105,997 patients, and 35 
general dispensaries, affording relief during the same time to 140,869 persons. Besides these 
medical charities, there are the following societies and establishments:— 12 for the preservation 
of hope and public morals ; 18 for reclaiming and reforming the fallen; 14 for relief of general 
wants and distress; 12 for relief of specific distress; 14 for aidingthe resources of the industrious ; 
11 for the blind, deaf, and dumb; about 150 colleges, asylums, and almshouse institutions for the 
aged; 40 societies for church and school extension, clerical and Christian visiting ; 35 Bible and 
Missionary Societies, &c. Of these 500 and more institutions, it is peculiarly interesting to ob- 
serve the dates of origin ; thus about 300 appear to have been established or commenced during 
the last fifty years ; 109 during last century, and as many as 88 remaining of the 16th and 
17th centuries. See pages 64—68. 



CLUB-HOUSES. 



As at present constituted, the London clubs and club life have produced a 
new phase in English society, at least in the metropolis — one that will claim 
the notice of some future Macaulay, as showing the very " form and pressure 
of the time;" while to the more patient chronicler of anecdotes, club-house 
traditions and reminiscences will afford materials all the more interesting, 
perhaps, for not being encumbered with the dignity of formal history. Our 
task is merely to touch upon and attempt a slight characteristic outline of 
them ; not to trace the history of clubs to their origin in the heroic ages 
of Greece. We shall not go back even to the clubs of the last century, except 
just to indicate cursorily some of the special differences between them and 
those of the present day. 

Until about thirty years ago a club was seldom more than a mere knot of 
acquaintances who met together of an evening, at stated times, in a room 
engaged for that purpose at some tavern, and some of them held their meet- 
ings at considerable intervals apart. Most of them were anything but fashion- 
able — some of them upon a footing not at all higher than that of a club of 
mechanics. Among the regulations of the Essex Street Club, for instance 
(instituted by Dr. Johnson shortly before his death, and which was limited 
to twenty-four members), one was, that each person should spend not less than 
sixpence; another, that each absentee should forfeit threepence, and each of 
the company was to contribute a penny as a douceur to the waiter ! At that 
period the chief object of such associations was relaxation after the business 
of the day, and the enjoyment of a social evening in a homely way in what 
would now be called a snug party. The celebrated " Literary Club, " which 
was founded by Reynolds in 1763, and whose meetings were held once a week 
at the Turk's Head, in Gerrard Street, Soho, now a very unfashionable locality, 
consisted at first of only nine members, which number was, however, gradually 
increased to the large number of thirty-five ; yet, limited as it was, it would 
not be easy even now to bring together as large a number of equally distin- 
guished characters. That club dined together once a fortnight, on which occa- 
sions "the feast of reason and the flow of soul" were, no doubt, enjoyed in 
perfection. In most clubs of that period, on the contrary, the flow of wine, 
or other liquor, was far more abundant than that of mind, and the conversa- 
tion was generally more easy and hilarious than intellectual or refined. The 
bottle, or else the punch-bowl, played too prominent a part ; and sociality too 
frequently partook of bacchanalian festivity, if not revelry, at least, of what 
would now be considered such according to our more temperate habits; — 
and it deserves to be remarked that, though in general the elder clubs en- 
couraged compotation and habits of free indulgence as indispensable to good- 
fellowship and sociality, the modern clubs, on the contrary, have done much 
to discourage them as low and ungentlemanly. "Eeelinghome from a club" 
used to be formerly a common expression ; whereas now inebriety, or the 
symptom of it, in a club-house, Would bring down disgrace upon him who 
should be guilty of such an indiscretion. 

The old clubs have passed away, for though some of them, or similar societies, 
may still exist, it is behind the scenes, instead of figuring conspicuously upon 

O 



290 LONDON. 

the stage. Quite a new order of things has come up, the clubs of the present 
time being upon quite a different footing, and also, comparatively, gigantic in 
scale. From small social meetings held periodically, they have become per- 
manent establishments, luxurious in all their appointments ; and of some of 
them the locales are quite palatial. No longer limited to a few acquaint- 
ances familiarly known to each other, they count their members by hundreds, 
and, sleeping accommodation excepted, provide for them abundantly all the 
agremens of an aristocratic home and admirably-regulated menage, without 
any of the trouble inseparable from a private household, unless it be one whose 
management is, as in a club-house, confided to responsible superintendents. 
In fact, a modern London club is a realization of a Utopian camobium — a sort 
of lay convent rivalling the celebrated Abbey of Thelem§, with its agreeable 
rule, of " Fais ce que voudras," instead of monastic discipline and mortifica- 
tion, Even a Sybarite might be content with the studied and refined comfort 
which pervades every department of a West End club-house, and which is such 
as to be unattainable in a private family, except by the opulent, though here 
brought within the reach of those whose means are comparatively moderate. 
Besides those staple features, news-room and coffee-room, the usual accom- 
modation of a club-house comprises library and writing-room, evening or 
drawing-room, and card-room, billiard and smoking-rooms, and even baths and 
dressing-rooms ; also a " house-dining-room," committee-room, and other apart- 
ments ; all appropriately fitted up according to their respective purposes, and 
supplied with almost every imaginable convenience. In addition to the pro- 
vision thus amply made for both intellectual and other recreation, there is ano- 
ther important and tasteful department of the establishment; which with many, 
perhaps, stands foremost among the attractions of a club-house — namely, the 
Cuisine ; nor is its auxiliary, the cellar, to be overlooked. The first-mentioned 
of these is presided over by a chef, sometimes one, like Soyer, whose fame is 
widely spread among the adepts in gastronomy, as an accomplished artiste — 
a professor whose performances do not fall short of his professions, but who 
shows himself skilled in the most recondite mysteries of culinary philosophy 
and science, and to be worthy of a niche in the " Classiques de la Table" or of 
honourable mention by some future Anthus, in a series of ticklingly piquant 
" Vorlesungen uber Esskunst." * Although it does not bear those words in- 
scribed upon it, the carte seems to say fare well, not as a phrase of dismissal, 
but of welcome and invitation, its contents being such as to adapt themselves 
to the humour of every palate, since they range from roast beef and other 
joints au nature! to the most recherche sophistications of edible substances. 
Besides, the more material advantages, the completeness of the attendance, the 
admirable good management, and the style in which everything is conducted, 
ought to be taken into account ; and what not least of all recommends a club- 
house to those who have no establishment of their own, is the economy of the 
system. To live upon the same scale and footing, to be surrounded with the 
same atmosphere of luxuriousness and refinement elsewhere, at anything like 
the same cost, is utterly impracticable. The moral influence of club life is 
also, upon the whole, a favourable one ; if there be no longer that heartiness of 
sociality which characterized the clubs of the last century, when their meet- 
ings did not exceed in number that of a private party of friends, there is more 

* Apropos to kitchen matters, Anthus himself has recorded the sausage-making achievements 
of Leo X., though whether the flesh of papal bulls formed any of the ingredients is not specified. 
" The gentle Elia," too, has given us a most amusing account of the *« Origin of Roast Pig;" 
but no one has yet pretended to discover that of pickled onions. Yet the inventor of them was 
obviously no less a personage than Queen Cleopatra herself, who was the first that steeped a 
unionem or onionem in vinegar. Now that it is here pointed out, the matter is as clear as mid- 
night — and that there are bright moonshiny midnights, as well as dark ones, the most captious 
cannot deny. Apropos, again, to the diners at club-houses, if we are to believe the late Lady 
Blessington, many a wealthy old bachelor is compelled to starve at home upon spunge-cake and 
a bottle of Madeira — a substitute for a dinner — when he is prevented from going to his club ; it 
being impossible, it would seem, in such a place as London, even for those who can afford to 
pay for it, to procure a dinner from a tavern. 



CLUB-HOUSES. 291 

of the polish of gentlemanly manners and decorum, and infinitely les3 of in- 
temperance, or rather intemperance is banished altogether as a low and dis- 
graceful vice, and what, if openly indulged in so as to exhibit its effects, would 
disqualify for companionship, and lead to loss of caste. Great is the improve- 
ment which has taken place in our English habits in this respect ; and it is 
one which has partly, if not mainly, been brought about by modern club 
habits — after-dinner compotations and evening symposia being quite out of the 
question. In fact, club-house statistics would warrant our concluding that, 
instead of aught approaching excess, abstemiousness is the general rule, the 
average charge a head for wine and liqueurs being under two shillings per 
diem — a most monstrous falling-off from the days of six-bottle heroes in the 
annals of bacchanalian achievement; although the degeneracy from such 
heroism may fairly be considered an advancement in civilization. 

For those who avail themselves of it, the refectory part of the club-house 
system recommends itself by extraordinary cheapness in comparison with the 
superior quality of the viands ; which cheapness, marvellous as it may appear, 
is at once accounted for by the fact that whatever is consumed in the way of 
eating and drinking, is charged to the actual consumers at only cost price, and 
is further supplied in large quantities by the best purveyors. All other ex- 
penses, such as rent, rates and taxes, salaries, servants' wages, &c, fall upon the 
club or general body, and are defrayed out of the fund arising from entrance 
fees and the annual subscriptions; both which last vary, they being in some clubs 
considerably higher than in others, according to the style and status affected 
for the institution. The advantages held out by clubs of this description are 
such that they would be abused were it not for one wholesome regulation, and, 
indeed, quite indispensable precaution, which is, that no one can be admitted 
as a member unless he be first proposed by some actual member, who thereby 
becomes responsible for his pretensions and eligibility ; nor is even that suffi- 
cient, for the candidate must afterwards undergo the ordeal of the ballot-box. 
Another precaution is, that each member must leave with the secretary his 
bond fide address, or place of residence for the time being. Thus a club is 
tolerably well fenced in from those "loose fish"' of society, who might else, by 
clever manoeuvring, contrive to get out of their own proper element into that 
higher one, where, after all, perhaps, they might chance to find themselves 
pretty much in the condition of fish out of water. 

As to the management of a club household, nothing of the kind can be 
more complete or more economical, because all its details are conducted quite 
systematically, consequently without the slightest confusion or bustle. The 
whole may be compared to a skilfully-contrived piece of machinery, regularlv 
wound up and kept in order. Even' one has his proper post and definite 
duties, and what contributes to his discharging them as he ought is, that he 
has no time to be idle ; wherefore many a private establishment might take 
an excellent lesson from that of a club-house. The following is the scheme of 
government adopted :— At the head of affairs is the Committee of Manage- 
ment, who are appointed from among the members, and hold office for a cer- 
tain time, during which they constitute a board of control, from whom all 
orders emanate, and to whom all complaints are made, and irregularities re- 
ported. They superintend all matters of expenditure and the accounts, 
which last are duly audited every year by others, who officiate as auditors. 
The committee further appoint the several officers and servants, also the se- 
veral trades-people. The full complement of a club-house establishment con- 
sists of secretary and librarian, steward and housekeeper ; to these principal 
officials succeed hall-porter, groom of the chambers, butler, under-butler : 
then in the kitchen department, clerk of the kitchen, chef, cooks, kitchen- 
maids, &c. ; lastly, attendants, or footmen, and female servants, of both which 
classes the number is greater or less, according to the scale of the household. 

The regularity which pervades the domestic economy generally, is par- 

o 2 



292 LONDON. 

ticularly remarkable in the kitchen department ; for instead of anything like 
bustle, or that/wss which notable housewives seem to think essential to good 
management, all the culinary operations, multifarious as they are, are con- 
ducted with activity and despatch, at the same time in the most orderly and 
methodical manner, towards which the arrangements of the place contribute 
not a little. In the Reform, and some of the other large club-houses, the 
kitchen, with its manifold apparatus, machinery, and modi operandi, consti- 
tutes a perfect laboratory for scientific preparations of the most appetite- 
enticing kind. In fact, the greatly-improved apparatus, appliances, and con- 
trivances here adopted, render this part of a club-house well worth the study 
of the practical architect, more especially as scarcely any information what- 
ever respecting kitchens, and other domestic offices, is to be obtained from 
books even professedly on the subject of domestic architecture. Besides the 
kitchen itself, properly so called, there are various dependencies belonging to 
it, for stores of the ammunition du bouche — special larders and pantries for 
every kind of materiel, viz., not only for meat generally, but for cold meat, 
game, fish, vegetables, confectionary, separately. That there are various store- 
rooms and cellars hardly needs to be said ; and in addition to them, there are 
one or more servants' halls, a clerk of the kitchen's room, butler's do., toge- 
ther with others for the principal domestics. Hence the basement of a club- 
house requires quite as much or more study and contrivance than any other 
part of the plan ; and in order to double the space to which it would else be 
confined, it is usually sunk to a very great depth, so as to obtain an additional 
floor within it, that is, an entresol between the lowermost or kitchen floor 
and the apparent external ground-floor. This economy of plan — which may 
be said to be peculiarly English — provides a complete habitation for the 
domestic and official part of the establishment, and an invisible one also, pro- 
vided it be properly screened out by dwarf parapet walls or balustrading, to 
prevent the area being overlooked, as is done at the Travellers' and Beform, 
where such inclosure below enhances not a little the general effect of the 
elevation by producing a suitable architectural base, and substituting the 
ornamental for the unsightly. In those club-houses which have baths, they, 
and the dressing-rooms annexed to them, are placed in the entresol. 

On the ground-floor the principal hall is sometimes entered immediately 
from the street; in other instances it is preceded by an outer vestibule of smaller 
dimensions and far more simple architectural character, which disposition is by 
far the better of the two, inasmuch as it produces greater extent of approach, 
secures greater privacy and protection from draughts of air to the inner hall 
and the rooms opening into it, and also keeps in reserve what may be called 
the focus of architectural effect. At a desk near the entrance is stationed the 
hall-porter, whose office it is to receive and keep an account of all messages, 
cards, letters, &c., and to take charge of the box into which the members put 
letters to be delivered to the postman ; his function is therefore one that re- 
quires unremitting punctuality and attention. The two chief apartments on 
this floor are the morning-room and coffee-room *, the first of which is the place 
of general rendezvous in the early part of the day, and for reading the news- 
papers. They are, of course, very spacious apartments, but of comparatively 
sober character — though for the new " Carlton " coffee-room a high degree o1 
ornateness has been studied. The only other public room on this floor is the 
House-Dining room, yet it can hardly be reckoned among them, at least no1 
among the " show " rooms, it being, it would seem, etiquette that it should be 
of extreme plainness, however lavishly other parts of the interior may be 
decorated. With regard to its particular denomination and purpose, it ma} 
be proper here to explain that, although the habitues of the club take theii 
meals in the coffee-room, some of the members occasionally — perhaps aboui 

* Tn some of the club-houses there is also what is called the «* Strangers' Coffee-room," inft 
which members can introduce their friends as occasional visitors. 



CLUB-HOUSES. 293 

once a month, make up a set dinner party, for which they previously put 
down their names, the day and number of guests being fixed ; and such 
social gwosi-private reunions around the " mahogany," which may be termed 
reminiscences of the clubs of other times, are in club parlance styled house- 
dinners. Another room — which, however, is wanting in some club-houses- 
is an ante-room or waiting-room, where a stranger can have an interview 
with a member. 

Ascending to the upper or principal floor, we there find the evening or 
drawing-room, and card-room, the library, and writing-room ; the first-men* 
tioned of which is made the superlative degree, if not always of architectural 
effect, of the embellishment aimed at. With regard to the card-room, Honi soil 
qui mat y pense ! — gambling and games of chance are interdicted ; not even 
so much as what Lady Townley calls " poor, piddling, five-guinea whist" is 
permitted ; therefore, if any gamblers there be, they must either do penance 
at their club, or seek refuge in some less scrupulous and strait-laced society*. 
For many, no doubt, the intellectual refectory or library possesses as strong 
attractions as any other feature, since it supplies them with all the journalism 
and the cream of the literature of the day. The writing-room is also a very 
great accommodation, for many gentlemen write their letters at, and date from, 
their club. Upon this floor is generally the committee-room, and likewise the 
secretary's room. The next or uppermost floor, which, however, does not show 
itself externally, it being concealed within the roof, is appropriated partly to 
the billiard and smoking-rooms, and partly to servants' dormitories, which 
divisions are kept distinct from each other. Being quite apart from the other 
public rooms, those for billiards, &c, make no pretensions as to appearance, 
neither is commodiousness of approach to them always so well studied as it 
ought to be, the staircase leading to them generally contrasting very strangely 
and disagreeably with the " grand staircase" below, so that, after all, another 
room remains, namely, room for further improvement in club-house architecture. 
There is opportunity, too, for doing more than has yet been attempted, were it 
only by throwing greater variety and architectural effect into the plans them- 
selves, and by occasionally adopting circular, octagonal, and other polygonal 
forms, and combinations of them, for the rooms ; whereas at present we find only 
rectangular ones, without other variety or distinguishing effect than what can 
be produced by mere wall decoration, upholstery, and furniture. There is, 
moreover, one elegant luxury which, as we have seen remarked, has not yet been 
thought of for a club-house, to wit, a conservatory or covered garden, a more 
agreeable lounging-place than which, provided it were suitably adapted to such 
purpose, could hardly be devised. 

Having explained the present club system, and the usual arrangements of 
a club-house, we shall now speak of the external character of buildings of the 
kind, as features formerly quite unknown in our street architecture. Upon Pall 
Mall and its immediate vicinity — the former more especially — they have bestowed 
a certain nobleness of physiognomy, of which no other part of the town affords 
an example, they being marked by a certain unmistakeable quality as well as 
character, both of which combined distinguish them from all our other buildings, 
whether public or private. They may be said to be the only structures in the 
British capital that answer to the palazzi of Italian cities, the town residences of 
even the wealthiest of our nobility being, with here and there an exception, of 
the most unpretending, not to say homely, appearance ; and those exceptions 
become fewer still, if we confine them to such as not only show themselves to be 
aristocratic mansions, but also exhibit something of the grandiose also in their 
stj^le and design; such, for instance, as Spencer House, and Bridgewatei 
House, to which might be added Burlington House, were it not unfortunatel} 

* What with half pints of wine after dinner, and half-guinea whist at the card table, it must 
he confessed that the present age has so greatly degenerated that " Fuimw Troes" ought to be 
its motto. 




UNIVERSITY CLUB-HOUSE, ELEVATION AND PLAN. 

shut out from view, therefore, perforce, ignored by the public. Even of the 
club-houses themselves the earlier erected ones do not evince much study oi 
design, or exhibit anything striking, unless it be the " University," in Pall 
Mall East (first opened in 1826), the number of members of which is limited 
to 1000 ; 261. 5s. entrance fee ; 61. annual subscription. The "Union," limited 
to 1000 members, entrance 321. 10s., annual subscription, 61. 6s.; and the 
" United Service," limited to 1500 members, entrance 30£, and 61. annually 
which are about the same date, namely, 1827 and 1828, bear upon them the 
mark of their respective architects, Sir Robert Smirke and John Nash. The 
Athenaeum, by Mr. Decimus Burton (the next club-house in point of date, i1 
being opened in November, 1830), showed considerable progress with regard tc 
ornateness and finish, for it presented the then somewhat extravagant novelty 
of a sculptured frieze : the only other instance, at that time, was the one o 
the portico of the India House. The richness so given to the upper part o 
the Athenaeum is, however, attended by one bad effect, since it causes the 






CLUB-HOUSES. 



295 



~TmFZrWT-zz:^ ::-"-;. r ™ r ^^::. ;:.;::: ~~"~: TI 



IB 



^ 




ATHENJ1UM CLUB-HOUSE, ELEVATION AND PLAN. 

cornice of the corresponding mass of building on the east side of Carlton Place, 
(the United Service), to appear still more insignificant and mean than it else 
would do — a circumstance that seems to be either unperceived or ignored, or 
else that club would no doubt have deemed it worth while to bestow a nobler 
cornice upon their building ; and another easy improvement would be to en- 
large one of their ground-floor rooms by throwing out a bay to correspond 
in general appearance with the opposite entrance porch of the Athenaeum. 
The number of members of this club is limited to 1200 ; 261. 5s. entrance fee, 
and 61. 6s. annually. 

After the Athenaeum, the next in succession, as in date (1 8 31), is the Travellers', 
a structure that fairly makes an epoch in the architectural history of club- 
houses, as being almost the first, if not the very first, attempt to introduce into 



296 



LONDON. 




travellers' club-house. 

this country that species of rich astylar composition which has obtained the 
name of the Italian palazzo mode, by way of contradistinction from Palladianism 
and its orders. Grecianism, N ashism, and Smirkeism had been exhausted, when, 
in an auspicious hour, both for himself and for architectural design, Charles 
Barry seized upon a style that had all along been quite overlooked by English 
architects. What had till then been kept out of sight from the general public 
was hailed, not only as a welcome novelty after the previous season of 
architectural dulness and insipidity, but received as originality also, though, 
in fact, there is very little of the latter in the facade towards Pall Mall, far less, 
indeed, than in the design of the garden-front, which is not only greatly 
superior to the other, but shows a happiness of invention which the architect 
has certainly not surpassed, if approached, in his later works. That production 
of Mr. Barry's may be said to have given a fresh impulse to architectural de- 
sign, and one in a more artistic direction. It almost at once brought 
the style then adopted by him into vogue ; not, indeed, exactly for club- 
houses — perhaps, because so applied, it would look too much like the direct 
imitation of a successful and too well-known model — but for various other 
buildings, in the provinces as well as in the metropolis; and its influence 
has likewise manifested itself in some of our recent street architecture, 
although longo intervallo in regard to taste. The " Travellers' " has, more- 
over, obtained a distinction which has not fallen to the lot of any other con- 
temporary structure, it having been the subject of an elegant volume of archi- 
tectural illustrations (published by Mr. Weale*) ; a circumstance that has, 
perhaps, contributed to diffuse an acquaintance with the genius and resources of 
that so-called Italian-palazzo style, all the chief features and details of that 
club-house being there shown at large. A similar office has not been per- 



* About 1000 members. For a list of names, see Weale's publication, 
subscription annually, 101. 10*. 



Entrance fee, 21/. ; 



CLUB-HOUSES 



297 




PLAN OF TRAVELLERS' CLUB-HOUSE. 

formed for any other edifice of the same class, notwithstanding that some of 
them are more ambitious in their architecture and their internal decorations ; 
yet, surely it would be a very trifling matter for a Club to publish the plans, &c 
of their building, at their own cost, even were copies intended only as presents 
to their friends. Stronger reasons than pecuniary — for they are slight, indeed 
— there may be for this not being done, and foremost among them, perhaps, 
is indifference *. Of the three club-houses forming the insula or l block ' of 

* The Travellers' had a very narrow escape from destruction on the 24th of last October 
(EJSO), when a fire broke out in the billiard-rooms, and did great damage to that part of the 
structure, which was, by the by, an after-thought and addition to the original building, but 
by no means an improvement upon the first design, for it gseatly impaired the beauty of the 
garden-front. 

o 3 



298 



LONDON. 



buildings on the west side of Carlton Place, the Reform is, though the latest, 
not the least, and although it does not make pretension to striking originality, 
it assuredly is not, as has been repeatedly said of it, a copy of the Palazzo 
Farnese ; unless general similarity of treatment where there is similarity of 
subject can justly convict of direct imitation or copyism. At all events, in 
this case, the points of difference between the two buildings are far more 
numerous than those of resemblance. In one respect, too, this club-house dif- 
fers from all the others, for, whereas their elevations show only a ground floor 
and another over it, the Eeform exhibits an additional upper story, which 
is appropriated exclusively to sets of chambers or lodgings for such members 
as may engage them, which extra accommodation is quite peculiar to that 
club. That floor is, however, kept quite distinct from the rest of the interior, 
it having a separate staircase, and entrance to it from the street, placed in 
the break or compartment between that club-house and the Travellers'. 
As to the Reform Club-house being after the Palazzo Farnese, if we 
are to understand 'after 9 chronologically, it certainly is so; but in point 
of design, the only resemblance between the two structures consists in 
both of them being astylar, with columnar-decorated fenestration, while 
in all other respects, the differences between them are so strong as to put 
likeness entirely out of the question. The blunder itself—for it can be 
called nothing else — would be hardly worth noticing, did it not show what 
inane and random stuff may be uttered with impunity, and pass uncontra- 
dicted, on the subject of architecture. The number of members is 1400 ; 
entrance fee, 2§l. 5s. ; annual subscription, 10?. 10s. Extra charges are made 
for the occupation of the dormitories or sleeping rooms. 

The insula formed by the three club-houses just spoken of, possesses a merit 
which ought not to be so great a distinction as unfortunately it is ; it being re- 
markable for being treated architecturally throughout, and finished up on all 
its four sides ; whereas, in too many instances, the effect of a front elevation is 
marred by design being dropped altogether for other parts, which, although 
not belonging to that elevation, are nevertheless offensively visible from some 
points of view. 




CARLTON CLUB-HOUSE. 



The Carlton Club-house, which is the next immediately after the Reform, 
exhibits in its present state a singular architectural antithesis, the addition 
made to it in 1847 by Mr. Sydney Smirke, being utterly dissimilar in style and 
taste to the original structure erected by his brother Sir Robert. Extremes 
certainly meet there, for we find what may be called ultra-Italian in juxta- 
position with that sort of Anglo-Greek which, after a short-lived vogue, has 



CLUB-HOUSES. 



299 



now fallen into discredit ; a taste for the florid having now superseded that 
for the frigid and the bald, which last passed in its day for the classical and 
the chaste. The new portion is little more than a direct and undisguised 
copy of Sansovino's Library of St. Mark at Yenice — a work whose celebrity 
converts into admiration the censure that this imitation of it would, were it 
an original composition, else incur for the monstrousness of its proportions, 
and violation of all orthodoxy and rule : nothing less than monstrous, in 
fact, can the entablature of the Ionic or upper order be pronounced, if it 
be tested by ordinary rules, more especially as it is considerably more pon- 
derous than that of the Doric order below. Besides a degree of enrichment 
almost unprecedented in our metropolitan architecture, this addition to the 
Carlton Club-house exhibits a decided novelty and singularity in another 
respect, the shafts of all the columns being of red Peterhead granite highly 
polished, in consequence of which they tell very strongly, perhaps rather too 
much so, for as the same colour is not extended to any other part, they appear 
to be too much detached from all the rest, and instead of their being relieved 
by shadow or by a darker ground, the reverse of such effect takes place. At 
present, however, we behold only a mere specimen of what is intended ulti- 
mately to become a facade upwards of 130 feet in length, with nine windows 
on a floor, and which will therefore form an imposing mass, in all but imme- 
diate juxtaposition with the group of club-houses between it and Carlton 
Place. (We have, however, made an elevation of the building, as it will be 
when complete, that our readers may justly criticise it as an entire design.) 
Whenever it shall be so completed, the granite columns will probably help to 
render the extent of frontage more noticeable than it would otherwise be, where- 
as at present, by attracting the eye strongly to it, they cause, what is already 
built to strike it as being a mere narrow upright bit in comparison with 
some of the other club-house facades. The completion of the fa$ade will 
not, we hope, be deferred. The whole of the lower floor of the part recently 
erected, is occupied by the coffee-room, which extends the full depth 
of the building, from north to south; is 92 feet in that direction, by 37 in 
width, 21 1 high ; and is divided by screens of Corinthian columns of green 
scagliola, into three compartments, each of the two end ones being lighted 
by three windows, and the central one by a glazed dome. There are 800 
members ; entrance fee, 151. 15-5. ; annual subscription, 101. 10s. 

At no great distance from the preceding is the Oxford and Cambridge Uni- 



:0:t23 : -!rn^w;^^-s 




OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY CLUB-HOUSE. 



300 



LONDON. 



versity Club-house, said to be 
the joint production of the two 
Smirkes; and, indeed, the design 
betrays some conflict of opposite 
tastes. For the interior, econo- 
my seems tohave been chiefly con- 
sulted; and appearance has been, 
somewhat unpardonably, altoge- 
ther disregarded for itssouthside, 
although it should have been 
attended to there— because it is 
seen from the court-yard of Marl- 
borough House. The number of 
memberslimitedtoll70;entrance 
payment, 26J. 5s. • annual, 61. 6s. 

The new Guards' Club-house 
(erected in 1848, Henry Harrison, 
Esq., Architect), is remarkable 
for its compactness and conveni- 
ence, although its size and ex- 
ternal appearance indicate no 
more than a private house. Not 
so the Army and Navy Club- 
house, on the opposite and sunny 
side of Pall Mall*, for it makes 
a very ambitious display, ap- 
parently out of rivalry to the 
Carlton. In like manner as 
for that building, here also a 
design of Sansovino's has been 
made use of, though with con- 
siderable deviations from the 
original, little more of it, in fact, 
being retained than that of the 
lower part or basement, which is, 
nevertheless, more exceptionable 
in many respects than it is tasteful. One objectionable circumstance, if no other, 
is that an appearance of littleness is incurred very unnecessarily by the diminu- 
tive windows, which give the idea of comparatively low ground-floor rooms, 
with a low mezzanine between them and the upper floor, whereas both tiers of 
windows serve to light the same rooms; nor can the upper ones be productive 
of good effect internally. By merely arching the lower windows, and making 
them correspond with the three open arches of the entrance loggia, not only 
the basement, but the entire structure, would have been improved, both in 
regard to unity of general composition, and increased loftiness for the ground- 
floor windows. Square-headed windows below do not accord particularly well 
with arched ones above, for such arrangement is the reverse of what construc- 
tion would usually dictate. In the present case, too, the upper windows are 
only apparently lofty arched ones, the actual apertures being square-headed — 
a species of deception anything than either praiseworthy or ingenious, if, only 
because it must be detected at once on entering the rooms. No doubt, it was 
had recourse to in order to fill up the space between the tops of the apertures 
and the entablature ; yet that might have been accomplished differently, by 

* It is to be regretted that some clubs did not— while thev had the opportunity of doing so- 
concert together to purchase for a building site the entire block of houses between St. James's 
Square and Pall Mall. The structures would have had the advantage of a double frontage 
either way of a very desirable kind. Although varied in design they would have formed a con- 
tinuous range of stately facades, an insula similar to that on the west side of Carlton Place; 
pesides which, St. James' Square itself would have been most materially improved, for the 
houses which now occupy its south side rather disfigure its general appearance than not. 




THE GUARDS' CLUB-HOUSE. 



CLUB-HOUSES. 



301 




PLAN OF THE GUARDS' CLUB-HOUSE. 



filling up the tympana of the arches with panels or other ornaments in stone, 
instead of glazing them. As the ground-floor plan is here given, we leave it 
to speak for itself, and perhaps also to confirm one of our previous general 
remarks. There were two competitions for this club-house, in 1847, to the 
first of which sixty-eight architects sent in designs, and on that occasion the 
first premium was adjudged to Mr. Tattersall. After that the site was en- 
larged, a greater frontage being obtained towards Pall Mall by the purchase 
of an adjoining house, and a second competition took place; but, instead of 



302 



LONDON. 




ARMY AND NAVY CLUB-HOUSE. 




PLAN OF ARMY AND NAVY CLUB-HOUSE. 

being an open one as before, it was limited to six architects who were specialty 
invited to it. The design chosen was that by Messrs. Parnell and Smith, and 
the building was commenced in 1848. 

The Conservative Club-house* in St. James's-street, erected in 1844, from 
the designs of the late G. Basevi and Sydney Smirke, is by far the most ornate 
and stately structure there situated. The design of the lower part is, how- 

* The Conservative stands on the site of what was formerly the Thatched House Tavern, 
and which, notwithstanding the homeliness of its name, was a rendezvous of considerable vogue 
in its day, for it was patronized by the Dilettanti Society, who used to hold their meetings in 
the great room, where there are many portraits of distinguished members of that body. The 
Dilettanti now assemble at No. 85 in the same street. 



CLUB-HOUSES. 



303 




CONSERVATIVE CLUB-HOl'SE. 



ever, not very satisfactory, and is, moreover, rather insipid and tame, in com- 
parison with the rest. The interior is well arranged, and contains some strik- 
ing points ; for besides a sufficiently handsome entrance hall, there is a larger 
central inner hall, with a kind of upper saloon over it, which is seen from be- 
low, through a large circular opening in its floor, through which the hall on 
the ground floor is chiefly lighted, the domed skylight of the upper hall, or 
saloon, being immediately over it. These two halls and the intervening stair- 
case are decorated throughout, both on their walls and ceilings, with painting 
in encaustic, by Sang, which style of embellishment — here, perhaps, of too 
florid a cast — forms a strong contrast to the studied plainness and absence of 
colour previously affected for such parts of an interior, when our architecture 
seemed to labour under a sort of chromatophobia. In other parts of this build- 
ing, too, colour has been liberally employed. The number of members is limited 
to 1500. Entrance fee, 261. 5s. ; annual subscription, 8?. 8s. 

On the same side of the way, and not far from the Conservative, is Arthur's 
Club-house, which, together with the club itself, is said to derive its name from 
Arthur's chocolate-house (originally White's), which stood on the same site. 
The present building was erected about twenty-five or thirty years ago, by 
Thomas Hopper, architect, at which time it passed for more than average ar- 
chitectural design (see p. 304), although it now attracts less notice ; so greatly 
have we added to this class of Club Architecture. This club is limited to 600 
members, the payment of entrance fee is 211., and 10/. 10<s. annual subscription. 

Higher up, on the same side of St. James's-street, a few doors from Picca- 
dilly, is what was formerly CrocMord's — a place of most unenviable celebrity 
as an aristocratic gambling-house, whose walls — if walls could speak — would 
be able to disclose not a few transactions of very nefarious character, and that 
would go far towards accounting for the rapidity with which the needy often 
rise to affluence and insolence, and the wealthy sink down into all the obscurity 
of necessitousness. In 1814, Crockford departed from his terrestrial domicile in 
St. James's-street ; and it says something for improved public morality, that 
on his death, the establishment was broken up, and the house remained unoc- 
cupied until May, 1849, when it was taken possession of by the Military, 
Xaval, and County Service Club. With regard to the building itself, it was 
erected by Benjamin and Philip Wyatt, about the same time as York House 



304 



LONDON. 



(now the residence of the Duke of Sutherland), of which they were also the 
architects, and it plainly enough shows itself to be of their school. The 
design of the exterior is meagre enough, consisting of merely " four slices 
of pilaster," with four triple windows below, with a similar doorway, and 
five others above. Yet, although both tiers are included within the order, 
the upper openings alone have dressings, the others being left quite bare ; 
which is so great and obvious an inconsistency, that it would have been well 
worth while to correct it when the front was renovated, and the house put 
into repair for its present occupiers. In spite of such offensive parsimony, 
when first erected even the exterior was lauded, more good-naturedly than 
judiciously, and the vocabulary of criticism was ransacked for the most ful- 
some epithets of admiration, on account of the superlative magnificence of the 
interior, the principal apartments being fitted up and furnished in the Louis 
Quatorze fashion, which was at that time rather a novelty, it having been very 
deservedly exploded, as being no better than expensive whimsicality and 
ugliness. 

The Oriental Club-house, at the north-west angle of Hanover-square, was 
erected in 1827-8, by the same architects, but does not say much for their 
taste. The most that can be said of it is, that it distinguishes itself plainly 
enough from the other houses, and expresses its purpose by the usual club- 
house characteristic of only one tier of windows above the ground floor. The 
interior has lately received some fresh embellishment, some of the rooms and 
ceilings having been decorated in a superior style, by Collman. This club 
was founded in 1824, by Sir John Malcolm, and, as its name indicates, consists 




ARTHUR'S CLUB-HOUSE. 



CLUB-HOUSES. 



305 




PLAN OF ORIENTAL CLUB-HOUSE. 

of gentlemen who have resided or travelled in the East, or who are officially 
connected with our Eastern possessions, and their administration. The 
number of members is limited to 800, and the annual subscription is eight 
guineas. 

Of the other club-houses at the West-end, none are at all remarkable for 
external appearance, scarcely one of them having been originally built for the 
purpose to which they are now applied. We will mention the Alfred in 
Albemarle Street, established in 1808 ; limited number of members, 600 ; 
entrance payment, 81. 8s., and annual subscription, SI. 8s. Boodle's, in St. 
James's Street, celebrated as one of the early clubs ; Gibbon, the historian, 
was a frequenter. Brooks's Club, in St. James's Street, is the great Whig 
Club ; some of the most distinguished political characters have held their 
meetings here. The number of members is restricted to 575 ; entrance fee, 
9L 9s.; and annual subscription, 111. lis. The Erectheum, in St. James's 
Square, celebrated for good dinners. Junior United Service, Charles Street, 
St. James's Square, built by Sir Robert Smirke. The Parthenon, 16, Regent's 
Street, members limited to 700 ; entrance fee, 211. ; annual subscription, 71. 7s. 
White's, also a celebrated club in St. James's Street, established as early as 
1698, the number of members limited to 550. The Wyndham Club, in 
St. James's Square ; entrance fee, 261. 5s. ; annual subscription, 81. More 
east there is, in King Street, Covent Garden, the Garrick Club, established 
in 1831, chiefly for members of the theatrical profession; and the Gresham 
Club, King William Street, near the Mansion House. The City of London 
Club-house, near the Excise Office, in Old Broad Street, on the site of the 
old South Sea-house, was built by Mr. Hard wick, 18S2-3, and its facade is a 
Palladian composition, showing a Doric order of seven inter-columns, with 
as many pedimented windows, over a ground-floor, which last has also 
windows with dressings, placed not within arcades, but between rusticated 
piers, the rustication, however, being of that very spurious and un-Palladian 
kind, which exhibits merely horizontal channels. The dimensions of the 
front are 93 ft. in length, by 53 in height. On the ground-floor the 
principal apartments are, two dining-rooms, about 25 ft. square each, and 
15 high; and a coffee-room, 60 by 30 and 30 high, which is situated in the 
rear of the building, with its windows opening upon a terrace towards Foun- 
tain's-court. On the principal floor are two drawing-rooms communicating 
with folding-doors, and thereby forming what is equal to a single apartment, 
90 ft. by 25, and 18 high. The subscription entrance is 2U. 5s., and the annual 
subscription 61. 6s. 



306 LONDON. 

CHURCHES. 
We shall find it convenient to divide them into, I. Monastic ; II. 
Palatial; III. Gothic Parish Churches; IV. Those rebuilt by Wren ; 
V. By later architects ; VI. Built for new parishes and districts 
formed by Queen Anne's Commissioners, or without assistance ; and 
VII. By, or with the assistance of, the present Commission. 

Before the Reformation, the City of London had become 
little else than one dense mass of churches and monastic esta- 
blishments. These buildings occupied two-thirds of the area 
within the walls, and were not much less abundant in the suburbs ; 
so that, if we add to this the space occupied by the town residences 
of all the bishops, and most of the abbots in England (the former 
having large gardens and meriting the appellation of palaces), it is 
really difficult to imagine where the dwellings of the laity could find 
standing room. The final result of this state of things was disas- 
trous to the architectural wealth of the capital, as the abundance of 
parish churches led to the destruction of nearly all the conventual 
and collegiate ones, instead of their being appropriated (as in other 
parts of England) to parochial use. It is to be observed that though 
all churches prior to the Reformation are worthy of careful inspec- 
tion by the admirers of architecture, only those once attached to 
monasteries can in general be called complete, original, or admirable 
as a whole ; the parish churches, with few exceptions, bearing the 
decided character of second-hand art, if not of apish imitation ; and 
to judge from the few such buildings that escaped the fire, and are 
still standing in the eastern extremity of the city, as well as from 
old views of the others, it does not appear that the ninety-eight 
destroyed in that catastrophe could have been any great artistic loss. 
It was far otherwise with the conventual churches, of which the 
avarice of Henry VIII. left us, in the whole metropolis, only four 
entire, and a few fragments. These, though all escaping the fire, 
have partly fallen a prey to recent Vandalism ; but all that remains of 
them will be examined by every admirer of the beautiful and the true. 

I. Conventual and Collegiate Churches left standing, wholly or in part. 

1. St. Bartholomew, Smithfield (only portions) : temp. Henry I. to John. 

2. The Temple Church (entire) : temp. Henry II. and Henry III. 

3. St. Mary Overy, now St. Saviour's, Southwark (left entire, but the nave destroyed in 1840) : 

temp. Henry III. chiefly. 

4. Westminster Abbey (entire) : temp. Henry III. to Edward IV. 

5. St. Stephen's Collegiate Chapel (destroyed, except the crypt, in 1836) : temp. Edward I. 

6. Church of the Austin Friars, now Dutch Church, Broad Street (the nave only, since much 

remodelled) : temp. Edward III, 

7. Henry the Seventh's Chapel (entire). 

8. St. Katherine's, near the Tower (since destroyed to make the Docks; monuments removed 

to St. Katherine's, Regent's Park) : temp. Henry VII. chiefly. 

9. Church of the Knights Hospitallers, Clerkenwell (destroyed, except the east window) : temp. 

Henry VII. and VIII. 

For further accounts of these (except the two last), see " Archi- 
tecture " (pp. 131-172). 

II. Private or Palatial Chapels left from before the Reformation. 

1. St. John's, in the White Tower (entire) : temp. William the Conqueror. 

2. Chapel of Lambeth Palace (the walls only) : temp. Henry III. 

3. Chapel of Ely Palace, Holborn (walls only) : temp. Edward II. and III. 

4. Chapel of Savoy Palace, Strand (walls only) : temp. Henry VII. 



CHURCHES OF WREN. 307 

5. Chapel in St. Stephen's Cloister, Westminster Palace (entire) : temp. Henry VIII. 

6. Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace (much remodelled) : temp. Henry VIII. 

Except the fourth and last, which are not remarkable, these will 
also be found described in " Architecture" (pp. 127-140). 

III. Parish Churches that escaped the Fire, and remain vjholly or in part. 

1. St. Pancras, Somers Town (Norman; nearly all remodelled in 1848). 

2. St. Ethelburga's, Bishopsgate Street (some early Gothic fragments). 

3. St. Margaret's, Westminster (remodelled, except the pillars and arches). 

4. St. Bartholomew's the Less, in the Hospital (rebuilt, except one arch). 

5. St. Sepulchre, Newgate (the porch only). 

6. St. Giles's, Cripplegate (some external fragments). 

7. Allhallows, Barking, near the Tower (nearly entire). 

8. St. Olave, Hart Street, near the above (much remodelled by Wren). 

9. St. Helen's, Bishopsgate. 

10. St. Peter's, in the Tower (externally remodelled). 

11. St. Mary's, Lambeth. 

12. St. Andrew's Undershaft, Leadenhall Street. 

13. St. Catherine Cree, Leadenhall Street. 

Except the first three, these all belong to the very latest 
period of Gothicesque building, and contain little worth notice but 
the monuments. 

IV. Parish Churches burnt, and rebuilt by Wren. 

Within the walls of London, before the fire, the average extent of 
a parish was about three acres. Only about half the destroyed 
churches, therefore, were rebuilt, and almost every one now serves for 
two united parishes. Notwithstanding this, they stand so thick as 
to distinguish the original city, at a distance, by its dense crowd 
of steeples, and to mark its precise limits by their sudden cessation 
and violent contrast with the remaining parts of the metropolis, 
where the ugly modern imitations break the horizon only at wide 
intervals. A large public building, such as the Bank or Exchange, 
cannot be erected, in the city proper, without clearing off two or 
three churches ; and new streets can hardly be planned so as to avoid 
them. Their superabundance and the extreme smallness of their 
congregations arise from the fact, that the city, when they were 
built, contained six times its present population. From a city of 
convents it had become, in Wren s time, one of lodging-houses ; 
from which it has since passed into one of warehouses. From a 
dwelling it has become a mart, crowded indeed, in the day, but de- 
populated by night and on Sundays. Boxes, bales, and barrels have 
driven out their owners into the suburbs, and unfortunately they 
cannot carry their churches with them. 

We have arranged the following list of Wren's churches (all of 
which will repay inspection), together with the old ones worth seeing, 
in such an order that they may all be conveniently visited, in three 
circuits, without unnecessary waste of steps. The visitor in each 
case is supposed to enter the city from the west. 

I. — South Walk, starting from the Temple Church. Tudor 
Street. Earl Street. St. Anne's Hill. 1. St. Andrew's by the Wardrobe, 
a very plain work. Back to Thames Street. 2. St. Benedicts (com- 
monly Benet's), Paul's Wharf, one of the most successful of Wren's 
exteriors of the most unpretending class. Peter's Hill. Old Fish Street. 



308 LONDON. 

3. St. Mary Magdalen. Old Fish Street. 4. St. Nicholas. Old Fish 
Street Hill. Thames Street. 5. St. Mary Somerset, or Somer's-hythe. 
Thames Street. 6. St. Michael, Queenhithe. The fine carving about this 
church is by Grinling Gibbons. Thames Street. Garlick Hill. 7. St. 
James, Garlichhitlte, having one of the finest of Wren's campaniles 
of the tower class. Maiden Lane. 8. St. Michael Royal, or St. 
Michael, College Hill, another fine belfry of the same class. The 
predecessor of this building was founded as a collegiate church by 
the executors of the famous Lord Mayor Whittington, who was 
buried here. College Street. Dowgate Hill. Thames Street. 

9. Allhallows the Great. The carved oak screen in this church was 
presented, it is said, by some Hamburgh merchants. Thames Street. 

10. St. Magnus, having a fine and unique steeple, which, it was feared, 
would have to be sacrificed when the street (Fish Street Hill, which 
was the approach to Old London Bridge) was necessarily widened ; 
but Wren had foreseen the necessity, and so constructed the ground 
story that its sides could be easily opened, as we now see them, 
to admit the foot- way through it. In this church are the remains 
of Miles Coverdale, the first translator of a complete English Bible ; 
removed from a church that was destroyed to erect the Royal Ex- 
change, and brought here to the parish of which he was once rector; 
King William Street. 11. St. Clement's (near the bottom of Clement's 
Lane). Cannon Street. Abchurch Lane. 12. St. Mary A bchurchov 
Z7/?-church, which contains some excellent carving by Gibbons, and 
some paintings by Sir James Thornhill. Back to Cannon Street. 13. St. 
Swithins *, containing in its south front the celebrated " London 
Stone," supposed to have been a Roman milliary. It is a large mass 
nearly buried, the ground here having accumulated from 15 to 20 feet; 
at which depth mosaic pavements and other Roman remains are con- 
stantly found. Cannon Street. Walbrook. 14. St. Stephen s,Walbrook, 
the most celebrated and beautiful of Wren's churches (see pp. 1 92, 193), 
chiefly on account of its interior, but the exterior also would be elegant 
if exposed, and the belfry is very noticeable. Back to Cannon Street. 
Budge Row. 15. St. Anthonys (corruptly Antholins), a church in- 
geniously fitted to an irregular site, and having a very elegantly- 
planned interior. Watling Street. 16. St. Marys the Elder, or Alder- 
mary Church. This is a restoration by Wren of the former church, 
which was built by a citizen named Keble, who died in 1518. A 
Mrs. Rogers left 5000Z. towards the present building, on the con- 
dition of its being a copy of the old, which it very probably is in all 
except mere details and the omission of buttresses. We suspect, 
however, that Keble's church had them, and a real instead of a sham 
vaulting, as at the nearly contemporary churches of Bath Abbey, 
and RedclifF, Bristol. Basing Lane. Bread Street. 17. St. Mildred, 
Bread Street, having one of the neatest of Wren's plain towers, a 

* St. Swithin, hardly remembered now but as " clerk of the weather-office," was a pious 
bishop of Winchester, and tutor of no less a scholar than the great King Alfred. 



CHURCHES OF WREN. 309 

fine interior, and some good wood-carving. Back along Bread Street 
to Watling Street. 18. Allhallows, Bread Street, outside which is an 
inscription to the memory of Milton, who was born in this parish. Fri- 
day Street. 19. St. Matthew's. Back to Watling Street. 20. St. Austins 
(or Augustine's) named after the famous missionary (as a church at 
the other end of Old St. Paul's was named after his master St. Gregory). 
The steeple is admirably adapted to contrast with and give distance 
to the grand dome of the cathedral seen behind it. St. Paul's 
Churchyard, Ludgate Street. 21. St. Martins, Ludgate. The steeple 
is evidently designed with the same end as the last, and greatly en- 
hances the view of St. Paul's from Fleet Street, The interior is 
also well worthy of notice. Ludgate Hill. Fleet Street. 22. St. Bride's 
(or Bridget's). The interior is equally excellent in its kind with the 
celebrated steeple, and the east window is a fine specimen of modern 
glass-painting. Fleet Street. Temple Bar. 23. St. Clement Danes, 
which derives its name, according to some, from being the burial place 
of Harold. Various other reasons are given. The fire extended no 
further west than the Temple Church, which had a most narrow 
escape. St. Clement's, therefore, was not burnt, but age and decay 
led to its reconstruction in 1680, and Sir Christopher Wren gave his 
services gratuitously. An uncommon number of distinguished per- 
sons are buried here. 

II. — East Walk, starting from the Bank. 1. St. Mary Woolnoth, 
by Wren's pupil, Hawkesmoor, is a building of great merit both 
externally and internally (see p. 198), and contains much handsome 
wood-carving. Lombard Street. 2. St. Edmund's, named after the 
Saxon king " and martyr." Its front is well adapted to the situation 
opposite a narrow street. 3. Allhallows, Lombard Street. 4. St. Benet 
(or Benedict) Graeechurcli, properly Grasschurch^ " of the Herb 
Market there kept." It is curiously planned, like many other of 
Wren's churches, to fill every inch of an irregular site. Gracechurch 
Street. Eastcheap. Botolph Lane. 5. St. George's, Botolph Lane. 
George Lane. 6. St. Mary at Hill, which has been rebuilt since Wren's 
time, and retains only the east end as designed by him. Within is 
some fine recent wood-carving by Mr. Rogers. St. Mary's Hill. 
7. St. Margaret Pattens, named, like many of the city churches, after 
articles once sold in their vicinity. It contains some fine carving. 
Idol Lane. 8. St. Dunstans in the East. Only the tower of this 
church is by Wren. The remainder was rebuilt in 1817, in a more 
Gothic style as regards details, but lower, and with inferior propor- 
tions. Up St. Dunstans Hill. Great Tower Street. 9. Allhallows 
Barking, the most complete mediaeval parisb church remaining in 
London. It was formerly dependent on the Convent of Barking in 
Essex. The pillars and arcades are of two different periods, those 
towards the west apparently early Gothic, but devoid of elegance. 
The eastern front and outer walls are not earlier than Richard III., 
w r ho is said to have rebuilt the church, and attached to it a college 



310 LONDON. 

of priests. The east window has "been called in the jargon of cer- 
tain architectural antiquaries " late Decorated," which term (it is 
necessary for most readers to he informed) does not refer to the de- 
coration, hut simply to the date; "decorated" heing a technical 
term for all buildings (no matter how plain) erected in the age of 
the first three Edwards. But this window (notwithstanding the 
absence of vertical mullions in the head) will, we think, be referred 
by any careful observer of such works to no earlier date than 
Henry VII. The church contains some brass monumental tablets, 
but not elegant, being no older than the sixteenth century. Seeth- 
ing Lane. 10. St. Olaves, Hart Street, another church that escaped 
the fire, but has been much patched by Wren. Crutch ed Friars. 
Mark Lane. 11. Allh allows Staining. This also escaped the fire, but 
falling to ruin a few years later, was rebuilt, except the tower. 
Billiter Street. 12. St. Catherine Cree Church (a corruption of Christ 
Church), so called because it stood within the precincts of the great 
monastery of Christ-Church or Trinity, Aldgate. This very early 
Protestant Church is a specimen of " King James's Gothic," attri- 
buted by some to Inigo Jones. It was Laud's pompous consecration 
of this building that formed a chief ground of accusation against 
him. Leadenhall Street. 13. St. Andrew 's Under shaft, (from a May- 
pole that overtopped the former church, and was destroyed by the 
Puritans as " an Idol.") This very complete Tudor church dates 
from 1532. There are some curious monuments, the best and most 
interesting being that of Stow the historian of London. Lime 
Street, to Fenchurch Street. 14. St. Deny 's (or Dionysius), called Back 
Churchy from its position behind some houses, one of the poorest of 
Wren's works. Fenchurch Street. Gracechurch Street. 15. St. Peter's, 
Cornhill, one of his best, especially the interior. It is the only 
church in Loncfon, besides Allhallows in Thames Street (see above), 
that has a screen between the body and the chancel. This was put 
up by Bishop Beveridge, when rector here. Cornhill. 1 6. St. Michael's, 
Cornhill, remarkable for being about the best of Wren's imitations 
of the Gothic, especially in its tower, which is by no means similar 
to the old one (date 1421), of which a drawing is extant, but is 
much more artistic and original. Cornhill. Mansion House Street. 
17. St. Mildred's in the Poultry. 

III. — North Walk, starting from Holborn. 1 . St. Andrews, Holborn. 
This (like St. Clement Danes) was just too far west to be touched 
by the fire, but was yet found to require being rebuilt by Wren. 
It has nothing remarkable but a powerful organ, and a good modern 
glass-painting in the east window, by Price. Skinner Street. 2. St. 
Sepulchre, which (like St. Bride's), though outside the city walls, did 
not escape the fire, except its tower and porch. The latter is 
gravely said, in a work of the present century, to have had its outside 
"handsomely modernised" (!) Such is the power of fashion. The 
inside, we must infer, was thought ^handsomely antiquated. The 



CHURCHES OF WREN. 311 

remodelling of the tower and rebuilding of the rest are evidently 
too barbarous to be attributed to Wren, and there is said to be a print 
as late as 1736, representing the old Gothic church. Newgate 
Street. Christchurch Passage. 3. Christ Church, This is one of the 
very finest of Wren's works, whether we regard the steeple or tbe 
interior. The former, indeed, has been shorn of its graceful outline 
and all its picturesqueness by the removal of a few vases ; and the 
latter is painfully disfigured by some savage's chequer- work of co- 
loured glass, but not by the galleries, though they accommodate the 
whole 900 scholars of Christ's Hospital. How different from the 
wretched patchwork and hideous deformity found necessary in recent 
churches, whenever they are required to provide gallery room for a 
tithe of that number ! Back to Newgate Street. Cheapside. Foster 
Lane. 4. St. Vedast's, another fine and original steeple. Back to 
Cheapside. 5. St Mary le Bow^ or Bow Church, where the most 
splendid of all Wren's steeple compositions appropriately contains 
the finest and most celebrated bells in London, and graces a build- 
ing which, as Stow says, " for divers accidents happening there, hath 
been made more famous than any other parish church of the whole 
city or suburbs." The name is derived from the arches of the 
original structure, or of its crypt, which still exist, though so buried 
under the dust of nearly eight centuries as to form only the founda- 
tion of the present fabric. The Court of Arches also took its name 
from this apartment, which is now a pestiferous catacomb. It dates 
from soon after the Norman Conquest, and was the first arched or 
vaulted structure in London (by no means the first in England) "*, 
Such has been the accumulation that the deep foundations of the belfrv 
one of the most substantial, as well as beautiful, in existence) stand 
»n the pavement of a Roman road, the northern limit, as Wren 
hough t, of the city walled by Theodosius f. Cheapside. King 
treet. 6. St Lawrence, which has the richest exterior among 
Wren's churches, and was the most expensive of them, costing 
ll,870Z. The interior contains some fine wood-carving, and being 
ined with a Corinthian order on a large scale, is still perhaps the 
uost imposing one he has left, though sadly mutilated by the loss of 
he north aisle (which is inclosed and appropriated to some other 
purpose), and the erection of an ugly gallery to supply part of the 
oom thus lost. The plan of this building is said to represent the 
gridiron, but we cannot trace the resemblance. Gresham Street. Old 

* Stratford-le-Bow was similarly named after the bridge leading across the Lea into Essex, 
milt in the time of Henrv I. 

t The former "Bow Bell" was famous for releasing the London apprentices at 9 o'clock. 

'This Bell," says Stow, "being usually rung somewhat late, as seemed to the young men, 

irentices, and others in Cheap, they made and set up a rhyme against the clerk as followeth : — 

1 Clerke of the Bow Bell, with the yellow lockes, 

For thy late ringing thy head shall have knocks.' 

thereunto the clerk replying, wrote : — 

! Children of Cheape, hold you all still, 
For you shall have the Bow Bell rung at your will.' " 
The term Cockney (native of Cocaigne, or the land of gastronomy, a name anciently earned 
>y the city of London) is supposed to apply only to those born within the sound of Bow Bell. 



312 LONDON. 

Jewry. 7. St. Olave's, Jewry, one of the smallest and poorest of 
Wren's erections, and we believe almost the only one with a ceiling 
entirely flat. The variety of forms he gave to this most important 
part redeemed even the humblest of his other works from absolute 
meanness. Back to Gresham Street. Lothbury. 8. St. Margaret's, 
Lothbury, chiefly remarkable for a carved font by Grinling Gibbons, 
with allegorical figures on the cover, and three Scripture pieces 
below. Back to Gresham Street. Coleman Street. 9. St. Stephens, 
Coleman Street. Back to Gresham Street. Basinghall Street. 10. St. 
Michael's, Basinghall (corruptly Bassishaw), densely surrounded, 
and the only building of Wren's that shows a decided deficiency of 
foundation. St. Michael's Court. Aldermanbury. 11. St. Mar y's, Alder- 
manbury. Love Lane. 12. St. A Iban's, apparently a restoration of the 
former church, which was either rebuilt or repaired by Inigo Jones 
in 1632. If not a restoration it must be considered the best speci- 
men of Wren's Gothic. Wood Street (southward) to 13. St. Michael's, 
Wood Street. Huggin Lane. Gresham Street 14. St. Anne and Agnes, 
north of the Post Office, a square interior, similar to St. Martin's, 
Ludgate, and originally very symmetrical. Aldersgate Street. Little 
Britain. Duke Street. 15. St. Bartholomew's the Great, a remnant 
of Rahere's Priory church (see " Architecture," pp. 131-135). 

Of the more remarkable of Wren's churches it is observable that 
St. Mary le Bow, St. Lawrence, and St. Stephen's, Walbrook, were 
among the first designed ; — St. Vedast's, St. Bride's, Christ Church, 
and St. Magnus, among the last. The erection of the churches ex- 
tended from 1668 to 1705, but it does not appear that any were 
commenced later than 1680. 

All Wren's churches, fifty in number, replaced old ones, except St. 
James's, Westminster, which was a new parish taken out of St. 
Martin's, which had itself, in Henry VIII. 's time, been taken 
out of St. Margaret's, and was yet to be the parent of several, 
each larger than the whole original city. Except this, and St. 
Clement Danes, they are all within the city as now defined, and with 
the further exception of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and St. Bride's, 
were all within the walls of the city proper. Six of Wren's churches 
have now disappeared, viz. : — St. Christopher's le Stocks (destroyed 
for the enlargement of the Bank), St. Bartholomew's (for that of the 
Exchange), St. Michael's, Crooked Lane (for the clearing of King 
William Street), St. Benet Finch to afford a site for a building not 
yet commenced ; and St. Mary at Hill and St. Dunstan's in the 
East (except its tower) have been rebuilt on new designs. 

V. Churches that escaped the Fire, but have been rebuilt since. 

Besides the group of old churches above mentioned, still standing in 
the east end of the city, all those situated along its northern boundary 
escaped, but were, in the last century, rebuilt with excessive mean- 
ness and parsimony of thought. These are, beginning from the east, 



CHURCHES. 313 

— St. Botolph's, Aldgate ; St. James's, Duke's Place, Aldgate ; St. 
Botolph's, Bishopsgate ; Allhallows, London Wall ; St. Alphage, 
London Wall; St. Giles's, Cripplegate (partly burnt and patched up); 
St. Botolph's, Aldersgate ; St. Bartholomew's the Great, and the 
Less; St. Sepulchre's; and St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street (rebuilt in 
handsome modern Gothic in 1831-3). Four churches also in the 
heart of the city were so little injured as to admit of patching, viz. : 
St. Catherine Coleman, Fenchurch Street ; St. Mary's Woolnoth ; 
St. Peter le Poor, Broad Street; and St. Martin Outwich, at the 
junction of Threadneedle and Bishopsgate Streets. The second of 
these Hawkesmoor replaced in 1716, by a beautiful erection 
already mentioned with those of Wren, as one of the admiranda. 
The others have been rebuilt by later artists, and contain nothing 
remarkable. The following are the churches rebuilt since Wren's 
time throughout the metropolis. Those marked Conv., replace con- 
ventual churches ; and those with an asterisk will repay inspection 
as architectural works. 

Old St. Luke's, Chelsea. Chiefly in the 17th I St. Mary's, Islington. 1751-4. L. Dowbiggin. 

century. Allhallows, London Wall. 1765. Dance, jun. 

St. Mary Magdalen 's,Bermondsey. [Conv.) 1680. ! St. Mary's, Whitechapel. 
St. Margaret's, Westminster. 1682, and at : St, Mary's, Kensington. 

various later dates. , St. Mary's, Battersea. 1776. 

St. Giles's, Cripplegate. At various times. , St. Alphage, London Wall. 1777- Dance, jun. 
St. Thomas's, Southwark. 1702. I St. Bartholomew's, in the Hospital. (Pseudo- 

St. Marv's, Rotherhithe. 1714-15. Gothic). 1789. Dance. 

*St. Mary's Woolnoth, City. 1716. By Hawkes- St. Botolph's, Aldersgate. 1790. Dance. 

moor. St. Peter's le Poor, Broad Street, City. 1790. 

^Christ Church, Spitalfields. (Coiiv.) Hawkes- I J. Gibson. 

moor. j St. Mary's, Paddington. 1788-91. 

St. John's, Clerkenwell. (Conv.) 1723. St. James's, Clerkenwell. [Conv.) 1788-92. 

*St. Martin's, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, j St. Paul's, Covent Garden (Jones's Church). 



1721-6. Gibbs. , 1795. Hardwicke, sen. 

St. James's, Duke's Place, Aldgate. 1727. ! St. Martin's Outwich, Threadneedle Street. 

*St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate. 1725-8. James Gold, j 1796. Cockerell, sen. 
St. Catherine Coleman," Fenchurch Street. 1734. ! St. Augustine's, Hacknev. 1798. 
St. Giles's, Bloomsburv. 1734. Flitcroft. *St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street. 1830-33. Shaw. 

St. Olave's, Tooley Street, Southwark. Flit- St. Saviour's, Southwark. [Conv.) 1840. The 

croft. nave only. 

St. Sepulchre, Newgate. St. Margaret's Chapel (now Christ Church), 

St. George's, Southwark. 1733-6. Broadway, Westminster. 1843. 

Christ Church, Blackfriars Road, Surrev. 1737- ; St. Pancras', Somers Town. (Pseudo-Norman.) 
*St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. 1740. Dance, sen. j 1848. 
St. Botolph's, Aldgate. 1741-4. Dance, sen. j 

Thus, out of thirty-eight old structures (all except four, anterior 
to the Reformation), some displaying the genuine splendour of the 
monastic architecture, and nearly all containing that abundance of 
refined thought by which the medieval builders endeavoured to 
glorify God with the best of all He had given them ; out of all these, 
only six have been replaced by buildings with any claim whatever 
to be considered works of thought. Shame would now gladly draw 
a veil over the rest of these disgraceful productions. It has been 
well asked, who could ever have anticipated in any previous stage 
of church architecture, and especially of its ancient glory in this 
country, that, in the nineteenth century, an English church would 
come to mean four screens of plastered brick, covered by about an 
eighth of an acre of plastered laths ? To such a pitch did the con- 

p 



314 LONDON. 

stant pursuit of an object the direct reverse of art (viz. — economy 
of thought), at length reach. It is not the economy of handiwork in 
these buildings that offends us, for some of the Norman churches 
have nearly as little; and the ever-esteemed St. Sophia quite as 
little in proportion to its size. Still less is it their economy of 
material (a quality distinguishing the works of nature, and therefore 
a beauty in temples to the Author of nature). No, with all their 
parsimony, these frail tottering erections have no economy of matter, 
for, as a late architect calculated, about a fourth of what they contain 
is always useless burthen, and another fourth employed in supporting 
that burthen ; — and the same author truly observed, " w r hat a shame 
is it to man, to pile up in a rude coarse crazy and unhandsome 
manner, the good materials with which Providence has blessed him, 
to mar them by folly and ignorance [wilful ignorance in order to 
save thought] and to call such an assemblage of mal-formation 
a temple !" To object to these buildings for their fancied plainness 
is a double error: first, because plainness has no necessary connection 
with ugliness or profanity in building (as the Norman and Byzantine 
examples above mentioned prove); and, secondly, because these odious 
works are the reverse of plain. Plain ! — why everything visible 
in them is ornament. What is the ceiling ? — what are its hanging 
mouldings and lumps of plaster ? — what are the walls and all other 
surfaces? — what are the sham stone? — the sham marbles, the 
sham oak ? — What is every feature and appearance in the exterior ? 
— the mode of arranging the bricks * to hide the real structure, the 
mode of counterfeiting in the windows the appearance of holes, 
the mode of disguising how the wall above them is supported, the 
mode of hiding the roof or its commencement, by keeping it behind 
the wall ; and yet adding a sham cornice to counterfeit the effect of 
its projecting over ? If all these things be not ornaments, what is 
their use ? We assert that these hideous preaching-boxes are more 
ornamented than Henry VII/s chapel, for their real structure is en- 
tirely hidden by ornament, within and without. 

With the present century came the next change in church building; 
from the bricklayer's mock packing-case to the architect's mock 
temple and mock minster. Both the pseudo-Greek and the pseudo- 
Gothic treatments appeared about the same time, though the former 
held for some years nearly undisputed sway. Our next list of 
churches will contain most of its productions. 

In this as the former list, the buildings near the beginning 
exhibit the final stage of church architecture properly so called; the 
body of the list being chiefly composed of the anti-artistic meeting- 
houses of the reign of George II. and III. ; and the end of it 
showing the rise and progress of the new substitute for art, the 
histrionic representation of past productions. The seventy or eighty 
years absolutely without church architecture, form indeed a fit and 

* Technically, the "Flemish bond facing." 



CHURCHES. 



315 



necessary pause between the last lingering vestiges of the reality 
and the gradual appearance of its counterfeit. 

VI. Churches of New Parishes and Districts formed since the Fire, including 
those built by Queen Anne's Commissioners, but not those built by the aid of 
her Majesty's present Commission. 



Name and Situation. 


Mother Parish. 


Style, Date, Architect, &c. 


*St. James's, Piccadilly 




1680. Wren. 




1686. Hakewill, sen. 


*St. Mary's le Strand 


St. Clement Danes' 

St. Margaret's 

St. Martin's..., 

Stepney 

Whitechapel 

St. Giles's 


1714-17. Gibbs. 
1721-8. Archer. 
1724. Gibbs. 
1730. Hawkesmoor. 
1729. Hawkesmoor. 


♦St. George's, Hanover Square ........ 

St. George's in the East 

St. Anne's, Limehouse 

*St. George's, Hart St., Bloomsbury 

St. Luke's, Old Street 

St. George's, Queen Sq., Bloomsbury 

St. John's, Gt. James St., Bedford Row. . 
Providence Chapel, Gray's Inn Lane 


Cripplegate 

St. Andrew's, Holborn 

St. Andrew's, Holborn 

St. Andrew's, Holborn 


1733. 
1736. 


Bedford Chapel, New Oxford Street 


St. G eorge 's , Bloomsbury. . 
St. Pancras' 


Remodelled 1844. 


Curzon Chapel, Mav Fair 


St. George's, Hanover Sq. . . 
Marylebone 




Foley Chapel, Portland Road 


1766. 


Fitzroy Chapel, London St., Fitzroy Sq. . . 

Bayswater Chapel, Oxford Road 

Portman Chapel, Baker Street 


St. Pancras' 




Paddington 




Marylebone 




Margaret Chapel, Margaret Street 

St. Peter's, Vere Street, Oxford Street 


Marylebone 




Marvlebone 




Quebec Chapel, Quebec Street 


Marvlebone 




Brunswick Chapel, Upper Berkeley St.. . 
*New Marylebone Church, New Road. . 
West Street Chapel, Seven Dials 


Marylebone 




Marylebone 


1813-17. Hardwicke, sen. 


St. Giles's. 


St. Martin's 




York Street Chapel, St. James's Sq 

Charlotte Street Chapel, Pimlico 

Trinity Chapel, Conduit Street .... 

St. Mary's Chapel, Park Street 

Abp. Tenison's Chapel, Regent Street . . 
St. James's Chapel, Hampstead Road. . . . 
Christ Church, Paradise Row 






St. George's, Hanover Sq. . 
St. George's, Hanover Sq.. 
St. George's, Hanover Sq. . 
St. George's, Hanover Sq. . 
Pancras 




Chelsea 




St. Saviour's, Turk's Row 


Chelsea 




All Saints', Poplar 

*St. John's, Clapham Road 

*New St. Pancras', New Road 


Limehouse 


1817. 


Clapham 


Pancras 


Ditto. 1819-22 Inwood. 


St. Paul's, Shadwell 

St. Peter's, Trafalgar Sq., Walworth. .. . 

Holy Trinitv, New Road 

St. Paul's, Deptford 


Stepney 

Newington 

Marvlebone 

Deptford 


1821. Walters. 
1823-5. Soane. 
Soane. 


St. John's, Waterloo Road 


Lambeth 


1823-4. Bedford. 


St. Mark's, Kennington Common 

Christ Church, Albany St., Regent's Park 

St. Peter's, Eaton Square, Pimlico 

All Saints', Caledonian Road 

*St. Katherine's, Regent's Park 

St. Peter's, River Lane, Islington * 

St. George's, Battersea 


Lambeth 




Pancras 


Soane. 


St. George's, Hanover Sq. . 

Islington 

Pancras 


Pseudo-Grecian. 1826. 

Pseudo-Gothic. 

Ditto. 1827. Povnter. 


Islington 


Ditto. 1835. Barry, R.A. 
Ditto. 1845. 


Battersea 


*St. John's, Notting Hill, Oxford Road. . 
All Saints', Westminster Road 




Ditto. 1845. 


Lambeth . 




*St. Michael's, Chester Sq., Pimlico 

♦St. Stephen's, Rochester Row, West- 
minster 


St. George's, Hanover Sq.. 

St. John's, Westminster. . 
St. Paul's, Knightsbridge . 
St. John's, Westminster. . 


Gothic. 1847. 

Ditto. 1848-50. Ferrey. 
Ditto. 1849. 


St. Barnabas', Pimlico 


♦ (Unconsecrated), Vauxhall Bridge 


Ditto. 1851. (Unfinished.) 



Among these buildings, those marked with an asterisk are worth 
inspection, externally at least, though but very few, indeed, of 
them have any pretension to internal design. This is especially the 
case with the earlier ones, or those of Wren's successors, for, as 
already observed, beauty, at length driven out of the churches, still 
lingered awhile on their exterior, among the cumbrous superfluities 

p 2 



316 LONDON. 

that represented the features of classic building. Some of these 
works, (as St. Martins, St. John's, Westminster, and Greenwich 
Church,) were very costly, and Walpole observed of St. Mary-le- 
Strand, that it was "more creditable to the piety than the taste of the 
nation;" which was true enough of all Queen Anne's churches, if 
piety be displayed by money rather than by expenditure of thought 
and love of truth, which is a question admitting of doubt. The 
conspicuous situation of St. Martin s has rendered it a favourite and 
the best known of these buildings ; but St. George's, Hanover Square, 
displays in almost every part more genuine taste. St. George's, 
Bloomsbury, has a finer portico than either of them, but little else 
to admire (see Architecture^ p. 199). The visitor should not neglect 
the exterior (only, for the interior is excessively poor) of St. John's, 
Westminster, which is noble in its general form and arrangement, 
though disfigured in the detail by conceits more false and corrupt 
than this country ever saw before or since, till within the last few 
years*. 

With regard to the buildings towards the end of the list, or those 
belonging to the age of mimic architecture, whether representing 
Grecian or mediaeval patterns, one description will apply to them 
and to those in the next and last catalogue. 

VII. Churches Erected wholly or partly by the present Church- 
building Commission (for List, see pp. 320, 321). 

It will be seen from the whole of this and the latter part of the 
previous list, that, in the present century, our church building has 
at length become a mere matter of scenic representation; first of Grecian 
and then of mediaeval building ; a mere art of manufacturing mock- 
antiques. This fact cannot be more prominently displayed than in 
the authoritative documents whence our last table is compiled — the 
annual reports of the Church-building Commissioners. Besides the 
date on which each building is begun or finished, they state, in 
another column of their schedule, the date of its "style and charac- 
ter," i.e.) the precise period in which (to borrow an expression from 
other works of fiction) " the scene is laid" in what century, from 
the eleventh to the fifteenth, in what reign, sometimes even in what 

* The criticism copied into every account of this church, we believe since its erection, is a 
capital instance of what, in England, passes for taste. It has been the fashion to say nothing 
of its abominable details, but object to its really fine form, as "resembling a parlour table upset, 
with its legs in the air." The resemblance consists in having four summits — " There is a river 
in Macedon ; and there is moreover also a river at Monmouth " — There are four legs to a 
table, and four turrets to St. John's; but further than this we cannot conceive what inverted 
table could bear the most distant likeness to this building (though most modern tables 
would certainly very closely represent the cornice, parapet, and pinnacles of the stereotyped 
Anglo-Gothic church tower; but of this resemblance we hear nothing). As for the principle I 
of the objection, it is obvious that, if it be worth anything, St. Paul's and all domes must | 
be at once condemned as resembling inverted basins ; all the Gothic spires, as resembling I 
extinguishers; all columns, as resembling posts; and, in short, all straight-lined objects must I 
be banished for resemblance to furniture, and all curved ones for resemblance to pottery. I 
Even if those forms only which other arts have borrowed from architecture are to be forth- I 
with abandoned by her (as fashionists abandon a garb when it has descended to the vulgar) , I 
what refuge remains ? and what becomes of truth in design if novelty is to be the main object ? I 
Meanwhile, the result of a total absence of real criticism is that the richest city in the world I 
erects, and (what is worse) boasts of, such works as the Coal Exchange. 



CHURCHES. 317 

year. And, as, in a playbill, we have first tbe name of each charac- 
ter, and then that of the actor ; so, in the programme of this stone 
masquerade, there comes first the date of the building to be repre- 
sented, and then of that which is to represent. 

With regard to the success of this new kind of art, the first great 
experiment, that of mimic Hellenism, carried on for many years at 
vast expense, is now universally regarded as a failure. The imitations 
of the most sublimely beautiful productions human art has ever 
achieved or is likely to achieve, are now shunned by all for their 
intense ugliness *. Whether the second experiment, that now in 
process upon medievalism, succeeds any better, the next generation 
must decide; for the experience of all fashion seems to show that we 
have now no means of knowing what is beautiful or what ugly, till 
it has gone out of fashion. The detection of the true causes of 
failure in the Grecian experiment might be supposed (since we may 
readily see that the very same causes must operate on the Gothic) to 
afford some clue to a right anticipation of the character our present 
works will permanently bear. But no ; we cannot " see ourselves as 
others see us." Omnipotent fashion learns nothing from experience, 
but must have her course, though it cover the land with monuments 
that our children will hide for shame. 

The " Grecian " churches make no attempt to imitate more than 
the exterior of a temple ; for, in the interior, as in every other part 
for which no pattern remains, the English designer is of course left 
to his own resources; and his utter impotence the moment the 
Greeks desert him necessarily appears in every feature of use (as 
distinguished from disguise\ from a window-bar to a bell-tower, and 
from a pew-door to the whole interior ensemble, which accordingly 
differs in no way from the bricklayer's chapels of the last century, 
being simply a cell inclosed by five plastered planes, and encumbered 
with the packing-boxes called galleries, hanging without visible 
support or propped on iron rods. It has been well observed that these 
interiors, by their low proportion and vast inverted floor overhead, 
seem to aim at an expression exactly the reverse of all former 

* And instead of drawing thence the true conclusion, that the so-called "copies" were no 
copies at all, but only apish mimes, some of the nation disgraced by them actually think to throw 
the blame on the originals themselves ! Englishmen, of all men" in the world, are the first to 
have the ridiculous audacity to condemn Grecian art ! To perceive the supreme richness of 
this farce we must remember that to the Greeks belonged the unique power of producing, in 
architecture (as in their literature and other arts), things fashion-proof— ridicule proof— things 
that, amid all the changes of 2000 years, whether neglected or admired, have never been laughed 
at ; never, like the fashions of ye'sterday, become quaint or antiquated; while to the modern 
English belongs the no less peculiar talent of erecting things whose premature celebrity may be 
trumpeted through the world, and yet not survive their own completion ; things the idols of one 
generation, and the laughing-stocks of the next. To the former alone did it pertain to erect 
things that the rest of the world, without exception, should admire even to mimicry ; to the 
latter alone to mimic the works of every other age and clime, and fail ridiculously in every case, 
confess ourselves beaten at every point, plead our poverty in every comparison, even with the 
works of poor savages, and, in all our search after styles, to find not one so poor, so cheap, so 
easy, that we may rival it ; not one that we can do more than "limp after in base imitation." 
Thus ancient Greece and modern England are exact antipodes in the world of art ; and when, 
on such criteria as St. Pancras and the outside of the British Museum, we presume to blame the 
Greek architecture, it is as if some Japanese, having failed in an attempt to copy a Maudslay's 
engine, should pretend to condemn our physical science. We, forsooth, to set the Greeks ri^ht 
in taste ! This is teaching our grandmother indeed ! 



318 LONDON. 

temples, and, instead of raising, to prostrate the eye and mind into 
the dust. 

New St. Pancras (which was erected at an expense somewhat ex- 
ceeding that of the seven most costly of Wren's churches) is the type 
of these curious monuments; and was meant to represent the Athenian 
triple group of temples to Minerva Polias, Erectheus, and Pandrosus ; 
but with the former enlarged sufficiently to hold a preaching-room ; 
with the two latter (as they are mere ornamental excrescences) made 
to correspond ; with the addition of a steeple dressed with columns 
from the porch of another Athenian building ; and with the omission, 
of course, of the sculptures, except those subordinate carvings (meant 
as a supporting accompaniment) which, from their repetition, ad- 
mitted of being cast by the hundred in artificial stone. These at- 
tracted much attention during its erection, but a London atmosphere 
destroys all the illusion of Grecian scenery in a few months. It is 
to be regretted that the open air should have been chosen for such 
an exhibition (cramped, too, by the requirements of a modern build- 
ing), and so much stone spent in showing us what might have been 
both far more perfectly and more permanently displayed by a little 
canvas and paint. The interior is treated as in the rest of these 
structures. The discredit of all these edifices is unjustly given to 
their architects. For all the shams about them we are indebted to 
the Greeks, and for all the realities to the joiners. 

Nearly cotemporary with this, the most extravagant of the pseudo- 
Grecian buildings, was new St. Luke's, Chelsea, one of the first of the 
pseudo-Gothic, and the most costly of them in London, excepting, per- 
haps, that lately finished by the liberality of a single individual, in Ro- 
chester Row, Westminster. Between the erection of the first and 
the last, there have been considerable changes of fashion : improve- 
ment, of course, in the correctness with which details are imitated ; 
and also a general tendency to recede from the latest to the earliest 
varieties of Gothic ; chiefly from a most mistaken notion that the 
earlier and simpler are more capable of being cheapened to meet 
modern parsimony, forgetting that a main element of their simplicity 
is their real pretenceless elaboration ; forgetting, too, their lofty, noble, 
and costly proportions, for want of which our humble imitations 
(retaining the exact forms of the old roofs) are recognised at once 
by the intensely shabby peculiarity of being nearly all slated roof; 
not the only peculiarity that, while thought too mean in a stable, is 
considered appropriate to temples. Another most marked feature 
of the latest fashion is what may be called the disuniting or patch- 
work principle, which we confidently affirm to be the greatest 
novelty that has ever appeared in architecture. It is carried out by 
breaking the exterior into as many parts and as irregularly grouped 
as the internal unity of purpose will possibly permit, and making no 
two of equal height, or with any horizontal correspondence of their 
lines ; for such correspondence (which w r as always hitherto practised 



CHURCHES. 319 

in all temple-building) is sure to give an idea of unity, which is the 
very reverse of what we want. Two reasons may be found for this i 
] st, because it is notorious that the structures most favourable to 
the painter's art are ruined or patched ones ; and hence when this 
art became more nourishing than architecture, and the difference of 
a better or a worse building was considered of less moment than 
whether it would make a better or a worse picture, these picturesque 
qualities (of patchiness, dirt, irregularity, &c.) came to be esteemed 
in stone as well as on canvas, and (being inconvenient in other 
structures) to be, by a sort of inverse symbolism, specially consecrated 
to the house of the Holy, Undivided, and Equal. In furtherance of 
which principle, we would suggest that every new church should 
have its officers selected from the most picturesque cripples to be 
found, and that no sexton be without a wooden leg. But, 2ndly, it 
may be traced to the nature of modern art, which, as we have seen, 
is representative or deceptive, and has its merit measured by the 
difficulty of the representation, or rather the difference of the thing 
represented from that which represents. Hence it is an object that 
old things should look new, and new, old ; that many littles should 
pass for one great, and one great for many little. A row of houses, 
being several and mean, how can art be shown but in making them 
appear one palace ? So also a church, being one thing and naturally 
uniform, must be made to seem multiform and a group of things. 
Otherwise, where would be the art?— where the deception? — for 
these words are synonymous in England. 

Descending from the whole, to the two great divisions or classes of 
parts, those of use and those of ornament (or those to be concealed 
and those meant to conceal them), we find the two systems quite as 
independent, as mutually adverse and jarring, in this present fashion, 
as in any former one, or rather more so ; while the loss is much 
more on the side of the realities (sacrificed to the disguises) than it 
ever was before. Indeed, the long exhausting war between the two 
parties of architectonic members, the disguisers and the disguised, 
seems now turning quite against the latter, to judge from the number 
that have disappeared, the piteous appearance of the few that dare 
show themselves (galleries for instance, now vastly more clumsy and 
ugly than even in the Georgian or Bricklayers' era) ; and the over- 
grown triumphant air of their antagonists ; frequently, half the 
ground, and more than half the money, being shared between a bell- 
less belfry that, at one end 

"Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies," 

and a sham Lady-chapel, that, at the other end, serves to make part of 
the service inaudible ; there remains not enough of either material to 
make the pitiful nave between them hold its small appointed number 
without these hideous remedies. 

On the whole, w r hile the imitation of the peculiarities of plan in 



320 



LONDON. 



the mediaeval Romish churches (or rather groups of chapels) — gene- 
rally carried to an exaggerated degree of disunion, lengthiness and 
incompactness — prevents any of these structures (whatever their 
intended capacity) from really serving for more than about 500 
hearers (thus rendering about six churches necessary where one 
might suffice), the superfluities required only for the purpose of 
disguise (as sham belfries and steeples, mock-chancels, mock-but- 
tresses, &c.) are more vast, cumbrous, and costly than any employed 
before (even in the Grecian sham temples) ; so that few, even of 
those adverse to medievalism, have any idea of that which perhaps 
is the only circumstance capable of putting an end to this evil, the 
prodigious expense of this most refined and elaborate mode of dis- 
gracing ourselves and dishonouring Heaven. 

List of Churches and Chapels built in the Diocese of London by the Commis- 
sioners for building New Churches, 



Parish or Place. 



Stepney 

Westminster, St. James 

Chelsea, St. Luke 

Hackney 

Marylebone (Wyndham Place) . . 
Marylebone (Langham Place) . . 

Old Street, St. Luke 

Pancras (Regent Square) 

Pan eras (Somers Town) 

Marylebone (Stafford Street) . . 

Hanover Square (St. George, 
Regent Street). 

Clerkenwell 

Hanover Square (St. George, 

South Audley Street). 
Hanover Square (St. George, 

Pimlico). 
Marylebone (Portland Road) .. . 

Shoreditch ( Hoxton) 

Shoreditch (Haggerstone) 

Bethnal Green 

Chelsea (Hans Town, Sloane 

Street). 
Edmonton (Winchmore Hill) . . 
Hanover Square (St. George, 

North Audley Street). 
Hoiborn (St. Andrew, Saffron 

Hill). 

Highgate 

Kensington (Brompton) 

Marylebone (Portland Road) .. . 

Old Street, St. Luke 

St. George in the East (Watney 

Street). 
St. Martin in the Fields (Bur- 
leigh Street). 
Bethnal Green (St. Matthew) . . 

Fulham (Hammersmith) 

Fulham (Walham Green) 

Islington (Ball's Pond) 

Islington (Cloudesley Square) 
Islington (Holloway) 



Style of the Building. 



Gothic : 

Grecian Doric, with cupola . . 
Gothic, with tower and porches. 
Doric, with portico and cupola . 
Ionic, with portico and tower . . 
Grecian, the lower order Ionic, 

the upper Corinthian. Portico 

and spire. 
Roman Ionic, steeple and por- 
tico. 
Grecian Ionic, with portico and 

tower. 
Gothic, with tower and pin 

nacles. 
Roman, of the Ionic order, with 

portico and cupola. 
Ionic, of the temple of Minerva 

Polias at Prieni, two belfries, 

portico, and cupola. 

Gothic, with tower 

Grecian Ionic, with turrets . . . 

Grecian 

Gothic 

Grecian Ionic, with tower 

Gothic, with tower 

Grecian, with tower 

Gothic, with two small towers 
j and spires. 

i Gothic, with bell turret . . . 
\ Grecian Ionic, with turrets 

Gothic, with turret and vaults. . 

Gothic, with tower and spire . . 

Grecian 

Norman, with two towers 

Gothic, with turret spire 



Grecian, with tower 

Grecian Doric, with tower 

Gothic, with tower 

Gothic, with tower 

Gothic, with turrets 

Gothic, with tower 



Accom- 
modation. 


Esti- 
mate. 


1338 
1500 
2005 
1828 
1828 
1761 


16,500 
20,000 
19,514 


1608 


15,065 


1832 


16,528 


1985 


14,291 


1844 


19,743 


1580 




1622 
1500 


14,383 


1657 




2000 
1732 
1700 
2000 
1402 


23,800 
14,920 
12,998 
17,309 
7,025 


560 
1610 


4,306 


1783 


10,490 


1557 
1250 
2000 
2000 
1249 


8,000 
21,829 
5,685 


934 


5,534 


2000 
1601 
1370 
1793 
2009 
1782 


18,003 
12,975 
9,683 
11,205 
12,143 
11,613 



Cost. 



15,302 
18,746 
17,633 



12,853 
16,025 
13,580 
17,872 

14,350 



14,270 
12,980 

5,849 

3,843 

9,004 

8,330 

21,525 

6,028 

5,302 

17,638 
12,223 
9,669 
10,947 
11,535 
11,890 



CHURCHES. 
List of Churches and Chapels — continued. 



32J 



Parish or Place. 



Kensington (Addison Road) . .. 

Kensington (Brompton) 

Heston, Hounslow 



Style of the Building. 



Accom- 
modation 



Tottenham 

St. Botolph, Bishopsgate (Skin- 
ner Street). 

West Ham, Plaistow 

Barking, Ilford 

Hampton Wick 

Paddington 

St. Giles, Queen Street 

St. George, Bloomsbury (Wo- 
burn Square. 

Clerkenwell (Sharp Square) 

Cheshunt 

West Ham, Stratford 

Westminster, St. John's (Vincent 
Square). 

St, Andrew, Holborn (Gray's Inn 
Road). 

St. Bride's, Fleet Street (Pem- 
berton Row). 

St. James, Westminster (Ber- 
wick Street). 

Great Ilford (Barking Side) 

Upper Chelsea (Hans' Place) . . 

Bethnal Green (St. Peter's Cha-, 
pel) (Bonner's Hall). 

Bethnal Green (St. Andrew's) . . 

Bethnal Green (Friar's Mount) . . 



Gothic, with four cupolas 

Gothic, with tower 

Gothic, with turrets and dwarf 
spires. 

Gothic, with four turrets j 

Gothic 

Gothic, with turrets and belfry . 

Gothic, with tower and spire \ 

Gothic, with lanthorn 

Gothic, with belfry 

Gothic, with turret and spire 
Gothic, with tower and spire. . 



Gothic, with belfry , 

Gothic, with belfry , 

Gothic, with tower and spire . . 
Gothic, with steeple 



Grecian, with tower. 



Gothic, with tower . 
Gothic, with belfry . 



Norman, with belfry 

Norman " 

Norman, with tower and spire. . 



(Lombard, with tower and belfry 
i Norman, with two low cam- 
paniles. 
Norman, with tower and spire. . 
Gothic, with tower 



Bethnal Green (St. James) , 

Hanover Square (St. George's 

Wilton Place. 
Bethnal Green, St. Bartholo-^ Gothic, 13th century 

mew's Chapel. 

Paddington 

Westminster (St. Margaret) 

Broadway. 
Cliiswick (Turnham Green) . . . 



Gothic, with tower and spire 
Gothic 



Chelsea (Kensal Green) 

St. Giles in the Fields (Bel ton 

Street). 

Kensington (Norlands) 

Rickmansworth (West Hyde) . . 
Bethnal Green (St. Jude's 

Church). 

Hackney, South 

Halstead (Essex) 

Paddington 

Hackney, Homerton 

St. Marylebone (Hamilton Ter- 
race), "Christ Church district. 

St. Marylebone (Wall Street), 
All Souls district. 

Whitechapel 

Bethnal Green, St. Matthew's, 

(St. Matthias D.). 
Paddington (Cambridge Street). 

Greenwich, East 

Islington | Highbury) 

St. Pancras (Camden Road 

Villas). 
Bethnal Green (St. Matthew), 

district of St, Thomas. 
Hammersmith (Shepherd's! Gothic, of the 14th centurv . . . 

Bush). | 



Early English, with tower and: 

spire. 
Anglo Norman, with two small 

towers. 
Gothic, with spire 

Gothic, with tower and spire . . 

Norman, with tower 

Romanesque, with tower 

Gothic, with tower and spire . . I 
Gothic, with tower and spire . . j 
Perpendicular Gothic,with tower 

and spire. 

Gothic, with tower j 

Decorated Gothic, with tower 

and spire. 
Perpendicular Gothic, withtower ' 

and spire. 
Early English Gothic, with 

tower at south-west angle. 
Romanesque, with tower and 

spire. 

Gothic, with bell turret 

Gothic, with tower 

Gothic, with tower and spire 

Decorated of the 14th century, 

with tower and spire. 
Early English, 12th century 



1330 
1505 
1035 

801 
1200 

584 
851 
800 
1439 
1980 
1526 

1106 
572 
850 

1219 

1524 

1100 

1545 

466 
1188 
1130 

1091 
1112 

1133 
1520 

1058 

1616 
1500 

930 

580 

1000 

759 
314 
1000 

1507 
7<»3 
1617 

607 
1454 

1200 

1006 

893 

1400 
1333 
732 
1189 



632 



Esti- 
mate. 



5,310 

5,250 
5,578 

3,735 
4,554 
4,352 
8,529 
9,507 
8,140 

4,541 

3,549 
8,745 
5,000 

6,944 

4,000 

7,047 



7,893 



10,3/9 



4,845 



5,436 



5,145 
5,400 
6,837 

4,950 

4,941 

p 3 



322 



LONDON. 



List of Churches and Chapels — continued. 



Parish or Place. 



Style of the Building. 



Accom- 
modation. 


Esti- 
mate. 


1308 


8,798 


500 


2,900 


841 


4,580 


1425 
1209 


9,750 
7,150 



Cost. 



Westminster, St. Margaret, 

(Ermismore Gardens). 
Brompton (St. Mary's Church), 

West Brompton. 
Charlton District of St. Thomas, 

Woolwich. 
St. Pancras, Haverstock Hill . 
Westminster (St. John's), Great 

Peter Street. 



Italian, of the 14th and 15th cen- 
tury. 
Gothic, of the 14th century 

Romanesque, of the 11th cen- 
tury. 

Gothic 

Gothic, of the 14th century 



Her Majesty's Commissioners for building new churches for such parts of England requiring 
the same, report, July 29, 1850, that in the whole, 470 churches have been completed, and pro- 
vision made for 498,066 persons, including 291,190 free seats, appropriated to the use of the poor, 
and, additionally, that 32 churches are now in the course of building. Of Protestant Episco- 
palian Chapels there are 84. 

Of Baptist Chapels there are 69; of Independents, 79 ; of Irvingites, 3; New Christian or 
New Jerusalam Church, 3; Scotch Church and Scotch Secession, 13; Wesleyans, 46; of 
other Dissenters there are 31 Chapels. 



Roman Catholic Churches and Chapels in London and Vicinity. 



The City. 
St. Mary's, Moorflelds. 

St. Boniface, Great St. Thomas Apostle, Bow 
Lane, Cheapside. 

Eastward. 
St. John the Baptist, Hackney. 
SS. Mary and Michael's, Ratcliffe Highway. 

Central. 
Sardinian Chapel, Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn 

Fields. 
SS. Peter and Paul's, Upper Rosamond Street, 

Clerkenwell. 
St. Patrick, Sutton Street, Soho. 

Westward. 
Bavarian Chapel, Warwick Street, Golden 

Square. 
Spanish Chapel, Spanish Place, Manchester 

Square. 
French Chapel, Little George Street, King 

Street, Portman Square. 
Farm Street, Berkeley Square (Jesuits). 
St. Philip Neri, King William Street, Strand. 

Westminster. 
St. Mary's, Romney Terrace, Marsham Street. 

Western Vicinity. 
Chelsea Chapel, St. Mary's, Cadogan Terrace, 

Sloane Street. 
Kensington, Holland Street. 
Hammersmith, No. 8, King Street. 
„ Brook Green. 

, , Convent of the Good Shepherd. 

Acton Chapel. 

North Hyde, near Southall.— St. Mary's Or- 
phanage. 
Isleworth, Shrewsbury Place. 
Fulham.— St. Thomas of Canterbury. 

Northern Vicinity. 

Our Lady's Church, St. John's Wood, Grove 

Road. 
Hampstead.— St. Mary's, Holly Place. 
„ Poplar House. 



Kentish Town.— St. Alexis, Gospel Terrace. 
SomersTown.— St. Aloysius, ClarendonSquare. 
Islington — St. John the Evangelist, Duncan 

Terrace, 
Walthamstow.— St. George's. 

Eastern Vicinity. 
Poplar — St. Mary's, Wade Street. 
Isle of Dogs.— Mill Wall, St. Edmund's. 
Bermondsey.— Church of the MostHoly Trinity, 

Parker's Row, Dockhead. 

*** The Catholic population attached to this 
church is above 9000. 

Stratford.— SS. Patrick and Vincent de Paul's. 
Tottenham — St. Francis de Sales' Chapel, 

Chapel Place, White Hart Lane. 

Southern Vicinity. 
St. George's Church, St. George's Fields. 

The Southwark Catholic charity schools are 
under the spiritual directions of the chaplains, 
who have also to attend Guy's and St. Thomas's 
Hospital, the Queen's Bench, Surrey, Marshal- 
sea, and Clink prisons, and many large work- 
houses. 
St. Mary and St. Michael, Virginia Street, St. 

George's Street. 
Webb Street Chapel, Southwark. 
Wandsworth.~St. Thomas of Canterbury. 
Norwood Chapel. 

,, Convent of our Lady. 
Wimbledon Chapel. 
Barnes Chapel. 
Mortlake Chapel. 

Richmond.— St. Elizabeth, Vineyard, Surrey. 
Clapham.— St. Mary's Chapel. 
Kingston-on-Thames Chapel. 
Deptford. — Church of the Assumption. 
Greenwich.— Clarke's Buildings, East Street, 

Maize Hill. 
Woolwich.— St. Peter's, New Road. 
Total number of churches and chapels in the 

London district, 48. 
Population of the several denominations, 
4,101,806, including Middlesex, Berkshire, 
Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Sussex, 
Kent, &c, corresponding with very nearly 
the Protestant diocese of London. 



COLLEGES. 323 

Foreign Christian Churches. 

Danish and Foreign Sailors', Well Close Square. I Greek Church, London Wall, between Nos 

Dutch Reformed Church, Austin Friars. | 81 and 84. 

French Protestant, St. Martin's-le-Grand, near Italian Protestant, Dufour Place. Golden 

the General Post Office, and Bloomsbury i Square. 

Street. ^ Royal German Lutheran, Marlborough Court 

German Catholic Church, Great St. Thomas j Yard, St. James's Place. 

Apostle, City. j Russian Greek Church, 32, Welbeck Street. 

German Lutheran, Great Trinity Lane, City. \ St. Mary Lutheran Church, Savoy St., Strand 
German Reformed, Hooper Square, City. j Swedish Protestant Church, Prince's Sauare 

German (St. George), Great Alie Street, Good- ! Ratcliffe. 4 

man's Fields. { Swiss Presbyterian, Moor Street, Soho. 



Of Jews' Synagogues there are 7. (See article " Jews in London.") 



COLLEGES. 



Arms (College of), Doctors' Commons, near and on the south side of St. Paul's Cathedral, a very 
ancient corporation, comprising 13 gentlemen, 3 kings at arms, 6 heralds at arms, and 4 pur- 
suivants at arms, appointed by the Earl Marshal of England, and holding patent places. The 
duties of this office are to record the genealogy and heraldic arms of all those families known and 
collected in the several visitations made from time immemorial in all parts of the kingdom, and 
likewise the pedigrees and arms of noble and baronetal families carried down to the present 
day. For the ordinary search of the records, the fee is 1/., and for more than one search, also 
1/. Is. Fees for a new coat of arms, 10/. 10s., or more. 

Chemistry (Royal College of), No. 16, Hanover Square, founded 1845; its purpose, the 
establishment for the promotion of the study of practical chemistry, with a well-appointed 
laboratory. Fees for the session, daily attendance, 15s., four days in the week, 12s,, three days, 
10s. t two days, 7s., and one day in the week, 5s. See " Learned Societies." 

Independents (College of), New College, London, for religious and secular education. The 
endowments are appropriated to the instruction of non-resident students, preparing for the 
Christian ministry among Independent churches. It has been instituted under the provisions of 
an Act of Parliament, sanctioning the union of Highbury, Homerton, and Coward Colleges. 
The buildings, which are situated about half a mile north of Regent's Park, are of Bath stone, 
and built in the English collegiate style, from designs furnished by J. T. Emmett, Esq. The 
total length of the front is 270 feet. The main building contains lecture rooms, council room, 
laboratory, museum, and students' day rooms. At the north end is the residence of the prin- 
cipal ; at the south, a library, containing about 20,000 volumes. The central tower, which is 80 
feet high, commands a most extensive view of the metropolis and surrounding country. 

King's College and School, east wing Somerset House, Strand. See article, " Learned So- 
cieties," also p. 63. 

London University College, or University College, Upper Gower Street, Bedford Square. See 
article, " Learned Societies," also p. 63. 

Gresham College, in Basinghall Street, originally established by Sir Thomas Gresham in Broad 
Street, subsequently re-established in the building of the Royal Exchange, instituted for the de- 
livery of lectures in divinity, civil law, astronomy, music, geometry, rhetoric, and physic. 
The "first lecture was delivered in 1597- The lectures are delivered during the law terms. 

Physicians (College of), Warwick Lane, Newgate Street, erected by Sir Christopher Wren, in 
16/4, "and finished in 1689, now in disuse. 

Physicians (Royal College of), in Pall Mall East, Trafalgar Square, built by Sir Robert 
Smirke, architect, at an expense of 30,000£., and opened by Sir Henry Halford, June 25th, 1825. 
See article, " Learned Societies." 

Surgeons (Royal College of), Lincoln's Inn Fields, on the south side of, built, and afterwards 
improved, at a cost of near 40,000/., by Mr. Chas. Barry. See article, " Learned Societies." 

Sion College, London Wall, was founded by the Rev. Thos. White, in 1623, for the use of the 
London clergy, with free access to the extensive library. To this library all publishers were for- 
merly compelled, by Act of Parliament, to contribute a copy of each of their publications. There 
are several portraits in the hall and library. Almshouses are endowed for twenty poor persons, 
and in the lower part of the same building. 

Doctors of Law (College of), Bell Yard, Doctors' Commons, incorporated in 1768, of which 
there are thirty D.C.L's. Mr. H. Watts, under treasurer. 

Dulwich College, founded by Edward Alieyn, 1619. Master must always be of the name of 
Allen, or Alieyn. The present master is Geo. J. Allen, Esq., M.S. See article, " Gallery of 
Pictures." 

East India College, established in 1805, at Harleybury, Hertford, consisting of a visitor, prin- 
cipal, dean, registrar, and ten professors. Visiter in the Oriental department, Professor H. H. 
Wilson, M. A. 
Morden College. See ''Almshouses." 

St. Peter's College, Dean's Yard, Westminster, founded by Queen Elizabeth, in 1560, for 40 
foundation or Queen's scholars, from six to ten years of age. Dean, W. Buckland, D.D. Eight 
masters. 

Royal Veterinary College, founded in 1791, by Mons. Chas. St. Bel, a French professor of 
veterinary art, for the study of Diseases incident to the Horse, and for the improvement of 
farriery generally, and a pharmacy for medicine. The building is extensive, and well situated, 
in St. Pancras, Camden Town. 

There are also the colleges for educational and professional purposes— as Hebrew College ; 
Addiscombe ; Sandhurst ; W T oolwich ; Converted Jews' College, Hackney ; St. Bartholomew's ; 
St. Thomas's ; Putney ; College for Ladies ; College of Preceptors, Bloomsbury Square, &c. 



324 LONDON. 

CONCERTS. 

See Article " Music." 

Concert Rooms are in all parts of the town. Concerts are held at the principal hotels, &c. ; also 
in the large rooms of the several theatres, especially those of the most fashionable. 

At the Italian Opera House, in the Haymarket, which is very handsomely fitted up, con- 
certs and balls are held. 

Also at Almack's (sometimes called Willis's Rooms), King Street, St. James's. Built by 
Robert Mylne, Architect. 

Exeter Hall — Concerts are held here during the spring and summer months. 

Queen's Concert Rooms, Hanover Square.— The concerts of the Philharmonic Society and 
of the Ancient Concerts are held here; likewise the concerts of the Royal Academy of Music. 
The great concert room is beautifully decorated, 90 ft. by 35 ft., and will hold 800 persons. The 
panels of the ceilings are decorated with the paintings of Cypriani. 

At The Royal Academy of Musrc, Tenterden Street, Hanover Square, incorporated 
by royal charter, expressly for the cultivation of musical science. 

Concerts are held also at the Argyle Rooms, Argyle Street; Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen 
Street; Crown and Anchor, Strand; City of London Tavern, Bishopsgate Street; Albion, 
Aldersgate Street. Concerts are likewise given at the Mechanics' Institution, Southampton 
Buildings, Holborn, and other places of spacious accommodation. 



CONTERSAZIOKES. 

It is one result of London being the chief seat of the professors of science, that it provides 
numerous occasions for their reunion ; but the assemblages called Conversaziones are almost 
peculiar to the metropolis. Besides the celebrations which take place in the day time, and be- 
sides dinners, the Conversaziones give each class of men of science the opportunity of associ- 
ating together. The invitations for these meetings are given by the presidents of the several 
societies, and are extended to the members of their own society, the professors of the sciences 
having any connection with it, and the leading personages in the worlds of literature, science, 
art, and politics. Refreshments are provided, and objects of interest are contributed, by the 
friends of the president for the amusement of the visitors. 

The Conversaziones of the President of the Royal Society may justly be placed at the head, 
as they are the means of bringing together, not the votaries of one branch of study, but the 
whole world of science. The latest inventions, the newest discoveries, illustrated by models 
and drawings, are brought under the consideration of the visitors, and they present the oppor- 
tunity of being discussed by some of the most eminent men. Nor is it merely a technical con- 
sideration which is given to these subjects, but very often some valuable economical inventions, 
some new means of propulsion, or some new telegraph, is brought under the immediate notice 
of the leading political personages,who are most interested in its promotion. Distinguished and 
learned foreigners, receiving explanations from the authors, spread abroad a knowledge of these 
inventions and discoveries, and extend the reputation of those by whom they are made. 

The Institution of Civil Engineers has commonly, by the hospitality of its president, been 
favoured with two or three Conversaziones yearly, but sometimes there is only one. The ar- 
rangements are under the direction of Mr. Manby, the secretary, and wherever given, the taste 
and skill of their manager make them among the most agreeable and most important of these re- 
unions. When held in the house of the institution, in Great George Street, the apartments are 
arranged, en suite, so as to give the greatest means for comfort and display ; and to those unac- 
customed to these scenes, they are the more attractive as exhibiting in their visitors and in the 
fittings the intellectual resources of a great metropolis. The model room is the peculiar feature. 
There are to be seen working models of the newest machinery, and the greatest works of en- 
gineering, and an opportunity is presented for their examination and review. A book has great 
advantages in its descriptions and its drawings ; but in the model room are not only drawings, 
but models, and not only these at work, but the engineer present who has constructed them, 
and the living experience of his brethren, to whose judgment they are submitted. It is not sur- 
prising this celebration is a favourite resort of the most eminent statesmen. But though the 
model room is thus occupied, the fine arts are not neglected, and the walls present a gallery of 
works by great living masters, while on the tables are portfolios of original drawings, with busts, 
bas-reliefs, and sculptures. Thus side by side are brought the most material and most imagina- 
tive works and their professors. 

The President of the Institute of British Architects gives, in his mansion in'St. James's Square, 
a similar reunion to the architects, and many interesting drawings are there displayed. The 
physicians are assembled in their college at Charing Cross, by their president. 

The meetings of many of the societies are in the nature of Conversaziones. After the scien- 
tific business of the meeting has been concluded, the fellows and visitors adjourn to the library 
and museum ; tea and coffee are served round, the proceedings of the evening are further dis- 
cussed, some object of interest placed on the tables or to be found in the collection is examined, 
strangers are introduced to the leading men of science, and the party breaks up at a late hour, 
looking forward to the next occasion of reunion. Such are the meetings of the Royal Society, 
the Antiquarian, the Geological, the Ethnological, the Institution of Civil Engineers, and the 
Institute of British Architects. 

The Society of Arts usually devotes some few evenings in the year to assemblies, when 
ladies are invited, the galleries lighted up, and the objects of exhibition are thrown open to the 
inspection of the circles of literature and fashion. 

The Lord Mayor Musgrove announced, in 1850, that he would, in the year of the Great Exhi- 
bition, hold Conversaziones, to which men of science and foreigners should be invited. 



THE CORPORATION. 325 

The British Institution have likewise evening meetings to which their members are privileged 
to bring ladies, and where the artists have the opportunity of conversing with the patrons of 
art, on the works contributed to the gallery. It isfmuch to "be regretted that there are not more 
of these evening exhibitions of art, bringing the artist more in communion with the literary 
world. 

The Royal Institution and the London Institution give a number of evening meetings, to 
which ladies are likewise admitted, and at which some subject of interest is illustrated by an 
eminent man of science. After the paper or lecture is finished, the company take refreshments, 
and inspect the various objects of art and science exhibited in the rooms. The City of London 
Institution, and the Whittington Club, give occasional Conversaziones. 

This class of evening meetings, to which ladies are admitted, and which is of a more popular 
character, has had great influence in interesting the public in the progress of improvement, for 
there is a rivalry for distinction among the 'managers of the societies, and inventors readily 
avail themselves of such opportunities of making their labours known. The stranger will see, 
that great as is the power of the press in spreading knowledge, there are other and not less effec- 
tive ways of influencing the public mind. Among the features of a vast metropolis those are not 
least interesting which illustrate the causes of its moral influence on the country and the world 
at large. It is not only that by masses of men being drawn together on one spot, the means 
for forming various institutions are provided, but it is that a vast moral organization is consti- 
tuted, by which the public mind is agitated, influenced, and inspired. 

The opening of some of the medical colleges, as St. Bartholomew's, is generally attended 
with an evening meeting. The inaugural lecture is read in the theatre, and the professors, stu- 
dents, and old members of the college meet together in the museum, where objects of profes- 
sional interest are displayed. 

The Conversaziones of the Royal Botanic Society differ from all the others, in no refresh- 
ments being provided, and as being held in the afternoon, and partly in the open air, the con- 
servatories and gardens being the place of meeting. Not only scientific, but economical botany 
is the subject of illustration, and many interesting applications of vegetable substances are 
shewn, as well as drawings, carvings, and models of flowers. Ladies are invited. 



THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF LONDON 

Is constituted in a peculiar manner, and is one of the few remaining of 
the great town commonwealths and federal institutions of the Middle Ages. 
Within the last twenty years, the old local institutions throughout the 
country have been restricted or abolished by general measures of centraliza- 
tion ; but in the City of London, as at the time of Domesday, the citizen still 
has the government in his own hands, and the head of the State has only 
a local jurisdiction. Even the parliament of the three kingdoms acknow- 
ledges in a distinctive manner the independent existence of the City. 

In the City alone are to be found many of the old English customs brought 
from the meadows of Jutland, and, although having many Norman and later 
modifications, the ground-work of the constitution is English, or what is 
sometimes known as Anglo-Saxon. 

On the inroad of the English tribes, and on the Welsh being driven out 
from the Roman towns, London was burned to the ground, as all the exca- 
vations show, and the new English population was too scanty to fill the space 
within the vast walls ; so that, not only were cattle fed among the Roman 
ruins, but the barrows of the leaders elsewhere at a distance from the home- 
steads, were within the circuit. Such were Aldermanbury, Bucklersbury, and 
Lothingbury (Lothbury). The space within the walk was shared out in 
marks, or wards, to which additions were afterwards made. In each of these 
wards an alderman was chosen. At a later time, these wards were further 
shared out into what are now called precincts. 

The precinct is the same as the township or parish elsewhere, the ward is 
the hundred, and the city a shire, folkland, or commonwealth. At the 
present time the precinct commonly has its common-councilmen, its inquest- 
men, clerk, beadle, constable, or headborough, overseers of the poor, and tax 
collectors, as well as its church establishment. As elsewhere, the precinct or 
township and the parish have not always the same bounds or jurisdictions, 
though commonly they have. In some parts, too, the precinct jurisdiction 
is not kept up, or is merged with the parish. The ward has an alderman, 
the several common-councilmen (of whom one is deputy alderman), a full 
inquest, ward clerk, and ward beadle. The city has its Lord Mayor, Court 
of Aldermen, Court of Common Council, Sheriffs, and other chief officers. 



326 LONDON. 

A few days before St. Thomas's day, in each year, that is, before Yuletide, 
a meeting is called for the precinct, which is perhaps only half a street, and 
to which all indwellers, whether citizens or not, that is, all above "fifteen 
years old, can come and speak. At this precinct meeting, the doings of the 
officers of the last year are gone into, and a new roll of officers is drawn up. 
The number of inquestmen sent by each precinct is enough to make up for 
the whole ward an inquest of not less than sixteen. The inquestmen are 
taken in turn, from a roll of the householders, and are not necessarily citizens. 
The common-councilmen, constables, beadle, and collectors are not now taken 
in turn, but those are named who are thought most fit. 

On St. Thomas's day the wardmote, or meeting of all the citizens of the 
ward is held, when the alderman takes the chair. He is in his robes, wearing 
a gold chain, and attended by the ward beadles with silver or gilt maces. 
One of these latter makes proclamation in the following way : — " Oyez ! 
Oyez ! All ye good men of the ward draw nigh, and attend to the business 
of the ward." A precept is read from the Lord Mayor, commanding certain 
elections to be made. The precinct returns of inquestmen are then read^ 
and commonly confirmed. The new inquestmen are then called to choose a 
foreman, and are forthwith sworn before the wardmote to do their duty. 
The precinct returns for common-councilmen are read, but any other can- 
didates can be put up. The names are put to a show of hands, or in case 
of dispute a poll is taken. The business of choosing other officers, ex- 
amining the accounts of the ward rate, and giving thanks to passed 
officers, is proceeded with, and the ward beadle makes proclamation, " Oyez ! 
Oyez ! All ye good men of the ward depart hence and go ye to your homes. 
God save the Queen." 

The inquest meet together at the ward house or inquest room, and divide 
themselves into committees for the discharge of their several duties, which 
include the inspection of weights and measures, and of public houses; the 
removal of nuisances, the indicting of houses of ill fame, and the prosecution 
of non-citizens for trading within bounds; and generally the watching over 
the interests of their ward. At an early day the inquestmen, in their furred 
robes, proceed in divisions, each having its foreman, treasurer, and secretary, 
and attended by a beadle, to collect funds from the inhabitants for charitable 
distribution. These funds are partly given to poor residents, but partly to 
respectable persons, who, having formerly lived in the ward, have fallen to 
decay. Thus, many poor tradesmen and widows are relieved. Inquestmen 
not attending to their duties are fined, and these fines go in part payment 
of a dinner, to which the alderman and other authorities are invited. 

On Plough Monday, the Monday next after Twelfth-day, the inquests go up 
in their furred gowns to Guildhall, where the Court of Aldermen is sitting, 
and make their presentments of the common-councilmen chosen, and of the 
several matters in which they desire the action of the community, as in 
the removal of nuisances beyond their power, or in the prosecution of 
offenders. Any inquestman dissenting from a presentment, can address the 
Court. 

It will be seen that two English principles are carried out, one, that each 
fraction of the population is represented; and another, that where it can 
be done, each citizen must serve personally and in turn. 

The citizens exercising the franchise within the wards are, since 1849, those 
on the parliamentary voters list who are freemen of London. The citizens 
exercising the franchise for Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, &c, are freemen of London, 
being liverymen of some one of the companies or trade corporations. 

Each son or daughter of a freeman of London, born while the father was 
free, is entitled to take up the freedom at the age of twenty-one. These 
freemen by birthright are very many, and some have inherited their freedom 
during several generations. Most members of the peerage are thus citizens 
of London. On payment of a very small fee, persons of any sect being of 



THE CORPORATION. 327 

English birth, and carrying on business within the city, are allowed to become 
free. Most of the citizens are likewise free of a company, and their ap- 
prentices are likewise entitled to become citizens. The magistrate who 
admits and swears in the citizens is the Chamberlain, or Treasurer of the City, 
who holds his chamber or court in the Guildhall, and who exercises magis- 
terial jurisdiction over the apprentices. The court is open, and commonly 
every day about noon, the admission of some citizen or apprentice can 
be seen. 

The number of trade companies is about ninety, twelve of which are called 
the great companies, and are first in honour and state. These twelve are the 
Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Merchant 
Tailors, Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Yintners, and Clothworkers. 
Other considerable companies are the Leathersellers, Saddlers, Carpenters, 
Weavers, Stationers, Apothecaries, Spectaclemakers, Clockmakers, Coopers, 
Tallowchandlers, and Wheelwrights. These several companies will be described 
hereafter : for the present it is enough to explain, that those following a trade 
within the city mostly belong to the company of that trade; but the great 
body of the freemen of each company being so by birthright, are not neces- 
sarily mercers, or cooks, as the case may be. Of the freemen of each company, 
some 200 or 300 of the more considerable are made liverymen. The livery- 
man of London should be worth not less than 1000Z., and must be a master 
and not a servant or journeyman. On state occasions he wears a gown of the 
livery of his company. The livery, whether dwelling within the city or not, 
vote for Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Chamberlain, Bridgemaster, and Auditor of the 
City Accounts ; and the livery dwelling within seven miles vote for Members 
of Parliament. The liveryman pays a fine or fee of admission, commonly of 
about 20Z., which goes to a fund for providing dinners. The livery of some 
companies have several banquets within the year, to which each can invite 
a friend. A meeting of the livery of the whole city is called a Common Hall. 
A citizen of London living within the city, besides his corporate share of 
its immunities, is free from tolls and customs through all England, and parts 
of the sea; he cannot be pressed for the sea service (wherever resident), nor 
be ballotted for the militia; he has the exclusive privilege of carrying on 
retail trade, and is free from toll on his carts and goods, at the gates. Among 
his privileges (now of little value) is that of hunting in Middlesex. The citi- 
zens are very particular in giving offices and patronage only to those who are 
free. The widow of a freeman is free and privileged, and his orphans have 
the right of placing their property in the Chamber or Treasury of the city, 
at 4 per cent., whereby they become wards of the Court of Aldermen. 

The freedom of London is one of the honours granted to public men. The 
freedom is conferred by vote of the Corporation, and on some public occasion 
the new citizen is received by the Chamberlain. In the Chamber are to be 
seen, richly illuminated, copies of the votes of thanks given to the great 
statesmen and captains of the present century. 

The City of London forms two portions : London within the Walls, and 
London without the Walls. London within the Walls is the most ancient 
part, within the Eoman walls ; the other part consists of the suburbs or liber- 
ties formed in the Middle Ages, without these walls. Of the walls few remains 
exist; but it is worth while to refer to the boundary, as it will assist the 
archaeologist in determining the site of the Eoman settlement, and will enable 
him to follow historically the growth of the city. The boundary of the old city 
is very nearly that of the great fire of 1668, and, consequently, within those 
limits, the architecture is not earlier than Wren's time, and it is on the 
bounds we must look for mediaeval monuments. Temple Bar, an outer bar 
in the liberties, is the only remaining gateway, and by which is the state 
entrance for the King or Queen. On such an occasion the gates are shut to, and 
the authorities drawn up within on the city side. A herald, or other officer 
of the King, knocks at the gate, and informs the Marshal that the King asks 



328 LONDON. 

admission. The Marshal reports this to the Lord Mayor, who gives orders 
that the gate shall be thrown open, and proceeds to offer the king the city 
sword. The gate is sometimes strictly kept, for the Lord Mayor being within 
his bounds second to the King alone, is jealous that his precedency of other 
great personages is preserved. Troops arriving at the city bounds must not 
pass through with drums beating, or colours flying, or recruit, unless with 
leave of the Lord Mayor, one regiment only excepted, the Old Buffs, who 
were originally raised within the city; and who, when in England, are always 
welcomed in the exercise of their privileges. At the bars of the city without 
the Walls, as at Temple Bar, Holborn Bar, and Smithfield Bar, officers of the 
city may be seen levying toll on the carts of all nonfreemen, that is, all carts 
not marked with the city arms, the red cross of St. George, and the dagger. 

The wards of the city are twenty-six, for each of which there is an Alder- 
man (except the two wards of Cripplegate, which are joined), and one for the 
Borough of Southwark, or Bridge-without, which is for certain purposes within 
the city jurisdiction. Five large wards, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, Cripplegate, 
Farringdon-within, and Farringdon-without, are subdivided and have each a 
separate deputy-alderman. The number of parishes is 110; the number of 
precincts is not well ascertained. 

The style of the corporation is the mayor and commonalty and citizens of 
London, and the head of this is the Lord Mayor. This officer is chosen bv 
the Livery, on the 29th of September, being commonly the senior alderman, 
who has been sheriff, but not Lord Mayor. The office is seldom given twice. 
The Common Hall name two aldermen, and the Court of Aldermen claim 
the right of choosing the one to be mayor. The forms of the elections are 
peculiar. 

The Lord Mayor Elect goes in procession to be presented to the Lord High 
Chancellor, who signifies the assent of the Government to the election. On 
the 8th of November, the Lord Mayor is sworn in before the Court of Alder- 
men, invested with the golden collar of SS. and jewel, and signs a bond for 
4000£. to restore the plate and jewels of the office, which are however worth 
20,000£. These two ceremonies are worth seeing. The grand day is the 9th 
of November, kept as a city holiday, under the name of " Lord Mayor's Day." 
Business is suspended in the principal thoroughfares, and in the afternoon the 
whole population are let loose. During the passage of the procession, the 
City officers close the streets against omnibuses and other carriages. In the 
morning the Lord Mayor breakfasts at Guildhall with the Court of Aldermen. 
About mid-day he sets out from Guildhall with a procession, which includes 
the late Lord Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, sheriffs, and City officers in their 
carriages, bands of music, pageantry, and the households of the Lord Mayors. 
These are attended by processions of the companies to which the Lord Mayors 
and sheriffs belong ; and in honour of the dignitary of their company, the 
master, wardens, and Court of Assistants, dressed in their robes, follow in 
their carriages with music, and with banners borne by their watermen 
and pensioners, dressed in uniform and armed. On extraordinary occasions, 
all of the great companies attend in state, and swell the procession. At 
one of the bridges or other waterside stair, the company take water in the 
barges of the city and great companies. These are richly gilt and carved 
barges, with banners flying on the roof, and having a band of music on 
board. They are sometimes rowed by watermen, but most commonly towed 
by steamers. This is one of the few water processions in Europe, and 
on'a fine day and during a liberal mayoralt}^, has a good effect seen from 
the river or one of the bridges. During the voyage the authorities amuse 
themselves with luncheon. On arrival at Westminster, the Lord Mayor 
lands with his immediate suite, and enters the Court of Exchequer in West- 
minster, where he is presented to the barons, and takes an oath of office. By 
the mouth of his own judge, the Kecorder, he invites the Judges in the several 
courts to dinner. During this time the barge of the Stationers' Company goes 



THE CORPORATION. 329 

to Lambeth Palace to present the Archbishop of Canterbury with copies of the 
Company's almanacks. The company return by water to Blackfriars'-bridge, 
where a grander procession is formed, and which at the foot of Ludgate-hill 
receives the addition of the Lady Mayoress, the Princes, Ministers of State, 
Judges, and Foreign Ambassadors. The houses in the line of procession are 
decorated with flags, and filled with company, who are feasted by the citizens. 
The morning procession is through the ward to which the Lord Mayor belongs ; 
the afternoon procession from Blackfriars-bridge, through Ludgate-hill, Lud- 
gate-street, St. Paul's-churchyard, Cheapside, and King-street, to Guildhall. 
Some few houses are let on this occasion, and strangers can obtain seats at 
various prices to view the procession, if they prefer avoiding the crowd in the 
streets. Guildhall is decorated and illuminated inside and out by the City 
architect, as becomes a great occasion ; and a magnificent banquet is laid 
within the hall. This is the inauguration dinner of the Lord Mayor and 
sheriffs, who with the City furnish the expenses. The guests are the 
members of the Corporation, and their wives and friends. Each member of 
the Corporation has tickets to give away. The King or Queen sometimes 
dines with the City on this occasion, and all strangers of importance are in- 
vited. A minister of the Crown always attends, as this is a suitable occasion 
to keep up sympathy with the Corporation, and to appeal to public feeling. 
The observances of the dinner are like those of other City dinners. 

The Mayor of the City of London is styled Lord, and Eight Honourable, 
holds within the City the first place after the King, and on the occasion of the 
death of the King is one of the great functionaries summoned to the Council, 
where he has signed first the declaration of the title of the new King. He 
presides in the Court of Aldermen, Court of Common Council, Central Cri- 
minal Court, Lord Mayor's Court, and Common Hall; is a Judge of the 
Criminal Court, Justice of Peace for the neighbouring shires, and has the 
nomination of other Justices ; he is Lord Lieutenant, and at the head of the 
military force of the city ; he is Admiral of the Port of London, and Conservator 
of the Thames from Staines Bridge to Yantlet Creek, and of the Medway from 
Colemouth Creek to Cockham Wood. In a general assessment in 1377, he was 
assessed as an earl, and at the coronation of a King attends as Chief Butler, 
and receives a golden cup as his fee. He resides in the Mansion House, 
which is fitted up as a palace for his reception, has the use of the City plate, 
furniture, state carriage, barge, officers and servants, and receives a stipend; but 
his own further disbursements often exceed 4000?. a-year. The whole expense 
of the office maybe reckoned at 15,000Z. a-year. The common crier, the water 
bailiff, and the sword-bearer, are esquires of his household, and commonly act 
as his chamberlains and secretaries, assisting in the arrangements of his ban- 
quets and state festivals. 

On state occasions, the Lord Mayor is dressed in a knotted gown, like that of 
the Lord Chancellor ; when preceding the Monarch, a crimson velvet gown ; on 
occasions of less importance, a scarlet cloth gown, or one of mazarine blue 
silk. When not in robes, a golden chain and badge is nevertheless worn! The 
Lady Mayoress partakes of the state of her husband. In case the Lord Mayor 
is not married, the Lady Mayoress is some female relative, or the wife of ano- 
ther alderman. It is customary on certain public occasions, as a royal visit to 
the city, or great public event, to create the Lord Mayor a baronet, and the 
sheriffs knights. 

The Lord Mayor is expected to keep up the hospitality of the city by giving 
balls and dinners at the Mansion-house, to the members of the corporation, 
their wives and children, and to the several public authorities and persons of 
eminence. Admission to these celebrations can be obtained through members 
of the corporation. The Egyptian-hall and the inside of the Mansion-house 
are worth seeing on such occasions, as likewise the princely state of the chief 
magistrate, which, in the middle ages, was common to every great dignitary. 



330 LONDON. 

The Lord Mayor's state carriage, built in 1757, is worth seeing. This 
and the Queen's state carriage are the only remaining specimens of the 
pompous vehicles of the last century. It is richly gilded, and the paint- 
ings, which are in a superior style, are illustrations of a former branch of 
high art-coach-painting. They are by one of the original Royal Academi- 
cians — some say Cipriani, and some Dance. At either window of the carriage 
sits the sword-bearer, with the sword of state, and the common crier, 
wearing a fur cap, called the Cap of Maintenance, or City Cap of State, a 
mark of dignity highly prized in former ages, when princely coronets were run 
after. 

The alderman is chosen for life by the freemen, householders of his ward. 
He is usually a merchant, or some wealthy tradesman. He is a Judge of the 
Central Criminal Court, a Justice of Peace for the City of Southwark, and 
within his ward has the authority of two justices. The junior aldermen are 
styled Worshipful, but those who have held the mayoralty are styled Right 
Worshipful, and take precedence of all knights. Within the city, they hold 
rank next to the Lord Mayor, as barons of the city. The aldermen, when 
performing their functions, wear robes of state and a gold chain, and are 
attended by their ward beadles with the maces. As a bod} 7 , they form the 
Court of Aldermen, which is the House of Peers, Privy Council, and Senate 
of the City, and sits in state at Guildhall, presided over by the Mayor, and at- 
tended by various officers in their robes. This Court has, in particular, the 
oversight of the city police. 

The Court of Common Council, or City Parliament, consists of the Alder- 
men and Common Councilmen, presided over by the Lord Ma} r or. One Com- 
mon Councilman for each ward is named as deputy alderman, or more shortly 
deputy, and as such has the title of esquire, and is a deputy-lieutenant for the 
city. The Court sits at Guildhall in the day time, and much form is observed. 
The aldermen are on a raised bench near the Lord Mayor, having a sheriff at 
each end of the bench. At the table are the Recorder, and other officers of the 
corporation. In the body of the hall are the deputies and Common Council- 
men, who only wear their blue mazarine gowns on state occasions. Below the 
bar are stationed the city marshals and the doorkeepers, and there is a gallery 
free for strangers. The mode of proceeding and powers of the Court assimi- 
late to those of the House of Commons. The legislative proceedings of the 
Court are called Acts of the Common Council, and there is full power in the 
Court to determine the number of its members, the qualification of the voters, 
and the mode of voting, which elsewhere are determined by the central go- 
vernment, or some general law. Much of the business is transacted by com- 
mittees, as those for lands, markets, the navigation, &c, or by commissions 
named by the corporation, as the Court of Sewers, the Irish Corporation, 
Lieutenancy, &c. These Committees receive an allowance for their attend- 
ances, which is appropriated for dinners, to which the members can invite 
strangers, or for excursions in the city barge on the river, when ladies are 
invited. 

The Courts of Aldermen and Common Council constitute the governing 
body, to whom is committed the care of the franchises and the general admi- 
nistration of the property of the commonwealth. The franchises of the city 
arising from the independent rights of the first English settlers, are confirmed 
by Magna Charta, and several charters and Acts of Parliament. They include 
the right of being impleaded within their own bounds, for which purpose 
separate sittings of the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, 
are held at Guildhall, besides local courts. The Court of Chancery has, how- 
ever, evaded this franchise, and does not sit within bounds. The City courts 
have particular privileges and powers of sequestrating money and property 
within bounds by attachment. The City forms a separate jurisdiction in every 
respect, and has its own magistrates and police. The conservancy of the Pool, 



THE CORPORATION. 331 

and of the Thames and Medway, and of the navigation and fisheries thereof, 
are within the jurisdiction. The possessions of the City include about 3000 
houses within its bounds, in the manor of Finsbury, and elsewhere in London, 
and large estates throughout the country ; a great domain in Ireland, and 
jurisdiction over the City of Londonderry, Town of Coleraine, and Borough 
of South wark ; allowances from the government for privileges surrendered ; 
the metage or measuring of coal, corn, &c. ; and rates levied for sewers and 
police. The city name their judges and other officers, and two sheriffs, who 
are likewise Sheriffs of Middlesex, which shrievalty is farmed from the 
crown. They have likewise the property or superintendence of several 
hospitals and schools. L T nder the statute of 2 William and Mary, session 
1, c. 8, no Act of Parliament affects the city customs, unless the city be 
particularly named therein. To secure the maintenance of the city rights, 
the Kemembrancer attends in the House of Commons during its sittings to 
watch the progress of measures. When the city send a petition to the House 
of Commons, it is presented at the bar by the sheriffs in their robes, instead 
of being presented through a member. Their own members of Parliament 
are four (the usual number for cities being two), and, on the first day of 
every new Parliament, claim the right of taking precedence of all other 
members, and sitting in their scarlet gowns and hoods. On a bill being pre- 
sented from the city to the House of Commons, instead of leave being asked 
by a member, it is immediately read by the clerk at the table. The city has, too, 
the exclusive privilege of their addresses being received by the king seated on 
the throne. The Lord Mayor and Corporation then go up in state. A monu- 
ment in Guildhall records a lecture given by the Lord Mayor Beckford to 
King George III. Whenever the city speaks it is by the mouth of the Re- 
corder, and by him it gives evidence in courts of law of its customs, and not 
by any book or writing. 

Many of the officers of the city are of considerable importance. The 
Sheriffs are for London and Middlesex, and are two chosen yearly by the 
Livery in Common Hall. The Lord Mayor may name a candidate, which 
is done by drinking to the health of the candidate. The election is held on 
Midsummer Day. A person refusing to serve must pay a fine of £600, unless 
he can swear he is not worth £15,000, and must bring six citizens as compur- 
gators of his oath. A freeman, by birthright, must likewise bring six 
compurgators to prove his claim ; but this ancient English law is now little 
more than a form. The office is honourable but expensive, and the cost is 
as much as £2000 for each sheriff beyond the fees. The Sheriff has a state 
carriage and chaplain, gives a banquet on his installation, contributes to the 
great dinner in Guildhall, and gives six dinners to the aldermen and other 
judges, at the Central Criminal Court. The Lord Mayor and Sheriffs are ex- 
pected to attend the dinners of certain charitable institutions, and contribute 
to their funds. Each Sheriff chooses a solicitor as under-sheriff, who likewise 
takes part in the city ceremonials. All considerable officers wear a court dress 
on great occasions, unless they have some distinctive gown or other uniform. 
On the 28th of September, the Sheriffs are sworn on the hustings in the Guild- 
hall, and, on the 30th, they go in procession with the Lord Mayor, city officers, 
and sixteen citizens of the company of each sheriff, to be sworn before the 
Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, wfysn the Recorder makes a speech in praise 
of each sheriff. 

The Recorder of London is the chief local judge, and one of the chief 
functionaries of the corporation. He holds a court at the Central Criminal 
Court, as do two other officers, the Common Sergeant, and the Judge of the 
Sheriffs' Court. The salaries of all the city officers are liberal, and retiring 
pensions are given. The Recorder is as highly paid as a Scotch judge. He is 
the orator for the city on public occasions. The Common Sergeant, the Judge 
of the Sheriffs' Court, and the Secondaries of the Sheriffs, are other judicial 



332 LONDON. 

functionaries. The Town Clerk, or secretary of the city, the City Solicitor, 
and the Eemembrancer, are law officers. The latter is a kind of agent in 
Parliament, and at the Council and Treasury boards, and employed to preserve 
generally the rights of the city. Among these is an allowance of wine from 
the Treasury, and of summer and winter venison from the Woods and Forests, 
which are shared among the Lord Mayor, aldermen, sheriffs, and great city 
officers. 

The Chamberlain is chosen by the Common Hall, and has usually held the 
office of alderman. Besides the care of the city income, he has charge of the 
apprentices, and admits to the freedom. On his coat of arms is borne the key 
of the City Treasury. The Comptroller of the Chamber has the charge of the 
city muniments and title-deeds, and is Yice-Chamberlain. 

The Sword Bearer is marshal and regulator of the officers of the Lord 
Mayor's household, and has large emoluments. He wears a silk damask gown. 
The mode of bearing the sword is the subject of ceremonial ; and, in 1849, the 
Lord Mayor, Duke, was called to account for allowing it to be borne before 
Prince Albert, at the opening of the Coal Exchange, in the same way as before 
the Queen. The sword borne is the pearl sword given by Queen Elizabeth. 

The Common Crier is likewise a sergeant-at-arms to the Lord Mayor and 
the courts, and bears the cap of maintenance, and the great gold mace given 
by Charles I. 

The "Water Bailiff is also an officer of the household, but principally 
attends to the conservancy of the rivers. He wears a silver oar, and has a 
state shallop, manned with eight men on state occasions. 

These are the chief officers of state of the city, but the Lord Mayor is like- 
wise attended by the upper and under-marshals of the city. They wear a 
military costume, and attend ;the Lord Mayor in his public processions. In 
the Courts of Aldermen and Common Council they act as sergeants-at-arms. 

Among the scientific officers of the corporation are the clerk of the city 
works, the surveyors, the librarian, and the officer of health. 

In the patronage of the corporation are the markets of Smithfield, Newgate, 
Leadenhall, Farringdon, and Billingsgate ; the Coal Exchange, (and, with the 
Mercers' Company,) the Koyal Exchange, the meters of corn, coals, fruit, and 
salt ; the locks on the Thames, the mooring, navigation, and hydraulic works 
of the Pool and rivers ; the regulation of the colliers ; London and Blackfriars' 
bridges ; the prisons of Newgate, Whitecross Street, Giltspur Street, and the 
New Prison ; the hospitals of Christ, Bethlehem, Bridewell, Emanuel, St. Bar- 
tholomew, and St. Thomas ; Gresham College, the Freeman's Orphan School, 
and the City of London School. The watermen, carmen, and porters are under 
the control of the corporation. Most of the brokers are under the jurisdiction 
of the Court of Aldermen. The city is allowed to superintend the tax on coals, 
levied for the rebuilding of London Bridge. 

The trade companies, or guilds, of the city are of interest on several grounds. 
They were originally voluntary fellowships, guilds, or associations for convivial, 
trade, or religious purposes ; and, during the middle ages, a regular system of 
these guilds was formed with charters from the king or city, under which they 
possessed the power of regulating the trade interests of their members, 
and at one time they held the administration of the corporation as the Court 
of Common Council was chosen from the trade guilds, and not from the wards. 
At present, instead of governing the corporation, they are under its rule, and 
the corporation claim the right of constituting new guilds, and of regulating 
the old ones, in their by-laws, livery, and disputes. In the year 1848, the 
corporation exercised the privilege of increasing the livery of a company, 
thereby conferring the parliamentary franchise. 

The guilds are formed on the same principle as the English guilds before 
the Norman invasion, but of their early history we have no records. At a 
later time these guilds either took the form, or were formed, as religious 



THE CORPORATION. 333 

bodies, under the invocation of a saint. The style of the Drapers' is, " The 
Master and Wardens and Brethren and Sisters of the Guild or Brotherhood of 
the Blessed Mary the Virgin, of the Mystery of Drapers of the City of London." 
These bodies were benefit societies for helping old and sick members, for at- 
tending their burials (the Fishmongers yet have their pall), for causing masses 
to be said for their souls, for upholding the chapel of the patron saint, and for 
feasting. As the guild of a trade became considerable it received endowments 
of lands and goods, and bought charters confirming its jurisdiction over the 
masters, journeymen, and apprentices, over the quality of work, and the rate of 
wages. They grew so much in influence that, from the time of Edward III. to 
that of Eichard IL, they superseded the wardmotes and chose the Common 
Council, and other officers. The guild of Weavers became so powerful that the 
city was jealous of it, and obtained its banishment. Contests between leaders of 
the wards and those of the guilds for supremacy frequently disturbed the peace 
of the city ; but the growth of the latter, and their possession of common 
purses and treasure, pointed them out for the exactions of the Tudor kings. 
When a forced loan or benevolence was levied on the city, it was found readiest 
to reassess it on the guilds. In the time of James I., the city and the guilds 
were called upon to take part in the plantations of Ulster, and thus were 
acquired the several Irish estates. 

In the last century the internal jurisdiction of the guilds was virtually 
superseded by general Acts of Parliament ; but the importance of the guilds 
W T as kept up by the parliamentary and common-hall franchise being restricted 
to the liverymen, instead of continuing with the body of the freemen. 

In the present day, the guilds or city companies may be looked upon a3 
fellowships of members of a trade, and of descendants of such, who enjoy the 
livery franchise, and the benefit of the endowments for purposes of festivity 
and charity. A company commonly consists of a Court of Assistants, self- 
elected for life, or by seniority,- a Livery, named by the Court ; and Freemen. 
The Court of Assistants yearly choose a Master (though some companies have 
none), and three or four Wardens (called prime or upper, middle, key, renter 
and younger, under or junior wardens). A fine of a large sum is paid (to the 
dinner fund) on coming upon the Court, and others in succession on serving 
the several wardenships and the mastership. In some, the fine for master 
is 100 guineas, which is supposed to pay for the installation dinner. The 
Court of Assistants are the governing body. They have several banquets 
yearly. The livery pay a fine on admission, commonly 20 guineas, sometimes 
as much as 100 or 200 guineas. They likewise have their funds for festivity. 
The freemen, unless strangers, seldom pay a heavy fine; nor have they 
dinner funds. 

The company has commonly a hall, flags, maces and plate, and some funds 
for charitable purposes. The more considerable have hospitals, almshouses, 
schools, scholarships, livings, and pensions. The companies and their offi- 
cials are styled "Worshipful." Histories have been written of the twelve 
great companies and others. 

The freedom and livery of the companies are given for political services, as 
that of the city is, but more freely, or are sold to party men. The Fish- 
mongers are now the great Whig club, and give Whig banquets; the Mer- 
chant Tailors the Tory club. The yearly dinners are occasions for political 
reunion and display, and it is therefore an object of interest to take part in 
them. Many of the ceremonies observed at the city dinners are peculiar. 
At great dinners the loving cup is passed round. A richly chased gold or 
silver standing cup and cover (the gift of some deceased benefactor), is placed 
before the Lord Mayor, or Master, and the master of the ceremonies pro- 
claims, " The Master bids all welcome, and greets you all in the loving cup." 
The Clothworkers boast their Pepys, and other cups; the Painter Stainers that 
of Camden; the Barbers those of Henry YIIL, Queen Elizabeth, and Charles II. 



334 LONDON. 

The cup or cups, filled with spiced wine, are passed round. As each receives 
the cup, his nearest neighbour rises, takes off the cover, and, standing, holds 
it until the drinker has done, when he passes on the cup, and is in like way 
helped by his neighbour. This old custom of pledging, one of the earliest 
observed by the English on their entry in this island, as the tale of Vorte- 
gern and Rowena exemplifies, is reverentially kept up by the citizens as 
implying the mutual service and brotherhood of all. The chased gold salver 
with rose water, follows the loving cup. The Master's installation is variously 
observed. In some companies (as the Carpenters'), the new Master and War- 
dens are crowned with silver coronals, garlands, or chaplets; in some (as 
the Clothworkers'), a procession enters after dinner of the late and new 
masters and wardens, each of the late officers bearing a standing cup; pro- 
clamation is made, that A B has been chosen the Master for the coming year, 
the old Master drinks the loving cup to him, and the new Master returns the 
pledge. Proclamation is made for each Warden, and a like form gone 
through. It is a current belief that the citizens consume in their rich feasts 
the incomes left for the poor; but on the contrary, funds are expressly 
provided and kept up for these banquets. The late Mr. Thwaites left to the 
Clothworkers' Company 30,000Z., half for charities and half for feasting. The 
livery dinner is a club, whereat a kindly feeling is kept up among men 
having the same common interests, and it is an institution zealously upheld. 
At these banquets, not only are all the luxuries which modern research has 
found out to be met with in profusion, but many of the dainties in which the 
mediaeval epicure delighted ; here are sometimes to be found the baron of beef, 
the boar's head, the swan, the crane, ruffs, and reeves, the warden pie, and other 
rarities in the modern bill of fare. Some dinners have distinctive names ; 
venison feast comes in season, and excursions are made to Blackwall, Green- 
wich, or Richmond, to taste suburban luxuries. It is not uncommon for 
parcels to be placed before each guest, of sweetmeats and cake, to take home 
to his wife and children, that they too may partake of the festivity. The 
dinners are usually confined to the men, but the greater companies do not fail 
to provide balls and excursions for the fair sex. Most of the wards and in- 
quests likewise have dinners. 

The apprentice and the freeman are admitted with ceremony in the full 
Court of the Assistants, robed in their gowns. The freeman by birthright is 
brought in by the beadle, and produces his baptismal certificate, and the 
copy of his father's freedom. Two or three old friends, freemen of the 
company, appear as compurgators, to give witness he is " son of his father." 
The oath of fidelity to the guild is administered to him, the Court standing, 
and he pledges himself faithfully to follow the trade in which he is enrolled, 
and neither to counterfeit nor defraud. Thereupon the Master and assistants 
each shake him by the hand, and hail him as a brother, and the renter 
warden points out to him the box for the relief of poor freemen. 

After being admitted by the Court of his company, the beadle attends him 
to Guildhall, to receive the freedom of the city. The papers of the company 
are taken as authorities for the admission, and the clerk and officers of the 
Chamber put down their names as compurgators. The Chamberlain 
ministers to him the oath of fidelity to the city, and shaking hands with 
him, delivers, under the city seal, the copy of his freedom. This is a small 
slip of parchment, the warrant of his franchises and that of his children. For 
some wards, this is stamped with the seal of the inquest, on the admission oi 
a freeman into the ward. 

The charity funds provide usually for the relief of decayed freemen, their 
widows, orphans, and in some cases of their aged daughters. The Stationers' 
and Clock-makers' provide for blind compositors and watch-makers, whose 
trades much affect the eyesight. 

There are reckoned on the list eighty-nine companies, some of which are 



THE CORPORATION. 335 

extinct, and some nave no livery (as the Apothecaries and Parish Clerks), be- 
sides which there are the fellowships of the porters. The companies are 
arranged by precedency, not dependent on seniority, and twelve, as has been 
said, are styled great companies. The companies embrace nearly every trade 
in existence at the beginning of the last century, and many trades now 
obsolete, or nearly so, such latter are Girdlers (makers of griddles), Bowyers, 
Fletchers (arrow-makers), Longbowstring-makers, Lorimers, Hatband-makers, 
and Fan-makers. 

The Mercers' is the first in rank, and has a hall. Its oldest charter is one 
of Eichard II. The oath of the freeman contains several passages, which 
show the nature of these old pledges, and that there was the same patronage 
of secrecy as in modern associations of the trading classes. " You swear that 
you shall be true unto our sovereign lord the King. You shall be obedient 
to, and ready to come at lawful summonses and warnings of the wardens of 
the Mercery, when and as often as you be duly monished and warned by 
them. All lawful ordinances and rules by the Fellowship of the Mercery or- 
dained, made, and stablished, and hereafter for the weal, worship, and profit 
of the said Fellowship to be made, you shall hold and keep. All lawful com- 
munications, necessary ordinances and counsels for the welfare of the said 
Fellowship, and the secrets thereof to you showed, you shall keep secret and 
hold for counsel, and them or any of them not discover or show, by any means 
or colour unto any person or persons of any other Fellowship. You shall 
also be contributary to all charges to you put by the Wardens and Fellowship, 
and to bear and pay your part of charge set for your degree, like as other of 
the same Fellowship shall do for their degree." The bearings of the Com- 
pany, the bust of the Yirgin Mary, are to be frequently seen on city buildings. 
The Company are half owners of the Royal Exchange and Gresham College ; and 
owners of St. Paul's and Mercers' Schools; Whittington's College, at Highgate; 
Trinity Hospital, at Greenwich; and Stepney Hospital. They have the 
patronage of several lectureships in churches (among others, of the Golden 
Lectureship), and of exhibitions. 

The Grocers' Company is the second, and is a great and hospitable company, 
The two Pitts .were members of this company. The Hall was used in 1641 
by the Committee of Parliament that met to settle the reform of the nation; 
and in the last century by the Bank of England. 

The Drapers' Company is the third. There are several freewomen in this 
company, who are admitted to partake of its charities. It likewise grants 
liberal pensions to decayed members; to one who had served sheriff, 2001. The 
income in 1833, was 23,811?., great part of which was from the large estates in 
Ireland; 4000?. or 5000/. is yearly spent in court, livery, and public feasts. 
Attached to the Hall is a pleasure garden, in the heart of the city, and which 
is free to the public. 

The Fishmongers' Company is the fourth, and is the great Whig Company. 
It has 100 freewomen sharing in its charities. The income is about 20,000?. 
yearly (8000?. from Ireland). Of this, 10,000?. is spent in charities, and 3000?. 
in entertainments. St. Peter's Hospital, at Wandsworth, is liberally endowed. 

The Goldsmiths', the fifth Company, is one of the few which still exercise 
trade functions. At their Hall are assayed and stamped all articles of gold 
and silver ware made within the London district, and the Government duty 
on plate is assessed. On plate are put several stamps; the Queen's bust, the 
Government mark ; the leopard's head, the Company's mark ; a mark to denote 
the quality ; and a letter to denote the year of manufacture. It is by members 
of the Goldsmiths' Company, that is peformed the occasional ceremony of the 
assay in the Court of Exchequer of the pyx of Mint coins, in order to deter- 
mine whether the national coinage is in conformity with the standard. This 
company gives splendid banquets and balls. 

The Merchant Tailors', the seventh in rank, maintain a school of high 



336 LONDON. 

reputation, and send many scholars to St. John's College, Oxford. Three 
dinners are yearly given to the livery; a grand political banquet on the 11th 
of June, on the occasion of the examination of the school by the President and 
Fellows of St. John's; a dinner to the Master and Wardens of the Skinners' 
Company, in pursuance of a decree made by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, 
in 1824; a yearly dinner at Richmond, and seventeen court dinners. Many 
members of the Stock Exchange belong to this company. The Duke of 
Wellington is a Merchant Tailor. 

The Yintners' Company have the valuable privilege that its members are 
exempted from the licensing acts, and the title of "Free Vintner," on a 
house or booth, enables its holder to sell wine without an excise or magis- 
trate's licence. 

The Clothworkers' Company give some good dinners in the course of the 
year, where much old plate, many ancient customs, and old cookery, may 
be seen. 

The Dyers' Company, now the thirteenth, was anciently one of the twelve 
great companies. It has the rare privilege of keeping swans in the river 
Thames, on which as much as 300?. a year has been spent, besides a swan- 
hopping excursion to look after them. 

The Coopers' is a wealthy Company, and keeps two good schools and an 
almshouse. 

The Brewers' is a wealthy Company. Each of the companies collect a small 
contribution from its freemen, called quarterage ; but in the Brewers' Company 
this is paid on the quantity of malt consumed by its members. 

The Leathersellers' Company have an income of about 4000?. yearly, of which 
400/. is spent yearly in feasting, and 1500?. in charities. 

The Pewterers' Company have an assay master, for assaying pewter ware, and 
the members of the company are entitled to use a peculiar mark, or touch, 
which is registered on *a pewter plate kept by the company in their hall. 
Their income is about 1300?. yearly. 

The members of the Barbers' Company (formerly the Barber Surgeons), are 
still exempted from serving the office of constable, or upon the nightly watch, 
and from serving on all juries, inquests, attaints and recognizances. Their 
hall pictures and plate are ancient. 

The Armourers and Braziers' Company have in their hall a collection of 
armour; the suits are sometimes used on Lord Mayor's Day, though, now, the 
armour is usually borrowed from the Tower Museum. 

The Butchers' Company consists of about 1500 members of the trade, and 
the livery elect the Court of Assistants. 

The Carpenters' Company invest their wardens with garlands, and give 
three dinners yearly to the livery, cakes to the members of the Court on 
Twelfth Day, and ribbon money to them on Lord Mayor's Day. Their income 
is above 2000?. yearly, of which 500?. is spent in feasting. 

The Painter Stainers' Company assist diseased and paralysed painters in 
going to Bath for the waters. 

The Cooks' Company are exempt from serving on juries in the City Courts. 

The Fruiterers' Company present the Lord Mayor yearly with twelve bushels 
of early apples, and are entertained by him. 

The Stationers' Company keeps a register of the copyrights of books, which 
dates from the time of Elizabeth, and is likewise of antiquarian interest, 
having been largely drawn upon for Shakspearian illustrations. The mem- 
bers of the livery are allowed to share in a trading stock, devoted to the 
publication of the Company's Almanacks. The income, exclusive of the 
trading stock, is about 2500?. yearly. 

The Basket-makers' is one of the few unincorporated Companies, but of great 
antiquity, and recognized by the city. In 1825 a livery of thirty was granted 
to it by the Court of Aldermen. Their income is only 10?. a year. 



CUSTOMS— CUSTOM HOUSE. 337 

The Paviers' is another unincorporated Company, and has no livery. 

The Apothecaries' Company exists as a local institution and a general 
medical college. The licentiates of the latter are not members of the com- 
pany. The membership, or freedom, is acquired by apprenticeship, the 
apprentice having to pass an examination in Latin, and the freeman the same 
examination as the licentiate. The quarterage is 10s. 6d. yearly, which goes 
towards the Botanical Garden. Members have privileges in forming the 
ruling body (the Court of Assistants), and the Court of Examiners, in holding 
stock, and in partaking of the funds of the company. The King's Apothe- 
cary claims the right of coming on the Court, independent of seniority. The 
company appoint examiners to grant licences to practise as apothecaries 
in England and Wales, and also to search their shops. In the Hall is a shop, 
extensive laboratories, a mill-house, and large pharmaceutical establishments. 
In 1623 a dispensary was set up at this hall, and in 1671 the chemical labora- 
tory was set up. In Queen Anne's time, the company undertook the supply 
of drugs for the navy, and then the navy stock was formed. This is divided 
into two classes of shares, the first of 120 members, and the second of 220. 
The capital brings a good return. Sir Hans Sloane gave them the Botanic 
Garden at Chelsea, in 1722. These gardens cost the company a large sum, 
and they maintain professors of botany and chemistry, and give a botanical 
medal to the students, who are taught free of charge. Five botanical ex- 
cursions take place yearly for the students, and are called the general herb- 
orizing, in the month of July, for the members only, when a dinner is given, 
at which several physicians and other professional men are invited as visitants. 
The livery have a dinner on Lord Mayor's day. 

The Shipwrights' Company had their livery increased in 1830, from 100 
to 200. 

The Lorimers' Company and the Spectacle Makers', are two companies in 
which candidates for the city freedom and livery, not having connection with 
any particular trade, generally enrol themselves. To the latter, several civic 
dignitaries and members of Parliament belong. 

The Needle-makers' is another Company deriving its income from the same 
persons. It was first chartered by the Lord Protector Cromwell, in 1656. 

The Clock-makers' Company is strictly a trade company. They have a 
lending library, rich in English and foreign works on horology and the allied 
sciences, with a printed catalogue and a cabinet of specimens of watches, 
containing many rare objects. This latter, by the liberality of the Master, 
is sometimes lent for exhibitions at scientific conversaziones. 

The office of Master of the Wheelwrights' Company is burdensome, for he 
has to pay a fine of 100?., appropriated to dining the Court. 

The Distillers' Company give to their freemen, on admission, a " book " con- 
taining various receipts for distilling strong liquors. 

The Gunmakers' Company have a proof-house and proof-master, for proving 
and stamping gun and pistol barrels. Gun-making is one of the London 
trades. There is another proof-house at Birmingham, founded on the same 
plan, for the great gun-making district. 

The Parish Clerks' Company do not confer the freedom of the city, nor the 
hereditary freedom. 



CUSTOMS— CUSTOM HOUSE. 

The Port of London is well known to carry on the largest business in the world. (See p. 114.) 
Its tonnage has no rival. 

The Customs receipts are about twelve millions yearly, or half those of the two islands (the 
receipts from all Scotland and Ireland being little more "than one-third of those of London), or 
about equal to those of Liverpool. The Custom House at London is likewise the central esta- 



338 



LONDON. 



WAN OF THE FIRSTFUNK 




SOUTH OR WATER FRONT 



PLAN OP THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 

blishment, but it is not so large as might be expected, arising from so much of the business being 
carried on in the docks, private warehouses, and elsewhere out of doors. 

London is the great place of import for East and West India produce, that is to say, groceries 
and wines, besides carrying on a great trade with the corn, timber, and tallow countries, and 
in wool, drugs, and manufactured articles of luxury. The tonnage of ships entering from 
foreign parts is about 1,500,000 tons yearly ; from the colonies, 500,000 tons ; and from the Eng- 
lish and Irish coasts, 3,000,000 tons ; making an aggregate of 5,000,000 tons. The coal trade 
largely employs the coasters. Much of the foreign business of the port is in the intercourse of 
steamers with France, Flanders, Holland, and Dutchland. As London is the great entrepot for 
England, for the supply of shipping, and for the neighbouring Continent, the warehousing 
business is large. The Custom House business has, therefore, a relation to these various cir- 
cumstances. 

From the time of the Normans, the Customs have formed a large part of the government reve- 
nues ; and from the Revolution of 1688, direct taxation has been so little applied, that the prejudices 
of many of the population, and the interests of others, are strongly enlisted in favour of indi- 
rect taxation. The impositions of duties for protecting home interests likewise upheld this 
feeling. Within the last thirty years, however, this system has been greatly modified, and the 
Customs transactions of the port of London have been altered in conformity. Begun by Hus- 
kisson, and carried out by Peel, all duties on exports are abolished, as are those on raw mate- 
rials, corn, and most articles of food, while as far as possible all duties of small returns are ab- 
rogated. Thus the duties are chiefly levied on groceries, wines, spirits, and tobacco. Upon all 
other articles, therefore, the functions of the Custom House are virtually statistical, and 
although returns are made of them, there are no charges. The export business gives some 
trouble to the Custom House, as articles are taken out of the bonded warehouses, and have to 
be examined; and wine, spirits, and tobacco, being subject to inland excise, are under peculiar 
regulations for shipment. (See pp. 121-123.) 

Two great aids of the Custom House are the warehouses and the docks (see article " Docks"). 
The landing-places were anciently at Billingsgate and Queenhithe, where the examination of goods 
could be readily effected; but now the landing, instead of taking place at the King's Quays, is car- 
ried on along the whole shores of the Thames, below bridge, and from time to time the government 
has authorized wharfs to be places for the landing of goods , under the name of ' * Sufferance Wharfs." 
Warehouses are likewise licensed for the storing of goods until payment of duty, under the 
government and merchants' keys, and as a bond is given for the due security of the goods, these 
are called " Bonded Warehouses." At these wharfs and warehouses departments of the Customs 
are established. These establishments, the wealthy proprietors of which are known as wharf- 
ingers, are, however, surpassed by the docks and warehouses belonging to the great corporations, 
each of which carries on the trade of a sea-port, and requires a large customs' staff. The bonded 
warehouses are likewise seats of manufacture, for many articles are allowed to be pre- 
pared and manufactured in bond, for use at home, or for shipment abroad. The merchant can 
thus, without the payment of duty, receive goods from abroad, and prepare them for the use of 
some other foreign market. 

The Custom House, in Lower Thames Street, is the chief seat of business, and the establish- 
ment is presided over by a board of commissioners, with a chairman and deputy-chairman. 
None of the commissioners or officials is allowed to sit in Parliament, or even to vote for a 
member, as the patronage has always been looked upon with jealousy. It is under the control 
of the Treasury, who undertake the parliamentary responsibility. 

The board have a secretary and staff, surveyor for buildings, and staff, and solicitor and staff. 

The chief departments are those of the surveyor-general, the receiver-general, the examiner, and 
comptroller of accounts, the inspector-general of imports and exports, which is the statistical 
office, the registrar-general of shipping, the long room, the landing department, the check, the 
Queen's warehouse, the coast guard, the water guard, and the alien registration. 

In the Long Room of the Port of London,in the Custom House (see plan above), notices are given 
of the arrival and departure of shipping, the entry and clearing of goods (see interior view, 
p. 339.) The landing department, the check office, and the water guard, take charge of 
a ship on arrival, put officers on board, examine the goods on landing, and assess the duties. 
The superior staff consists of landing surveyors and landing waiters, under whom are 30 gaugers, 
120 lockers, and 180 weighers. On the water guard are tide surveyors, having a staff of 500 tide 
waiters, 60 watchmen, and 80 watermen. 

The registrar-general of shipping gives certificates of registry to English shipping, which are 
the title-deeds of the ship. Lloyd's register is for shipping of all nations, and has reference to 
the character of the ship. It is the business of the Alien Office to register all foreigners entering 
by sea, but the regulations of importance in time of war are now much relaxed. 



DOCKS. 



339 




INTERIOR OF CUSTOM HOUSE. 

The Customs establishment is regularly organized, with scales of promotion for the severa 
ranks of officers, and having superannuation and other benefit funds. 

Although the Customs regulations are greatly improved, they are much open to objection, the 
Treasury and the board, from jealousy of their officers, causing serious impediments to business. 
The landing surveyors and waiters have arduous duties imposed upon them in the assessment 
of charges, according to quality or value, and even ad valorem duties are found to be productive 
of evils. The Custom House has the power of taking goods which it considers undervalued, 
at the merchant's valuation, with 10 per cent, added, and these are sold at the periodical 
Custom House sales, when, if a profit is realized beyond the duty, the officer shares in it. It 
therefore happens, sometimes, if the importer has made a good bargain, it is taken from him by 
the Customs, and the profit beyond 10 per cent, becomes theirs. 



DOCKS. 

The Docks of London show at once to the observer the great enter- 
prise and prosperity of the port of London. It will readily be con- 
ceived that a population of 2,000,000 of persons must necessarily, to 
a great extent, be supported by its trade and commerce — its proceeds 
in money value far exceeding in amount that of any other com- 
munity in the world. The merchant is the dealer with the trading 
universe, the tidal Thames bringing with its flow the treasure of near 
and distant nations ; and, with the aid of steam, persons of all nations 
come to us with objects of business and mutual interchange. The 
plan in p. 341 shows the singular figure of the Thames, and the rela- 
tive situation of each dock ; see also pp. 344, 348, and 349, for 
diagrams of Her Majesty's Dockyards of Deptford and Woolwich.' 

Q 2 



340 



LONDON. 



The following are the names of the Docks of which there are public companies, to which are 
added those of the Government Yards. 



H. M. Dock Yard and Arsenal, Woolwich. 

Superintendent, Commodore H. Eden. 

Master Shipwright, Oliver Lang, Esq. 

Deputy do., James Peake, Esq. 
H. M. Dock Yard, Deptford. 

Superintendent, 

Master Shipwright, 



In addition to the above, there are a great 
many private docks for the building and re- 
pairing of ships, for the construction of iron 
vessels, and for the fitting of engines to vessels 
of all tonnage, and the making and embarking 
of steam engines. 



East and West India Docks, instituted 1799. 
East India, instituted 1803; united 1838. 

Dock Master, Captain Evans. 
London Docks, 1802. 

Secretary, J. D. Powles, Esq. 
Commercial Docks, 1807. 

Superintendent, William Jones, Esq. 
Grand Surrey Canal Dock. 

Superintendent, William Mc. Cannon, Esq. 
St. Katherine Docks, 1828. 

Secretary, Sir John Hall. 
East Country Dock. 

Secretary and Superintend., A. Sherriff, Esq. 
Regent's Canal Company, 1812. 

Secretary, E. L. Snee, Esq. i 

By King Richard the First's first charter granted to the citizens of London, the corporation 
became conservators of the River Thames, extending westward from London Bridge to the River 
Colne, near Staines ; and, eastward, over the port and waters of the Thames, ports and creeks, 
and also over the River Medway, as far as Yantlet Creek, in Kent, and Leigh, in Essex. The 
Corporation of London have the right of regulating shipping, and of all other things concern- 
ing the navigation, and of licensing and permitting wharfs, docks, &c. Subsequently the 
extent and limits of the Port of London, as far as relates to Her Majesty's Customs, are declared by 
the Court of Exchequer to extend to the North Foreland, in the Isle of Thanet, then northward 
fn an imaginary line drawn to the opposite point, called the Haze, on the coast of Essex, 
through the Gunfleet Beacon, excepting the privileges of the Ports of Sandwich and Ipswich, 
and the several creeks, harbours, havens, &c, belonging to them. (See woodcut, p. 354.) 

The property in the rivers and rivulets that fall into the Thames, their fish, and the soil 
beneath, within certain boundaries, are vested in the Corporation of London. The divisions 
of the Port of London, as defined by the by-laws and customs of the harbour service, are the 
Upper Pool, the Lower Pool, Limehouse Reach, Greenwich Reach, Blackwall Reach, and 
Bugsby's Reach. Several dredging machines are constantly in operation for effectually 
cleansing the river. Since the institution of the Corporation of the Trinity House, in the 
vear 1515, 400,000,000 tons of ballast have been raised in the River Thames. In an account 

taken in the year 1831, the Receipts were £30,239 17s. 9d. 

Cost of procuring the same . . . 23,741 15 11 

Net profit for one year 6498 1 10 

St. Katheriptjs's Docks being the nearest to London Bridge, we shall briefly describe these the 
most recently-constructed docks. The old Hospital of St. Katherine, and 1250 poorly-tenanted 
houses which stood on the site, were happily removed, together with the vicious and badly-housed 
inmates, who numbered nearly 12,000 persons. The company for the construction of these 
docks was formed in 1824, and the docks were opened on the 25th October, 1828. The capital 
first raised was £1,352,800, and an additional sum of £800,000 was also raised. The space included 
within the outer wall is about 24 acres, about eleven of which are wet docks ; they consist of 
two docks, communicating with each other by basin, and are surrounded by large and lofty 
stacks of warehouses, and wide and commodious quays. The lock leading from the river is 
180 ft. in length, and 45 ft. in width, between the entrance gates, and is so constructed that 
vessels of upwards of 600 tons burden may pass and repass three hours before high-water, so 
that outward-bound ships from these docks can reach Blackwall before the tide begins to 
recede. The depth of water at the top of the spring tides, on the sills, Trinity datum, is 
28 ft. ; at the dead neap tides, 24 ft. ; at low water spring tides, 10 ft. ; and at low water neap 
tides, 12 ft. ; so that vessels of upwards of 800 tons register are docked and undocked without 
difficulty, and the depth of the water at the entrance exceeds that of any other wet dock in the 
Port of London, as may be seen by the table in p. 342 :— 



References to the Engraving apposite. 



1. London Bridge. 

2. Custom House. 

3. The Trinity House. 

4. The Tower. 

5. The Mint. 

6. St. Katherine's Docks. 

7. London Docks. 

8. St. Saviour's Dock. 

9. Wapping. 

10. Thames Tunnel. 

11. Tunnel shaft. 

12. Rotherhithe Church. 
J3. Shad well Church. 

14. Commercial Railway. 
15: Regent's Canal. 



16. Basin. 

17* Bromley Canal. 

18. Grand Surrey Docks. 

19. Commercial Docks. 

20. Ordnance Wharf. 

21. Greenland Dock. 

22. Victualling office. 

23. Royal Dock-yard. 

24. Deptford Creek. 

25. Drunken Dock. 

26. Ferry house. 

27. Royal Hospital. 

28. Royal Naval Asylum. 

29. Norfolk College. 



30. Mr. Beale's iron works. 

31. Messrs. Enderby's rope 

works. 

32. Folly House Tavern. 

33. West India House. 

34. South-west India Dock. 

35. Timber dock. 

36. West India Dock res< 

voirs. 

37. East India Docks. 

38. Bow Creek. 

39. All Saints' Church. 

40. Chapel. 

41. Limehouse Church. 



DOCKS AND PORT OF LONDON. 



341 




FIGURE OF THE THAMES. 



342 LONDON. 

Depth of Water on the outer Sill 
of Gates at low water, 
Spring Tides, Trinity datum. 
Feet. Inches. 

St. Katherine Docks 10 

London Docks, Hermitage entrance 3 

„ ,, Wapping ditto 5 

„ „ Shadwell ditto 6 6 

Regent's Canal, entrance of Basin 1 

West India Dock, Limehouse entrance 4 3 

„ „ South ditto, formerly the City Canal .... 6 

,, ,, Blackwall entrance 6 

East India Docks, entrance 6 6 

East Country ditto ditto 5 6 

Commercial ditto ditto 9 

Grand Surrey Canal ditto , 1 6 

Vessels are also docked and undocked by night as well as by day; an advantage first intro- 
duced in the Port of London by the St. Katherine Docks Company. 

These docks have also a wharf between the Tower and the dock entrance, of 187 ft. river 
frontage, for the accommodation of steam-vessels, where passengers land and embark free of 
expense, at any time of the tide, and without the intervention of boats. Convenient waiting- 
rooms for passengers and their luggage are constructed, and excellent arrangements made for 
the landing and shipping of carriages, horses, cattle, &c. 

The warehouses, vaults, and covered ways, will contain 110,000 tons of goods. The diameter 
of the columns to support the superincumbent weight above are sufficiently ample to support 
the greatest weight. The works were designed and executed from the designs and under the 
superintendence of the late Thomas Telford, and the warehouses under that of Philip Hard- 
wick, Architect. 

In 1846, the gross receipts were £22.9,814 14s. 10d. ; gross debits, £124,269 14*. 7d«» leaving a 
balance of profit amounting to £105,545 0*. 3d. 

The next undertaking of this nature, going down the river, are 

The London Docks, which are nearly adjoining to those of St. Katherine, and are situated 
in Wapping. They extend from East Smithfield to Shadwell, and were originally intended 
principally for the reception of ships laden with wine, brandy, tobacco, and rice. These docks 
consist of two capacious docks ; the western dock covers an area of above 20 acres, being 1260 
ft. long, and 960 ft. wide, and the eastern dock an area of 7 acres. The tobacco dock and 
warehouses are between them, the dock exceeding 1 acre in extent, and used solely by tobacco 
ships. The entrances to these docks are — the Hermitage, or upper entrance, which leads to the 
western dock through the Hermitage basin; the Wapping, or central entrance, which com- 
municates with the same dock through theWapping basin, covering an area of more than3acres; 
and the Shadwell, or lower entrance, which communicates with the eastern dock, through the 
eastern basin. This lower entrance, which is of recent construction, is one mile below the 
Hermitage entrance, and three-quarters of a mile below the Wapping entrance. The entire 
quantity of ground comprised within the outer boundary wall of the docks is 71 acres and 
3 roods. 

The warehouses are capacious in size, convenient in arrangement, and magnificent in design 
and execution. The great tobacco warehouse, on the north side of the tobacco dock, is the 
largest, finest, and most convenient building of its sort in the world. It is rented by Govern- 
ment at £14,000 per annum. It will contain 24,000 hogsheads of tobacco, and covers the 
immense space of nearly 5 acres. There is also a very large tobacco warehouse on the north 
side of the tobacco dock. 

Under the warehouses is a series of the most magnificent vaults in the world, which include 
an area of more than 18 acres, and have convenient and ample stowage for 66.000 pipes of wine 
and spirits : they are the great depot for the stock of wines belonging to the wine merchants 
of London. 

These docks, constructed by the late John Rennie, Engineer, were opened on the 30th 
January, 1805, and the first vessel admitted was a fine brig called " The London Packet," from 
Oporto, laden with wine. All ships bound for the Thames, which were laden with wine, 
brandy, tobacco, and rice (except ships from the East and West Indies, which use their own 
docks), were obliged to unload in these docks for the space of 21 years from the date of their 
opening ; but this monopoly having expired January 30th, 1826, the use of these docks is 
optional, as is the case with the others. 

The entrance from the Thames at ShadweTl was constructed in 1831, by H. R. Palmer, 
Engineer, and the lock-gates of these docks are ingenious and scientific examples of the skill 
of both these engineers. 

In 1844-45, the new tea warehouses, capacious enough to receive 120,000 chests of tea, were 
erected. This great establishment comprises in the whole an area of 90 acres ; with three 
entrances from the Thames, viz., Hermitage, 40 ft. in width; Wapping, 40 ft. in width ; and 
Shadwell, 45 ft. The whole structure cost £4,000,000 of money. 

The next important work of skill and science in our Port, proceeding down the river, is 

The Grand Surrey Canal, the spacious and convenient docks of which are situated 
at Rotherhithe, adjoining to and on the upper side of those belonging to the Commercial 
Dock Company. 

The entrance from the Thames is between King and Queen Stairs and King's Mills, nearly 
opposite the lower entrance to the London Docks. The situation, plans, and extent of this 
and all the docks, are fully described in " The Public Works of Great Britain," large folio. 

Proceeding downwards in this survey, toward Blackwall, the next scientific work is 

The Regent's Canal and Bastn, which was projected by John Nash, Architect, and reaches 
from the Thames at Limehouse to the Grand Junction Canal at Paddington. The basin is 
commodious and well suited to its trade, and the canal, having two tunnels, proceeds up the 



DOCKS. 343 

country 8k miles, with a fall of 90 ft., by 12 locks, exclusive of the tide-lock at the Thames, 
through Limehouse, Stepney, Hackney, "Islington, the Regent's Park, and onwards to Padding- 
ton. It was commenced October, 1812; opened from Paddington to the Regent's Park Basin 
in 1814; and throughout to the Thames, in August, 1820. Mr. James Morgan was the 
Engineer. It is used largely for coals from the up country. 

The next scientific work," going downwards, is 

The Bromley or Poplar Canal, which was made about seventy years since, from the 
Thames at Limehouse, where it has a capacious and secure lock for barges, through Poplar 
into the River Lea, at Bromley, to avoid the long and circuitous route from Bow round the 
Isle of Dogs to Limehouse (see woodcut, p. 341). This passage is as dangerous for barges, and 
such other craft as navigate the Lea, as it is circuitous, and liable to constant impediments 
from contrary winds and tides. ' The entrance is between that of the Regent's Canal and Lime- 
kiln Dock, and is about l£ mile in length. 

Our next step is to that magnificent establishment 

The West India Docks, which were the first wet-docks ever constructed in the Port of 
London. Constructed by William Jessop, Engineer. It is singular that, notwithstanding the 
obvious utility of wet-docks, and the vast trade of the metropolis, there was no establishment 
of this sort on' the Thames till nearly a century after a wet-dock had been constructed at Liver- 
pool. This may have arisen from the lesser need of such establishments in the Port of 
London (from its superiority to that of Liverpool as a natural harbour), till the increased trade 
compelled its adoption. 

These docks are not only the earliest, but are still the most extensive of the great ware- 
housing establishments in the Port of London, covering 295 acres. They were begun in 
February, 1800, and the first stone laid by William Pitt, in July, and were partially opened in 
August, 1802. They are situated, as may be seen in the woodcut, p. 341, across the isthmus which 
connects the peninsula called the Isle of Dogs with the Middlesex side of the Thames. They 
consisted originally of two docks, one for imports and the other for exports, the former 
holding 204 vessels each of 300 tons ; each communicating, by locks, with a basin of nearly 
6 acres in extent, at the lower end next Blackwall, and with another basin of more than 2 acres, 
at the upper end next Limehouse : they both communicate with the Thames, by means of 
capacious locks and extensive pier heads. 

In addition to their already extensive premises, the West India Dock Company purchased from 
the Corporation of London, in 1829, the City Canal, with its adjacent grounds and buildings, 
three-quarters of a mile long, cutting off the great bend of the river. It runs parallel to the 
two other docks, is now called the South Dock, and is appropriated to the wood and timber 
trades, for the greater accommodation of which the Company have since excavated a pond of 
19 acres in extent, for the reception of bonded timber. 

The Export Dock, or that appropriated for ships loading outwards, will hold 195 vessels ; 
is about 2600 ft. in length, by about 400 ft. in breadth, and covers an area of nearly 25 acres. 
The North, or Import Dock, is the same length by 500 ft. in breadth, and has a superficial area 
of nearly 30 acres. The north side of the Import Dock is bounded by 1 1 large stacks of 
extensive warehouses for sugars, coffee, and other dry goods ; the south side by an extensive 
quay and warehouses for rum ; and an eastern and western wood quay and sheds. The Import 
Dock has large sheds for the reception of goods sent down for shipment, and numerous offices 
for the Excise, Customs, &c, and other necessary out-buildings. The whole are surrounded 
by lofty boundary walls ; and the side next Poplar, from the Blackwall Basin to that at 
Limehouse, by a broad and deep moat or ditch. Northward of the Blackwall Basin are a large 
elevated reservoir and two settling reservoirs below. 

The South Dock is nearly 3700 ft. in length, with excellent lock entrances at both ends, being 
nearly § of a mile in length from pier head to pier head. Both the locks of this dock, as well 
as that which opens into the BlackwallBasin, are 45 ft. in width, which is wide enough to admit 
vessels of 1200 tons burthen. At spring tides the depth of water in the docks is 24 ft., and the 
whole will contain 600 vessels, from 250 to 500 tons burden. 

The Company have now the East India Dock, and are called the East and West India Dock 
Company. 

The wood-sheds, in which enormous quantities of mahogany, ebony, rosewood, &c, are 
deposited, do credit to the ingenious machinery of railways attached to the girders, for the 
use of the locomotive cranes for transporting and depositing the enormous blocks of timber, 
often of 4 and 5 tons weight, in their respective places, by the aid of only 4 or 5 men, which 
were invented and executed by the late John Rennie, who completed these docks after the 
death of Mr. Jessop, their prior and original engineer. He says the sum saved in wages by this 
new process in the first half year, was sufficient to defray the whole expense of the machinery. 

Proceeding still downwards from the Limehouse entrance of the West India Docks, is the 
extensive establishment called 

The Commercial Docks; the docks, yards, and warehouses of which and also their rela- 
tive situation in the Port, which is nearly opposite the upper entrance to the West India Docks, 
are shown with great accuracy, and to a large scale, in "the Public Works of Great Britain." 
They consist of 6 docks, of which No. 1, formerly the Greenland Dock, covers a surface of 9| 
acres. The entrance to these docks is through "that numbered 1, and is nearly opposite the 
King's Arms Public-house, Mill Wall. No. 2 adjoins the former to the westward, and covers 
a space of If acres. No. 3 is northward of No. 1, with which it is connected by a cut, 
and contains 3| acres. No. 4 is northward of No. 3, and is similarly connected therewith, 
and contains 10 acres. No. 5 adjoins No. 4 to the north-east, and contains 15 acres ; and No. 6 
adjoins the former to the northward, and contains 18| acres. It contains several spacious 
bonding yards, timber sheds, warehouses, granaries, drying-kilns, &c. 

From the situation of these very extensive docks, which include within their boundaries 
nearly 70 acres, of which about fifty-eight are water, they might easily be made, now the trade 
of the Port of London has so wonderfully increased, and is still increasing, to rank among the 
most prosperous establishments of the metropolitan harbour. 



344 



LONDON. 



Pursuing our course down the river, and passing the lower or eastern entrance of the West 
India Docks, the next large commercial establishment is that called 

The East India Docks, which are situated at Blackwall, 3£ miles from the Royal Ex- 
change. The first stone was laid in March, 1805, and the Docks opened in August, 1806. They 
were° originally intended for the accommodation of ships belonging to or employed by the 
East India Company, or in that country trade; but they are now, in consequence of the dis- 
solution of that Company as a 
commercial corporation, open 
to vessels from all parts and in 
all trades, now united with the 
East and West India Dock Com- 
pany. They consist of an im- 
port dock, 1410 ft. in length,and 
560 ft. in breadth, covering an 
area of nearly 19 acres; and an 
export dock, 760 ft. in length, 
and 463 ft. in breadth, covering 
a surface of nearly 9 acres ; be- 
sides a spacious entrance basin, 
which connects the dock with 
the river, of nearly 3 acres. The 
various works of these excel- 
lent docks were executed from 
the designs an d under the super- 
intendence of the late Ralph 
Walker and John Rennie. The 
length of the entrance lock is 
210 ft., and the width of the 
gates 48 ft. in the clear. The 
depth of water in the docks is 
never less than 23 ft., so that 
they can accommodate ships of 
larger burden than any other 
docks in the river. There is at- 
tached to these a splendid quay 
fronting the river, called the 
Brunswick Wharf (now also 
used for the termini of the 
Blackwall Railway) , nearly 700 
feet in length, with water suffi- 
cient at all times of the tide to 
float the largest steam ships; 
and the export dock is fur- 
nished with a powerful and 
lofty machine, which is able to 
mast and dismast the largest 
ships. This new steam-boat 
wharf was designed and exe- 
cuted with cast-iron plates and 
sheeting, by James Walker, 
late President of the Institute 
of Civil Engineers, in the first 
volume of whose Transactions 
it is most elaborately detailed. 
On this wharf is the Brunswick 
Tavern, built for the accom- 
modation of company arriving 
or departing by the larger class 
of steam ships, and for white 
bait and dinner parties. 

Deptfokd, a large old 
town on the south bank of 
the Thames, in the county 
of Kent, about 3 miles 
from London Bridge, 
has two parishes and an 
ancient dockyard, used 
as a Royal dockyard, 
established by Henry 
VIII., who also first erect- 
ed here a storehouse. It 
has since become a vic- 
tualling establishment, 




a Yard gate. 

/> Spinning house. 

c Shop. 

d Smiths' shop. 

fi Saw pits. 

f Pitch house. 

g Rigging and sail house. 



h Store houses. 
i Ropery. 
k Plank shed. 
/ Docks. 
m Building slips. 
n Basin. 



PLAN OF DEPTFORD DOCK. 



DOCKS — DEPTFORD. 



345 



and, recently, a capacious naval storehouse, with batteries of biscuits for 
the Royal Navy, the very ingenious machinery for which, and for other 
purposes, has been constructed by the Messrs. Eennie. The finest ma- 
chinery in the world is employed in Deptford Dock-yard, for spinning 
hemp and manufacturing ropes and cables for the service of the navy. 
The whole detail of this machinery is to be found in Vol. 8 of the Papers of 
the Royal Engineers. A striking proof of the relative superiority of rope 
manufactured upon Capt. Huddart's principle over that made by the old sys- 
tem, in point of strength and durability, was formerly afforded in the instance 
of the London and North Western Railway, employing it to propel the engines 
from Euston station to Camden-town, by an endless rope running upon pulleys, 
urged by the power of the fixed steam-engine. 



DIMENSIONS OF THE DIFFERENT VESSELS 


BUILT AND LAUNCHED AT DEPTFORD, 




SINCE THE BEOPENING OF THE DOCK-YABD IN 1844. 




£ 

QQ 


Date when 
launched. 

(inns. 


Length be- 
tween Per- 
pendiculars. 


Length of 
Keel for Ton- 
nage. 

Breadth, ex- 
treme. 


<*c3 


1 

! ~2 


c 

n 


• s ss 






ft. in. ft. in. ft. in. 


ft. in. 


ft. in. 


ft. in. 


Nog. 


Worcester. . 


Oct. 10, 60 


172 144 9 43 8 




.... 


14 6 


1468 




1843, be- Frigate. 


















fore the 


















yard was 


















're-esta- 






i 












blished. 
















Porcupine. . 


June 17, St. VI. 


141 


124 71 24 2 


24 


23 6 


13 6 


j 382JJ 




1844. 












Terrible .. 


Feb. 26, St. VI. 
1845. 21. 


226 


196 10£ 42 6 


42 


41 2 


27 4 


' I«7jR 


Spitfire .... 


March 26, St. VI. 
1846. 


147 4 


130 2| 25 1 


24 11 


24 5 


14 6 


429|4 


Hound 


May 21, 10 
1846. 


95 


74 630 4 


30 1 


29 7 


13 6 


35811 


Sidon 


May 26, St. VI. 


211 


185 3 37 


36 6| 


35 10 


27 


^m 




1846. 










Odin 


Julv 24, St VI. 
1846. 


208 


187 U 


37 


36 6 


35 10 


24 2 


1326& 


Termagant. 


Sept. 25, Screw 


208 3 


181 


40 6 


40 


39 4 


25 9 


1540$ 




1847- 












Reynard . . 


March 21, Screw 
1848. 


147 8 128 4& 

1 


27 9f 


27 51 


26 11| 


14 6 


515^ 


Phaeton . . 


Nov. 25, 50 

1848. 
March 27, Screw 

1849. 
May 28, Screw 

1850. 
Nov. 5, St. VI. 

1850. 


186 10 ■ 152 8£ 


49 5| 


48 10| 


48 1| 


15 10| 


1941^3 


Archer 


180 ; 162 71 


33 m 


33 6h 


32 10| 


18 11 


973|2 


Wasp 


180 i 162 71 


33 10J 


33 6| 


32 m 


18 11 


973** 


Leopard 


218 


194 


37 6 


37 


26 4 


25 2 


1412JJ 


Hannibal . . 


Now 90 

Building. ! 


208 


170 7# 


58 


57 2 


56 4 


24 


2963JJ 


Emerald . . 


Now j 60 


185 


152 2J 


52 


51 6 


50 8 


15 8 


2146|i 




Building, i 














Imperieuse 


Now j Screw 


212 


180 8§ 


58 


49 6 


48 8 ! 


16 9 


23554| 




Building. • 












93 



In 1515 a Society was founded at Deptford, by Sir Thomas Spert, knight, 
incorporated by Henry Till. The grant was made to institute, to the " ho- 
nour of the Blessed Trinity and St. Clement, a guild or brotherhood, concern- 
ing the cunning and craft of mariners, and for the increase and augmentation 
of the ships thereof, " and all proceedings and matters concerning sea-marks, 
and to erect lighthouses upon the several coasts of the kingdom, for the secu- 
rity of navigation, &c, now called the Trinity Board, and located in Tower- 
hill. Captain Richard Maples, who died commanding a shin in the East 
Indies, in 1680, left to the Trinitv-house 13002., with which a part of the alms- 

Q 3 



346 LONDON. 

houses was built. The Emperor Peter the Great of Russia worked as a ship* 
wright in the dock-yard, and upon his return to Russia and founding the city 
of Petersburgh, adopted the English 12-inch rule, which to this day is the 
ordinary measure for practice in the building operations of the artisans of that 
country. In this dock-yard many large ships-of-war have been constructed. 
The Hannibal, 90 guns, is now in the course of construction, and the Leopard, 
steam ship-of-war ; also ships have been fitted for scientific discoveries, particu- 
larly those of Capt. Cook, the great navigator of the globe. In the illustration 
in page 344 is shown the present plan of this dock-yard, and a list, in page 
345, of the ships built here is an interesting fact. Master shipwright, Charles 
Willcox, Esq. 

Woolwich, in the county of Kent, about 8 miles east of London- 
bridge, is one of the most interesting and important situations (within 
the port of London) for the maritime and military operations of Great 
Britain, possessing a most commodious dock-yard (see accompanying 
plan across pages 348-9) and arsenal, barracks for troops, depots of all 
the appointments for war purposes and the defence of the country, 
and a Royal military academy. It was anciently a small fishing 
village ; but its peculiar situation on the banks of the Thames, and 
its proximity to the capital, and therefore facility of control by 
Government, render it a natural, national, and political position. 

The Royal Arsenal. — On the right and left of a spacious gateway are two 
lodges ; the one on the right is occupied by one of the gate-keepers of this ex- 
tensive establishment; and that on the left is an office for the bombardier of the 
royal artillery on duty, to enter the names, designations, and places of resi- 
dence of the parties applying for admission to visit the arsenal, in a book kept 
for that purpose. 

Orders were issued in 1840, immediately after the destructive fire at Devon- 
port dock-yard, not to admit any person into the buildings in the royal arsenal, 
except on business, and only to allow the public to walk over the grounds; but 
as there is every reason to believe this restriction will soon be removed, the 
following information may prove interesting. 

The first place visited by strangers is the foundry for casting brass guns and 
howitzers. The original foundry possessed by government was established in 
Upper Moorfields, London, near Finsbury-square ; and its removal from thence 
to Woolwich was in consequence of the following accident : the Duke of 
Richmond, Master General of the Ordnance at that period, having ordered a 
large re-cast of the guns taken by Marlborough from the French, several of 
his friends, and a large concourse of spectators, attended to witness the opera- 
tion. A foreigner of the name of Schaleh, who happened to be present, felt 
convinced, by observing moisture in the moulds, that an explosion was to be 
apprehended, and warned the Duke and the surrounding spectators of their 
danger. No sooner had the burning metal been poured into the mould than 
it exploded with great violence, by the force of the steam which it generated, 
and severely injured several of the bystanders. M. Schalch, having given 
proof of his knowledge in this department, was offered a commission to select 
a spot within 12 miles of London for the erection of a new foundry, and also 
to be made superintendent of the whole concern. The proposal being highly 
advantageous, he readily accepted it, and fixed on the Warren at Woolwich as 
the most eligible situation. 

The foundry was originally erected by Sir John Vanbrugh, and finished in 
1719. 

The machinery and tools employed in the manufacture of cannon, in the Royal Arsenal, 
have been recently constructed and erected bv Mr. Napier, of London. 

Previous to that tims the manufacture was" carried on in the most primitive manner. The 
jhomg rai#s &r lathes which came from Holland about eighty years ago were in separate 



DOCKS — WOOLWICH. 



347 




| j Iron Fo un<bj V \ 

A Steam boilers. 
B Steam engine. 
C Overhead railway. 
D Locomotive crane. 
E Gun boring Lathes. 



F Trunnioning machine. 
G Drilling machine. 
H Bouching frame. 
I Centreing machine. 
J Shaping machine. 
K Planing machine. 
L Small planing machine. 
M Vent drilling machine. 
N Grinding stones. 
O Stoves. 

P Self-acting lathes. 
Q Cutter forming machine. 
R Large lathe and wheel 
cutting engine. 



5 Polishing lathes. 
T Blowing fan. 
17 Smiths' forges. 

V Smiths' anvils. 
TV Iron cupola furnace. 
X Coal vaults. 

Y Chimney stalk. 
Z Engineers' office, 
a a Tool Stores. 

b b Iron pillars. 
c c Work benches. 
dd Vices. 
e Fly wheel. 
/ Drum of steam engine. 



PLAN OF WOOLWICH CANNON FOUNDRY. 



buildings, to each of which was attached a 4-horse mill; upon the end of the shaft which 
brought the motion from the mill was a square box or chuck ; into this box fitted a square, 
cast upon the gun behind the cascable. The muzzle of the gun ran in a circular collar plate, 
which was firmly kept in its place by means of iron bolts, connected to a strong foundation of 
iron-work and masonry. In the process of boring, the bit was forced into the gun by means of 
an endless screw, with rack and pinion, which was moved by a man or boy, while the laborious 
operation of turning was effected entirely by the hand tool : when bored* and turned, the gun 
was put on a carriage, and taken to another building to be vented. 

Here it was placed on blocks of wood while the several holes were drilled, which was per- 
formed by two men with a crank brace drill, the pressure being communicated from heavy iron 
weights placed above. The copper vent was drilled in a lathe, one end of the bolt on a centre, 
the other in a collar plate: the motion was given by two men on a fly-wheel, while the drill 
was held in the hand of another workman. In the same lathe the vent was turned and the 
screw cut upon it, both operations being performed by hand. When the copper vent was 
screwed into the gun, the projecting part inside was wrenched off by the workmen with a half- 
round bit: the gun was again put on a carriage, and taken to another building to be trunnioned. 

When here, it was placed on blocks of wood, with the trunnions in a vertical position ; one 
of the trunnions was then set off, and about £ inch of it brought to the proper size by the chisel 
and file. Upon this was placed a circular box, with a cutter fixed on the under side of it ; on 
the other or upper side was fixed a vertical spindle, which received pressure from heavy iron 
weights hung above it. Long levers were now attached, and two or three i&en kept walking 
round and round until this part of the trunnion was completed; the extreme end of the trun- 
nion being finished by chisel and file. The other trunnion was then turned up, and the same 
operation performed upon it ; after which the gun was again placed on a carriage,, and taken to 
another building to be finished. 

Such was the tedious, rude, and imperfect system in use until about foitr years ago, when the 
necessity of a change was rendered manifest to the then Master-General of the Ordnance, the 
late Lord Vivian, who directed the Inspector of Artillery (Lieut. -Colonel Dundas) to submit 
for his consideration such plans as he should, under the circumstances, deem necessary ; the 
machinery was then ordered, with very material and important additions authorised by Sir 
George Murray and the present Board of Ordnance, and other necessary machines constructed 
in the establishment. 

The prime mover is an expansive and condensing steam engine of 12-horse power, which may 
be worked at a pressure of 30 lbs. to the square inch, if required: it has two cylindrical boilers, 
only one of which is used at a time. The power is transmitted from this steam engine by a 
large strap passing over the drum, and over a corresponding drum on the main shafts, which 
distributes the power over the factory with a locomotive or travelling crane. The crane travels 
on a railway of cast iron, which extends the length of the building above the centre of the 
lathes. In the factory adjoining is an iron foundry and blacksmiths' shop, the fan for blowing 
the cupola and the forges being driven by the steam engine. The macliinery is elaborately 
described in the 8th vol. of the Papers of the Royal Engineers. 

Close by is the laboratory. Here fire-works and cartridges for the use of 
the army and navy are made; as well as bombs, carcases, granados, con- 



348 



LONDON. 




1. Outer basin. 

2. 9-ton crane. 

3. 10-ton crane. 

4. Dynamometer. 

5. West Smithery. 

6. Engine house ; tank over. 

7. Shed. 

8. Dock No. 1. 

9. Engineers' work-shed. 
10. Shears. 

U. Capstan. 

12. Ditto shears. 

13. Ditto ditto. 

14. Ditto. 

15. 4-ton crane. 

16. Crane. 

17. Mast house. 

18. Crane. 

20. 10-ton crane. 

21. 20-ton crane. 
21*.Fitting and erecting shop. 

22. Capstan. 

23. 20- ton crane. 

24. Ditto. 



25. 20-ton crane. 


48 


26. Inner basin. 


49. 


27. Brass-founders' shop. 


50. 


28. Copper-smiths' shop. 


51. 


29. Smithery. 


52. 


30. Fire engine. 


53. 


31. School for apprentices. 


54. 


32. Police quarters. 


55. 


33. Iron store. 


56. 


34. Boiler-plate furnaces. 

35. Punching shop ; pattern- 


57. 


58. 


makers' shop over. 


59. 


36. Boiler-plate store. 


60. 


37. Coal and coke store. 


61. 


38. Coke oven. 




39. Weigh bridge. 


62. 


40. Boiler factory. 


63. 


41. Engine house. 




42. Weigh bridge. 


64. 


43. Foundry. 


65. 


44. Drying stores, &c. 


66. 


45. Timber shed. 


67. 


46. Ditto. 


68. 


47. Ditto. 





Drying shed. 

Sawpits. 

Crabs to shears. 

Shears. 

Steam machinery store 

Slip No. 1. [house. 

Do. No. 2. 

Crane. 

Timber sheds. 

Ditto ditto. 

Sawpits; joiners' shop over. 

Converters' pound. 

Slip No. 3. 

(erroneously marked 51), 

Mould loft. 
Engine-makers' shops, &c. 
Surgery, guard house, and 

offices. 
Garden. 

Superintendent's house. 
Officers' stables. 
Police station. 
Inspector of police station, 

&c. 



greve and other rockets; adjoining the river, an immense field of ord- 
nance, intended for batteries and ships, may be seen, and are always ready for 
immediate supply. Many very interesting objects for the visitor, too many to 
be described in our space, may be viewed with advantage in this arsenal. 
The Woolwich Dock-yard is the oldest in the kingdom, having been esta- 



DOCKS — WOOLWICH. 



349 




WOOLWICH DOCKYARD. 



Officers' houses. 

Offices. 

Chain, &c, proving house. 

7-ton crane. 

5-ton crane. 

Ditto. 

Ditto and weigh bridge. 

Battery. 

5-ton crane. 

Slip No. 4. 

Weigh bridge. 

Yard. 

Store house. 

Armoury. 

Treenail loft. 

Boilers. 

Steam hammer shop. 

Smithery. 

Privies. * 

Capstan. 

Ditto. 

Pitch house. 

Privies. 



93. Capstan. 




114. Storing house. 




94. Dock No. 2. 




115. Steam' kiln. 




95. Capstan. 




116. Gas meter. 




96. Dock No. 3. 




117. Offices. 




97. Capstan. 




118. Slip No. 7- 




98. Ditto. 




119. Crane. 




100. Officer's house. 




120. Boat house. 




101. Capstan. 




121. Store boat house. 




102. Steam saw -mills ; 


joiners' 


122. Sawpit. 




shop over it. 




123. Storing house. 




103. Engine house; tank over it. 


124. Old guard house. 




104. Stores. 




125. Boat pond. 




105. Chimney. 




126. Cable store. 




106. Capstan. 




127. Rigging house. 

128. Wharf. 




107- Ditto. 






108. 5-ton crane. 




129. Crane. 




109. Sir William Burnett's ap- 


130. Weigh bridge. 




paratus. 




131. Crane. 




110. Ditto. 




132. The groove or plane 


for 


111. Slip No. 6. 




floating timber. 




112. Slip No. 5. 




133. Grindstone. 




113. Storing house ; 


(errone- 






ously marked No. 118.) 







blished as early as 1512. On the left hand of the entrance is a handsome 
building, the residence of Commodore Henry Eden, Koyal Xavy, who is super- 
intendent of the whole establishment. 

Visitors, on entering the gate, pass under a neat colonnade into the dock- 
yard police-office, where their names, designations, and addresses are inserted 



350 LONDON. 

in a book kept for that purpose. The members of the dock-yard police are 
very civil, and obligingly give such information as they may be acquainted 
with, connected with the various objects worthy of notice. 

The first residence on the right hand is occupied by the master shipwright, 
storekeeper, &c, &c. 

The blacksmiths' shop is an object well worth the attention of visitors, as it 
contains several massive hammers, moved by steam power, for forging anchors 
of the largest size, and massive bolts, used for the largest ships in the British 
navy. There are also several furnaces, and a great number of forges, all the 
latter supplied with wind from powerful fanners, instead of bellows. About 
two hundred men are employed in this department. 

Very near is what is usually called the testing house; in this very important department all 
iron cables, anchors, &c, are sufficiently tested for service. The press was constructed many 
years since, and has been most efficacious. The strain is produced by hydrostatic pressure; its 
amount is estimated by a system of levers balanced on knife edges, which act quite indepen- 
dently of the strain upon the machine, and exhibit sensibly a change of pressure of &th of a 
ton even when the total strain amounts to 100 tons. This proving machine was constructed by 
Messrs. Bramah, of Pimlico. Our plan (pages 348-9) shows the several very important objects 
in this yard, those for the building of ships of all classes, basins and docks for the repair of steam 
ships, and every appointment for the fitting and refitting this all-important arm of our service. 
Captain Denison states, in vol. viii. of the Papers of the Royal Engineers, that the docks in Her 
Majesty's yard at Woolwich had been a subject of serious consideration for some years ; they 
were constructed of wood, and although the timbers and planking of the bottom were sound, 
yet the side timbers composing the altars, and the land ties, and other framing, &c, were in a 
state of decay. A plan for straightening the river front of the yard, and, at the same time, 
adding a valuable space to its interior, had been in operation since 1835, in which plan the con- 
struction of two new docks on the site of the old wooden docks was a prominent feature. 
After the several improvements were made in the frontage, a new dock was constructed, a 
section across which shows the coffer dam, wall, and counterforts, the whole of such excellent 
work as to give it a permanent character, and to admit steamers of the largest class. The 
volumes entitled *' The Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers," contain notices of some 
engineering and mechanical contrivances in this yard. 

Royal Military Repository. — The near approach to the grounds of the 
Repository is attractive, being that of a constructed fort, with guns placed in 
the embrasures. The gunners of the Royal Artillery practise the art of de- 
fending fortifications, slinging guns on gyns, throwing pontoons, or floating 
bridges, across a small lake to an island in the centre, and various other duties 
connected with this service. 

Visitors, on entering the gate, turn to the right, and the sentinel will point 
out a range of buildings on the left, into the second door of which there is an 
entrance, and the bombardier on duty for the day will insert their names in a 
book devoted to that purpose. The rotunda being the most prominent ob- 
ject, strangers generally proceed to it without waiting to examine the nume- 
rous pieces of ancient and modern ordnance arranged on the ground. The 
building has a singular and picturesque appearance, being erected on the ex- 
tremity of the high ground, with a precipitous descent at the north side, 
beautifully wooded and interspersed with water ; and in the distance is an 
excellent view. The rotunda was first erected by the command of George 
IV., from a design by Mr. Nash, architect, for the purpose of receiving and 
banqueting the allied sovereigns of Europe, during their visit to this country, 
at the conclusion of the peace of 18l4. After serving the original purpose for 
which it was erected, it was presented to the garrison at Woolwich, and 
converted into a depository for models of a naval and military description ; 
and the objects in every department of both services collected here are highly 
creditable to those who have the care and management of the arrangements 
of this valuable institution. The building is 24-sided, and 120 ft. in diameter, 
presenting a grand vista and uninterrupted view from whatever part of the 
interior visitors may be stationed. 

The models in this department are truly remarkable, and should be exa- 
mined with care. 

The Royal Military Academy. — The military academy was first erected in 
the royal arsenal as early as 1719, and was chartered by warrant of George II. 



DOCKS — WOOLWICH. 35 1 

in 1741. The building in the arsenal being at length found too small for the 
increasing wants of the institution, a spacious pile was erected in the begin- 
ning of the present century on the south-eastern extremity of Woolwich Com- 
mon, and to this site the entire academy was removed in the year 1806. Here 
are contained barracks for the accommodation of 160 cadets, together with 
class-rooms for their studies, offices of the Lieutenant-Governor and Inspector, 
lecture-room, dining-hall, gymnasium and racket-court, &c. The dining-hall 
has within these few years been decorated with painted windows, and orna- 
mented with armour, banners, &c, under the superintendence of Capt. F. 
Eardly Wilmot, R.A., the second captain of the cadet company. 

The progressive demand for increased scientific instruction, together with 
the late increase in the numbers of the ordnance corps, having again required 
still further space, a portion of the original building in the arsenal has been 
again fitted up for the accommodation of 40 cadets. These form the practical 
class, while the 160 cadets at the upper academy are divided into four classes 
of 40 each, called the theoretical classes. 

The cadets form the first company of the royal regiment of artillery, and the 
discipline of the company is carried on by the military branch of the institu- 
tion, consisting of 

Governor and Captain Field-Marshal the Right Hon. 
the Marquis of Anglesey, 

K.G., G.C.B., G.C.H., &c. appointed July, 1846. 
Lieutenant-Governor Maj.-Gen. J. Boteler Parker, C.B. „ April, 1846. 
Second Captain . . Capt. F. Eardly Wilmot . . „ Jan., 1847. 

Ditto Capt. Talbot „ Aug., 1848. 

Lieutenant ... H. T. Fitzhugh „ June, 1850. 

Ditto J. E. Thring „ Oct., 1850. 

Quartermaster . . William Elliot „ Feb., 1847. 

Chaplain .... The Rev. A. C. Fraser ... „ Jan., 1847. 

The civil branch of the institution, under whose superintendence the studies 
are carried on, consists of 

Inspector .... Col. W. D. Jones, R. A. . . appointed March, 1840. 
Assistant Inspector . Capt. J. Morris Savage, R.A. „ Aug., 1840. 

For the Tlieoretical Classes. 
Professor of Mathema- Samuel Hunter Christie, M.A., „ July, 1806. 

tics. F.R.S. 

Professor of Fortifica- Capt. Williams, R.E. ... „ Dec, 1844. 

tion. 
First Mathematical At present vacant. 

Master. 
Second ditto . . . James R. Christie, F.R.S. . . „ May, 1837. 

Third ditto . . . William Rutherford, L.L.D., „ April, 1838. 

F.R.A.S. 
Fourth ditto . . . John Fry Heather, M.A. . . „ Feb., 1840- 

Fifth ditto. . . . Stephen Fenwick, F.R.A.S. . ., June, 1841. 

Sixth ditto ... The Rev. G. Y. Boddy, M.A. „ June, 1841. 

Seventh ditto . . William Racster, M.A. . . „ March, 1847. 

Instructor in Fortifica- Capt. Bainbrigge, R.E ... ,, May, 1845. 

tion. 

Ditto Capt, Boxer, R.A „ Feb., 1847. 

Instructor in Descrip- Thomas Bradley „ June, 1841. 

tive Geometry. 
Instructor in Geome- G. S. Pritchard „ Sept., 1844. 

trical Drawing. 
Second Ditto ... W. Grain „ 1850. 



352 LONDON. 

Landscape Drawing James Bridges appointed Jan., 1838. 

Master. 

Second Ditto . . . George B. Campion ... „ Dec, 1841. 

Instructor in Plan Capt. John Gore, R.A. ... „ April, 1848. 

Drawing. 

German Master . . H. A. Troppaneger . ... „ March, 1836. 

Second Ditto ... C. A. Feiling „ Feb., 1841. 

French Master . . Albert Tasche „ Sept., 1829. 

Second Ditto . . . Alphonse Lovey . . . - . „ Feb., 1840. 

Instructor in History The Rev. G. Y. Boddy, M.A. „ June, 1841. 

and Geography. 
Lecturer on Chemistry Michael Faraday, LL.D.,F.R.S. 

For the Practical Class. 

Instructor in Survey- Capt. Stothard, E.E. . . . appointed July, 1843. 

ing. 
Assistant ditto . . Lieut. H. Y. D. Scott, RE. . „ Jan., 1848. 



April, 1846. 

July, 1847. 

Jan., 1849. 

Sept.. 1848. 

Sept., 1848. 



Instructor in Practical Capt. W. M. Dixon, R.A. 

Artillery. 
Assistant ditto . . Capt. John Travers, R.A. . 
Lecturer on Practical The Rev. M. O'Brien, M.A. 

Astronomy. 
Lecturer on Mechanics John Anderson .... 
Lecturer on Geology James Tennant .... 

and Mineralogy. 

The officers of the royal engineers and royal artillery are supplied entirely 
from the royal military academy. The cadets are admitted between the ages 
of 14 and 16 upon their passing an examination in the first elements of ma- 
thematics, French, German, and Latin, and being approved by the surgeon. 
At the end of one year from the date of appointment, they are again examined, 
and if not found to have made such progress as to make it likely that they 
will ultimately qualify themselves for a commission, they are removed from 
the institution. If, however, they pass this ordeal, they must pass a satisfac- 
tory examination in the entire theoretical course before removal to the prac- 
tical class, and failing to do so within four years from the date of entrance, 
they are removed from the institution. The course of instruction in the prac- 
tical occupies one year, and a final examination then takes place before a 
board of officers, after which those who have thus completed their course of 
study are invested with commissions in the royal engineers, or royal artillery, 
according to the proficiency which they have exhibited in all the branches of 
study. 

Royal Marine Barracks. — These barracks are erected in an elegant situa- 
tion, and command a most extensive view of the whole town of Woolwich, 
the windings of the river Thames, and the surrounding country. They are 
capable of accommodating about 500 men. Their duty here is principally to 
mount guard on the convicts at the dockyard, and the excellent band belong- 
ing to this corps march with the men at a quarter past ten o'clock every morn- 
ing, when the guard is relieved. Attached to this division is an hospital for 
their sick, and the sick of Her Majesty's vessels visiting or stationed at 
Woolwich. 

Woolwich contains a population of about 25,000, exclusive of the military, 
the number of whom stationed in the various barracks amounts to upwards of 
3000. Visitors would be gratified with a walk on the Plumstead-road, on the 
left of which is the practice ground in the marshes, where the men of the 
royal artillery practise with balls and shells at a target. The rich old abbey 



DOCKS — WOOLWICH. 



353 



lands of Erith, with their mouldering walls, and beautiful views of the river, 
add to the pleasure of those who extend their walk in that direction. 

On the south of the town of Woolwich the walks are beautiful ; the romantic 
seclusion of Nightingale Yale, and the magnificent view which opens to 
strangers as they ascend towards the summit of Shooter' s-hill cannot be ex- 
celled for beauty and pleasing associations in any part of the kingdom. 



A List of Ships that have been built in Woolwich Dock-yard for the last 
twenty years, with interesting particulars of them. 



Rate. 



Name of the Ship, 






o o 



CKUh a 



T3 O 

s 2 



IS 
car-* 



~S 



US 

cTo 



3 

Brig 

6 

6 

Cuttr. 



Ycht. 



Stm. 
6 



Stm. 
Stm. 

5 
Stm. 

6 

6 
Stm. 

2 
Stm. 

4 
Stm. 
Pkt. 
Stm. 
Stm. 
Pkt. 
Corv. 
Pkt. 
Stm. 

6 
Stm. 

6 

I 
Stm. 

6 
Stm. 

4 

4 

3 
Stm. 
Stm. 

5 
Stm. 
Stm. 
Stm. 

4 



Hawke 



Ba raconta 

Niemen 

Athol 

Highflier 

Hart 

Winchester 

Kingfisher 

Magnet 

Pylades 

Royal Charlotte. 

North Star 

African 

Tyrian 

Tvne 

Hebe 

Confiance 

Echo 

Clyde 

Columbia 

Curlew 

Nautilus 

Pluto 

Thunderer 

Dee 

Vernon 

Firefly 

Pandora 

Medea 

Spitfire 

Star 

Modeste 

Crane 

Lizard 

Cygnet 

Locust 

Siren 

Trafalgar 

Devastation 

Heroine 

Infernal 

Worcester 

Chichester 

Boscowen 

Sampson 

Gladiator 

Amphion 

Sphynx 

Niger 

Basilisc 

Nankin 



50 



ft. in. 

176 1 

90 

90 

113 8 

113 10 

55 7 

55 6 

173 1 

90 Oh 

90 0* 

110 1 
85 8 

113 9 

109 ll| 
90 

125 

151 9i 

111 8 
111 9 

152 
129 9 

90 1 

90 H 

135 0| 

196 1J 

166 7 

176 
155 

90 

179 44 
155 

95 

120 

95 

120 

95 

120 

110 
205 6 

180 
95 

180 

173 1 

173 1 

180 

203 6 

190 

177 
180 
194 4 
190 
185 



ft. in. 

144 104 
73 71 
73 71 
94 8h 
94 10 
44 6 
44 5 

145 7 
73 8 
73 8 

90 21 
72 8§ 
94 9| 

91 11| 
72 3 

106 7k 
127 1 

92 3f 
92 4§ 



72 4* 

72 4| 

118 8± 

161 111 

146 9i 

144 6i 
136 8 

71 0| 

157 45 

136 8 

74 li± 

98 104 

74 91 

105 0| 

74 6 

105 04 

86 5$ 

170 5 

156 4| 

74 8% 

156 5| 

145 3f 

145 2| 

146 9§ 
178 5| 
164 8| 

152 5| 
156 5h 
170 111 
166 9| 

153 Ofc 



ft. in. 
47 84 
24 6 



43 10 
24 7 
24 7 

30 Oi 
22 10± 

31 6j 
24 61 
24 1 

32 6h 

39 U$ 
24 6 
24 6 

40 3| 
24 9± 
24 9| 
24 94 
24 2| 
52 2i 

30 4* 
52 84 
27 6J 

29 24 

31 11 
27 94 

30 3 

33 24 
30 34 
22 8£ 
30 4 
22 84 

34 10 
55 71 
36 
30 34 

36 0k 

44 3 
44 9 
54 

37 6 
37 8 
43 2 
36 04 
34 8 
34 5 
50 10 



ft. in 



24 n 

24 n 

51 'oi 

30 0i 

52 Oh 
27 8h 

29 (IJ 

31 7 
27 7k 

30 

32 10i 
30 Oh 
22 6i 
30 1 
22 6h 

34 6 
54 9k 

35 8 
30 Oi 
35 8i 

43 8 

44 1 

53 3 
37 
37 2 
42 8 
35 8^ 
34 4 
34 1 
50 2 



ft. in. 

47 0£ 

24 

24 



18 1 

43 2 

24 1 

24 1 

29 5 

22 4£ 
31 Oi 
24 0| 

31 "ioi 

39 3k 

24 

24 9 

39 3| 

24 Oi 

24 Ik 

24 II 

23 6* 

50 8k 

29 6k 

51 4* 
26 10| 

28 6J 

30 11 
26 m 

29 6 

32 4J 
29 6J 
22 Oi 
29 7 
22 8J 

34 
53 Uh 

35 
29 6h 

35 Oi 
43 
43 5 

52 6 

36 4 
36 6 
42 
35 Oh 

33 8 
33 5 
49 6 



ft. in. 

21 n 

11 
11 



1753 
235 
235 
502 
503 



1820 
1820 

182U 
182<.i 

182n 



81 1821 



11 
11 
8 2 



13 4 
11 



12 8k 

13 7 
11 
11 
11 10 
22 6 

16 4 

17 1 
16 7 

13 10 

20 
16 101 

14 8 
14 2 
14 10 
13 
13 6 
13 

I 14 10 
I 23 2 

21 



81 
1487 
237 
237 
433 
202 
501 
295 
232 
600 
1078 
294 
294 
1081 
355 
233 
233 



1821 
1822 
1823 
1823 
1824 
1824 
1824 
1825 
1826 
1826 
1826 
1827 
1827 
1828 
1829 
1830 
1830 



14 6| 

14 6 

22 4 

23 
23 
13 44 

20 11 

21 6 
21 5 

15 104 



365 18311 

2279 ; 1831! 

703 11832! 

2082 1 1832 1 

7549 |1832 

318 11833 

835 11833 

553 11834 

358 1835 
568 1837 

359 '1839 
283 |1840 



358 
283 
549 
2721 
1058 
358 
1059 
1473 
1501 
2213 
1299 
1210 
1473 
1061 



1840 
1840 
1841 
1841 
1841 
1841 
1843 
1843 
1843 
1844 
1844 
1844 
1846 
1846 



1072 1846 
936 1848 
2049 1850 



AOOUl 



Master Shipwright, Oliver Lang, Esq. 

Assistants ditto, James Peake, Esq., and Henry Chatfield, Esq. 



354 



LONDON. 



The following cut is interesting, as showing the great extent of the legal 
privileges of the port of London, before referred to. 




DUCAL RESIDENCES IN LONDON. 

It may be interesting to strangers to have a brief description or references of those houses and 
palaces belonging to distinguished noblemen and senators, residents in London, who are mem- 
bers of the Upper House of Parliament, of whom follows a short account : — 

George Douglas Campbell, Lord Sundridge and Hamilton, Hereditary Master of the Queen's 
Household in Scotland, Keeper of Dunoon, Dunstafmage, and Carrick, Duke of Argyle in 
Scotland. Residence, No. 2, Hamilton Place, Piccadilly. Seats in the country, Inverary 
Castle, Argyllshire ; Roseneath and Ardincaple, Dumbartonshire ; Long-Niddry, Haddington- 
shire ; Halnaker, Sussex. 

Henry Somerset, Duke ok Beaufort, Marquess of Worcester, High Steward of Bristol, 
Residence, 22, Arlington Street, St. James's Street; back-front in the Green Park, splen- 
didly decorated at a considerable cost. Seats in the country, Badmonton House, and Stoke- 
Gifford, Gloucestershire ; Troy House, Monmouthshire. 

Francis Russell, Duke of Bedford, Marquess of Tavistock, K.G. Residence, No. 6. Bel- 
grave Square. Seats in the country, Woburn Abbey, and Oakley, Bedfordshire ; Tavistock 
House, Devonshire. The Dukes of Bedford are notorious for being good landlords. 

Walter Francis Montagu Douglas Scott, Earl of Doncaster, Lord Tynedale, Lord Lieutenant 
of Edinburghshire and Roxburghshire, a Governor of the Charter House, Colonel of the Edin- 
burgh Militia: Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry in Scotland. Residence, Montague 
House, Privy Gardens, Whitehall. Seats in the country, Dalkeith Palace, and Caroline Park, 
near Edinburgh ; Drumlanrig Castle, and Langholm Lodge, Dumfriess-shire; Bowhill, Selkirk- 
shire; Branxholme, Roxburghshire; Boughton, Northamptonshire ; Richmond, Surrey; Ditton 
Park, Buckinghamshire; Beaulieu, Hampshire. The Duke's London residence is retiring 
from the main street. The back-front has a commanding and fine view of the Thames. It 
was inherited from the noble family of Montagu. The Duke unites with his large fortune, a 
goodness of heart, munificence in his encouragement of the Arts, of Trade and Commerce, and 
of Education. For an account of the pictures, see " Galleries of Art." 

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Tipperary, and Baron Culloden, 
Lieutenant-General in the Army. Residence, No. 94, Piccadilly, and Kew Palace. The house m 
Piccadilly is a noble mansion, with stone front opposite to the Green Park. 

Henry Vane, Duke of Cleveland, Earl of Darlington, a Colonel in the Army; Colonel of 
Durham Militia, K.G. Residence, No. 17, St. James's Square. Here is the fine full-length por- 
trait of the Duchess of Cleveland by Lilly, of which the head has been engraved so beautifully 



DUCAL RESIDENCES. 355 

by Fairthorne, the celebrated engraver, of the time of Charles II. Country seats, Raby 
Castle and Bridges Cottons, Durham ; Newton House, Yorkshire ; Snettisham Hall, 
Norfolk. 

William Spencer Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire, Marquess of Hartington, Lord Lieut, 
and Custos Rotulorum of Derbyshire, and High Steward of Derby, K.G., K.A., D.C.L. No. 
78, Piccadilly; recessed back, a neat, plain, well-proportioned brick building, built by William 
Kent for William Cavendish, third Duke of Devonshire. It stands on the site of Berkeley 
House, destroyed by fire, October 16th, 1733, costing 20,000/. ; the Duke presenting an addi- 
tion of 1000/. to the architect. For the Gallery of Pictures, see " Galleries." 

Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton, Earl of Euston, Hereditary' Ranger of Whittlebury 
Forest, Northamptonshire. Residence, No. 47, Charges Street, Piccadilly. Country seats, 
Euston Hall, Suffolk ; Wakefield Lodge, Northamptonshire. 

Alexander Hamilton Douglas, Duke of Brandon, Lord Dutton, Hereditary Keeper of 
Holyrood House, Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire, F.R.S. and S.A. ; Duke of Hamilton, 
and "Premier Peer in Scotland, Duke of Chatelherault, in France. Residence, No. 12, Portman 
Square. In this Mansion there are some of the finest pictures of the late Mr. Beckford, brought 
from Bath. Country seats, Hamilton House, Lanarkshire. (The late Mr. David Hamilton, 
architect of Glasgow, did much to improve this Palace, chiefly in the Greek style) ; Kinnoul 
House, Linlithgowshire; Brodrik Castle, Buteshire; Ashton Hall, Lancashire; and Easton 
Park, Suffolk. 

Augustus Frederick Fitzgerald, Viscount Leinster, Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum 
of Kildare, a Visitor of the Royal College of St. Patrick, Mavnooth, Duke of Leinster and 
Premier Peer in Ireland. Residence, No. 6, Carlton Terrace. Seat in Ireland, Curton, 
Kildare. 

George Montagu, Duke of Manchester, Viscount Mandeville, a commander in the 
navy. Residence, No. 9, Grosvenor Street. Seat in the country, Kimbolton Castle, Hunting- 
donshire. 

James Graham, Earl of Graham, Lord Belford, Lord Lieutenant of Stirlingshire, Chancellor 
of the University of Glasgow, Colonel of the Stirling, Dumbarton, Clackmannan and Kinross 
Militia, K.T., Duke of Montrose in Scotland. Residence, No. 45, Belgrave Square. Seat, 
Buchanan House, Stirlingshire. Mr. William Burn, architect, is about erecting, in his pecu- 
liarly beautiful domestic style, a house for the Duke, on the Banks of Loch Lomond ; and the 
gardens are to be executed by Mr. Nesfield, Landscape Architect, now at the head of his pro- 
fession. 

Henry Pelham Pelham Clinton, Duke of Newcastle, Earl of Lincoln, Ranger of 
Sherwood Forest, Custos Rotulorum of Newark, High Steward of Retford, K.G. Residence, 
No. 17, Portman Square. Seat, Clumber, Worksop, Nottinghamshire. His Grace, as Earl of 
Lincoln, distinguished himself as Chief Commissioner of Woods and Works, in his place in 
Parliament, and as a senator. 

Henry Charles Howard, Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Arundel and Surrey, Hereditary Earl 
Marshal of England, Premier Peer and Earl. Residence, St. James's Square. This Mansion 
on the south-east corner of the square, was built in 1742 from the design of R. Brittingham, 
and the portico added in 1842. The Dukes of Norfolk have lived in this and the former Man- 
sion since 1684. Country seats, Arundel Castle, Sussex; Glossop, Derbyshire; Earsham Park 
Farm, Suffolk. The Duke enjoys the Earldom of Arundel, as a feudal honour by inheritance 
and possession of the Castle, without any other creation. 

Algernon Percy, Duke of Northumberland, Earl Percy, Constable of Launceston Castle, 
High Steward of Launceston, a Captain in the Navy. Residence, Northumberland House, 
Charing Cross. This edifice is of the time of James I.; built in the year 1605, and is of noble 
structure, fronting the street, with rich central gateway, surmounted by the Lion crest of the 
Percys, was called after Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland. Henry Howard, Earl 
of Northampton, Bernard Jansen, and Gerard Christmas, were, it is said, the architects. The 
front, 162 feet in length, the court 81 feet square. Lord Northampton willed it, in 1641, to 
his nephew, Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, when it received the name of Suffolk House, 
and was so called until the marriage in 1642 of Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk with 
Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland ; Joceline Percy, Earl of Northumberland, son 
of Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland, dying in 1670 without male issue, Northumber- 
land House, became the property of his only daughter, Elizabeth Percy, the heiress of the 
Percy estates. There are several pictures in Northumberland House, among them the cele- 
brated picture of the Cornaro family by Titian. See Article " Galleries." 

William Henry Cavendish Scott Bentinck, Duke of Portland, Marquess of Tichfield, 
D.C.L. Residence, 19, Cavendish Square, on the west side, and is named Harcourt House. It 
is a dull and heavy building, with front wall and gates. The Duke is Lord of the Manor of 
Marylebone. 

Charles Gordon Lennox, Duke of Richmond, Earl of March, an aid-de-camp to the Queen, 
Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Sussex, Colonel of the Sussex Militia, and High 
Steward of Chichester, Chancellor of Marischal College, Aberdeen, K.G., Duke of Lennox in 
Scotland, and D'Aubigny in France. Residence, No. 51, Portland Place. Seats in the country, 
Gordon Castle, Banffshire; Huntly Lodge, Aberdeenshire; Kinnaifd, Inverness-shire; Goodwood 
Park and West Stoke, Sussex. 

John Henry Manners, Duke of Rutland, Marquess of Granby, Lord Lieutenant and 
Custos Rotulorum of Leicestershire, Colonel of the Leicestershire Militia. Residence, 63, St. 
James's Street. Country seats, Bel voir Castle, Leicestershire; Haddon Hall, Derbyshire; 
Gheveley Park, Cambridgeshire. 

William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerc, Duke op St, Albans, Earl of Burford, 
Hereditary Grand Falconer of England. Residence, Piccadilly. Seat, Redbourn, Lincolnshire. 

Edward Adolphus St. Maur, Dukk of Somerset, Lord Seymour, K.G. ; D.C.L.; F.R., 
andA.S. Residence, Park Lane, Hyde Park. Country seat, Maiden Bradley House, Wiltshire; 
Stover House, Devon; Wimbledon Park, Surrey. The Duke is known to have studied and 
distinguished himself in mathematical learning. 



356 LONDON. 

George Granville Sutherland Leveson Gower, Duke of Sutherland, Marquess of Stafford, 
Lord Lieutenant of Sutherland, K.G. Earl of Sutherland in Scotland. Residence, Stafford 
House, St. James's Park, for views of which, and an account of the Gallery of Pictures, see 
article " Galleries." Stafford House was built originally by Mr. Benjamin Wyatt for the late 
Duke of York, with money advanced for that purpose by the Marquess of Stafford, after- 
wards first Duke of Sutherland ; the Duke of York did not live to inhabit it, and the Crown 
lease was sold to the present (2nd) Duke of Sutherland in 1841 for 72,000£., and the purchase- 
money spent in the formation of Victoria Park. The upper story of this Palatial and elegant 
Mansion was added by the present Duke; Mr. Charles Barry, architect. The interior of this 
noble mansion is superior, and the most tasteful and elegant in London. The gallery is a noble 
room, 136 feet long, by 32 feet wide. The decorations have been of the most costly description. 
About a quarter of a million of pounds sterling have been spent on the edifice. The Duke pays 
a ground rent to the Crown of J58L annually. 

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, Marquess of Douro, Field Marshal, Captain 
General, and Commander-in-Chief, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards and the Rifle Brigade, 
Constable of the Tower of London, Warden of the Cinque Ports, Master of the Trinity 
House, Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Hampshire and of the Tower Hamlets, 
Chancellor of the University of Oxford, a Governor of the Charter House, a Field Marshal of 
Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France, (Prince of Waterloo, and a Field Marshal in class, and a 
Captain General in Spain, Duke of Vittoria, and Marshal General in Portugal), K.G., K.A., 
B.E., C.S., E., F., M., G.F., M., I., &c.,&c. Residence, Apsley House, Hyde Park, Piccadilly. 
Country seats, Stratfieldsaye, Hampshire, Walmer Castle, Kent. 

Apsley House, the London residence, since 1820, of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, 
built originally by Henry Bathurst, Baron Apsley, Earl Bathurst, to whom the site was 
granted by George III., the house was originally a red brick house. In 1828, it was partly 
rebuilt, with an addition of a stone front portico, and the west wing, containing on the upper 
stories a gallery 90 feet long, by Mr. Benjamin Wyatt, architect. The Duke purchased the 
Crown interest in the house for 9530/. Subsequently, iron blinds bullet proof have been added 
to the windows. For an account of the Gallery of Pictures, see article (i Galleries." Besides 
these pictures, this noble mansion contains many objects of high art, principally presentations 
made by the several sovereigns of Europe. 



DISTILLERIES. 

Distilling is a process much in use in and about London, for separating a volatile liquid from a 
solid or less volatile liquid, by heating the mixed substances, &c. (See article "Arts and Manu- 
factures.") There are many distillers and rectifiers of eminence in London, viz. : Anderson 
and Co., Holborn Hill; Betts and Co., Smithfield Bars; Sir Felix Booth and Co., Cow Cross 
Street, Smithfield; Sir R. Burnett and Co., Vauxhall ; Currie and Co., Bromley, Middlesex; 
Hodges, Church Street, Lambeth; Nicholson and Sons, St. John Street; Seager, Evans, 
and Co., Millbank ; Smith and Co., Whitechapel Road; and upwards of 50 other respectable 
firms. The drinking to excess of spirits is a habit belonging much, unfortunately, to the 
working classes; hence so much squalid misery. The prisons and the lunatic asylums are 
chiefly inhabited by the victims of this vice. The houses above enumerated are to be seen by 
any respectable stranger who may desire to see the process and the machinery employed in 
the manufacture of the ardent spirit. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH 

has become within the last few years so important an organ of communication, 
that a brief account of its present position and character in England, appears 
indispensable to a work of the present nature. 

The telegraphic system in England has been carried out entirely by the 
Electric Telegraph Company (its principle office is in London), and it is there- 
fore only necessary to describe the arrangements which it has adopted. 

The Electric Telegraph Company was incorporated by Act of Parliament 
in the year 1846,* and immediately on its incorporation became the possessor, 
by purchase, of all the patents previously granted to Messrs. Cooke and Wheat- 
stone. As these patents gave to the Company an exclusive right to the use of 
those essential principles on which all electric telegraphs are based, we 
may attribute much of the subsequent success of the undertaking to the pos- 
session of this important right. In carrying out its scheme the Company 
adopted the peculiar features of these inventions, as to the suspension of the 
conducting-wires, and the form of the instrument, which is that commonly 
known as the double needle telegraph. 

* An Act for forming and regulating " The Electric Telegraph Companv," and to enable the 
said Company to work certain Letters Patent. (Short title.) The Electric Telegraph Company's 
Act, 9° Victoria, Cap. 44. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 357 

An electric telegraph, whatever may be its peculiar form or principle of 
construction, consists of three parts — the battery, the conducting- wire, 
and the instrument. Under these three heads the telegraph in operation in 
England may be therefore advantageously described. The Battery employed 
consists of zinc and copper plates, placed in a wooden trough divided into cells, 
and connected together in pairs of the two metals. The cells are then filled, 
between the adjacent plates, with fine clean sand, and the battery is brought 
into action, by moistening this sand with a mixture of sulphuric acid and 
water. Such a battery will continue to supply a current of electricity for 
several months together. It is readily portable, and in the event of 
its being overset or placed on one side, in carriage, no acid is spilt, nor are the 
plates displaced. The Conducting- wire (where placed above ground), is of iron, 
galvanized or coated with zinc. It is of what is termed ~No. 8 gauge, that is 
about one-sixth of an inch in diameter. Such wire is prepared in lengths of 
one-quarter mile each, and the successive lengths are securely joined on the 
line, by binding and soldering. These junctions form the knots, often seen on 
the wires, in passing. It is of course necessary to insulate the wires, or to ex- 
tend them in such a way as to prevent the escape of the electricity from them, 
at any point short of that where it is required to make a signal ; — that is to 
say, supposing it were required to send from London a signal to Birmingham : 
the wire must be so insulated, that when the London end receives its charge of 
electricity, from the battery at that station, this charge may be compelled to 
go all the way to Birmingham, and pass through the instrument there, before 
it can escape from the wire. On the railway this object is attained, by allowing 
the wire to rest only on pieces of glazed earthenware, which will not permit 
any electricity to pass through them. The wooden posts on which the wires 
hang are also non-conductors, or incapable of carrying away the electricity of 
the wire. Where the lines pass through damp tunnels, or are carried under- 
ground through the streets of towns, the wires are of copper, and are covered 
with Gutta Percha, India-rubber, or some resinous substances. These being 
non-conductors effectually prevent the escape of the electricity. 

The instruments are constructed on the principle discovered by (Ersted, that 
a magnetic needle lying parallel to a wire, tends to place itself across such 
wire, when a current of electricity is passed through it ; and that the direction 
of the motion of the needle is determined by the direction of the current 
through the wire. That is, supposing the needle and wire to be both placed 
vertically, if the needle turns from left to right when the current flows from 
the top of the wire to the bottom, then it will turn from right to left on the 
current passing from the bottom of the wire upwards. 

In giving the signals, the needles do not move quite across the wires, but 
have their motion limited to a certain small arc, on each side of the quiescent 
position, by fixed stops of ivory or other substance. Were they allowed to 
move quite across, the oscillation before they came to rest would be so great, 
as to render the signalling very slow and uncertain. 

The instrument used in England contains two such needles, each acted upon 
by its appropriate wire : which, in order that its power over the needle may be 
augmented, is coiled many times around it, so as to place many successive 
lengths of wire in close proximity to the needle. In practice, at each station 
to or from which communications are to be sent, there is placed one of such 
instruments, a battery, and a simple mechanical arrangement, termed the 
* handle/ by which the attendant can with rapidity and certainty make the 
connection of his battery with the wires, so as to give any required signals. 
As each instrument has two independent needles, two wires are required to 
work it, one for each needle ; but in a long line of wires, many successive 
instruments may be introduced. As, for example, between London and Bir- 
mingham, the same pair of wires actuate instruments at Euston Square, 
Camden Town, Tring, Wolverton, Rugby, Coventry, and Birmingham; the 



358 



LONDON. 



wires entering each station successively, to make their coils round their 
respective needles, and passing out again to proceed on their way to the next 
station. The same wire actuates a similar needle at all stations, number one 
wire moving the left-hand needle, and number two wire the right-hand needle 
at each place. The signals are given by the needles moving one or more times 
to the right or left hand. Thus calling the left-hand needle No. 1., and 
the right-hand needle No. 2., and indicating one movement to the right 
by the letter r, and one movement to the left by the letter I, the following 
table will show the signals given by each needle separately, and by the two in 
combination. 





No. 1. 


No. 2. 




No. 1. 


No. 2. 


A 


11 




M 




It 


B 


III 




jsr 




r 


C 


rl 




o 




r r 


D 


It 




p 




r r r 


E 


r 




R 


r 


r 


F 


r r 




8 


r r 


r r 


G 


r r r 




T 


r r r 


r r r 


H 




1 


U 


It 


It 


/ 




11 


V 


rl 


rl 


K 




III 


W 


I 


I 


L 




rl 


X 


11 


11 








7 .,.. 


III 


III 



The letters Q and Z are made by causing the two needles to converge either 
upwards or downwards thus, Q — / \ , and Z — \ /. 

In order to obviate the necessity of having a clerk constantly watching each 
instrument, to see if signals are passing, a contrivance is made, by which the 
first current of electricity transmitted rings a small bell, so as to call the at- 
tention of the clerk. The bells of course ring simultaneously at all the stations 
through which the current passes, and the attention of all the clerks is called to 
their respective instruments. To prevent any mistake, as to which station is 
required to attend to the signal, the primary movement of the needle, (termed 
by French writers the ' indicative signal'), is such as to indicate, by previous 
agreement, the particular station whose attention is required. This one an- 
swers his i call ;' the others are free to leave their instruments until again 
summoned by the bell. 

The communications are regularly spelt through, letter by letter, and at the 
end of each word, No. 1. needle is moved once to the left, by the sender of the 
message, signifying that the previous word is then complete. If the receiver 
has understood the word, he acknowledges it, by one movement of No. 1. 
needle to the right, meaning, ' I understand.' If by any accident he has missed 
the word, he moves the needle to the left, signifying thereby, ' I do not under- 
stand ;' and the sender, who in all cases waits for his correspondent's return 
signal, at the end of each word, either proceeds with the next word of his 
message, or repeats the last, as the return signal requires. This might seem 
a very slow process ; but by habit, the clerks, who are principally intelligent, 
well-educated lads, send and read messages at a rate which appears wonderful 
to a bystander. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



359 



The average speed is about twenty-five words per minute, or, assuming five 
letters to a word, a little more than two letters per second. But in routine 
despatches, which, from their recurrence every day, are pretty well known as 
to their general order of words, the speed is often much greater. 

The following are some actual rates observed : — 



October 13, 1849, Irish News, 

„ „ Price of Funds, 

November 1849, American News, 

22, „ Irish News, 
March 15, 1850, The Budget, 



Words. 
512 
136 

585 

330 

1742 

1742 

1742 



Rate per 
minute. 



* April 22, 

July 24, 
August 15, 



Price of Funds, 188 

Corn Market Report 
Queen's Speech, 502 
502 



45 

29 
30 
21i 

27 

24 

42 

52 
23i 

26h 



Birmingham to London. 
/London to Birmingham, 
(Derby and Normanton. 

Liverpool to London. 

Birmingham to London. 

London to Southampton. 

London to Liverpool. 
/ London to Birmingham, 
\ Leeds and Normanton. 

{London to Birmingham, 
Derby, and Normanton. 
Normanton to Newcastle. 
London to Liverpool. 
London to Derby. 



The chemical Printing Telegraph, invented by Mr. Bain, and purchased 
from him by the Company, is worked between London and Manchester. This 
employs one wire only. The actual speed of this instrument has been observed 
as under : — 



October 13, 1849, 
March 15, 1850, 
August 15, IS 50, 



Price of Funds, 
The Budget, 
Queen's Speech, 



Words. 

114 

1145 

502 



Rate per 
minute. 

38. 

13i 

20. 



This form of telegraph, is not so well adapted to the colloquial kind of tele- 
graphic communication required on railways, as the needle instrument. It is 
therefore limited to the use of commercial lines. 

^ We have spoken of the introduction of several stations in one and the same 
line of wires. But there is a practical limit to this, in the impediment which re- 
sults to the communication, when more than two stations are frequently re- 
quiring to correspond at the same time. For it is obvious that only* one 
station can use the wires at any moment. If a second, therefore, wishes to 
send at the same time, he must either wait till the first has finished his 
message, or else interrupt him. 

To obviate this inconvenience, on railways where the messages are usually 
very numerous, the line of telegraph is divided into two or more lengths, each 
comprising from four to six stations, and each length terminating at some impor- 
tant station. The stations in each length have complete inter-communication 
among themselves, but cannot speak beyond their division, except by sending 
any message to one or other division station, for repetition onward as* required. 
If the perfection of telegraphic communication is a more desirable object than 
economy of construction, a second line of wires is made to extend distinctly 
from end to end of the railway, with intermediate instruments at each of the 
division stations. These principal places can then carry on communication 
without interfering with the smaller stations ; and orders or instructions can 
be distributed, or reports collected, with extreme facility, by each of the 

* The transmission of private messages is made of course onlv to the station required; but 
when public dispatches, intended for distribution to several places (such as market reports, 
political news, sporting transactions), are sent, they are frequently read off simultaneously, as in 
the cases above, by two, three, or more stations, thus reducing the time required for their dis- 
tribution by enabling one sending to suffice for all the stations. 



360 LONDON. 

division stations taking charge of the distribution or collection, with one series 
of small stations. 

From this arrangement arises the necessity for various numbers of wires on 
different lines of railway. Short lines with few stations have seldom more than 
two, or (if a separate wire be used for the bell), three wires. If the line be longer, 
so as to need division into lengths, there may be four or five wires. Over very 
important lines a third series of wires may be added, for conveying public 
messages and despatches, without interference with the railway telegraph busi- 
ness. Occasionally, as on the Eastern Counties Kailway, between Bishopsgate 
and Stratford, the wires of two, three, or more converging lines are, for the sake 
of economy, carried for a short distance on the same timbers, thus making 
the number of wires over this portion of Kailway amount to 8, 10, 12, or more. 
The following, for example, is the distribution of the wires proceeding from 
the Bishopsgate Station of the Eastern Counties line : — 
2 wires for Commercial purposes, from London to Cambridge, Ely, Norwich, &c. 

2 „ from London to Brandon, for the main stations on the railway. 

3 „ from London to Broxbourne, and intermediate stations. 

2 „ from London to Colchester, for main stations only. 

3 „ from London to Chelmsford, and intermediate stations. 
1 „ for a signal bell, from London to Mile End station. 
1 „ for a signal bell, from London to Devonshire Street sidings and wharf. 
3 „ from London to the Goods' Manager's Office, Brick Lane. 
1 „ for a single needle instrument, from London to Stratford Junction. 

18 wires in the whole. 

Mr. Walker, the superintendent of the telegraphs on the South-Eastern 
Kailway, has given in his excellent little work* on the electric telegraph, an 
analysis of the messages on railway business, which in the course of three 
months passed through the Tonbridge office. This analysis we subjoin. 

1. Concerning ordinary trains, . . 1168 

2. „ special trains, . . 429 



carriages, trucks, goods, &c, 795 

company's servants, . 607 

engines, . . . 450 

miscellaneous matters, . 162 

7. Messages forwarded to other stations, 499 



Total . 4110 
As a supplement to the above, we may add the following analysis of messages 
sent and received, at the Bishopsgate Station of the Eastern Counties Eailway 
premising that August 19 was a busy day, previous to any division of the tele- 
graphic work, and that October 25 and 28 were ordinary days, taken at random 
subsequent to the removal from the Bishopsgate Station, of all telegraphic busi 
ness relating to the goods department. This is now carried on at a station 
further down the line. 

* " Electro-telegraph Manipulation," by C. V. Walker. Published 1850. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. 



361 



Subjects of Messages. 



Aug. 19. Oct. 25. 



Oct. 28. 



Concerning ordinary and special trains 

„ cash and accounts . . . 

„ instructions to officers 
Inquiries on general business : 35 



Orders for engines, carriages, trucks, &c. 
Luggage inquiries . 
Miscellaneous matters 



Total of Messages .... 

Regular daily reports concerning goods and 

working stock 

„ carriages 

Total of communications sent and received 



66 


14 


19 


7 


13 


14 


63 


24 


10 


35 


8 


21 


20 


3 


4 


9 


1 


3 


3 


1 


— 


203 


64 


71 


66 


66 


66 


40 


40 


40 



309 



170 



177 



The numbers of Messages, of course, fluctuate from day to day, but the 
reports are liable to no such fluctuation. 

Hence, taking an average from the two ordinary days, there are, during the 
working year of 313 days, not less than 21,000 messages and 33,000 reports 
despatched by telegraph, to and from this one station only. When it is con- 
sidered that many of these messages are of such importance that, if not sent by 
telegraph, they would be forwarded by special engines ; that, in many cases, the 
instantaneous dispatch or arrival of instructions or information may prevent 
serious delays, remove the necessity for heavy expenses, guard against accidents 
and obstructions ; and that, finally, the possession of a telegraph renders the 
manager of a Railway, v^e may say, almost ubiquitous, the economy resulting from 
the use of the electric telegraph, in working a railway, may be imagined*. 

The lines of communication through England are provided, at many points, 
with apparatus termed " Junction boxes," the use of which is, to enable two 
successive lengths of line to be either joined in one continuity, or worked in 
separate and independent divisions. Thus, taking the line from London to 
dormant on, there are junction boxes at Birmingham and Derby, so that the 
line may be either so arranged that London can telegraph directly through to 
Normanton ; or it may be so divided that the parts from London to Birming- 
ham, Birmingham to Derby, and Derby to Normanton, may be each used 
separately and independently. There are also " switches" provided at points 
where two or more lines converge, by the use of which, one line may be 
connected to any one of the others, so as to work with it as one line. 

The telegraph extends at present over about 2353 miles of railway, in 
England and Scotland, involving in its construction upwards of 9500 miles of 
single wire. It affords the means of communication to 266 stations. Of these 
the most important, as London, Liverpool, Manchester, Derby, York, &c, are 
kept open night and day incessantly. Other and less important stations are 
closed at night, except on particular occasions, and under special instructions. 

* Since writing the above, we have been favoured with the following return of the numbers 
of communications sent and received, during one year, at some of the principal stations on the 
Eastern Counties Railway. 

Stratford 10,828 

Broxbourne 16,596 

Cambridge 24,000 

Elv 31,460 

Peterboro' 9,928 

Bishopsgate 59,664 

Ditto (for the public) , 2,888 

Brick Lane (from August to November, 1850) 6,693 

R 



362 LONDON. 

The staff employed in working the telegraph, exclusive of those engaged in 
the preparation and manufacture of new apparatus and materials, is in number 
about 270. At the present time, the lines of the Company are extending 
rapidly, in the west and north-west of England. 

Private messages may be sent either in ordinary language, or in code or 
cypher known only to the sender and receiver. There are fixed charges, regu- 
lated by the distance and the length of the message, for transmissions to all 
stations. No single message (of twenty words) is charged less than half-a- 
crown, or more than ten shillings, over whatever distance it may be sent ; 
except messages relating to lost luggage, or conveying orders for beds, carri- 
ages, post-horses, refreshments, or other accommodations for travellers. Such 
messages, if not exceeding twenty words, are sent to any station, however 
distant, for half-a-crown. 

The Company also undertake to make immediate payments in London, of 
sums of money delivered to their managers in the principal provincial towns, 
charging a small percentage on the sum paid, in addition to the price of the 
message of instructions. Bills can therefore be taken up, deposits to complete* 
negotiations made, or remittances paid, in London immediately, by parties at 
distant places, who, without the agency of the telegraph, would in the delay 
of the post, lose the opportunities they can now secure. The same arrange- 
ments, as to payments from London to out-stations, are made with some of 
the principal towns. 

A peculiar feature of the English telegraph has been, the establishment, in 
the principal towns*, of telegraphic news-rooms. Admission to these rooms is 
secured by a small annual payment. All the important and interesting news 
of the day, political movements, market reports, shipping and commercial in- 
telligence, money and stock markets, foreign news, sporting, &c, are trans- 
mitted immediately to these rooms, and exhibited in them for the use of 
subscribers. Private individuals and firms, desirous of obtaining regular reports 
by telegraph, of markets, shipping arrivals, racing and sporting events, can 
procure them by the payment of an annual subscription, even in places where 
no news-room exists. 

In most of the large towns on the telegraph lines, the wires are carried 
under the streets, or over the houses, into the centre of the town, so as to 
render the office easy of access from the principal places of business. In 
London a further provision is made for the accommodation of correspondents, 
by the establishment of branch stations, in telegraphic communication with 
the Central Station at Lothbury, near the Bank of England. * These branches 
are at the Kailway Station, Euston Square, at the Eastern Counties Station, 
Shoreditch, at the London and Brighton Station, near London Bridge, at 
the General Post-Office, St. Martin's le Grand, at the Waterloo Station, 
Waterloo Road, and at 448, West Strand. The charges for messages from 
these branches to out-stations, are the same as from the central office; but 
for messages of twenty words sent from one branch station to another a 
charge of one shilling is made. 

Such is a brief sketch of the comprehensive system which has been the 
result of a few years of patient yet energetic labour; and however dazzling 
and brilliant other schemes may appear, we think we may assert with con- 
fidence, that there is none which presents such features of general utility, in its 
adaptation to all requirements, as that which is in operation in England. But 
far be it from us to say that here we shall rest, for where so much has been done, 
it may be confidently anticipated, that each year will enlarge the field of the 
Company's operations, will bring new and improved agencies into play, and 
will place the use of this wonderful power more within the reach of every 
one. The public have a right to expect that this should be the case, and we 
believe that they will not be disappointed. 

* Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Stockport. 



EDUCATION. 



363 



EDUCATION. 

Some account of the numerous schools that exist in our neighbourhood, 
must be interesting in a statistical point of view, as well as to show to what 
extent these seminaries and colleges for instruction exist, and how much, as a 
return, we ought to expect and hope of the conduct of the growing youth. 
This list does not include the very extensive educational schools attached to 
the numerous parishes of the City of London, City of Westminter, and the 
County of Middlesex, nor is any account added of the extensive establishments 
that abound as day-schools, and boarding-schools for both sexes, in the neigh- 
bourhood of London. (See also articles " Asylums," " Charities.") 

Archbishop Tenison's Grammar School, 1685. 

Aske's Hospital, education of 20 boys. 

Associated Catholic Charities for the educa- 
tion, clothing, &c, 1500 children, Great I 
Windmill Street. 

Bayswater Episcopal Chapel Female Orphan Islington Proprietary School, 1830, Islington 
School, 1839, Bedford Place, Kensington. Jews' Free School, 1817, Bell Lane, Spital- 

Benevolent Society of St. Patrick, for clothing | fields. 



Home and Colonial Infant School •Society, 
1836, St. Chad's Row, Gray's Inn Road. 

Irish Society of London, for the education of 
Native Irish through their own language, 
1822, 32, Sackville Street. 



and educating the children of the Irish poor, j Jews' Gates of Hope, and otherCharitvSchools 

1*70/4 Cfnr^f^vrl Ctnwit Dlnnlrfnnw ! | OOj Ravj<i ATarlcd ' 

King's College, 182& See article, «« Colleges." 

Ladies' Charity School, for educating and 
clothing 51 poor girls, 1702, 30, John Street, 
Bedford Row. 

Ladies' College, 47, Bedford Square. The 
pupils are under the management of a com- 
mitte of lady visitors. Particulars are given 
at the college. 

Lady Alice Owen's School, 1613, Islington. 

Lancasterian Schools, instituted in 1798, by 
Joseph Lancaster, are established in several 
parts of London. The central school, 
Baldwin's Gardens, Gray's Inn Lane, for 600 
boys and 400 girls. 

Licensed Victuallers' School, 1803, Kennington 
Lone. 

London Diocesan Board of Education. 79 
Pall Mall, 1839. 

London Hibernian Society for Education, &c, 
1806, 29, Southampton Street, Covent 
Garden. 

London University College, 1825, 29, South- 
ampton Street, Covent Garden. 

Lords of the Committee of Council on Educa- 
tion—Lord President of the Council, Lord 
Privy Seal, Earl of Carlisle, Earl of Claren- 
don, Lord John Russell, Sir George Grey, 
Bart., Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay, The 
Chancellor of the Exchequer— Assistant Se- 
cretary, and 20 inspectors. Architect, Mr. 
Westmacott. 

Mercers' Grammar School, 1522, College Hill. 

Marine Society, for the equipment, main- 
tenance, and instruction of poor bovs, ] 756 
Office, 98, Gracechurch Street Within. 

Merchants' Seamen's for board, clothing, and 
education of Orphans, Office, 98, Gracechurch 
Street. 

Merchant Tailors' School, 1561. 

Metropolitan Schools of the British and 
Foreign Society, consist of 117 schools, with 
about 20,000 scholars, of both sexes. 

Middlesex Society, for educating poor chil- 
dren, 1781, Cannon Street Road, St. George's. 

National Society, for the education of the 
poor in the principles of the Established 
Church, 1811, Sanctuary, Westminster. 

Orphan Working School, for instruction, &c. 
1758, Haverstock Hill, Hampstead. 

Orphan Working School, for the education 
and support of orphan children, 176u, Citv 
Road. 

Palmer and Hill's Grammar School, 1655 
Tothill Street. 

R 2 



1784, Stamford Street, Blackfriars. 
Blue Coat School, Westminster, 1688. 
British and Foreign School Society, 1808, 

Borough Road, Southwark. 
British Union School, Shakspeare's Walk, ] 

Shadwell, 1816. 
Burlington School, School House, 1699, Boyle 

Street, Regent Street. 
Camberwell Free Grammar School, 1615. 
Camberwell National School, 1615, Grove, 

Camberwell. 
Charter House School, Thos. Sutton, 1611. 
Christ Hospital, Newgate Street, 1552. 
Church of England Sunday School Institute, 

1843, 169, Fleet Street. 
Church of England Metropolitan Training In- 
stitution, 1849, Highbury. 
Church of England Society for educating the 

poor of Newfoundland and the Colonies, 

1823, 14, Chatham Place. 
City of London School of Instruction and In- 

dustry, 1806, Mitre Street, Aldgate. 
City of London School, 1835, Honey Lane i 

Market, Cheapside. 
Clerical Education Aid Fund, 1845, Sergeants' 

Inn. 
Coltage School Charity, 1848, St. Stephen's, 

Colman Street. 
Commercial Travellers' School, 1847, Wan- 
stead. 
Congregational School, 1811, Lewisham. 
Congregational Board of Education, 1843, 

Liverpool Street, Finsbury. 
Corporation of the Royal Caledonian, for the 

education and support of the children of j 

soldiers, sailors, and marines, of natives of ■ 

Scotland, 1813, Copenhagen Fields. 
East India College, Hertford, 1805. 
East India Military Seminarv, Addiscombe, '< 

1809. 
East London English and Irish Schools, 1817, 

Goodman's Yard, Minories. 
German School, 1743, Savoy, Strand. 
Green Coat School, or St. Margaret's Hospital, 

1623, Tothill Street, Westminster. 
Great Coat School, Westminster, for 67 boys 

and 33 girls, 1706. 
Hans' Town School of Industry, 1804, Sloane 

Street. 
Harrow School, Middlesex, 1571. 
Hickson's Grammar School, 1686, All Hallows, 

Barking. 
Highgate Grammar School, 1565, 40 scholars 
"out of Highgate, Holloway, Hornsey, &c, 

Highgate. 



364 



LONDON. 



Patrons of the Anniversary of the Charity 
Schools, 1704, Basinghall Street. 

Philological School, for the education of the 
sons of clergymen and other professional 
men, 1792, Gloucester Place, New Road. 

Protestant Dissenters' Charity School, 1717* 
Bartholomew Close. 

Quakers' School, Goswell Street Road. 

Queen's College, for general female education, 
1848, 67, Harley Street. 

Queen's College, city branch, Artillery Place, 
Finsbury Square. 

Raine's, for educating and Clothing 100 chil- 
dren, 50 boys and 50 girls, 1719, Old Gravel 
Lane, St. George's in the East. 

Ragged School Union, 1844, Exeter Hall. 

Rich's Grammar School, 1672, Lambeth. 

Royal British Institution, 1813, North Street, 
Finsbury Square. 

Royal Freemasons' School, for maintaining, 
clothing, and educating female children, 
1788, Westminster Road. 

Royal Masonic Institution, for clothing, edu- 
cating, &c, sons of indigent and deceased 
freemasons, 1798. 

Royal Naval School, for educating, boarding, 
and clothing sons of naval and marine 
officers, 1833, New Cross. 

Royal Naval Female School, for the daughters 
of naval and marine officers, 1840, Rich- 
mond, Surrey. 

School for Indigent Blind, 1799, St. George's 
Fields. 

School of Industry, for female orphans, 1786, 
Church Street, Paddington Green. 

Smith's Grammar School, 1693, St. Lawrence, 
Jewry, Milk Street. 



Society for the Support and Encouragement of 

Sunday Schools, 1785, 60, Paternoster Row. 
St. Anne's Society Schools, Aldersgate and 

Peckham. 
St. John's Servants' School, 1842, New Ormond 

Street. 
St. Margaret's Hospital, Westminster, for 24 

boys, founded by Charles I. 
St. Olave's and St. John's Grammar School, 

1571, Bermondsey Street, Southwark. 
Stepney Free School, 1540, Ratcliffe. 
St. Paul's School, St. Paul's Church Yard, 

founded in 1509, by Dr. John Colet, Dean of 

St. Paul's, for the education of 153 boys. 
St. Peter's College, Dean's Yard, Westminster, 

1560, for 40 foundations. 
Sunday School Union, 1806, 60, Paternoster 

Row. 
St.Saviour's Grammar School, 1522, Southwark. 
Trotman's School, 1663, Bunhill Row. 
Voluntary School Association, 1849, New Broad 

Street. 
Welsh Charity School, for educating 130 boys, 

and 70 girls. 
West Metropolitan Jewish School, 1845, 65 

boys, school, 256, High Holborn; 30 girls, 

school, 12, Little Queen Street. 
Western Jewish Girls' Free School, 1846, Dean 

Street, Soho. 
Western Jewish Free School, for boys, Greek 

Street, Soho. 
Westmoreland Society, 1746, for clothing, 

maintaining, and educating the children 

of parents born in Westmoreland, Bread 

Street, Cheapside. 
Yorkshire Society School, 1812, Westminster 

Road. 



MECHANICAL ENGINEERING WORKSHOPS 

Exist to some magnitude in London, particularly on the banks of the 
Thames. A trading, manufacturing, and enterprising population must, by 
their continuous requirements, afford great scope for the making of steam- 
engines and the numerous other mechanical contrivances essential to the 
progress of commerce, and to minister to the luxury of the age : moreover, 
the great extent of steam navigation, by the communications of the port of 
London with all parts of the world, and the great passenger traffic on the 
Thames, add considerably to the advantage of engineering works, and the 
employment in the workshops established on the banks of the Thames. A few 
names of firms are selected out of a numerous list, whom the learned and 
scientific stranger may make application to and visit with advantage ; and those 
who desire to enter into the relations of trade may in perfect safety do so 
with honour and reciprocal advantage to each. 

Boulton, Watt & Co., Office, London Street, Fenchurch Street. (The present firm is desig- 
nated Messrs. James Watt & Co.) This firm can boast of its foundation from that of the great 
James Watt. Its business is now that of constructing the largest marine engines. Mr. James 
Brown, one of the partners, has been in the firm a great many years, and is particularly skilled 
in designing steam vessels, iron and timber, and successfully apportioning tonnage to power 
both for war and commerce. 

Beale (John T.), East Greenwich, Engineer, has successfully constructed rotary engines; 
has had several boats on the Thames working profitably, and with speed, with boats of light 
tonnage; is a good chemist, and of extensive research. 

Blyth (J. and A.), Fore Street, Lambeth, engineers of much repute for marine and other 
engines, and for machinery used in the West Indies. 

Djtchburn (T.), Black wall, a most successful constructor of fast iron vessels ; is known and 
considered to be one of the cleverest shipbuilders in England. 

Donkin (Bryan) & Co., Works, Blue Anchor Road, Bermondsey. Great millwrights, also 
mechanical engineers generally. 

Easton & Amos, Great Guildford Street, Southwark Bridge, principally for waterworks, 
makers of the hydraulic or hydrostatic presses, for the Conway and Britannia bridges, on the 
Chesier and Holyhead Railway, under the direction of Mr. Robert Stephenson. 

England (Geo.) & Co., Hatcham Iron Works, Old Kent Road. Manufacturer of the light 
locomotive engines which have proved successful. 



ENGINEERING WORKSHOPS. 36*5 

Fox, Henderson & Co., Office, New Street, Spring Gardens, contractors ; constructors of 
some of the largest works in the kingdom. Mr. Fox is a man of great eminence in mechanics. 
The firm have very extensive iron works near Birmingham; have constructed the Great Exhibi- 
tion Palace of Glass and Iron in Hyde Park. 

Gordon, Christy & Co., Rotherhithe Street, Rotherhithe, general engineers, constructers 
of machinery, large and small. Convenient premises for business on the southern bank of 
the Thames. It is an old firm, lately joined by Mr. Gordon, with an increased and ample 
capital for the execution of large orders for home "and foreign service. 

Hall (John and Edward), Office, 23, Lombard Street, celebrated for mill machinery and 
steam engines; manufactory, Dartford, Kent. 

Hocking (Samuel), Adelphi, contractor and maker of Cornish engines for mining and 
pumping purposes ; is a man of considerable information in the economy and working of 
Cornish engines, and for working expansively, and the saving of fuel. 

Holtzapffel (Mrs.), 54, Charing Cross, and 127, Long Acre, widow of the late Mr. Holt- 
zapffel, author of a talented work on tools ; is known and esteemed for lathes for turning, and 
tools generally. 

Joyce (Messrs.), Greenwich Iron Works, justly esteemed for engine works, particularly for 
marine engines; recently successfully constructed and launched an iron vessel, to run from Lon- 
don to Boulogne, and is the first launch ever effected at Greenwich. 

The engineering establishment of Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, & Field, situated in the West- 
minster Road, Lambeth, is the most extensive manufactory for steam-engines and general 
machinery in London. It is abundantly stocked with tools and machines of the highest order, 
employing upwards of 1000 workmen. It was founded about 1800, by the late Mr. Henry 
Maudslay, whose original genius and mechanical talent carried him far in advance of the pericd 
in which he lived, and led him to improve almost all the tools and expedients then in use for 
executing mechanical and engineering work. He used the sliding rest in the lathes of his 
manufactory, and greatly improved screws of every kind, especially the working taps and dies, 
adopting a regular proportion between the threads and diameters of all sizes, from 6 in. 
diameter down to those used by watchmakers. Mr. Maudslay was early employed by the 
Admiralty, and executed from 1804 to 1810 the block machinery invented by the late Sir 
Isambard Brunei; these machines are still fine specimens of workmanship, and embody nearly 
all the improvements now so general in our manufactories, such as the self-acting principle in 
turning, both for face and cylindrical work, the mortice, slotting, and drilling machines. 
When steam navigation was introduced, Mr. Maudslay directed his attention to it, and in 
1817 constructed the first steam-boat engine at Lambeth ; since which time, marine engines 
have been the staple manufacture of the establishment. In 1823 the machinery of the' , En- 
terprize," which made the first steam passage to India round the Cape of Good Hope, and in 
1838 the engines of the " Great Western," the precursor of transatlantic navigation, were con- 
structed at these works. At the present time engines of the greatest power' yet made are in 
progress. All the processes of casting in iron and brass, forging, boring, turning, and boiler- 
making are carried on at this manufactory, which is conducted by Messrs. T. H. and Joseph 
Maudslay (sons of the late Mr. Henry Maudslay) and Mr. Field, who are patentees of some of 
the most approved arrangements and details of marine steam-engines. 

Mare & Co., Engineers of iron vessels, and for iron work of bridges. 

Miller, Ravexhill & Co., Blackwall, are most extensively engaged in the construction 
of marine engines and iron boats ; have been much employed by public companies and 
foreign governments. 

Napier (D.), York Road, Lambeth; engineering generally, but particularly for cylinder 
printing machines, and for the machinery used in the Arsenal at Woolwich. 

Penn (John), of the firm of William Pennand Son, Greenwich, very highly celebrated for his 
oscillating cylinders, most extensively engaged for marine engines, has made them for British 
and foreign governments, and for public companies ; his works are most capacious, and he has 
made more of this kind of engine, than other firms. 

Rennie (Messrs. Sir John and George) & Co., Holland Street, Blackfriars. Very large 
works, extending to the Thames, near Blackfriars Bridge, eligibly situated; are justly appre- 
ciated for great works, executed for Government in the Dock Yards, for mill machinery, for 
harbour and canal works, lockgates and works of great magnitude: have been much employed 
by the Emperor of Russia, and have successfully made marine engines fitted with the screw 
and paddle. They were engineers of London Bridge, for which Sir John received the honour 
of knighthood. Mr. George Rennie is esteemed for his high scientific attainments. They 
are Vice Presidents of the Royal Society. 

Robinsons & Russell, Mill Wall, Poplar, marine engine makers, iron boat builders, ex- 
tensively engaged in these services, as well as making steam machinery for sugar works, for 
the East and West Indies. It is also a house of increasing business, in addition to carrying out 
Mr. Scott Russell's (one of the partner's) wave principle, in the displacement, for speed and 
safety in ship building. 

Seaward (John) Capel & Co., Canal Iron Works, Poplar. Great marine steam engine 
makers; have w r orked considerably for the English and foreign governments. Mr. John Seaward 
has very high attainments in mechanical science ; is the inventor of the cycloidal paddle wheel. 

Spiller (Joel), Battersea, known for his boilers and engineering generally. 

Stephenson (Robert & Co.) Private Office, 24, Great George Street; Office of Company, 
Mr. Starbuck's Chambers, No. 2, Walbrook ; one of the earliest and most extensive makers of 
the locomotive engines in the world ; has several patents, is known for high qualities and his 
great attainments' in mechanics ; is member of Parliament for Whitby in Y< rkshire. 

There are numerous other firms engaged in mechanical engineering'in and about the metro- 
polis, for whose addresses we would refer to Kelly's London Directory. 



366 



LONDON. 



NEW EOYAL EXCHANGE. 

This building stands on the site of the original bourse built by Sir 
Thomas Gresham in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and presented by 
him to the merchants of London. Up to that period the merchants 
had been accustomed to meet in the open air, in Lombard Street, 
exposed to all the inclemencies of our uncertain climate — or, perhaps, 
partially and occasionally in the nave or aisles of Old St. Paul's 
Church, then the common mart for all " carriers of newes," and 
called the " Walkes of Powles." 

Sir Thomas Gresham was one of 
a race of merchants, and having been 
much employed by Queen Elizabeth 
in the Low Countries in conducting 
loans, purchasing armour and pro- 
visions for her armies, and in nego- 
tiations with the governors of these 
countries, had doubtless experienced 
the great conveniences derived from 
the bourses of Antwerp, and other 
cities of the Netherlands. With this 
conviction he proposed to the lord 
mayor and aldermen of London, in 
1563, to build them a bourse if they 
would provide a site for it. This 
offer was accepted in 1564, and in 
1565 the ground was bought at a 
cost, as appears by the city records, 
of 3737Z. 05. 6</., the principal part of which was contributed by the 
donations of the twelve companies, assisted by no less than 715 
citizens. On the 7th of June, 1565, the first stone was laid by 
Gresham himself ; and such was the expedition used, that it was 
completed so far as to be opened at the end of the following year. 
There are many prints extant of this building, by Hollar and others, 
and it is clear that it was built after the model of the bourse of 
Antwerp, which is still in existence, and which, doubtless, it much 
resembled (vide woodcut opposite). 

This building was at first called " Britain's Bourse," but in 1569 
Queen Elizabeth honoured Gresham with her royal presence at dinner 
at his house in Threadneedle Street, and having visited the bourse 
afterwards, commanded it to be called the u Royal Exchange," by 
which name this edifice has been ever since distinguished. On the 
death of Sir Thomas Gresham, which happened on the 21st of Nov., 
1579, he left this building in trust to the Corporation of London, 
and the Mercers' Company, for the purposes of maintaining the Royal 
Exchange, for founding and endowing a college to be called Gresham 
College, on the site of his own dwelling-house, and for the support 




SIR THOMAS GRJESHAM 



ROYAL EXCHANGE. 



367 




FIRST ROYAL EXCHANGE. 



of certain almshouses. Through all the changes of the times since 
this period, this trust has continued to be faithfully executed by these 
two corporations, though they have been, and still are, enormous 
losers thereby. Gresham College, as a college, has ceased to exist, 
but the Gresham lecturers are still maintained and paid, and the 
lectures duly delivered, " during term," in a new building situated 
near Guildhall, and erected at a cost of upwards of 15,000/. 

Greshani s Exchange fronted Cornhiil, and occupied about the area 
of the edifice which followed it. It continued until the great fire 
of London in 1666, when it was entirely destroyed, nothing remain- 
ing but the statue of its founder, which escaped the flames uninjured. 

Immediately after the fire of London steps were taken by the citi- 
zens to rebuild this important edifice, and as early as April, 1667, Ed- 
ward Jerman, one of the city's surveyors, was appointed the architect. 
He immediately began to clear the site, which was considerably im- 
proved ; the design was approved of by King Charles II. on the 21st of 
September following. The first stone was laid on the 6th of May, 1668, 
and on the 28th of September, 1669, the second Royal Exchange was 
opened in due form. This building was in a peculiar style, and was a 
good deal admired (see woodcut, p. 368), but it was sadly encumbered 
by shops and buildings, which hemmed it in all round. The first tower 
was of wood, which, having become decayed, was taken down and a 
new one of stone erected in 1821, from the designs of Mr. Smith, 
the surveyor to the Gresham Commission. This tower was composed 
in a later Italian style, and was considered a great incongruity, and 
vastly inferior to the characteristic boldness of the old tower. The 
interior area of this Exchange was light and graceful, the arches of 



368 



LONDON. 



the arcades springing from the tops of columns of the Tuscan order. 
Above these was a second story, much overloaded by a series of 
apocryphal statues of the kings of England, in niches, from William 
the Conqueror downwards. These statues were carved in stone, and 
generally in the worst possible taste. 

In the centre was a statue of Charles II., in marble, which was 
preserved, and is now placed in a niche in the south-east angle of 
the merchants' area. The statue of Sir Thomas Gresham was also 
saved, and is now in Gresham College. All other statues and deco- 
rations perished in the fire that destroyed this second edifice. 

This fire happened on the 10th of Jan., 1838: it began shortly 
after ten o'clock at night, and before three o'clock next day the whole 
pile was a heap of smoking ruins, except the tower, which, with 
the clock faces pointing by the hands to twenty-five minutes past 
one, remained for some months to remind the citizens of London 
of their misfortune, and the exact moment of its greatest extremity. 

Having thus slightly sketched the history of the Royal Exchange, 
from its original foundation by Gresham to its second destruction, it 
only remains to describe very shortly the circumstances under which 
the present magnificent structure was reared, and to give a slight 
description of it, accompanied by a view and two plans. 

As soon after the fire as was practicable, application was made to 
Parliament for powers to improve the site of the intended new build- 




bird's-eye VrEW OF the second royal exchange. 



ROYAL EXCHANGE. 



36*9 







ROYAL EXCHANGE, AS ALTERED IN 1821. 

ing, and to raise funds for that purpose. With these objects in view, 
the Act of the first and second of the present Queen, chap, c, was 
passed, and received the Royal assent on the 10th of August, 1838. 
By this Act, power was given to purchase and remove all the build- 
ings west of the old Exchange, called Bank-Buildings, and also the 
old buildings to the eastward, extending nearly to Finch-Lane, and to 
raise the sum of 150,000/., upon the credit of the London-Bridge 
Fund, to cover the attendant expenses. 

After the passing of this Act, the Corporation proceeded to pur- 
chase the property, which operation was completed in the course of 
the vear; and much having been done, the Gresham Committee took 
the first step towards the building of a new Exchange, and on the 
14th of March, 1839, they directed a plan of the site to be prepared, 
and appointed a Sub-Committee to draw up instructions to the Archi- 
tects. This Committee reported on the 26th of the same month, and 
an advertisement followed, offering three premiums of 300/., 200/., 
and 100/. respectively, for the three best designs. The instructions 
were very minute, the cost of the building being limited to 150,000/. 

The designs delivered in on the 1st of August following, amounted 
to upwards of fifty ; and the Committee resolved to call in the assist- 
ance of three eminent architects to assist them in their judgment as to 
the best design. The architects, from whom it was proposed to 
choose those who should undertake this duty, were — 



Mr. Charles Barry, 

Mr. Edward Blore, 

Mr. Charles Robert Cockerell, 

Mb. Joseph Gwilt, 



Mr. Philip Hardwick, 
Sir Robert Smirke, 
Mr. William Tite. 

r 3 



370 LONDON. 

Upon a ballot, Sir Robert Smirk e, Mr. Barry, and Mr. Hard wick 
were chosen. Mr. Barry declined to act, and Mr. Gwilt was ap- 
pointed in his stead. On the 2nd of October, these three gentlemen 
reported to the Committee that they considered the designs marked 
respectively 36, 43, and 37, the best within the limits prescribed by 
the conditions, and named five others as deserving of approbation ; 
but they further reported to the Committee, that they could not 
recommend either of them as practicable, advisable, or capable of 
being advantageously adopted. 

After considerable discussion and the loss of much valuable time 
in consequence of this unexpected result, on the 3rd of February, 
1840, the Committee resolved to adopt the principle of a limited 
competition between five architects, to be named by ballot. The 
architects named in consequence were Sir Robert Smirke, Mr. Gwilt, 
Mr. Tite, Mr. Barry, and Mr. Cockerell. Of these five, three de- 
clined the competition, leaving it between Mr. Tite, and Mr. 
Cockerell. 

On the 27th of April the designs prepared by these gentlemen 
were delivered, with full statements of their views and purposes in 
their respective designs, and estimates of the cost. 

On the 7th of May, the Committee met to decide on the merits of 
the two designs then before them, when Mr. Tile's was preferred by 
a majority of thirteen to seven, and he was appointed architect 
accordingly. 

Some farther delay occurred in obtaining the sanction of the Lords 
of the Treasury to the design, and in the necessary formalities of the 
approbation of the Court of Common Council and the Court of the Mer- 
cers' Company; but at length, on the 30th of September, the architect 
received instructions to proceed to invite tenders for the foundations. 

On the 16th of October, 1841, tenders were delivered from twelve 
builders, and the contract for the foundation was given to Messrs. 
Robert and George Webb, at the sum of 8124/. 

Thus, after an interval of no less than four years, this work was 
fairly commenced, and the citizens of London were delighted at last 
to see the ruins and rubbish of. the old building disappearing before 
the labours of the workmen. 

The work was carried on with unceasing diligence, and everything 
was soon in readiness for formally " laying the Foundation Stone," 
which took place on Monday the 17th of January, 1842. Prince 
Albert condescended to perform this ceremony, which was very 
interesting, and the whole circumstances connected with it were 
described on the Plate laid in the Foundation Stone, on which was 
engraved, in Latin and English, an appropriate inscription. 

The contract for raising the superstructure w T as taken by Mr. 
Thomas Jackson, who, previously, had been largely engaged in the 
construction of the Birmingham and other of the northern railways, 
one of his more important buildings being the great station at Derby. 



ROYAL EXCHANGE. 



371 




NEW ROYAL JEXCHAXGE. 



The New Royal Exchange was completed in the unprecedentedly short 
period of three years, at somewhat below the architect's estimate of 
137,600/., or, including Sculpture, Architect's Commission, and other 
Expenses, at a total of about 150,000/. The building was formally 
opened by Her Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, in Oct., 1844, and 
was finally given up to the merchants on the 1st of January following. 

This Edifice stands nearly due east and west ; the extreme length 
from the portico on the west to the columns on the east is 308 ft. 
The plan is much broader at the east end than the west, the width of 
the portico being 96 ft., the extreme width of the west end 119 ft., 
and of the east end 175 ft. The dimensions of that part appro- 
priated for the meeting of the merchants, is an area of no less than 
170 ft. by 1 12 ft., of which 111 ft. by 53 ft. are uncovered and open 
to the sky. 

The diameter of the columns is 4 ft. 2 in.; their height, including 
the base and capital, 41 ft.; the extreme height to the apex of the 
pediment at the west end, 74 ft. ; and the height of the tower at 
the east to the top of the vane, 177 ft. 

The general disposition of the plan is as follows:— At the west 
end is a portico of eight Corinthian columns, with two intercolumnia- 



372 LONDON. 

tions in actual projection, and the centre part deeply recessed in 
addition. The principal western entrance is under this portico, which 
is ascended by thirteen granite steps from the level of the street. 
The whole west end is appropriated to the offices of " The Royal 
Exchange Assurance for assuring Shipping, Fire, and Lives," the 
entrance to their offices being on the right and left of the great 
western entrance. 

The great eastern entrance is under the tower. After passing 
through it, there is a small area for giving light and air to the inner 
mass of that part of the building ; and at the north end of this area is 
the entrance to the important establishment of Lloyd's. At the 
centre of the building, on the north and south, there are also 
entrances to the merchants' area. 

The south front is an unbroken line of pilasters, with rusticated 
arches on the ground floor for shops and entrances, the three middle 
spaces being deeply recessed ; over these are richly-decorated win- 
dows, and above the cornice there are a balustrade and attic. 

The north side differs considerably from the south ; for in this case 
the centre projects, and the pilasters are omitted at the end spaces. 
The arches of the ground floor are rusticated, and the same windows 
occur above as on the south side, but with two exceptions, which are 
formed into niches. In one of them is a statue of Sir Hugh Myd- 
delton, by Joseph; and in the other one, of Sir Richard Whittington, 
by Carew. The former worthy citizen is celebrated for having 
brought the New River to London ; and the latter, a merchant and a 
mercer, founded and endowed some of the noblest charities of the 
city. 

The east front is marked in the centre by four Corinthian columns, 
from which rises the tower. The first story of the tower is square, 
with ornamental pilasters ; at the angles, on the east front, is a niche, 
in which is placed a statue of Sir Thomas Gresham, by Behnes : 
above this is an attic for the clock faces. The next story of the 
tower is circular, decorated with Corinthian columns, and crowned by 
a dome carved with leaves. The vane is the famous grasshopper 
that was on the old Exchange ; it was not much injured by the fire, 
and has been restored. It is of copper gilt, and is 1 1 ft. long. In 
the tower is a peal of fifteen bells for the chimes, cast by Mears; 
and the clock was constructed by Mr. Dent, the eminent clockmaker 
of the Strand, under the direction of Professor Airey, the Astronomer- 
Royal, and the first stroke of each hour is true to a second of time. 
The citizens are thus enabled, by this exertion of mechanical skill, to 
obtain the exact time in London with as much accuracy as could be 
obtained by a visit to the Observatory at Greenwich. The bells have 
unhappily proved unsuccessful, and though the peal has been cast 
twice, they are still not sufficiently in tune to be used for any pur- 
poses except striking the hour and chiming the quarters. 

The one-pair, or principal floor, is occupied by four series of apart- 
ments ; the principal of these, it has been seen, is appropriated to the 



ROYAL EXCHANGE. 



373 




PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR OF ROYAL EXCHANGE. 

Underwriters' establishment of Lloyd's (see above). Lloyd's occupies 
all the east end, and a principal part of the north side. The greater 
part of the west end is appropriated to the Royal Exchange Assurance 
Offices. The south side is principally occupied by the ancient corpora- 
tion of the London Assurance, having an entrance and offices on the 
same side on the ground-floor ; and on the remaining part of the south 
and west is a suite of offices, originally intended for the lecture-rooms 
and offices of Gresham College, but at present unappropriated. 

The offices of the Royal Exchange and London Assurance consist 
of board-rooms, secretaries' offices, and all the usual arrangements for 
such establishments, on the most liberal and extensive scale ; having, 
in addition, a series of apartments in the mezzanine or entresol. In 
many cases, the rooms on the second floor are lighted from the roof; 
and strong-rooms, vaults, and other apartments are provided in the 
basement story. 

Lloyd's contains several magnificent apartments; the staircase is 
very convenient, and even grand in its arrangements, the steps being 
14 ft. wide each, of Craigleith stone, in one length. The subscribers' 
room for the business of underwTiting is 100 ft. long by 48 ft. wide. 
This noble apartment runs from north to south, on the east side of the 
quadrangle, or merchants' area ; attached to this is a library or reading- 
room, with a gallery round, furnished with maps and charts. The 
captains' room, the board-room, and the clerks' offices, occupy the 
eastern end. Along the north front is another spacious chamber, 
called the commercial room, 80 feet long, which is intended as a sort 
of commercial club-room for all strangers visiting London for pur- 
poses of business. These large apartments are lighted from the 
cielings, and also from windows opening into the merchants' area. 
They are highly decorated, consistently with their purposes, well 



374 



LONDON. 




GROUND PLAN OF ROYAL EXCHANGE. 



warmed and ventilated, and are certainly the finest rooms of their 
kind in the city of London. 

The ground-floor of the Exchange (see above), like Sir Thomas Gre- 
sham's Exchange and the one last destroyed, is appropriated mainly to 
shops and offices. Each tenement or shop is complete in itself, having, 
in addition to the ground-floor, a room over, and abasement beneath, 
separated by party-walls and brick arches of great strength, from 
their neighbours, and from such apartments as may happen to be over 
them. The same arrangements for preventing the spread of fire 
apply to the other divisions of the building ; so that it seems impos- 
sible that a calamity similar to that which has twice destroyed the 
Royal Exchange can again occur. A single shop, or even one of the 
larger divisions of the building may be burned, but the fire must be 
limited and confined to that portion of the structure where it hap- 
pens ; and in this sense the present building is fire-proof. There 
is on the frieze of the portico the following inscription, recording 
the foundation of the original building in the 13th year of Queen 
Elizabeth, and its restoration in the 7th of Her present Gracious 
Majesty : — 

"ANNO XIII. ELIZABETHS R. CONDITUM. ANNO VIII. VICTORIA R. 
RESTAURATUM." 

Occupying the key-stones of the three great arches, there are in 
the centre the merchant's mark of Gresham; and on the key-stones 
of the side arches the arms of the merchants adventurers of his day, 
and the staple of Calais. North and south of the portico, and in the 
attic, are the emblems of the city — the sword and mace — with the 
several dates of Queen Elizabeth's reign and the present year; and, 
in the lower panels, mantles containing the initials of Queen Eliza- 



ROYAL EXCHANGE. 375 

beth and Queen Victoria, respectively. Over the three centre arches, 
on the south side, are the arms of Gresham, the city, and the Mer- 
cers' Company ; and the same arms are repeated at the east end on 
the entablature. Over the three centre arches of the north front are 
the following mottoes, viz. in the centre, that of Sir Thomas Gre- 
sham, in old French, Fortun-a-my ; on the dexter side, the city 
motto, Domine dirige nos; and, on the sinister, the motto of the 
Mercers' Company, Honor Deo. 

Sculpture over the Pediment. — At the west end, the tympanum of 
the pediment is adorned with sculpture, by Mr. Richard Westmacott, 
A.R.A., consisting of allegorical representations of commerce, exhi- 
biting the English merchant in some few of the numerous interesting 
positions w r hich it is his high destiny to occupy, in transacting, it 
would scarcely be too much to say, the business of all the earth. 

Having described the external appearance of the new Exchange, it 
only remains to notice the interior. Here we find an open court, 
something like the cortili of the Italian palaces. The ground-floor 
consists of Doric columns and rusticated arches; over them is a series 
of Ionic columns, with arches and windows, surmounted by a highly- 
ornamental pierced parapet. The effect of this court is very light, 
magnificent, and ornamental, but still consistent with its uses and 
purposes. The key-stones of the arches of the superior story are 
decorated wdth the arms of all the nations of the world, in the order 
determined at the Congress of Vienna, and the arms of England are 
in the centre of the eastern side. 

The ambulatory, or merchants' walk, is very spacious, and well 
sheltered. The ceiling is divided by beams and panelling, highly 
painted and decorated in encaustic by Frederick Sang. In the centre 
of each panel, on the four sides, the arms of the nations are repeated, 
emblazoned in their proper colours; and in the four angles are the 
arms of Edward the Confessor, Edward III., Queen Elizabeth, and 
Charles II. In the north-east angle is a statue of Queen Elizabeth, 
by Watson ; and, in the south-east, a marble statue of Charles II., 
which formerly stood in the centre of the old Exchange. 

In eight small circular panels in the ambulatory are introduced the 
arms of the three mayors, viz. Pirie, Humphrey, and Magnay, and 
also those of the three masters of the Mercers' Company, Pooley, 
Sutton, and Watney, who had respectively held office during the 
erection of the building. 

The arms of the chairman of the Gresham Committee, Mr. R. L. 
Jones, and of the architect, Mr. Tite, complete the heraldic embel- 
lishments. The ambulatory is paved with Yorkshire stone, marked 
out into panels by margins and lines of black stone, called Castle 
Hill, with squares of red Aberdeen granite at the intersections. 

The open area is paved with the paving-stones from the old Ex- 
change, laid in patterns, with bands of red granite. The old paving 
is said, traditionally, to be of Turkey stones, presented by some 



370 LONDON. 

Levant merchant; it is difficult to say whether this is true. The 
stones themselves seem to be very compact sandstone, full of grains 
of mica and silex, but certainly not what is usually understood by 
Turkey stone. 

Having thus completed our account of this great national and mu- 
nicipal work, we may add, that though it has been exposed to most 
severe and violent criticism, it appears now to be universally con- 
ceded that the design is conceived and carried out in a massive and 
vigorous style ; that there is great variety and richness in the decora- 
tions ; and that the portico, if equalled, is certainly not excelled, by 
any modern European example. The great depth obtained by re- 
cessing the centre under the portico, and the boldness of the great 
windows in the side intercolumniations have been much and justly 
admired. The latter feature is evidently an adaptation of the idea sug- 
gested by the great niches of the walls of the cella of the portico of 
the Pantheon at Rome, but by its adoption the architect has certainly 
avoided the common error of cutting up the walls by a repetition of 
pilasters much in the way, and the consequent introduction of narrow 
windows, of little advantage for the purposes of life. 

It has sometimes been suggested as a subject of regret that the 
merchants' area was not covered in by a glass dome or covered ceiling ; 
but it appears that before the new Exchange was designed, or an 
architect appointed, most of the leading merchants and brokers were 
consulted, and they almost unanimously decided on an open area, 
such as they had been accustomed to ; and in consequence all the 
architects who prepared designs were compelled to adopt this ar- 
rangement. 

This matter is now a good deal contested, a difference of opinion 
having arisen ; on the whole, it appears to be a choice between an 
exposure to an occasionally inclement day, or the annoyances of a 
close and heated atmosphere. Practically there could not be any 
difficulty in covering the area, but there are some persons who doubt 
its advantages. 

During the excavation for the foundations of this building many 
very interesting curiosities were found. About the site of the present 
north-west corner of the merchants' area a deep pit was met with, 
thirty feet below the present surface, full of the rubbish and remains 
of Roman London. This was thoroughly cleared out, and its con- 
tents, consisting of more than fifty coins of the lower empire, bushels 
of the pseudo-Samian ware, sandals, horse furniture, tablets, styles 
in bronze and iron, and an endless variety of curious articles, were 
collected with much care by the architect, and finally deposited in 
the museum of the City Library at Guildhall. An elaborate classed 
catalogue of all these remains was drawn up by Mr. Thomson, of 
the London Institution, and with a very learned and curious intro- 
duction by Mr. Tite, was printed in ] 846 for the use of the Corpora- 
tion of London. This catalogue is unfortunately very scarce. 



EXCHANGES, COFFEE HOUSES, AND SALES. 377 

These curiosities can always be seen at Guildhall, on an application 
to the Librarian, Mr. Herbert. 

Reference to Plans. 

With the exception of the Staircases indicated, the divisions on the 
ground floor represent shops. These shops communicate with the 
Mezzanine floor by small circular staircases. 

FIRST FLOOR. 

The rooms indicated by the letter A, are those reserved to the esta- 
blishment of Lloyd's Assurance. Letter B, Royal Exchange Assurance. 
Letter C, London Assurance Companies. 



EXCHANGES, COFFEE HOUSES, AND SALES. 

The Royal Exchange, in Cornhill, has no longer the prominence as a place for the meeting 
of merchants it once had. By the various establishments which have branched from it, and 
alterations in the mode of doing business, theipresence of the commercial man on 'Change 
is not so imperative. Tlie Stock Exchange, Lloyd's, and the Corn Exchange, share the supre- 
macy. The chief business is now the negotiation of foreign bills of exchange on Tuesdays and 
Fridays. The Royal Exchange is still, as when founded by Gresham, an open area with arcades 
around it, in which the merchants meet. Each has his standing where he is to be found, or 
where he makes his appointments, and the Rothschilds take their place near a pillar as their 
father did. Many of the sea-captains, and the brokers still go on 'Change, but the old arrange- 
ment of the walks has fallen into decay. The Scotch walk is no longer wanted ; since Scotland 
has been brought so near by railway, the stockbrokers have migrated. The Salters, the Clothiers, 
and the Grocers go to the warehouses. The chief time of business is after 3 o'clock. (See the pre- 
vious article.) 

The Corn Exchange, in Mark Lane, is now the greatest corn market in the world. The 
market was formerly held- on Cornhill, and afterwards at Bear Quay. The first Corn Ex- 
change was built in 1747. The agents for sales are the corn-factors, each of whom has a 
stand or desk, in which are samples of corn. There is no qualification for a corn- 
factor. Besides the corn-factors, there are farmers, millers, bakers, merchants, and many 
speculators. The latter make this an arena for gambling as they do the markets for 
produce and stocks. The market days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; but Monday 
is the great day, the hours from 10* till 3. When there were variable and fixed duties 
on corn, the dealers carried on various operations for running up the prices, as the "ave- 
rage" price of the market either regulated the duty, or determined, if above a certain rate, 
that corn should come in free. Foreign corn used to be entered at the low duty, and retailed 
out from time to time, so that neither the farmer nor the government benefited." The impor- 
tations of grain and flour from all parts of the world can now take place freely ; and as the port 
of London is open throughout the year, while the ports, rivers, and canals of northern Europe 
and America and of the Black Sea are closed by ice, the corn trade of London is growing. There 
is no public granary in the metropolis, nor has the need of one been found. Formerly the city 
companies were obliged to keep corn in store at the Bridge-house; but as the king and govern- 
ment borrowed it, and did not return it, they were not sorry to give up the practice. Much 
foreign corn is kept in the private granaries, some of which will contain from (iOOO to 7000 quar- 
ters, and the farmers hold corn in stacks safely in the open country, so that there is no induce- 
ment to establish the large granaries of the Continent, Till lately there used to be specu- 
lations on the variations of price in local markets, but the electric telegraph now makes the 
morning prices known over the country before nightfall. The Mark Lane Express, appearing on 
Monday evening, is the chief organ for the publication of the accounts of the crops and markets 
at home and abroad. Seeds are sold in the market, and in the neighbourhood are many agents 
for the supply of millwork and agricultural implements. 

The Coal Exchange, in Thames Street, is one of the peculiar institutions of London. 
Hitherto coal has been brought by sea, chiefly from the Northumbrian shores, the railways not 
having yet organised the means of transit. The consumption approaches three millions of tons 
yearly, and gives rise to vast transactions. In olden times the city companies were obliged to 
keep up a stock of coals as of corn. The colliers lie in the Pool, or river below bridge, and are 
under there gulationsof the corporation, who levy a duty applied to paying for London Bridge, 
and the Royal Exchange, and who have charge of the "metage," or "measuring of the coals. 
The masters of colliers report themselves at Gravesend, and have to proceed in turn into the 
Pool, as the moorings will only accommodate a giver number of ships. Notwithstanding all the 
care of the corporation to prevent it, attempts are made to keep back from market, and other- 
wise interfere with the price of coals, which has often been kept up by the coalowners at an 
extravagant rate. From the colliers the coals are unloaded by labourers called " coalwhippers" 
into barges, and thence carried to the wharfs on the river and canals. A proposition for a col- 
lier dock has not been carried out. 

The Stock Exchange has entrances from Bartholomew Lane, Threadneedle Street, and 
Throgmorton Street, by Capel Court, Shorter's Court, New Court, and Hercules Passage, in 
which many of the brokers have offices. The business of dealing in securities was separated 
from banking towards the end of the seventeenth century, and the market was held in the 
Royal Exchange, in Sweetings Alley, (hence "jobbing in the Alley,") at Jonathan's Coffee 
House, and in the Rotunda of the Bank. In 1801 a separate building was erected by subscrip- 



378 LONDON. 

tion on the spot already named. The transactions are chiefly carried on in three branches 
called houses, the English (for stocks and exchequer bills), the foreign (for stocks) and the rail- 
way, or share market. The business consists of two kinds, genuine and speculative, and is for 
money or for time. The members are of two classes, brokers and jobbers. The members of 
the Stock Exchange are subjected to a more severe system of internal discipline and police than 
any carried out elsewhere by the government, though they act in defiance of the government and 
the city. A candidate, admitted by ballot, has to undergo a period of probation, and not merely 
must he be recommended by members who attest they have known him for two years, and 
know nothing against him ; but they must give security for him during a certain time. No 
member failing can be readmitted until his creditors have received a stipulated composition, 
nor can he be readmitted if his transactions are of a flagitious character. The committee 
chosen by the members has great power in questions of discipline. As no member is allowed 
to be a partner in other trading pursuits, losses to the members of the Stock Exchange from 
each other are neither many nor heavy. Their losses are from without. A fund for decayed 
members is liberally supported, and they are munificent contributors to public charities. The 
brokers are not expected to carry on transactions on their own account, and they act for the 
public. There are very few of them licensed brokers, and, contrary to the law of brokers,, they 
do not declare their principals. They therefore became liable for the speculations and defalca- 
tions of principals on the Stock Exchange. The jobbers are capitalists, who buy and sell. A 
jobber in consols keeps on hand a stock of consols, and is always ready to buy and sell for the 
turn of the market, which is a commission or difference allowed to him. Parties finding their 
sales are charged lower than the top price often think they have been cheated, whereas 
the top price is the jobbers' selling price. This turn on consols is only an eighth per cent., but 
on shares in little demand, or of doubtful value, it is very much higher. The quotation of con- 
sols 96| and §, expresses the buying and selling price of the jobber. The jobber buys and sells 
in any required quantity, thereby saving time and trouble to the broker and customer. Be- 
sides transactions for money, under the plea of time being required for the transfer and de- 
livery of stock and shares, certain times are named called "account days" for settling the 
transactions. For shares these days are twice a month. The gamblers take advantage of this 
arrangement to speculate for the "account," making bargains and sales without delivery of 
stock or payment of cash, until the account day, when the " differences" are settled in money, 
or continued till the next account. Those attempting to run up prices are called " bulls," and 
those running them down " bears." Money is lent by capitalists to members of the Stock 
Exchange on securities until the ' * account day," when the loan is stopped or continued, the 
securities altered and the interest readjusted. The foreign market is chiefly engaged in specu- 
lative transactions in the dubious, Spanish, and other stocks, but London is the pay place for 
Portuguese, Brazilian, Chilian, Mexican, Danish, Greek, and other stocks, which are largely held. 
The share market used to be devoted to mining, but is now chiefly engaged in railways, although 
mining transactions are now provided for by a market set up in 1850. In 1845 railway shares 
gave rise to a large business in the Hall of Commerce and the Auction Mart, principally 
carried on by " outsiders," or persons of bad character, named " stags." Numbers of young 
men become members of the Stock Exchange, without any legitimate object, and by continued 
speculation dissipate their fortunes in a few years, as the brokers' and jobbers' commission must 
in the long run eat up the whole. The names of defaulters on the settling days are chalked 
on a black board, and this is the ceremony of exclusion. Differences between members are 
arbitrated by the committee, and litigation is thus avoided. The Committee likewise assist 
in winding up the estates of defaulters. In New Court, fire-proof safes are provided for the 
custody of securities. No strangers are permitted to enter the Stock Exchange, and those who 
attempt it seldom get out without injury. Lists are daily published of the prices of stocks 
and shares, and, twice a week, of bullion and the foreign exchanges. 

Lloyd's Rooms over the Royal Exchange have been partly described under the head of 
Bankers and Assurance. This is the great centre for all relating to shipping. One room is 
devoted to underwriters, that is, to those who assure shipping, and another to merchants. 
Many of the subscribers are merchants and shipbrokers, others go merely to read the papers. 
The captains' room is for the use of masters of merchantmen ; here is kept Lloyd's Register of 
shipping, and the books containing the daily accounts of the movements and casualties of 
shipping. The committee give rewards to English and foreigners, who render services to ships 
in distress ; and in the war time, they raised a Patriotic Fund for the reward and relief of the 
officers and men, who distinguished themselves on behalf of the mercantile and national in- 
terests. 

The Jamaica Coffee House, in St. Michael's Alley is frequented by subscribers, many of 
whom are masters of West India merchantmen, and others are dealers in mining shares. 

The North and South American Coffee House, and the Baltic Coffee House in 
Threadneedle Street are still frequented by those connected with the districts after which they 
are named, and have good collections of journals. The Jerusalem and East India Coffee House, 
in Cowper's Court, is an establishment of the like character, and has good collections of East 
Indian and Australian journals. The writers of the city articles frequent these houses. 

These coffee houses have a room for subscribers, where they can read the papers or transact 
their business undisturbed ; but the number of frequenters is much diminished. Formerly 
there were coffee houses for the Levant, New York, Virginia, Carolina, &c, but they have all 
fallen off. At these coffee houses the local papers were taken in, and bags were kept for ship 
letters. 

Garra way's Coffee House, Change Alley, is virtually an auction mart, and here very 
large sales of landed property take place ; likewise sales of reversionary interests, life annuities, 
and securities not in the market. 

The Auction Mart, Bartholomew Lane, has sale rooms for the disposal of property, which 
are let out to auctioneers, and here much landed property is disposed of. There are frequently 
on show pictures, antiquities, Dutch bulbs, and other miscellaneous objects. The coffee room 
is much frequented by hangers on of the Stock Exchange. 

The Hall of Commerce in Threadneedle Street is a subscription reading room, with ac- 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — LORD ASHBURTON. 379 

commodation for the transaction of business for those who have not offices. Sales of wool and 
of shares have been held here. 

The sales of produce in London are on a large scale, and require great accommodation. The 
chief scene of them is at the Commercial Sale Rooms, between Mincing Lane and Mark Lane, 
There is the rendezvous of the grocers and druggists, and the great sales of tea (50,000,000 lbs. 
yearly), sugar (5,000,000 cwts.), tobacco (20,000,000 lbs.), coffee (30,000,000 lbs.), cocoa, pimento, 
pepper, cloves, and other spices, currants, indigo (50,000 cwts.), cochineal, dyes, drugs, 
bristles, feathers, wool, &c. These sales are commonly made by auction, but by a broker ; see 
Kelly's Directory, which elaborates well on this subject. 

Pictures are sold by Christie and Manson; books by Sotheby, Hodgson, Southgate, Lewis, 
and other private auctioneers. Sales take place of forfeited goods at the Custom House, of un- 
redeemed pawnbrokers' pledges, and of condemned Government stores. 

Towards the river are the warehouses of the great stationers. The hop sales are in High Street, 
Borough, hides and horns at Leadenhall, leather at Bermondsey, hatting in the Borough. 
Other interests are accumulated together, the wholesale grocers near Mincing Lane, the drug- 
gists to the west of them, the provision trades in Lower Thames Street, oranges and foreign 
fruits in Botolph Lane, the iron and copper merchants in Upper Thames Street, potato wharfs 
on the Southwark shore, watch making, silver working, and their dependencies in Clerkenwell, 
the silk weaving in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green, the old clothes trade in Houndsditch, 
(where there is a Clothes Exchange and Rag Fair), zinc working in the New Road, shipbuild- 
ing and its dependent trades on the Lower Thames, the stone wharfs, marble works, cement 
works and potteries on the Upper Thames. Around the western neighbourhood of Cheapside 
and Watling Street are the warehouses for Manchester goods, millinery, artificial flowers, and 
umbrellas ; in Basinghall Street for wool, in Newgate Street for Berlin wool. The sugar bakers 
are in the east end ; the chemical works at Bow and in the eastern outskirts. Newspapers are 
sold in Catharine Street, where there is a News Exchange for exchanging copies of papers, and 
in the adjoining streets. Long Acre is the centre of the coachmaking trade. The wine and cork 
trade is around Mark Lane and Crutched Friars. The artists cluster round Newman Street. 
The lawyers and law stationers are drawn around the inns of court, reaching from the Thames 
to Great James Street and Bedford Row. Organ building is carried on near the New Road. The 
gold and silver refiners are scattered from Goldsmiths' Hall to Hatton Garden. The salt trade 
is carried on at the City Road basin. (See also " Arts and Manufactures.") 

All these businesses have in their respective neighbourhoods the wholesale warehouses, the 
sale rooms, and the accessory trades. Nations are likewise drawn together, as the Irish in St. 
Giles's and elsewhere in colonies, the French near Leicester Square, the Germans in Holborn 
and East London, the Italians near Gray's Inn Lane, the Greek merchants in Finsbury Circus, 
the Spanish and Portuguese wine merchants near Mark Lane, the Jews near Houndsditch. 
Some nations carry on particular trades, as the Cornish in the metal trades, the Welsh are milk- 
men, Scotch, bakers and gardeners, the Irish bricklayers' labourers, and dock labourers, the 
French milliners, dyers, shoemakers, egg merchants and basket workers, the Germans bakers, 
sugar bakers, and Dutch clock makers and toy dealers, the Jews dealers in old clothes and furs, 
the Hindoos crossing sweepers, the Italians looking glass and barometer makers, plaster cast 
makers and street musicians, the Swiss hotel keepers. (See " Arts and Manufactures.") 



EAST INDIA COMPANY, 

Established and chartered in 1700, is governed by a chairman and 23 directors; the members, with 
the chairman, being 24. For the architecture of the building, see article " Public Buildings;" 
and for a description of the museum and library, see article ** Learned Societies and Public Libra- 
ries;" and for an account of the several important offices for the management of the home 
affairs in the government of upwards of one hundred millions of subjects of the British 
Empire in the peninsula of India, see " East India Directory for 1851." 



GALLEEIES OF PICTURES. 

THE COLLECTION OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD ASHBURTON, 
BATH HOUSE, PICCADILLY. 

This superb collection was formed entirely by the first Lord Ash- 
burton, father of the present Lord, and formerly known as Alexander 
Baring, Esq. Besides some Spanish and Italian pictures, principally 
obtained from the Count de Survilliers (Joseph Bonaparte) and 
General Sebastiani, it comprises nearly the whole of the very rare 
chefs-d'oeuvre of the Dutch school which formed the magnificent 
cabinet of Monsieur de Talleyrand. The pictures decorate the prin- 
cipal apartments of the mansion, and can therefore only be viewed 
at convenient times by express permission. The house is a modern 
erection of very unpretending exterior, and is called Bath House, 



380 



LONDON. 



from a former mansion belonging to Sir William Pulteney, of Bath, 
which formerly stood here. A broad single flight of stairs reaches 
the hall in the centre of the building, which is lighted by a dome. 
On the landing of the staircase is a picture of Poultry by Hendekoe- 
ter. In the hall, besides some antique busts, are the marble statues 
of Hebe and of Mercury slaying Argus, by Thorwaldsen, and a group 
of Cupid and Psyche, by Finelli of Rome. The first apartment is : — 

Caravaggio. A Saint. 

Velasquez. Philip IV. of Spain. 

J. van Huysum. Flowers in a Vase, 
from the Hesse Cassel Gallery, whence 
it was carried off by the French. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of a Gentleman, 
from the Hesse Cassel and Malmaison 
collections. 

P. P. Rubens. Rape of the Sabines, 
from the Danoot collection. Sir Joshua 
Reynolds, speaking of this and the 
companion, says that " few pictures of 
Rubens, even of his most finished 
works, give a higher idea of his ge- 
nius." 

Murillo. The Charity of St. Thomas, 
brought from the Franciscan monastery 
of Seville by General Sebastiani. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of a Lady, from 
the Hesse Cassel and Malmaison col- 
lections. 

P. P. Rubens. The Reconciliation of 
the Romans and Sabines, from the 
Danoot collection, companion of the 
picture abovenamed. 

Holbein. Portrait of a Prince of Saxony. 

J. van Huysum. Fruit, from the Hesse 
Cassel Gallery. 

N. Poussin. Jupiter and Io, from Lu- 
cien Bonaparte's collection. 

D. Teniers. Landscape, with a Shepherd 
and Cattle ; from Prince Talleyrand's 
collection. 

N. Maas. A Woman Sewing. 

N. Berghens. Landscape, with Ruins ; 
from the Djonval collection. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Head of Ariadne. 

P. Potter. A Dairy Farm ; from the 
collections of Count Fries of Vienna, 
and of Baron Puthon. 

Isaac Ostade. A Country Inn, with 
numerous figures ; from the collection 
of Prince Talleyrand. 

C. Du Jardin. Landscape, with Water- 
mill ; from the cabinet of M. Eynard, 
of Paris. 

L. Backhuyzen. View on the Sea Coast ; 
from the cabinet of Prince Talleyrand. 



THE LIBRARY. 

Murillo. Head of Christ. 

Albert Durer. A Gentleman in Armour. 

Adrian Ostade. Interior, from the Choi- 
seul Gallery. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of Jansen, from M. 
Talleyrand. 

Philip Wouvermans. " Laferme au Co- 
lombier" One of the painter's most 
famous works, called usually the 
Praslin Picture, having been in that 
rich collection, and subsequently in 
Prince Talleyrand's. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of Lieven van 
Coppenholl, from Lucien Bonaparte's 
collection. 

Jan Steen. Playing at Nine Pins, 
from the Talleyrand cabinet, after 
adorning several of the most celebrated 
in Europe. 

Velasquez. A Stag Hunt in the Park of 
Aranjuez, brought by Joseph Bona- 
parte from the Palace of Madrid. 

J. Ruysdael. A Woody Scene, from the 
collection of Watson Taylor, Esq. 

Adrian Ostade. An Interior, from the 
Braancamp cabinet. 

F. Mieris. A Group of a Lady and 
Gentleman, from the Geldermeester 
collection. 

A. Ostade. Three Peasants Carousing, 
from the Braancamp collection. 

J. Ruysdael. Landscape after Rain, from 
the collection of Watson Taylor, Esq. 

Annibal Caracci. The Entombment of 
Christ, from Lucien Bonaparte's col- 
lection. 

Domenichino. Moses and the Burning 
Bush, from the Colonna Palace. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of himself, from 
Lord Radstock's collection. 

Wynants. Landscape, figures by A. 
Vandevelde. 

A. Vanderwerff. St. Margaret, from 
Prince Talleyrand's cabinet. 

G. Metzu. The Female Artist, last in 
the collection of Prince Galitzin. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — LOKD ASHBURTON. 



381 



Jan Steen. An Interior, with figures ; 
from the Prince d' Aremberg's collection. 

D. Teniers. The Seven Works of Mercy; 
originally painted for the Due d'Alva, 
afterwards in the Royal Gallery of 
Madrid, and lastly in the collection of 
Prince Talleyrand. 

G. Dow. The Double Surprise ; formerly 
in the Poulain and other celebrated col- 
lections. 

P. Wouvermans. Landscape and Fi- 
gures ; from the Le Brun collection. 

Annibal Caracci. The infant Jesus Sleep- 
ing, attended by Angels ; from the 
Borghese Palace. 

M. Hobbima. A Woody Landscape, with 
Figures. 

A. Ostade. Interior, with Figures ; from 
the Due d'Alberg's cabinet. 

A. Vandevelde. Woody Landscape, with 
Cattle ; from Mons. Trouard's collec- 
tion. 

J. Ruysdael. Village Scene; from Gene- 
ral Verdier's collection. 

L. Backhuyzen. A Sea View. 

Karel de Moor. A Lady and Two Chil- 
dren at a Window. 



DRAWING-ROOM. 

Greuze. A youthful Female Head. 

Raffaelle. The Virgin and Child. 

G. Metzu. A Woman Reading at a 

Window; from the collection of Ma- 
dame Hoffman. 
Canaletti. An Italian Landscape, with 

Ruins. 
Murillo. The Virgin standing on a 

Globe ; from the collection of General 

Sebastiani. 
G. Dow. The Hermit in Devotion ; an 

extraordinary work, from the collection 

of Randon de Boisset. 
P. De Hooge. In a Street at Utrecht ; 

from the collection of Mons. Helsleuter, 

of Amsterdam. 
G. Dow. A Girl gathering a Pink at a 

Window ; from the Due de Berri's 

collection. 
C. Du Jardin. " Le Petit Dessinateur ;" 

from the Choiseul, Le Brun, and Prince 

Talleyrand's collection. 
A. Ostade. A Woman holding a Child ; 

from the Due de Praslin and Prince 

Talleyrand's collection. 
J. Ruysdael. Landscape ; from the col- 
lection of Watson Taylor, Esq. 



A. Ostade. A Dutch Village, with 
Figures; from the Due de Praslin's 
collection. 

P. Wouvermans. The Flemish Washer- 
woman ; from the Due de Praslin and 
Prince Talleyrand's collections. 

Guido. Head of Christ crowned with 
Thorns. 

A. Cuyp. Landscape and Figures ; for- 
merly in the Gallery of the King of 
Poland, and lastly in that of Prince 
Talleyrand. 

G. Terburg. Interior, with Three Fi- 
gures; from Prince Talleyrand's collec- 
tion. 

Murillo. Virgin and Child in the Clouds 
with Angels ; formerly in the posses- 
sion of the Prince of Peace, and after- 
wards in that of General Sebastiani. 

A. Vandevelde. The Hay Harvest; from 
the collection of Prince Talleyrand. 

Paul Potter. Oxen in a Meadow. 

N. Berghem. The Lobster Catchers ; 
from the collections of Count Pourtales 
and Prince Talleyrand. 

J. Ruysdael. Landscape ; from Watson 
Taylor, Esq.'s collection. 

A. Vandyck. Whole length of Charles 
I. ; from the Empress Josephine's col- 
lection at Malmaison. 

Titian. Venus admiring herself in a 
Looking-Glass. 

A. Vandyck, Queen Henrietta Maria; 
from the Empress Josephine's collection 
at Malmaison. 

P. Veronese. Our Saviour fainting on 
the Mount. 

A. Cuyp. Cattle in a Meadow ; from the 
La Perrier cabinet. 

Giorgione. The Request ; from the Bor- 
ghese Palace. 

D. Teniers. u Le Manchot ;" one of the 
most perfect works of the master; 
from Prince Talleyrand's collection. 

D. Teniers. A Village Fete ; from 
Watson Taylor, Esq.'s collection. 

A. Vandyck. The Holy Family with 
Angels ; one of the most capital works 
of this great painter, and the principal 
ornament of Prince Talleyrand's 
cabinet. 

W. Vandevelde. " La petite Flotte f 
formerly in the Gallery of the King of 
Sardinia, and finally in that of Prince 
Talleyrand. 

N. Berghem. " Le Fagot ;" a landscape 
and figures under this title, of the 



382 



LONDON. 



highest quality of the master, from the 
collection of Prince Talleyrand. 

Titian. Herodias, with the Head of St. 
John on a Salver ; from Lord Rad- 
stock's collection. 

Vander Heyden. Interior of a Dutch 
Town ; from the Hesse Cassel Gallery, 
and placed by the French in the Gallery 
of the Louvre, from which it was ab- 
stracted at the period of the Restora- 
tion of the Bourbons to the throne. 

Leonardo da Vinci. The Infant Jesus in 
the Arms of the Virgin ; one of the 
great ornaments of the Royal Palace of 
the Escurial, from whence it was taken 
by a French officer during the war. 

P. Wouvermans. Landscape and many 
Figures ; from the collection of Madame 
Hoffman at Haerlem. 

Canaletti. Landscape, with Italian Edi- 
fices. 

Leonardo da Vinci. Infant Christ, with 
St. John and the Lamb ; removed from 
the Royal Palace of Madrid by Joseph 
Bonaparte. 

Vandyck. One of the Children of 
Charles I. 

Guercino. St. Sebastian, attended by 
Angels. 

D. Teniers. His own Portrait, from 
Prince Talleyrand's collection. 

G. Netscher. "Le petit Physicien," a 
celebrated gem of art ; from Watson 
Taylor, Esq/s collection. 



THE WEST DRAWING-ROOM. 

J. & A. Both. Mountainous Landscape, 
with Figures. 

A. Cuyp. Huntsmen halting near 
Herdsmen ; from the cabinet of Van 
Slingelandt. 

Corregio. St. Peter, St. Margaret, St. 
Mary Magdalen, and St. Anthony of 
Padua; formerly in the Mareschalchi 
Palace at Bologna. 

Giorgione. Portrait of a Gentleman in a 
Ruff. 

Vandyck. The Virgin and Child ; from 
the collection of Joseph Bonaparte, ex- 
King of Spain. 

Titian. The famous Magdalen ; painted 
expressly for Philip II. of Spain, where 
it remained in the royal collection until 
taken away by Joseph Bonaparte. 

Luini. The Virgin and Child. 

A. Vandyck. Portrait of Prince William 
of Nassau. 

Rembrandt. A Gentleman sitting in an 
Arm-Chair ; from Madame Hoffman's 
collection at Haerlem. 

THE DINING-ROOM. 

P. P. Rubens. The Wolf Hunt. This 
grand and renowned picture, after 
adorning the gallery of the Louvre, 
was restored to the Altamira family of 
Madrid, from whence it came to Eng- 
land. 

A. Cuyp. Portrait of Himself. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of a Gentleman. 

P. P. Rubens. The Chase of Diana. 



BARBERS HALL, CITY. 

In the small dining-room of this city company, an important pic- 
ture, by Hans Holbein, is hung at the end, over the sideboard. The 
subject is King Henry VII L, and contains nineteen whole-length 
figures of life size. The King is seen seated in the centre, and is 
presenting a charter to the kneeling members of the company, fifteen 
of whom are placed on one side and three on the other. Dr. Waagen 
says, " All the heads are of extraordinary unaffected truth to nature, 
and seem to be painted in the reddish brown tone which Holbein 
used in his early period. Everything, even to the mat, is executed 
with his usual care." 

THE BRIDEWELL HOSPITAL, BRIDGE STREET, BLACKFRIARS. 

There is a picture in this establishment of large dimensions, nearly 
ten feet square, painted by Hans Holbein. King Edward VI. is re- 
presented seated on a throne, giving the charter for the founda- 
tion of the hospital to the Lord Mayor, accompanied by the sheriffs, 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — THOMAS BARING, ESQ. 



383 



who are on the left-hand side. On the right hand is placed the Lord 
Chancellor, the Bishop of London, and four other persons, one of 
which is believed to be a likeness of Hans Holbein himself. The 
figures are all of life size, and the execution appears to be of Hol- 
bein's later and better period. 

THE COLLECTION OF THOMAS BARING, ESQ., M.P., UPPER GR0SVEN0R 
STREET, GROSVENOR SQUARE. 

This collection, which is of very recent formation, bids fair to rival 
in importance many of longer standing, and of great fame. It 
already numbers upwards of 300 pictures, distributed through 
the apartments, and filling a moderately-sized gallery, which has 
been erected expressly to display some of the larger works. The 
pictures are of all schools — the Dutch and Flemish portion consists, 
with others, of a considerable number of those formerly existing in 
the cabinet of the Baron Verstolk van Soelen, at the Hague; to which 
has subsequently been added many of tbe fine Italian pictures for- 
merly belonging to Sir Thomas Baring. The English pictures include 
many painted by our first-rate artists, which have attracted admira- 
tion in the annual exhibitions. Anions the latter are : — 



Sir E. Landseer, R.A. The travelled 

Monkey. 
R. P. Bonington. Flat Sea-shore at 

Low Water. 
W. Mulready, R.A. The Whistonian 

Controversy. 

E. W. Cooke. A Sea Piece, with Gale ; 
also a Yiew of Amsterdam, and the 
Interior of Rembrandt's Mill. 

AY. Collins, R.A. A Coast Scene, and 
Fishermen's Children. 

Sir D. TYilkie. The original study for 
the picture of the Chelsea Pensioners 
reading the Gazette. 

J. Creswick, A. R.A. Avenue in a Park. 

Sir A. W. Callcott, R.A. Cologne, from 
the River. 

Sir J. Reynolds. Study of Two Chil- 
dren's Heads. 

F. Goodall. " Le bon Cure." 

W. Mulready, R.A. Children giving 
Alms. 

T. Uwins, R.A. Italian Peasants return- 
ing Home. 

C. R. Leslie, R.A. The Merry Wives of 
Windsor. 

Sir D. Wilkie, R.A. The Rabbit on the 
Wall, and a Doctor bleeding a Lady. 

R. P. Bonington. The Ducal Palace, 
Yenice ; a large and superb picture, 
with many figures. 

Sir D. Wilkie. The Turkish Letter 



Writer, and another picture of the 

Arab Storv Teller in a Cafe. 
W. Collins, R.A. The Errand Cart, and 

a Landscape, with figures of an old 

man, a child, and an ass. 
Frank Stone. The Admonition and the 

Proposal. 
W. Etty, R.A. Yenus, Cupid, and Psyche ; 

and the companion of Sabrina and 

Nymphs. 
Sir Joshua Reynolds. Portraits of Miss 

Archer and Mrs. Fenhouilet ; and a 

picture of Yenus chiding Cupid. 
T. Webster, R.A. Going to School, and 

Returning from School. 
Gainsborough. Landscape and Cows. 
R. Wilson. Landscape, a Yiew in Scot- 
land. 

Besides others by Lauder, T. S. 
Cooper, J. Linnell, T. Stothard, Nay- 
smith, Witherington, Howard, Liver- 
seege, Lee, D. Roberts, Maclise, Simpson, 
Poole, Edmonstone, Muller, Fraser, 
Horsley, and several others, mostly 
selected from the exhibitions of the 
Royal Academy ; the admired Holy 
Family, by Paul Delaroche, exhibited in 
1845. 

Among the painters of the modern 
Belgian and Dutch school are exquisite 
pictures by Koekkock, Schotel, Schelf- 
hout, Dyckmans, E. Yerboeckhoven, Yan 



384 



LONDON. 



Hone, Van Schendel, H. Leys, Luycx, 

Madou, and De Bruycker. 

The pictures of the ancient Dutch and 

Flemish school are very numerous ; a few 

of them deserve especial notice. 

G. Du Jardin. The Manege, from Count 
de Morny's cabinet. 

De Witt. Interior of a Church; from 
the Verstolk collection. 

J. Wynants. Landscape, with Figures 
by Lingelbach. 

Jan Steen. The Love-sick Lady ; from 
the Verstolk collection. 

Rembrandt. An old Man's Head ; from 
the same. 

A. Vandevelde. The " Rendezvous de 
Chasse ;" formerly in the various col- 
lections of the Due de Chabot, Prince 
Gfalitzin, and Baron Verstolk. 

G. Metzu. The Intruder ; from the last- 
named collection. 

J. Asselyn. Cattle watering; from the 
same. 

J. Vander Heyden. Entrance to a City, 
with figures by A. Vandevelde ; idem. 

Gr. Terburg. A Lady drinking ; idem. 

Jan Steen. A Portrait of himself. The 
drowsy Schoolmaster ; idem. 

Gf. Terburg. The Letter ; idem. 

P. Wouvermans. Travellers halting; 
idem. 

Gr. Metzu. A Gentleman with a Pipe ; 
from the Braancamp and Verstolk ca- 
binets. 

A. Ostade. Boors Carousing; from the 
latter collection. 

A. Vandevelde. A Hunting Party; a 
picture of singular beauty, which has 
adorned many celebrated collections, 
and finally that of Baron Verstolk. 

A. Cuyp. View on a River, a superla- 
tive work, even among this great 
painter's performances ; from the Ver- 
stolk collection. 

P. Wouvermans. " Les Marchands des 
Chevaux ;" formerly in the Due de 
Choiseul's gallery, and afterwards in 
that of the Prince de Conti, M. Bren- 
tano, and the Baron Verstolk. 

Jan Steen. The Wedding; from the 
last-named collection. 

C. Dusart. An Interior ; from the same. 

Ferdinand Bol. The Prize of Archery ; 

The pictures can only be seen by express permission, on introduc- 
tion by any of Mr. Baring's friends. 



from the same collection. This, and a 

picture containing portraits of a lady 

and gentleman, rank as the most capital 

works of this painter. 

The preceding constitute but a few of 
the fine examples of this school of art. 
Among the Italian and Spanish pictures 
are, by — 
Seb. Del Piombo. The Virgin, Child, 

St. John, St. Joseph, and the Donor, 

half-lengths of life size ; a work of the 

highest quality of fine art. 
Gf. Vasari. A pair of life-size figures of 

St. Mark and St. John. 
Giulio Romano. The Virgin and Child, 

half-length. 
Gf. Bellini. The same subject. 
Gfiorgione. Salome, with the head of St. 

John. 
Titian. A Portrait of a Gfentleman. 
Paul Veronese. The Baptism of Christ, 

and the Portrait of a Gentleman. 
Schidone. The Repose in Egypt. 
Annibal Caracci. Christ bearing his 

Cross, and a Landscape, with Nymphs 

and Satyrs. 
Domenichino. Two Pictures of Land- 
scapes. 
Gfuido. The Ecce Homo, and St. Cecilia. 
Guercino. A grand picture of the Virgin 

and Child, with attendant Angels 

playing on musical instruments. 
Spagnoletto. A large Altar-Piece of a 

Holy Family with Saints. 
Claude. Three excellent Landscapes. 
Murillo. The Madonna on the Crescent. 

Among the many repetitions by Murillo 
of this subject, this is the very finest of 
all those in England. There are four 
other specimens by this painter, and nu- 
merous other works of most of the famous 
masters, including Nicholas and Gaspar 
Poussin, Gerard Lairesse, G. Bassano, 
Parmegiano, L. Caracci, P. F. Mola, C. 
Dolce, G. Crespi, Salvator Rosa, Morales, 
&c. The grand picture of Diana depart- 
ing for the Chase, formerly belonging to 
Sir Simon Clarke, is placed at the end ol 
the gallery. There is also in the collec- 
tion an authentic picture by J. van Eyck 
of St. Jerome in his Study, and a Virgin 
and Child with attendants, by Mabuse. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — BRITISH INSTITUTION. 385 

THE SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS. 

In the year 1823 a number of artists formed themselves into a 
society under the above designation, principally for the purpose of 
exhibiting their works more advantageously than by the limited 
means afforded at the Royal Academy. The society has three fine 
spacious rooms lighted from the roof, the entrance to which is in 
Suffolk Street, near Charing Cross. They open an exhibition of their 
own performances in the month of April, annually, the admission 
fee to which is one shilling. All artists are permitted to exhibit on 
their walls, without being members, and the number of works is 
commonly about 500 or 600. Two years ago Her Majesty conferred 
a charter on the society, and then a school of instruction was esta- 
blished, to which admission was given by payment of a small sum. 
Lectures are also occasionally given by the members and other learned 
professors. Many of its original members have seceded and been 
received into the Royal Academy, as will probably continue to be the 
case, owing to the high standing of this latter body in the public 
opinion, and, from the crowds that always fill its rooms, the better 
chance of effecting sales. In the exhibition of the Society of British 
Artists a clerk is always in attendance to inform visitors of the prices 
attached to the respective pictures. 

THE BRITISH INSTITUTION. 

In February, 1805, this institution was founded by the most emi- 
nent amateurs of painting among the nobility and gentry, for the 
express purpose ©f encouraging the Fine Arts in England, by pro- 
moting the sale of their works. For this laudable purpose the society 
obtained the lease of premises in Pall Mall, which had been erected 
by Messrs. Boydell, the publishers, for the pictures forming the 
Shakspeare Gallery, by which name the building is still commonly 
called. The premises comprise three handsome rooms, lighted from 
above, and in the month of February there is annually an exhibition 
of between 300 and 400 pictures painted by living artists, and a few- 
works of sculpture. Portraits being specially excluded, the exhibi- 
tion becomes very pleasing, and the sales of the pictures have, on an 
average, been successful. One shilling is charged for admission, and 
5 per cent, is deducted from the amount of sales for the expenses of 
the institution. The other portion arises from the subscriptions of 
the members, amongst whom are persons of the highest rank in the 
country, the Duke of Sutherland being the president. The exhibition 
of modern pictures closes as soon as that of the Royal Academy 
opens. In the month of June following, the directors open an ex- 
hibition of ancient pictures gathered from the different great private 
galleries, some few of which are left during the autumnal months for 
the students in painting to make copies for improvement. 



386 



LONDON. 



GALLERY OF PORTRAITS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



King James I. On panel. Presented 
by Dr. A. Gifford. 

King Henry VIII. On panel. Presented 
by Dr. A. Gifford, in 1758. 

Oliver Cromwell. " A copy from Mr. 
Cromwell's original, grandson to Hen. 
Cromwell, L d . IA of Ireland. 1725." 
This portrait came with the Cottonian 
Library. 

Mary Queen of Scots, by Corn. Jansen. 
King Edward III. ; on panel. Pre- 
sented by Dr. A. Gifford. 

King George I. ; from the old Cottonian 
Library. 

Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I. 
King Henry VI. ; on panel. Presented 
by Dr. A. Gifford. 

Oliver Cromwell, by Walker. Bequeathed, 
1784, by Sir Robert Rich, Bart., to 
whose great-grandfather, Nathaniel 
Rich, Esq., then serving as a Colonel 
of Horse in the Parliamentary Army, it 
was presented by Cromwell himself. 
On panel. 

King .fames I. Presented by Mr. Cook. 

Mary Queen of Scots, "set. 42." On 
panel. Presented by Lieut.-Gen. 
Thornton. 

King William III. Presented bv Dr. A. 
Gifford. 

William Duke of Cumberland, by Morier. 
Presented by Lieut.-Gen. Thornton. 

James Duke of Monmouth. Presented by 
Dr. A. Gifford. 

King Richard II. Presented in 1766, 
by John Goodman, Esq., of the Middle 
Temple. 

Queen Elizabeth, by Zucchero. Presented 
by the Earl of Macclesfield, 1760. 

Mary Queen of Scots. 

King George II., wh. 1., by Shackleton. 
Painted for the Trustees. 

Queen Elizabeth. "Anno Dni 1567." 
On panel. Presented by Lord Car- 
dross, 1765. 

Margaret Countess of Richmond. Pre- 
sented by Dr. A. Gifford. 

King Charles II., by Sir P. Lely. Pre- 
sented by Dr. A. Gifford. 

King Henry V. On panel. Presented by 
Dr. A. Gifford. 

King Edward VI. Presented, in 1768, 
by Mrs. Mary Mackmorran. 

Caroline, Queen of George II., by Jarvis. 
Presented by Lieut.-Gen. Thornton. 



Dr. Andrew Gifford, by Russel, 1774. 
Bequeathed by himself, 1784. 

Rev. Dr. Thos. Birch, painted in 1735. 
Bequeathed by himself. 

James, 1st Duke of Chandos, wh. 1. Pre- 
sented by James Farquharson, Esq. 

Humphry Wanly, Librarian to the Earl 
of Oxford. Presented by Herbert 
Westfaling, Esq. 

Claudius James Rich, Esq., born 1787, 
died at Shiraz, 1821. Resident of 
the English East India Company at 
Bagdad from 1808 to 1821, whose 
collection of MSS., Medals, and Anti- 
quities is placed in the British Museum. 
Presented by his Widow. 

Joseph Planta, Esq., F.R.S., Principal 
Librarian of the British Museum, from 
1799 to 1827, by T. Philips, R.A., 
Presented by the Right Hon. Joseph 
Planta, G.C.H. 

Sir Hans Sloane, as * President of the 
Royal Society." Half length. " Steph n . 
Slaughter pinx. 1736." 

Sir Hans Sloane, wh. 1., seated. 

Dr. John Ward, of Gresham College. 
Presented by T. Hollis, Esq. 

Dr. Matthew Maty, 2nd Principal Libra- 
rian of the British Museum, by Dupan. 
Bequeathed by himself, 1776. 

Major-General Hardwicke, by W. Haw- 
kins. Presented by J. E. Gray, Esq. 

Sir Hans Sloane, by Murray. 

Dr. Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely. 

Robert Earl of Oxford, by Sir G. Kneller. 
Presented, in 1768, by the Duchess 
Dowager of Portland. 

Sir Robert Cotton. Presented, in 1792, 
by Paul Methuen, Esq., of Corsham. 

Sir John Cotton ; from the Old Cottonian 
Library. 

Rt. Hon. Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the 
H. of Commons, wh. 1. Presented by 
Admiral Onslow. 

Sir Thomas Cotton. Presented by his 
descendant, Mrs. H. M. Bowdler, 1826. 

Sir Robert Cotton, A.D. 1629. From the 
Cottonian Library. 

Edward Earl of Oxford, by Dahl. Pre- 
sented, in 1768, by his daughter, the 
Duchess Dowager of Portland. 

Humphrey Wanley. Presented by the Earl 
of Leicester, in 1795, afterwards Marq. 
of Townshend and E. of Leic. " Hum- 
fredus Wanley Coventriensis, 1717." 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. BRITISH MUSEUM. 



387 



Rev. Dr. Thomas Birch. 

Peter L, Emperor of Russia, "from an 
original, drawn by Klingstad, in the 
possession of the Earl of Hertford, 
1725 ; then Ambassador at Peters- 
burgh." From the Old Cottonian Li- 
brary. 

Pedigree of the Cornelia Family. 

Stanislaus Augustus I., King of Poland ; 
Charles XII. of Sweden. Presented 
by the Rev. A. Planta. 

A Hunting Piece, by Gfio. Battista 
Weenix. 

Louis XIV. Presented by the Rev. A. 
Planta. 

Lord Chancellor Bacon. Presented by 
Dr. A. Gifford. 

An Unknown Head, in ruff and beard ; 
on panel ; "iEtatis suae 59. 1608." 

John Duke of Marlborough. 

William Courten, Esq., when young, 
inscribed " Gul. Courten Arm." 

Andrew Marvel. Presented by Robert 
Nettleton, Esq., Gov. of the Russia 
Company. 

Admiral Lord Anson. A copy from the 
Picture at Wimpole. Presented, in 
1814, by the Earl of Hardwicke. 

Archbishop Usher. Presented by Dr. A. 
Gifford. 

Dr. Thomas Burnet. u Ad vivum pinxit 
Roinae Ferdinand, 1675." Bequeathed 
by Matthew Waters, Esq., 1788. 

Henry Stebbing. D.D. " Joseph High- 
more, pinx. 1757." Presented by his 
grandson Henry Stebbing, Esq., 1813. 

Sir Henry Spelman. Presented by Dr. 
A. Gifford. 

An Unknown Head, a skull in the right 
hand ; on panel ; " iEtatis suae 24. A° 
1569." 

Sir William Dugdale. 

William Cecil, Lord Burghley. On panel. 
Presented by Dr. A. Gifford. 

Matthew Prior, by Hudson, from an 
original of Richardson. Presented by 
the Earl of Besborough, 1775. 

An Unknown Portrait In one corner is 
written " J. Ray." Bequeathed by 
Sir William Watson : said to have 
been painted by Mrs. Beale. 

William Camden. On panel. " iEtatis 

LVIII. MDCIX." 

Sir Isaac Newton. Bequeathed by John 
Hatsell, Esq., Clerk of the H. of Com- 
mons. 1821. 



Rev. John Ray. This Portrait belonged 

to Sir Hans Sloane. 
John Speed, the historian. On panel. 
Archbishop Cranmer, "Anno etatis 57, 

Julij 20," by Gerlach Flicke*. " Ger- 

lacus fliccius Germanus faciebat." On 

panel. Presented, in 1766, bv John 

Michell, Esq., M.P. of Bayfield Hall, 

Norfolk. 
William Shakspeare. Presented by M. 

Maty, M.D. 
George Buchanan. A small portrait on 

panel. "iEtatis 76. Ano. 1581." 
Yoltaire. Presented by M. Matv, M.D. 

1760. 
An Unknown Head. 
Vesalius, on panel, by Sir Antonio 

More. This Portrait belonged to Sir 

Hans Sloane. 
An Unknown Portrait. Presented by 

Dr. A. Gifford. 
A portrait (called Chas. I. when Prince). 

Presented, in 1759, by Mrs. Elizabeth 

Gambarini. 
Anna Maria Schurman, by John Lievens. 
Sir Francis Drake. 
Pope Clement X. 
Sir Antonio More. On panel. Presented 

by Dr. A. Gifford. 
Cosmo de Medici and his Secretary Bartol. 

Concini. A copy from Titian. Brought 

from the Old Cottonian Library. 
Martin Luther, a small wh. 1. on panel. 

"D. Martinus Luter, 1546,18 Febr. 

JEtatis 63 iaer." 
Queen Mary I. of England. " Maria 

Princeps, Ano Dom. 1531." "LB." 

initials of the painter. Presented by 

Sir Thomas Mantel. 
George, tenth and last Earl Marischal of 

Scotland. On copper; painted at Rome, 

1752, by Placido Costanzi. Presented 

by Lord Glenbervie. 
Jean Rousseau, employed in the Paintings 

of Montague House. Presented by 

Mrs. Wollfryes, 1757. 
Capt. William Dampier, by Murray. It 

belonged to Sir Hans Sloane. 
Cardinal Svorza Palavicini, 1663. Pre- 
sented by Smart Lethieullier, Esq. 
Ulysses Aldrovandus, by Giorgioni. It 

belonged to Sir Hans Sloane. 
An unknown Portrait of a Gentleman in 

a ruff and long beard : " iEtatis suae 

66, An. Dom. 1590." On panel. 
Isabella, Infanta of Spain. 



* Gerlach or Gerbertus Fliccius. See Walp. Anecd. of Paint., 4to. edit., p. 4. 

s 2 



388 



LONDON. 



St. Evremond. Presented by M. Maty, 
M.D. 

Sir Peter Paul Rubens. 

Landscape by Wilson. 

John Gutenberg, the inventor of the art 
of printing with moveable types. Pre- 
sented by Paul Vaillant, Esq. 

Henry Frederick, Prince of Orange. Pre- 
sented, in 1782, by Lord Fred. Camp- 
bell. 

John Locke. Presented by Matthew- 
Maty, M.D. 

Governor Herbert, by Devis. Presented 
by Admiral Page. 

James Parsons, M.D. " iEtat. 60 anno 
quo Benj. Wilson pinxit, 1762." Be- 
queathed by Dr. Knight, 1772. 

John Wallis, D.D., the Mathematician. 

Mary Davis, an inhabitant of Great 
Saughall in Cheshire, taken 1668, 
" aetatis 74." At the age of 28 an ex- 
crescence grew upon her head, like a 
wen, which continued 30 years, and 
then grew into two horns, one of which 
the profile represents. 

Sir John Doderidge. Presented by Dr. 
A. Gifford. 

Dr. Go win Knight, 1st principal Libra- 
rian of the British Museum, by Benj n . 
Wilson. Bequeathed by Dr. Knight, 
1772. 

Frank of Borsalia, Earl of Ostervant, 
who died in 1470. 

Algernon Sidney. 

PICTURES IN THE RESIDENCE OF THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH, 
MONTAGU HOUSE, WHITEHALL. 

Several fine pictures by Vandyck : — Very fine full-length portrait, 
front face, buff boots, &c, of the Duke of Hamilton in armour ; full- 
length portrait of Lord Holland, slashed sleeves, hair short on fore- 
head ; full-length portrait of the Duke of Richmond in complete 
black, yellow hair over shoulders, brownish background. ' Thirty- 
five sketches by Vandyck, made for the much-esteemed series of 
portraits etched by Vandyck and others, and published by Martin 
Van Enden ; formerly belonging to Sir Peter Lely ; purchased at the 
sale of his effects by Ralph Duke of Montagu. Canaletti's finest 
picture of a View of Whitehall, showing Holbein's gateway, Inigo 
Jones's banqueting house, and the steeple of St. Martin's, with the 
scaffolding about it. A remarkable series of English miniatures from 
the time of Isaac Oliver to the time of Zanetti. 

CHELSEA HOSPITAL. 

The chapel has a semicircular end where the communion table 
stands. In the domed ceiling above, the resurrection of our Saviour, 



Alexander Pope. Presented by Francis 

Annesley, Esq. 
Unknown, t. Cha. II. 
Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield, by 

Ramsay, 1765. Presented by Sir 

Thomas Robinson, Bart., in 1777. 
Richard Baxter. Presented by Dr. A. 

Gifford, 1760. 
Sir Henry Vane, Jun. Presented by 

Thomas Hollis, Esq. 
Lodowick Muggleton, " Aged 66, 1674." 
Thomas Britton, the musical small-coal- 
man, " Mtat. 61, 1703." By Wool- 

aston. 
Mr. George Vertue, the Engraver, " Mt, 

l. 1733." Presented by his Widowy 

1775. 
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury. On 

panel. Presented by Dr. A. Gifford. 

At the north end of this gallery, by 
the sides of the door, are two paintings, 
one of the Cromlech at Plas Newydd, 
Anglesea ; the other of Stonehenge. 
Presented by Richard Tongue, Esq., 
1837. 

The following portraits also are to be 
found in the Print Room: Geoffrey 
Chaucer, 1400, a small wh. 1. on panel ; 
a Limning of Frederick III. of Saxony, 
by Lucas Cranach ; the Portraits of Mo- 
liere, Corneille, and an unknown head by 
Dobson, all on panel ; and the Portrait of 
a Pope or Cardinal. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. 



389 



painted by Sebastian Ricci, fills tbe entire concavity. The composition 
includes a great number of figures of soldiers and saints in the lower 
part, the upper being crowded with angels and cherubims. The execu- 
tion of the whole is very masterly. Beneath the windows, on the sides, 
are suspended a variety of flags, taken in various battles, including thir- 
teen eagles of the Imperial French Army, and some Indian colours of 
Tippoo Saib, with the brooms on the spear to indicate that he would 
sweep the Europeans from the territory of India. 

The dining-hall on the opposite side has the end completely filled 
by a large picture, painted by Verris, representing Charles II. on 
horseback, with a variety of allegorical figures, one of which is pointed 
out as a personation of Nell Gwynne. The w r alls here are also 
adorned with a number of flags, trophies of the success of the British 
army. Among them are three from the land of the stripes and stars, 
the singular standards taken in the war with China, and also from the 
Sikhs. At the end of the hall are some English colours, bearing, in 
their ragged condition, proofs of deadly conflict, and some flagstafFs 
taken at Blenheim by the great Marlborough. 

A large picture of the battle of Waterloo, painted by G. Jones, 
R.A., is hung in the secretary's office. 



THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, DEVONSHIRE HOUSE, PICCADILLY. 

In a very splendid and capacious suite of reception rooms, which 
have recently received renovation by the decorator's art, there are 
many pictures of consequence hung upon the walls. Among them, 
by- 

Sir J. Reynolds. Lord Richard Cavendish. 

The late Duchess of Devonshire, very fine. 

N. Berghem. Evening Landscape, and 
Cattle. A Sea Port, with elegant figures 
on horseback. 

William Yandevelde. An admirable Sea- 
shore, calm. 

Rembrandt. A Jew Rabbi seated. 

Frank Hals. Portrait of a Man. 

Lucas van Leyden. The Dentist, en- 
graved by himself. 

Lucas van Uden. A Woody Landscape. 

Vandyck. The Countess of Carlisle, in 
an arm-chair. Portraits of Himself and 
of Rubens, a pair of oval pictures, in 
grisaille, made for the engraving by 
Pontius ; also two Portraits of Persons 
unknown. 

Moses in the Bulrushes. 

Jacob Jordaens. A pair of whole-lengths 
of Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, 
and the Princess. 
By other masters of the Flemish school 

are examples by Rottenhammer, Brauwer, 

Poelemberg, Steenwyck, D. Mytens, 



Orizonte, J. B. Weenix, Van Gi-oyen, 

Momper, R. Savary, and Vander Meulen. 
In the Italian school the most import- 
ant are — 

Luca Penni. Neptune and Amphitrite 
embracing. 

Antonella da Messina. Head of the 
Saviour. 

Carlo Dolce. A similar Head, unusually 
fine. 

Pietro da Cortona. A Mountainous Land- 
scape. 

Sasso Ferrato. The Head of the Madonna. 

Salvator Rosa. Jacob's Dream in a 
Landscape. 

Warriors reposing, and five other speci- 
mens. 

Griorgione. Head of a Nobleman. 

Titian. Whole-length Portrait of Philip 
II. King of Spain. Portrait of a 
Young Gentleman. A Grand Classical 
Landscape, with figures of St. John 
preaching to the multitude. 

Albano. Harvest Scene, with mytholo- 
gical figures. 



390 



LONDON. 



M. Preti. An Old Man playing the Lute. 
M. A. da Caravaggio. A Musical Party. 
Guercino. Susanna and the Elders. 
Guido. Perseus and Andromeda, life- 
size figures. 
Baroccio. The Holy Family. 
Ludovico Caracci. The Crucifixion. 
Domenichino. Susanna and the Elders. 
A Female Figure soaring on clouds. 
Parmegiano. St. Mary Magdalen in the 

Desert. The Virgin Fainting at the 

Tomb of Christ. 
G. Bassano. Moses before the Burning 

Bush. Apparition of the Yirgin to a 

Shepherd. 
Boltraffio. Portrait of a Young Lady. 
S. del Piombo. Christ and the 'Woman 

of Samaria. 
A. Schiavone. St. Jerome in the Desert. 
Alessandro Veronese. Cupid watching 

Psyche. 
Tintoretto. Portrait of a Gentleman seated. 

Portrait of Nicholas Capello. Portrait 

of a Gentleman. 
Paul Veronese. The Wise Men's Offering. 



There are also some good pictures by 
the lesser Italian painters, as Biscaino, 
Luca Giordano, C. Maratti, F. Mola, P. 
Lauri, Carlo Cignani, Romamelli, S. Bicci, 
and others. 

The French and German schools com- 
prise excellent works, as — 
N. Poussin. The Classical Landscape, 
with the Three Shepherds, and the 
Tomb inscribed u Et in arcadia ego." 
The Holy Family with Angeh. A Pair 
of Roman Landscapes. Angels wor- 
shipping Jehovah. 
Lesueur. The Queen of Sheba before 

Solomon. 
Bourguignon. Five Pictures of Cattle 

Subjects. 
Gaspar Poussin. Mountainous Scenery 
near the Sea. Four small circular 
Landscapes. 

There are besides a few pictures by 
Laucret, Watteau, some portraits by Hol- 
bein, and of his period, and a clever 



picture by A. Elsheimer of the Flight 
into Egypt. 

At his Grace's villa, near Chiswick, about five miles from London, 
there are also many very excellent pictures of the Italian and Dutch 
schools dispersed through the various rooms, and a very interesting 
small altar-piece, attributed to John Van Eyck, representing, accord- 
ing to Horace Walpole, the family of Lord Clifford. 

MR. G. TOMLIXE, M.P., CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE, 

Is the possessor of a few pictures of high importance. Among them 
is the Pool of Bethesda, or Christ healing the Paralytic, considered to 
be the finest picture from the hand of Murillo, for elevation of cha- 
racter and other great qualities of art. It was obtained from the 
Hospital of La Caridad, at Seville, by Marshal Soult, of whom Mr. 
Tomline purchased it at a cost of 7500Z., being the largest sum ever 
given for any picture in England. The picture of Christ and the 
Woman of Samaria by Annibal Caracci, one of three famous Giusti- 
niani Caraccis, is also here, as well as the identical portrait of Charles 
V., painted from life by Titian, who went to Bologna for the purpose. 
It came from the Zambeccari Palace in that city. 

DULWICH COLLEGE. 

The village where this institution was founded is about five miles 
distant from London, in a southerly direction beyond Camberwell, 
and is one of the most rural and tranquil spots in the vicinity of the 
metropolis. The college itself was established by a comedian named 
Alleyn, about three centuries ago, and by his will the preference in 
electing the inmates is given to those bearing the same name. 

In the year 1811 Sir Francis Bourgeois, a Royal Academician, 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — DULWICH COLLEGE. 391 

although an indifferent painter, bequeathed his pictures to the Master, 
Wardens, and Fellows of Dulwich College, in trust for the public use, 
under the direction of the Royal Academy. The bequest was ac- 
companied by a condition that a mausoleum should be contained in 
the gallery, where his own remains and those of two friends, Mon- 
sieur and Madame Desenfans, should be placed. A separate building 
attached to the rooms where the pictures hang has, therefore, been 
erected for the purpose. 

The gallery is open to the public every day throughout the year, 
excepting Friday and Sunday. The admission is entirely by tickets, 
which are to be had gratis of Messrs. Graves & Co., 6, Pall Mall; 
Moon, 20, Threadneedle Street; P. & D. Colnaghi, Pall Mall East; 
Leggatt&Co., Cornhill ; and some other printsellers. It is absolutely 
necessary to be provided with a ticket from one of the above esta- 
blishments, as no admission is permitted without, and no tickets are to 
be obtained in Dulwich. A catalogue is sold in the gallery, price 6t/., 
containing the titles of the pictures, and the names of the reputed 
masters, but it is much to be regretted that it should be such an im- 
perfect guide to the amateur and student, for its inaccuracies are 
numerous. 

The pictures of the Bourgeois collection are 354 in number. Six 
pictures of family portraits, by Gainsborough and Sir Thomas Law- 
rence, have subseqently been presented, as well as a large picture, by 
C. Procacini, of the Creation of Eve. Most of the great painters of 
the ancient schools have their names placed in the catalogue ; but 
probably there exists no similar official document so full of errors of 
description, the most worthless performances being intermingled with 
really fine works, and many pictures also falsely attributed. By the 
donor of the collection, Sir Francis Bourgeois, there are ]4 pictures; 
by N. Berghem, 5; by Agostino Caracci,, 5; by Annibal Caracci, 2; 
by Ludovico Caracci, 3; by Claude, 7; by Cuvp, 18; Carlo Dolce, 
3; Gerard Dow, 3; Guercino, 3; Guido, 6'; Hobbima, 3; C. Du 
Jardin, 5; F. Mola, 4; Murillo, 12; A. Ostade, 4; Paul Potter, 5; 
N. Poussin, IT; G. Poussin, 4; Rembrandt, 5; S. Rosa, 5; Rubens. 
18; J. Ruysdael, 4; D. Teniers, 18; W. Vandevelde, 4; Vandyck, 
13; Van Huysum, 4; Velasquez, 4; P. Veronese, 5; P. Wouver- 
mans, 11; Wynants, 3; and Zuccarelli, 5. Among this mass of au- 
thentic and non-authentic works, besides those attributed to other 
painters, there are many very important performances. The nu- 
merous Cuyps are of varied excellence; three or four of them are of 
supreme beauty. The same may be said of the 18 specimens by 
David Teniers. Cattle at a Fountain by Berghem, No. 209, is a 
brilliant picture, which has been frequently engraved. The Jacob's 
Dream, by Rembrandt, No. 179, is a singularly poetical conception. 
The pictures by Rubens and Vandyck comprise some good portraits. 
The greatest ornaments of the gallery are unquestionably the Murillf s, 
wdrichare of his very best quality; among them, the Virgin surrounded 



392 



LONDON. 



by heavenly splendour, enthroned in the air with angels, No. 347 ; 
the Flower Girl, No. 48 ; and the pair of Spanish Peasant Children, 
Nos. 283 and 286 ; may be cited. Several of the pictures by Nicho- 
las Poussin are also very fine; and the same may be said of the many 
examples by Philip Wouvermans. The English school may boast of 
three fine portrait subjects by Gainsborough; but Sir Joshua Reynolds 
is ill represented by a picture, No. 143, called a Mother and Sick 
Child, and by No. 340, of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, which 
is no more than a copy made by Sir F. Bourgeois, after the original 
picture in the Grosvenor Gallery; and, to complete the inaccuracies of 
the catalogue, Sir J. Reynolds's name is omitted among the artists 
whose numbers of the pictures are added thereto. However, the 
visitor will be amply recompensed by the view of an excellent gather- 
ing of fine pictures, notwithstanding the presence of many unworthy 
specimens. 

THE COLLECTION OF PICTURES BELONGING TO THE EARL OF 
ELLESMERE, CLEVELAND SQUARE, ST. JAMES'S. 




RESIDENCE OF LORD ELLESMERE. 



This famous gallery was formed principally from the collection of 
the Palais Royal, belonging to the Dukes of Orleans, by the late 
Duke of Bridgewater, who availed himself largely of the oppor- 
tunity. Hence it is sometimes called the Bridgewater Gallery; 
and having passed, at the decease of that nobleman, to his ne- 
phew, the Marquess of Stafford, it is also frequently called the Staf- 
ford Gallery. The present possessor, the Earl of Ellesmere, the 
second son of the late Marquess of Stafford, has made several import- 
ant additions ; and it now ranks the first, in importance and number, 
of all the private collections in England. Its consequence may be 
judged of by saying that many of the pictures are of the very highest 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. EARL OF ELLESMERE. 



393 



class, and rank among the great landmarks of pictorial art. Among 
them are 4 by Raffaelle, 5 by Titian, 7 by Annibal Caracci, 5 by 
Ludovico Caracci, 5 Domenichinos, -i Claudes. 8 Xicolo Poussins, 
5 Berghems, 6 Cuyps, 6 by A. Ostade, -i by Rembrandt, 8 of D. 
Teniers, 7 of W. Vandevelde, &c. A sumptuous gallery has been 
erected to contain them, in Cleveland Row, on the site of Bridge- 
water House, to which, it is believed, the public will be admitted, 
under restrictions, and is expected to be opened in the year 1851 : 
for the present, they have not been arranged. The following is a list 
of them as they now stand in the apartments in Belgrave Square. 



Tintoretto. Portrait of a Gentleman; from 
the Orleans Graliery. 

Bourgognone. An Italian Landscape. 

X. Poussin. Seven famous Pictures of 
the Seven Sacraments: from the Or- 
leans Graliery. Moses Striking the 
Rock; from the same. 

F. Mille. An Italian Landscape. 

Leandro Bassano. The Last Judgment: 
from the Orleans Graliery. 

Titian. The u Venus a la Coquille:" 
formerly belonged to Queen Christina 
of Sweden, afterwards in the Orleans 
Graliery. 

Paris Bordone. Holy Family: from the 
same. 

Alessandro Veronese. Joseph and Poti- 
phar's "Wife ; from the same. 

Palma Vecchio. Holy Family in a Land- 
scape. 

Spa^noletto. Christ Disputing with the 
Doctors in the Temple; from the Or- I 
leans Graliery. 

Titian. Portrait of Pope Clement VII.: 
from the same. 

Valentin. A Musical Party of Five Fi- 
gures. 

Domenichino. The Vision of St. Francis; 
from the Orleans (xaKery. 

N. Berghem. Landscape and Cattle; ' 
from the Calonne collection. 

Dobson. Portrait of Cleveland, the Poet. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of Himself; from 
the Holderness collection. 

Tintoretto. Portrait of a Venetian Gren- 
tleman; from the Orleans Graliery. 

D. Calvert. The Entombment. 

Domenichino. Head of St. Agnes. 

Annibal Caracci. St. John in the Wilder- 
ness; from the Orleans collection. 

Titian. The Four Ages; formerly be- 
longed to Queen Christina, and after- 
wards in the Orleans Grallerv. 



Palma Vecchio. Portrait of a Doge; 
from the same. 

Paul De la Roche. King Charles First 
Prisoner. 

Annibal Caracci. St. John Sleeping; 
from the Orleans collection. 

Ludovico Caracci. The Vision of St. 
Catherine; from the same. 

Domenichino. Christ Bearing his Cross ; 
from the same. 

Ludovico Caracci. The Madonna and 
Christ, with St. John and Mary Mag- 
dalen; copied from the Picture, by 
Coreggio, at Parma. 

Titian. Diana and Calisto : a large 
and wonderfully fine work, painted, ac- 
cording to Vasari, for Philip II. of 
Spain; from the Orleans collection. 

Tintoretto. The Entombment ; from the 
same. 

Andrea Sabbatini di Salerno. St. Cathe- 
rine. The Companion, St. Rosalie. 

D. Teniers. The Village "Wedding. 

Annibal Caracci. St. Francis Adoring the 
Infant Jesus; from the Orleans Gallery. 

P. P. Rubens. Mercury Carrying Hebe 
to Olympus; from the (xeldenneester 
Cabinet. 

Vandyck. Portrait of a Grentleman 
with a Lace Collar. 

X. Berghem. Italian Landscape, with 
figures: from the collection of Mons. 
de Calonne. 

Hobbima. Landscape, Cottages amona: 
Trees. 

Y7. Vandevelde. Sea View off the Dutch 
Coast. 

Terburg. " L'Instruction Maternelle." 

S. Rosa. Coast Scene, "' Les Augures:" 
from the collection of the Due de 
Praslin. 

\V. Vandevelde. The celebrated large 
Sea Piece. 

s 3 



394 



LONDON. 



Hobbima. Landscape, with Figures by 
Wouvermans. The Water Mill. 

J. Ruysdael. The Charcoal Burners. 

G. Metzu. Cavalier Refreshing at the 
Door of a Mansion. 

Vander Heyden. Town Scene in Hol- 
land, Figures by Adrian Vandevelde. 

Velasquez. Portrait of Himself. 

Vandyck. The Virgin and Child. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of a Dutch Lady. 

Elizabeth Sirani. The Magdalen. 

S. Koninck. The Student. 

J. and A. Both. Rocky Landscape, with 
Figures. 

Paul Potter. Oxen in a Meadow; dated 
1650. 

Cornelius Bega. Interior; from the Ca- 
binet of Grreffier Fagel. 

W. Vandevelde. A Fresh Breeze. 

J. Van Huysum. Flowers in a Vase. 

Rembrandt. Study of a Man's Head. 

A. Ostade. An Interior, Peasants Drink- 
ing and Smoking; from the Gelder- 
meester Cabinet. 

Van der Capella. View on a River in 
Holland. 

J. Wynants. Landscape with Figures 
by A. Vandevelde. 

Rembrandt. The Prophetess Hannah, 
with her Son in the Temple; from the 
Julienne Cabinet. 

W. Vandevelde. A Naval Engagement. 

A. Cuyp. The Landing of Prince Maurice 
at Dort; from t$i3 collection of Van 
Slingelandt. Of this wondrous picture, 
Dr. Waagen says, " This is one of the 
most celebrated of Cuyp's works, and of 
the Dutch school the finest in the col- 
lection. It looks as if the painter had 
dipped his pencil in light, to express 
the play of the sun-beams which have 
dispersed the morning mist upon the 
water and the ship." 

J. Wynants. Landscape, with Figures 
by A. Vandevelde. 

W. Vandevelde. Entrance to the Brill, a 
Light Breeze. 

N. Maas. A Girl Threading her Needle. 

G. Dow. A Portrait of Himself. 

Gr. Metzu. A Woman Selling Fish at a 
Stall ; from the Gfeldermeester col- 
lection. 

A. Vandevelde. Cattle in a Landscape. 

J. Wyck. The Effects of War; Soldiers 
Pillaging. 

Gf. Coques. Portrait of Elizabeth, Prin- 
cess Palatine. 



Van Tol. An Old Woman at a Window 

with a Dog. 
C. Poelemberg. Landscape, Buildings 

and Figures. 

C. Netscher. The Duchess of Mazarine 
and M. St. Evremont, as Vertumnus 
and Pomona. 

A. Pynacker. Landscape, Mountainous 
Scenery. 

D. Teniers. An Interior; Peasants Play- 
ing at Cards. 

P. Lauri and Maria di Fiori. Three 
Cupids Sporting. 

Mignard. The Virgin, Infant Christ, 
and St. John. 

Eglon Van der Neer. The Juvenile 
Drummer. 

Annibal Caracci. St. Gregory attended 
by Angels. In the Anecdotes of 
Painting by Mr. Buchanan, he says, 
" The famous picture of the Saint 
Gregorio, from the church of that name 
in Rome, is one of the most capital 
works of the high school of painting. 
In this magnificent picture is seen 
how near Annibal has approached the 
finest works of Corregio. In point of 
drawing and sentiment he has rivalled 
the most renowned pictures of Raf- 
feelle." 

Ludovico Caracci. The Marriage of St. 
Catherine. 

A. Tiarini. The Holy Family. 

Gonsales Coques. Portrait of David 
Teniers. 

G. Dow. Portrait of Himself holding a 
Violin. According to Dr. Waagen, this 
little picture is only equalled by the 
celebrated "Evening School" at Am- 
sterdam. 

F. Mieris. A Lady at her Toilet. 

Corregio. " La Vierge au Panier;" from 
the Orleans Gallery. 

Rottenhammer. The Nativity. 

Ary de Voys. Portrait of a Student 
with a Book. 

Ludovico Caracci. Descent from the Cross ; 
formerly in the collection of the Duke 
of Modena, and the Orleans Gallery. 

C. Cignani. "Noli me tangere;" from 
the Orleans Gallery. 

P. du Cortona. Adoration of the Shep- 
herds. 

A. Ostade. A Dutch Peasant; from the 
Due de Chabot's Cabinet. 

Isaac Ostade. Village Scene, Peasants 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — EARL OF ELLESMERE. 



395 



Jan Steen. The Schoolmaster. A first- 
rate work of the Painter; from the 
Marquess Camden's collection. 

Bourgognone. A Conflict of Cavalry. 

Isaac Ostade. Travellers Halting at a 
Country Inn. 

D. Teniers. A Village Kermesse. 

G. Coques. Portrait of Frederic, King of 
Bohemia. 

W. Mieris. A Musician Seated, taking 
Refreshment. 

C. Poelemberg. Landscape, with Nymphs 
Bathing. 

Gr. Van Harp. A Musical Party. 

S. del Piombo. The Entombment; from 
the Orleans Gallery. 

Corregio. Head of Christ Crowned with 
Thorns. 

Baldazzar Peruzzi. The Adoration of 
the Magi; from the Orleans Grallery. 

P. Wouvermans. A Large Battle Piece ; 
from the collection of Cardinal Fesch. 

Guido. The Assumption of the Virgin. 
A magnificent altar-piece; from the 
Cathedral of Seville. 

Lanfranco. The Vision of St. Francis. 

Gr. B. Mola. St. John Baptising the 
Saviour. 

RafFaelle. " La Madonna del Passegio." 
A renowned work. It has been suc- 
cessively possessed by the Duke of 
Urbino, Philip II. of Spain, Rodolph 
II., Emperor of Germany, Gustavus 
Adolphus, King of Sweden, Queen 
Christina of Sweden, the Duke of 
Bracciano, and the Duke of Orleans. 

Domenichino. Grand Landscape, with 
Fishermen; from the Orleans Gallery. 

Schidone. The Virgin Instructing the 
Infant Saviour to read; from the 
Orleans Gallery. 

Guido. The Virgin with a Sampler. 

RafFaelle. " La Vierge au Palmier." A 
renowned Picture, which has been fre- 
quently engraved; after passing into 
many celebrated collections, it came 
into the Orleans Gallery. 

L. da Vinci. Female Head; from the 
Orleans Gallery. 

Guido. The Infant Christ Sleeping on a 
Cross; from the same. 

Parmegiano. The Virgin, Infant Christ, 
and St. John. 

RafFaelle. The Virgin and Infant Saviour. 
This is also a celebrated picture by the 
divine master, and has always been 
designated by the title of " La plus 



belle des Vierges;" from the Orleans 

Gallery. 
Sir P. Lely. Portrait of a Young Lady. 
Bourgognone. Battle Piece. 
Dobson. Portrait of King Charles I. 
L. Backhuyzen. A Breeze, View off the 

Dutch Coast. 
J. Ruysdael. View in Holland, a Wind- 
mill, &c. 
D. Teniers. The Alchymist; from the 

Orleans Gallery. 
Palma Vecchio. The " Reposo ; " from the 

same. 
Claude. Landscape, Evening, with Moses 

and the Burning Bush. 
Titian. Diana and Actaeon. One of the 

most glorious works of the painter; 

from the Orleans Gallery. 
Schiavone. The Marriage of St. Catherine. 
Claude. View on the Sea Shore, Morning. 

F. Mieris. An Interior, with a Woman 
Scouring a Pan. 

G. Poussin. Landscape, a Valley sur- 
rounded by Hills. 

J. Ruysdael. Landscape, with a Peasant 

and Sheep. 
P. Slingelandt. Interior of a Kitchen, 

with Figures. 
G. Poussin. Landscape, with a Ruin. 
J. Ruysdael. Hilly Landscape, with a 

River. 
J. Wynants. Landscape, with Figures 

Fishing. 
C. Du Jardin. Mountainous Landscape 

and Figures. 
Jan Steen. The Fishmonger. 
Claude. Landscape, with Cattle, Morning. 
Rembrandt. Portrait of a Burgomaster; 

from the Geldermeester Cabinet. 
Claude. Landscape, with the Apulian 

Shepherd. 
N. Berghem. Landscape, Rocky Scene, 

with Figures. 
C. Netscher. An Interior, with Figures 

in Conversation. 
J. Ruysdael. View near Haerlem. 
W. Vandevelde. The Great Naval Battle 

between the English and French Fleets 

in 1606. 
Sasso Ferrato. The Head of the Virgin. 
Sir Peter Lely. Portrait of the Countess 

of Middlesex. 
Sir Joshua Reynolds. Portrait of Lord 

and Lady Clive. 
Annibal Caracci. Christ on the Cross; 

from the Orleans Gallery. 
G. Poussin. The Environs of Tivoli. 



396 



LONDON. 



Raffaelle. " La Vierge au Diademe," a 
celebrated composition, of which there 
is a replica in the Louvre. 

S. Rosa. Large upright Mountainous 



Mireveldt, Portrait of a Gentleman. 
A. Cuyp. Landscape ; from the Calonne 

collection. 
A. Ostade. A Lawyer in his Study. 
Rottenhammer. Children Standing in a 

Circle. 
R. Wilson. Grand Landscape, with the 

Story of Niobe. 
A. Cuyp. Ruins of the Castle of Ko- 

ningsvelt. 
G. Dow. Woman at a Window Selling 

Herrings. 
A. Ostade. An Interior, with Three 

Workmen. 

C. Dusart. An Interior, with Peasants 
Gambling. 

Van Tol. An Old Woman Reading. 

N. Berghem. Landscape and Figures, 

Evening Scene. 
Velasquez. Whole-length Portrait of 

the Son of the Due d'Olivares ; from 

the Altamira Gallery, Madrid. 
G. Metzu. A Lady in a Scarlet Tunic. 
Van Tol. The Tired Musician Reposing. 

D. Teniers. Peasants Playing at Skittles. 
Grimoux. Copy from the Good Shep- 
herd, by Murillo. 

A, Ostade. Boors Playing at Nine Pins. 
A. Brauwer. Boors Singing. 
W. Vandevelde. Calm, Early Morn- 
ing; from the collection of the Prince 

de Conti. 
D. Teniers. An Interior, Peasants 

Smoking and Drinking. 
Sir J. Reynolds. Whole-length Portrait 

of a Lady. 
A. Ostade. The Lawyer and Client; 

from the Cabinet of Greffiers Fagel. 
Van Tol. An Old Man Reading. 
Steenwyck. Interior of a Church by 

Moonlight. 
D. Teniers. Peasant Carrying a Basket, 

in a Landscape. 
P. P. Rubens. St. Theresa Praying for 

Souls in Purgatory. 
P.Wouvermans. Grooms Watering Horses 

at a Stream. 
R. Llengs. A Portrait. 
J. Both. Ruins of a Gateway, Figures 

by Poelemberg. 
A. Ostade. " The Proposal," a celebrated 

work. 



D. Teniers. A Butcher Dressing a Pig, 

Winter Scene. 
Van Os. Fruit and Flowers on a Marble 

Slab. 
P. Wouvermans. Boys Bathing, and ' 

many Figures. 

F. Albano. A Reposo, with Angels; from 
the Orleans Gallery. 

Murillo. Lazarus at the Rich Man's Door. 

P. Lauri. The Reposo, with Angels. 

Van Thulden. The Three Kings, after 
Rubens. 

J. W. M. Turner, R.A. A Large Sea 
Piece, painted as a companion in rivalry 
to the grand picture by W. Vande- 
velde in this collection. 

P. Veronese. Venus Lamenting the Death 
of Adonis ; formerly belonged to Chris- 
tina of Sweden, and afterwards to the 
Orleans Gallery. 

Annibal Caracci. Tantalus. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of a Lady. 

Polidoro di Caravaggio. A Procession of 
Nymphs. 

0. Marinari. The Saviour, and the Virgin, 
companion pictures. 

A. Schiavone. Christ before Pilate; for- 
merly in Queen Christina's and the 
Orleans Gallery. 

Verboom. A large Woody Landscape. 

Guercino. Saints Adoring the Trinity. 

Annibal Caracci. Diana and Calisto; 
from the Orleans Gallery. 

Scarcellino di Ferrara. Christ Appearing 
to his Disciples; from the same. 

Tilborgh. Peasants Regaling at a Ca- 
baret. 

H. Zorg. An Interior, with Boors 
Drinking. 

C. Huysman. Landscape, with Figures. 

Tilborgh. A Rustic Wedding. 

G. Van Harp. Boors Carousing. 

C. Huysman. Landscape, and Classical 
Figures. 

Jan Victor. Tobias Parting from his Family. 

C. Dusart. Dutch Tavern, with Peasants 
Regaling. 

G. B. Panini. Interior of a Grand Sa- 
loon filled with works of Art, and the 
Companion, St. Peter's at Rome, with 
a multitude of figures. They are the 
finest of this artist's work. 

A. Cuyp. Landscape and Figures. 

J. Vernet. A Tempest on the Sea Coast. 

Gainsborough. Landscape and Cattle in 
a Meadow. 

C. Molenaer. A Peasant's Wedding. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. —EARL OF ELLESMERE. 



397 



H. Steenwyck. Interior of a Church in 

Antwerp. 
J. Vernet. A Calm on the Coast of Italy. 
C. De Heem. Composition of Fruit and 

Flowers. 
Decker. Landscape, with Cottages on a 

River Side. 
Roger Yan de Weyde. Taking Down 

from the Cross. 
A. Brauwer and D. Seghers. Landscape, 

encircled by Flowers. 
A. Jansens. A Peasant Cleaning a Jug. 
J. Wynants. Landscape, Figures by Lin- 

gelbach. 
A. Cuyp. Cows in a Landscape, with 

Rocks. 
Gessi. The Virgin in Adoration. 
Wildens. A Landscape, Forest Scenery. 
Peter Wouvermans. A Battle. 
P. Yan Lint. A Musical Party. 
Richard Wilson. An Italian Landscape. 
J.Van Hugtenberg. A Combat of Cavalry. 
F. Monzani. Cephalus and Procris. 
C. De Heem. Fruit Piece, Grapes, 

Peaches, &c. 
J. Artois. Woody Landscape, Figures 

by D. Teniers. 

C. Schut and Daniel Seghers. The Yirgin 
and Child in a Garland of Flowers. 

N. Berghem. Large Landscape, Heath 
Scene. 

Langen Jan. The Assumption of the 
Yirgin. 

Breckelenkamp. An Old Woman Fry- 
ing Pancakes. 

J. Breughel. A City on Fire by Night. 

F. Hals. Portrait of a Lady "Wearing a 
large Ruff. 

Ludovico Caracei. Dead Christ and the 
Weeping Maries. 

Gr. Poussin. Mountain Scenery; from the 
Colonna Palace. 

P. Lauri. Bacchus and Satyrs. 

D. Stoop. A Traveller Reposing. 
Lorenzo Lotti. The Yirgin and Child. 
A. Kierings. Landscape, Figures by C. 

Poelemberg. 

Julio Romano. The Nursing of Hercules ; 
from the Orleans Gallery. 

Peter Wouvermans. Horses in a Land- 
scape. 

A. Yan der Neer. Yiew in Holland, Moon- 
light. 

A. Waterloo. A Forest Scene. 

Blankhof. A Fresh Breeze on the Coast 
of Italy. 

H. Roos. Cattle in a Landscape. 



A. Yan der Neer. A Dutch Village, by 
Moonlight. 

J. Wynants. A Landscape. 

Ghisolfi. A Grand Architectural Compo- 
sition. 

J. Asselyn. Yiew of the Ponte Mole 
on the Tyber. 

F. Mille. Landscape, Buildings, and 
Figures. 

Polidoro da Caravaggio. Passage of the 
Red Sea. 

Ghisolfi. Architectural Scene, with a 
Triumphal Arch. 

H. Swaneveldt. Landscape, River and 
Figures. 

De Ylieger. Yiew on the Dutch Coast. 

Craesbeck. A Peasant Placing a Plaster 
on his Head. 

W. Yande velde. Large Marine Coast Scene. 

A. Cuyp. Evening, Travellers Halting 
at an Inn. 

J. Wyck. Battle of Cavalry near a Fortress. 

F. Mille. Landscape and Figures. 

Tintoretto. Presentation in the Temple. 

J. Ruysdael. Landscape on the Banks 
of a River. 

W. Vandevelde. A Small Sea Piece. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Portrait of the 
Bishop of Rochester. 

Paul Bril. Landscape, with Figures by 
Annibal Caracei, from the Due de 
Choiseul's Collection. 

Yan der Leeuw. Landscape and Cattle. 

Moreelze. Zacharias Holding the Infant 
Saviour. 

F. Snyders. Two Dogs, Fruit, &c. 

Domenichino. Grand Landscape and 
Figures. 

Hondekoeter. Poultry and other Birds. 

Paul Veronese. The Judgment of Solo- 
mon; a large Composition of Twenty 
Figures; from the Orleans Gallery. 

Guercino. David and Abigail, also a 
large gallery picture, and from the same 
collection. 

Parmegiano. Cupid Carving his Bow; a 
renowned picture painted for the Che- 
valier Bayard ; it afterwards belonged 
to Queen Christina, and thence passed 
into the Orleans Gallery. 

S. Rosa. Jacob Watering his Flock. 

Schiavone. A Copy of Titian's Last 
Supper. 

Vargas. St. John, a life-size Figure. 
Annibal Caracei. Danae; from the Or- 
leans Gallery. 



398 



LONDON. 



The preceding catalogue is taken as the pictures are now hung ; 
there are also a few modern pictures ; and the corridors are hung 
with the drawings by the Caracci, which formed part of Sir Thomas 
Lawrence's vast collection. 

THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. 

This institution was founded in 1739, when it received a charter 
from the sovereign. The title sufficiently indicates its object ; and 
its primitive conception arose from purely humane motives, however 
sceptical many may now be as to its moral effects. In the earliest 
years of its establishment, the artists of the period appear to have 
peculiarly fostered its pecuniary resources, by contributing their 
pictures ; the voluntary exhibition of which so much engaged the 
public, that it first engendered the idea of an exhibition among them- 
selves, and by degrees led to the establishment of a Royal Academy 
of Art, and an annual exhibition of works of fine art in its galleries. 
As it is only at the Foundling Hospital that a number of pictures by 
the earliest of our native painters can be viewed together, the fol- 
lowing catalogue may prove interesting : — 



Hagar and Ishmael. Joseph Highmore. 

Little Children brought to Christ. James 
Wills. 

The Finding of Moses. Francis Hay- 
man, R.A. 

Moses brought to Pharaoh's Daughter. 
W. Hogarth. 

Greenwich Hospital; Christ's Hospital; 
St. Thomas' Hospital; all painted by 
Samuel Wall, R.A. 

Chelsea Hospital; Bethlem Hospital; 
painted by Haytley. 

The Charter House. Thomas Gains- 
borough, R.A. 

St. George's Hospital; the Foundling 
Hospital; painted by Richard Wilson, 
R.A. 

A Basso-Relievo in Marble, by Rysbrack. 

The March to Finchley. W. Hogarth. 
This remarkable production, well 
known by the engraving, is replete 
with characteristic figures, and ranks 
with the happiest emanations of the 
painter's mind. It was offered when 
finished to the chance of a lottery, and 
the several tickets remaining unsold, 
were given by Hogarth to the Hos- 
pital. Among these was the fortunate 
number that gained the prize. 

A large Sea Piece. Brooking. 



A Landscape. George Lambert. 

Elijah Raising the Widow's Son, by 

Lanfranco; a present made by Mr. 

Langford, an auctioneer. 
Portrait of Handel. Sir Godfrey Kneller. 
Portrait of Taylor White, Esq. Francis 

Cotes, R.A. 
Portrait of Charles Pott, Esq. T. Phillips, 

R.A. 
Offering of the Wise Men. 

Casaii. 
Action off the Coast of France. 
Portrait of Lord Chief Baron 

Dance. 
Portrait of George the Second. 

ton. 
Portrait of the Earl of Dartmouth 

J. Reynolds. 
Portrait of the Earl of Macclesfield. 

Wilson. 
Portrait of Dr. Mead. Allan Ramsay. 
Portrait of Theodore Jacobsen, Esq. 

Thomas Hudson. 
Portrait of Captain Coram. Hogarth. 
Portrait of Thomas Emmerson, Esq. J. 

Highmore. 
A large Sea Piece. Monamy. 
Christ Blessing Little Children; the 

altar-piece in the Chapel; painted by 

Benj. West, P.R.A. 



Andrew 

Luny. 
Wilmot. 

Shackle- 



Sir 



Application to see the preceding pictures may be addressed to the 
secretary, John Brownlow, Esq. 

The Foundling Hospital ordinarily maintains 500 children ; the 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. SCHOOL OF DESIGN. 399 

condition for reception must be, that they are of illegitimate birth, or 
orphans of the Army and Navy. In the first establishment of the 
charity, indiscriminate reception took place of children of married 
parents; but great difficulty ensuing in choosing among the candi- 
dates who presented the children for admission, an absurd resolution 
was taken, of hanging a basket at the gate to receive the infants. 
This led to the most intolerable abuse, nearly 100 being abandoned 
weekly, many in the most deplorable and diseased condition. At 
present great pains are employed to prevent abuse, and the pre- 
ference is always given where the opportunity of a return to virtue 
by a concealment of the shame may assist to restore the erring 
sufferer to future station in society. 

THE GOVERNMENT SCHOOL OF DESIGN, SOMERSET HOUSE, STRAND. 

This school was opened here, in 1837, as a national institution, 
under the superintendence of the Committee of Her Majesty's Privy 
Council for Trade, to offer instruction to all who desire to obtain a 
knowledge of ornamental art, and to supply a systematic course of 
education, in relation to every kind of decorative work, to such 
persons as are, or are intended to become, designers for the various 
manufactures of the country. Drawing, painting, and modelling are 
taught in all the branches which have reference to the purposes and 
requirements of ornamental art, or which may be applicable to 
objects of manufacture dependent on form or pattern. 

The fees for instruction are two shillings a month for the morning 
school, and two shillings a month for the evening school. The hours 
of attendance are — for the elementary class in the morning, from ten 
until one. The advanced classes, from ten to three. In the evening, 
all the classes from half-past six to nine. Instruction is given as 
above, every day, excepting Saturday. The principal masters are — 
J. R. Herbert, R.A.; R. Redgrave, A.R.A. ; H. J. Townsend, Esq. ; 
and C. J. Richardson, Esq. There is also a class for female students, 
directed by Mrs. M'lan. 

All persons who wish to enter the school are required to state in 
which branch of manufacture their studies are intended to be applied; 
and to be furnished with a recommendation from any respectable 
tradesman or other person. A prospectus, detailing the various par- 
ticulars, is given to any one desirous of entering the school, on appli- 
cation to the secretary. 

The institution possesses an excellent collection of designs and 
casts, a lending library to the students of a thousand volumes of 
works relating to their studies, and latterly the acquisition has been 
made of a capital series of copies from the arabesques and lunettes by 
Raffaelle, in the Vatican. There is a branch school at Spitalfields, in 
connection with the Somerset House institution. The accommo- 
dation will allow of 400 male students and 70 females. Visitors are 



400 LONDON. 

permitted to view the schools during the hours of study, on ap- 
plication at the entrance, which is in the western portico, leading 
from the Strand. 

Greenwich hospital. 

The spacious apartment, commonly called the Painted Hall, is a 
double cube of 56 ft.; the ceiling and side- walls being wholly deco- 
rated with paintings of allegorical subjects by Sir James Thornhill, 
which, with the rich gilding of the architectural details, form a truly 
gorgeous combination. In the year 1823, it was devoted to the 
reception of pictures relative to the naval grandeur of England, either 
of historical subjects of her great victories, or of portraits of the 
most famous naval commanders. His Majesty George IV. became 
a most liberal contributor, on the formation of the collection, by pre- 
senting a considerable number of authentic portraits, which adorned 
the royal collections, and some other pictures; and his Majesty 
William IV. peculiarly fostered it, by numerous valuable contri- 
butions. It now comprises altogether 139 pictures, besides statues, 
busts, and models of vessels. 

Among the pictures of naval engagements, are eminently conspi- 
cuous — the Defeat of the Spanish Armada, by Loutherbourg, R.A.; 
the Battle of June 1st, 1794 — Lord Howe's victory — by the same; 
the Capture of Porto Bello, in 1739, by George Chambers; the 
Bombardment of Algiers, in 1816, by Lord Exmouth, painted by 
the same; and the Battle of Trafalgar, by J. M. W. Turner, R.A. 
Many of the portraits are copies from the originals existing in the 
families of the descendants ; there are, however, some of them the 
originals, painted by Zucchero, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, 
Sir J. Reynolds, &c. On a pedestal in the centre of the upper hall 
is placed the marble bust of William IV., by Sir F. Chan trey, 
presented to the hospital by her late Majesty the Queen Dowager 
Adelaide; and here also stood statues of Sir Sidney Smith, Lord 
Exmouth, and Lord de Saumarez. Under a glass shade is placed 
the curious astrolabe presented by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Francis 
Drake; and in cases, similarly preserved, are, the coat worn by 
Nelson at the Battle of the Nile, and the coat and waistcoat he wore, 
in which he received his death-wound, at the Battle of Trafalgar — 
the waistcoat abundantly stained with the blood of the dying hero. 
This coat and waistcoat were presented to the hospital by his Royal 
Highness Prince Albert. 

The hall, including the chapel, is always open to the public, by a 
payment of 4<i., which goes to the general fund; and a detailed 
catalogue of the pictures, with the names of the various persons 
pourtrayed, and other details, is sold in the hall for 3d. 

The chapel is very handsomely fitted up. The altarpiece is a 
large picture by Benjamin West, P.R.A., representing the ship- 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — VERNON GALLERY. 



401 



wreck of St. Paul on the Isle of Malta — the Melita of the Scrip- 
tures. The marble columns which support the organ- gallery, and 
the door-casings of the entrance, are much admired for the material 
employed. 

THE VERNON GALLERY. 

This collection, now placed in the rooms on the ground-floor of 
Marlborough House, comprising 155 pictures, 6 busts, and 1 group 
of figures in marble, was presented to the nation by Robert Vernon, 
Esq. The other English pictures, forming part of the National 
Gallery in Trafalgar Square, 43 in number, have also been removed 
hither and occupy the first two apartments on passing from the 
hall. The collection is open to the public gratis, on the first four 
days of each week throughout the year, with the exception of a month 
during the autumn. 




MARLBOROUGH HOUSE. 



The busts and marble group are placed in the entrance-hall, the 
ceiling of which is adorned with nine allegories of the arts and 
sciences. This series was painted by Gentileschi, in England, for 
King Charles I. Among the pictures in the two first rooms on the 
right-hand side, leading from the hall, are 9 capital works by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds, 6 by Hogarth, forming the episode of Marriage 
a-la-Mode, 2 by R. Wilson, 2 by Sir David Wilkie, and others by 
Lawrence, Gainsborough, Constable, &e. The subjects and names 
of the painters of all the pictures exhibited here, are detailed in an 
authenticated catalogue, sold in the hall, by the attendants, for 2d. 
The Vernon collection occupies the Temaining six apartments, and 
is a very flattering display of the English school, if considered as 
the collection of a private gentleman, formed for his own pleasure, 
and agreeablv to his own taste. There are 11 works of Etty, 9 of 
Sir A. W. Callcott, 5 by Sir D. Wilkie, 4 by R. Wilson, 7 by Sir 
Edwin Landseer, 4 by Gainsborough ; while some other eminent names 



402 



LONDON. 



appear only by their lesser performances, and some equally eminent 
names not at all. This reservation is made lest foreigners, who are 
unacquainted with the English school of art, should accept the 
Vernon Gallery as its fullest exponent. The whole of the pictures 
are only placed in Marlborough House, by permission of Her Majesty, 
until a suitable gallery is erected for the entire of the national pic- 
tures ; the present edifice being destined for the abode of the Prince 
of Wales, on attaining his majority. 

THE GROSVENOR GALLERY, BELONGING TO THE MOST NOBLE THE 
MARQUESS OF WESTMINSTER, UPPER GROSVENOR STREET, GROSVENOR 
SQUARE. 

Among the great collections none are more celebrated, or have a 
greater claim to distinction, than the Grosvenor Gallery, from the 
importance of the pictures severally, and the extent of fine works it 
comprises, possessing, amono; others, 10 pictures by Claude, 11 pic- 
tures by Rubens, and 7 by Rembrandt. The mansion where these 
beauties of art are located is an extensive edifice in Upper Grosvenor 
Street, with a courtyard facing the street, inclosed by an elegant 
columniated screen. Many of the pictures are in the various recep- 
tion-rooms ; but the larger ones are placed in a sumptuous gallery, 
connected with the drawing-rooms, of lofty proportions, and lighted 
from above. At present the collection can only be viewed by ex- 
press permission of the noble proprietor. Formerly a day in each 
week of the months of May and June was set apart for admission by 
cards of invitation liberally issued ; but so much inconvenience was 
experienced by the family that it has been for some time discon- 
tinued. The following is, however, an accurate catalogue of the fine 
and extraordinary works forming this very important collection : — 

A. Canaletti. View in Venice. 

Penry Williams. Italian Peasants Wor- 
shipping the Virgin. 

Benj. West, P.R.A. Portrait of a Gen- 
tleman. 

Gainsborough. Coast Scene, Women 
Selling Fish. 

R. P. Bonington. Coast Scene, with 
Children and Ducks. 

Sir J. Reynolds. A Female Head, as a 
Madonna. 

Gainsborough. The Cottage Door. 

R. R. Reinagle. A Landscape. 

Loutherbourg. A Coast Scene with 
Figures. 

Hogarth. The Distressed Poet. 



ANTE-ROOM. 

Jan Fyt. Dogs and Game. Hawks 
and Birds. 

J. J. Chalon, R.A. Landscape and 
Cattle. 

G. Jones, R.A. View in Rotterdam. 

A. Canaletti. View in St. Mark's Place, 
Venice, a very large picture, with hun- 
dreds of figures during the Carnival. 

T. S. Cooper, A. R.A. Landscape and 
Cattle. 

E. W. Cooke. Elizabeth Castle, Jersey. 
Northcote. Portrait of his Brother Hold- 
ing a Hawk. 

Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A. A Dog with 

a Wild Duck. 
Hogarth. A Boy with a Kite entangled 

in a Tree. 
J. Hayter. Portrait of a Gentleman. 

F. G. Hurlstone. A Youth with a 
Parrot. 



Murillo. 
Bassan. 
herds. 
Claude. 



THE DRAWING-ROOM. 

The Infant Jesus asleep. 

The Adoration of the Shep- 

Landscape. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — MARQUESS OF WESTMINSTER. 



403 



P. Perugino. The Marriage of St. 

Catherine. 
Raffaelle. St. Luke Painting the Virgin's 

Portrait. 
Ludovico Caracci. The Vision of St. 

Francis. 
Carlo Maratti. Hagar and Ishmael. 

David and Bathsheba. Hermit at 

Prayers. 
Albano. The Triumph of Venus. 
Claude. Evening; called also the De- 
cline of the Roman Empire. 
Polidori di Caravaggio. St. Peter and 

St. Paul; a pair of grisailles. 
Guido. St. John Preaching in the 

Wilderness. 
Claude. Landscape, Morning; called 

also, from the introduced accessories, 

the Rise of the Roman Empire. 
J. De Bellini. The Circumcision. 
Fra. Bartolomeo. The Holy Family. 
N. Poussin. The Israelites Returning 

Thanks for the Miraculous Supply of 

Water in the Desert. 
Guido. The Infant Jesus asleep, with 

the Virgin Watching. 
Claude. Landscape with a Shepherd. 
Corregio. The Holy Family, from Mr. 

Ellis Agar's collection. 
N. Poussin. Infants Playing in a Land- 
scape. 
Paul Veronese. The Marriage Feast, 

small size. 
J. De Bellini. The Virgin and Infant, 

with Saints. 
A. Del Sarto. Portrait of the Countess 

Mattei. 
Guido. The Shepherd's Offering. 
Baroccio. A Reposo, called " La Vierge 

a VEcuelle" 
Gaspar Poussin. Landscape and Figure. 
Raffaelle. Virgin, with the Infant Saviour 

and St. John. 
Claude. Landscape, with the Flight 

into Egypt. 
C. Le Brun. The Tent of Darius, a 

small picture by the artist of one of 

the subjects forming the series at 

Versailles. 
Sasso Ferrato. The Virgin, Infant Jesus, 

and St. John. 
Domenichino. St. Agnes. 
Parmegiano. The Marriage of St. 

Catherine. 
Raffaelle. The Holy Family, with An- 
gels. 



INNER DRAWING-ROOM. 

L. da Vinci. Virgin, Infant Christ, and 

St. John. 
G. Poussin. Landscape, View of Tivoli. 
Titian. The Tribute Money. 
Carlo Dolce. Head of a Youth. 
Trevisani. Joseph sold by his Brethren. 
N. Berghem. 1656. Large Landscape, 

with Figures dancing. 
Velasquez. Portrait of Himself in a Fur 

Cap. 
Paul Veronese. The Annunciation. 
N. Poussin. The Holy Family, with 

Angels. 
Ridinger. Stags in a Landscape. 
Francesca. The Adoration of the Shep- 
herds. 
P. da Cortona. The Angel Appearing to 

Hagar. 
Parmegiano. The Vision of St. John; 

the finished study for the grand picture 

in the National Gallery. 
Albano. The Virgin and Infant Saviour. 
P. da Cortona. The Marriage of St. 

Catherine. 
Murillo. St. John with the Lamb. 
B. Denner. The Head of an old Man. 
Baroccio. The Entombment of the 

Saviour. 
Raffaelle. St. John the Baptist in the 

Desert. 
D. Occhiali. A View in Venice. 
Dekoningh. A large Landscape View in 

Holland. 
Sasso Ferrato. The Head of the Virgin. 
Guido. The Holy Family. 
Rubens. The Conversion of St. Paul, 

a sketch. A Study of Angels. 
P. Veronese. Virgin and Child; from 

the Colonna Gallery. 
J. Van Huysum. Fruit and Flowers, 

of the painter's highest excellence; 

from the Braancamp, Geldermeester, 

and Watson Taylor cabinets. 

ANTE DINING-ROOM. 

Albert Cuyp. Landscape and Figures. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of Himself when 
young. 

D. Teniers. An Interior, Peasants Say- 
ing Grace. 

Paul Potter. Cattle in a Landscape, 
dated 1647, when the painter was in 
his twenty-second year, and executed 
for the enlightened connoisseur of the 
epoch, M. Van Slingelandt of Dort. 



404 



LONDON. 



Words can scarcely do justice to this 
extraordinary delineation of nature 
under the effect of afternoon sunshine, 
which may without exaggeration be 
called a miracle of art in its peculiar 
class. 

Le Nain. A Landscape, with Itinerant 
Musicians. 

D. Teniers. An Interior, with Flemish 
Peasants. 

P. Wouvermans. The Horse Fair; a 
first-rate work. 

Albert Cuyp. A Group of Sheep. 

P. P. Rubens. Landscape, a Yiew in 
Flanders. 

A. Vandevelde. A Farm House with 
Cattle. 

Rubens. Hagar dismissed by Sarah. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of a Gfentleman 
Holding a Hawk. This and the com- 
panion one of a Lady, rank with the 
very finest portraits ever painted. 

Van Groyen. A View of Nimeguen. 

Vandyck. The Virgin, Child, and St. 
Catherine. 

Rembrandt. Lady with a Fan; the 
companion picture to the above-named 
admirable performance. The Portrait 
of Nicholas Berghem. 

Albert Cuyp. A View of Dort. 

A. Vanderwerff. Repose on the Flight 
to Egypt, 

J. and A. Both. An Italian Landscape. 

Rembrandt. The Meeting of Saint 
Elizabeth and the Virgin. A picture 
of similar execution and high quality 
with that of " The Woman Taken in 
Adultery," in the National Grallery. 
It was formerly in the gallery of the 
King of Sardinia. 

Gr. Dow. The Nursery; from the 
Choiseul Gallery. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of the Wife of N. 
Berghem. 

A. Cuyp. Scene by Moonlight. 

THE GALLERY. 

Benj. West, P.R.A. The Death of 
General Wolfe. Cromwell Dissolving 
the Long Parliament. The Landing 
of King Charles II. at Dover. 

Claude. A pair of companion Land- 
scapes, called " Morning" and "Even- 
ing;" which may be truly described as 
the perfection of elegant and poetical 



Titian. Portrait of a Lady Holding the 



Tresses of her Hair ; a well-known and 
frequently-engraved work. 

Raffaelle. The Holy Family and St. 
John. 

Claude. The Israelites Worshipping the 
Golden Calf. 

Titian. The Woman Taken in Adultery ; 
from the Barberini Palace. 

Snyders. A large Picture of a Boar 
Hunt. 

Sir J. Reynolds. Mrs. Siddons as the 
Tragic Muse. A famous picture, 
worthy of its extended renown, and of 
the great painter who executed it. It 
will always be one of the great land- 
marks of the English school for all the 
higher qualities of fine art. 

Claude. Landscape, with Christ Preach- 
ing from the Mount to his Disciples. 

Titian. A large Landscape, with a 
Sleeping Nymph in the foreground, 
and the City of Cadore in the distance. 

Ludovico Caracci. The Holy Family. 

Velasquez. The Prince of Asturias, 
when young, on Horseback. 

0. Marinari. The Virgin Mary. 

Rembrandt. A large Landscape, with 
Figures by D. Teniers. The picture 
was always kept by the latter painter for 
his own gratification, and never sold 
until his death. 

Claude. Landscape, with Figures dancing. 

Domenichino. The Meeting of Abigail 
and David in a Landscape. 

Benj. West, P.R.A. The Battle of La 
Hogue. 

N. Poussin. Landscape, with Areas and 
Calisto. 

D. Teniers. The Painter and his Family 
Regaling; from the Verhulst and Le- 
brun Galleries. 

Benj. West, P.R.A. The Battle of the 
Boyne. 

Gaspar Poussin. A Landscape. 

Salvator Rosa. The Portrait of Himself. 

M. Hobbima. Forest Scene, with Figures 
by Lingelbach. 

P. P. Rubens. Portraits of Himself and 
his first Wife, as Pausias and Glycera; 
the garlands and flowers are painted 
by Breughel. 

Zuccarelli. Landscape, with Macbeth 
and the Witches. 

Horizonti. An Italian Landscape. 

Hobbima. Forest Scenery, the com- 
panion of the preceding; both remark- 
able for size and perfection. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — GUILDHALL. 



405 



P. P. Rubens. Ixion Embracing the 
False Juno. 

S. Rosa. The Three Maries at the Tomb 
of Jesus. 

Coello. Saint Veronica. 

Guido. Fortune, an Allegory, engraved 
by Sir R. Strange. 

Andrea Sacchi. Saint Bruno. 

S. Rosa. Diogenes throwing away his 
Cup. 

Murillo. Grand Landscape, with the 
Meeting of Jacob and Laban; from 
the Santiago Palace at Madrid. 

Gainsborough. A whole-length Portrait 
of Master Ruthall, usually called the 
Blue Boy, from the painter having 
chosen, contrary to received notions, 
to compose a picture of entirely cold 
colours. 



Andrea del Sarto. Holy Family and 
St. Elizabeth. 

P. P. Rubens. Four colossal pictures 
from the Convent of Loeches, near 
Madrid. It was on the acquisition of 
these gorgeous works that the late 
Marquess erected the grand gallery 
where they are placed. The subjects 
are — ' Abraham and Melchisedek ;" 
" The Israelites gathering the Manna;" 
"The Four Evangelists;" and "The 
Fathers of the Church." Rubens 
painted them for Philip IV. of Spain ; 
and being presented by this sovereign 
to the Due d'Olivarez, he in turn 
gave them to the Convent of Loeches, 
from whence they were abstracted 
during the Peninsular War. 



On a stand in this gallery is a wonderful small picture, within 
folding-doors, painted by Memling. Although of such early date, it 
is in the most perfect condition, retaining its primitive brilliancy. 
The central compartment contains our Saviour, with the Virgin Mary 
on one side, and St. John the Evangelist on the other. The Volets 
represent St. John the Baptist, and Mary, the sister of Martha and 
Lazarus, with the pot of ointment. All the figures are half length ; 
the execution is of the most surprising elaboration. Some excellent 
sculptures, vases, and rarities of virtu complete the grand collection 
famed as the Grosvenor Gallery. 

THE GUILDHALL OF THE CITY OF LONDON, KING STREET, CHEAPSIDE. 

The grand banqueting-hall, entered immediately on passing the 
porch, is a fine and spacious apartment, in which the civic feast is 
annually given on the accession of a new lord mayor. The style is 
of the Gothic character ; but the details have not been verv purelv 
preserved in the changes and repairs it has undergone. At the west 
end, in the angles, the two colossal wooden statues, called Go£ and 
Magog, are placed. They are painted in gay colours ; one appears 
habited in Roman costume, and the other would appear bv the attire 
to be, in all probability, the effigy of an ancient Briton. Four vast monu- 
ments of allegorical figures, and statues of life size, of the individuals 
they are destined to commemorate, are dedicated to Lord Nelson, 
sculptured by J. Smith ; Alderman Beckford, by Moore ; the Earl 
of Chatham, by J. Bacon ; and William Pitt, by J. G. Bubb. 

The Court of Aldermen. — This is a small apartment, richlv deco- 
rated, having a very highly ornamented ceiling, divided into five 
compartments, with a profusion of gilding. The central compartment 
is filled by an allegorical representation of the City of London and 
its attributes, personified by female figures. In the four small com- 
partments around this, youths are delineated emblematical of Pru- 
dence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude. Over the chimnev is 
another allegory, composed of figures also relating to the importance 



406 



LONDON. 



of the City of London; this is imitative of a bronze casting. All 
these pictures were painted by Sir James Thornhill, and are well 
worthy of his pencil. The corporation of the city were so gratified 
by their execution, that they presented the painter, in the year 1727, 
when the pictures were finished, with a gold cup valued at 225/. 7s. 
The Court of Common Council. — The principal part of the pic- 
tures which are preserved in this room were presented by Alderman 
Boy dell, whose name is justly recorded as one of the great founders 
of art in England, by his long and successful labours as a publisher 
of copperplate engravings. On the west side, in the centre, stands 
on an elevated pedestal the statue of George III., by Sir Francis 
Chan trey. On the right hand is a full-length portrait of Queen Vic- 
toria in her robes, by Sir G. Hayter. On the opposite side are half- 
lengths of Caroline, wife of George IV., and of her daughter, the 
Princess Charlotte, both by Lonsdale. In the angles are the 
busts of Nelson, by Mrs. Darner, and of the Duke of Wellington, 
by Turnerelli. Above are three allegorical grisailles as a frieze. 



NORTH SIDE. 

Portrait of R. Clark, City Chamberlain. 

Sir T. Lawrence. 
Portrait of Daniel Pinder, Esq. J. Opie. 
Portrait of Alderman R. Waithman. 

Patten. 
Portrait of Alderman Sir M. Wood. 

Patten. 
A Bust of Granville Sharp, Esq., by 

Chantrey. 
Portrait of Lord Nelson. Sir W. Beechey. 
Sir William Walworth killing Wat Tyler 

in Smithfield. Northcote. 
Admiral Lord Duncan. Hopnner. 
The Defence of Gibraltar, Sept. 13, 1782. 

Paton. 
Rodney's Defeat of the French Fleet on 

April 12, 1782. Dodd. 
The Gunboats off Gibraltar burning, 

Feb. 13, 1782. Paton. 
The Bust of Lambert Jones, Esq. 

Behnes. 
Whole length Portrait of Lord Denman. 

Mrs. Pearson. 

THE EAST SIDE. 

The Siege of Gibraltar. J. S. Copley. 
This picture occupies the entire side, 
and is well known b) r the engraving. 
General Elliott is seen on horseback 
directing the batteries, and all the 
direful effects on the enemy are dis- 
played in the distance. 

THE SOUTH SIDE. 

Portrait of Alderman Boydell, whole 
length, in his official robes. Sir W. 
Beechey. 



Bust of Alderman Waithman. 

Portrait of Lord Heathfield, half length. 

Sir J. Reynolds. 
The Murder of David Rizzio. J. Opie. 
Portrait of the Marquis Cornwallis. J. 

S. Copley. 
Defence of Gibraltar, Sept. 14, 1782. 

Paton. 
Relief of Gibraltar by Lord Howe. Paton. 
Lord Rodney breaking the French Line 

on April 12, 1782. Dodd. 

THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER. 

A large historical picture, presented by 
His Majesty Louis Philippe to the 
city of London. It was painted by 
his Majesty's command, and repre- 
sents his reception of the Lord Mayor, 
the Aldermen, Common Council, and 
the various civic dignitaries, on their 
presenting a congratulatory address to 
him when on a visit to Queen Victoria 
at Windsor Castle. A great number 
of portraits are introduced, for which 
purpose the painter, M. Alaux of 
Paris, came to London expressly to 
paint the picture. 

Whole length Portraits of King George 
III. and Queen Charlotte. Ramsay. 

Portraits of William III. and Queen 
Mary, his consort, whole lengths. 
Van der Voort. 

A large picture of a Family, called Con- 
jugal Affection. R. Westall, R.A. 

Apollo washing his locks in the Castalian 
Fountain ; and Minerva. Both by the 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — HAMPTON COURT. 407 

In the other courts are several portraits of deceased judges, by 
Wright. Ready admission to view these rooms and the pictures is 
given, on applying to the person in care of them. 

The Courts of Common Pleas and the Queens Bench. — In the 
entrance-hall are three paintings, which were formerly in the Church 
of St. Olave's, Jewry, representing King Charles I. at Prayers : 
Queen Elizabeth's Tomb ; and Time on the Wing. On the walls 
in the Queen's Bench Court, are the portraits of — 

Sir Timothy Littleton. Knt. 

Sir Thomas Twisden, Knt. and Bart. 



Sir John Kelynge, Knt. 
Sir Matthew Hale, Knt. 



Sir Samuel Browne, Knt. 
Sir Edward Tumor, Knt. 
Sir Orlando Bridgman, Knt. and Bart. 



Sir Robert Atkyns, Knt. 
Sir William Ellys, Knt. 
Sir John Yaughan, Knt. 
Sir Francis North, Knt., afterwards 

Baron Guildford. I Sir Edward Thurland, Knt. 

Sir John Archer, Knt. ' 

In the Common Pleas Court are the portraits of — 
Sir Heneage Finch, Knt., afterwards Earl Sir Thomas Tyrrell, Knt. 

of Nottingham. 
Sir Christopher Turnor, Knt. 
Sir Edward Atkyns, Knt. 
Sir Wadham Wyndham, Knt. 

All these portraits were painted about the year 1671, in testimony 
of the city's gratitude to the persons represented, for their services 
in settling the properties of the citizens after the great fire in 1666. 
They are drawn in their robes at full length by Michael Wright, who 
received of the city 60/. for each portrait. Their arms are painted on 
the respective picture-frames. 

HAMPTON COURT. 

The Palace of Hampton Court is situated about twelve miles 
westward of London, on the north bank of the River Thames, in the 
county of Middlesex. A considerable portion of the present edifice 
was first raised by Cardinal Wolsey, in the reign of Henry VIII., 
as a residence for himself; but the king becoming jealous of its 
growing magnificence, the cardinal presented it to the sovereign, in 
the year 1526, and was in turn rewarded by the gift of the palace at 
Richmond, and with enormous manorial rights in the counties of 
Surrey and Middlesex. On the accession of William III. to the 
throne, he added many parts to the building, and completed it as it 
now exists. At present there are three spacious quadrangles con- 
tained within the palace, and a multitude of apartments. Many 
suites of rooms are occupied by private persons, by permission of the 
Crown, being mostly the reduced relatives of aristocratical families. 
The state apartments, and many other rooms, have been converted 
into a kind of public picture-gallery, which, with the beautiful gar- 
dens, have become a favourite resort of the industrious classes in the 
summer season and on holidays. 

The palace is easily reached in less than three quarters of an hour 
by the South-western Railway, from the Waterloo Road, and is open 



408 



LONDON. 




HAMPTON COURT PALACE. 



to the public on every day of the week, including Sunday, excepting 
Friday, when it is closed for the purpose of cleaning the apartments. 
The hours are, from 10 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the 
evening, from the 1st of April to the 1st of October, and for the 
remainder of the year from 10 till 4. No fee or payment is per- 
mitted to be taken ; but in the private garden there is a famous vine, 
and a maze, where the gardeners expect some small gratuity for 
showing them. m . 

The total number of pictures contained m the series ot rooms to 
which the public have access, is 1,027; comprising the ever-famous 
cartoons of RafFaelle, some other excellent pictures, a great number 
of portraits, and also a great number of utterly worthless pictures; 
the whole being the gathering from various royal residences, for 
which thev were no longer adapted. It is to be regretted that the 
oreater number of the insignificant part bear the names of renowned 
ancient masters, as they have no analogy in subject or execution 
to their immortal works, and are calculated not only to mislead the 
uninstructed, but to throw ridicule upon the knowledge of art m 
England in the eyes of foreigners who visit the palace. 

A catalogue of 72 pages, containing a detailed description of the 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — HAMPTON COURT. 409 

palace, and a numerical catalogue of the pictures, is sold by the 
attendants in the Guard Chamber, on entering, for 6'af., which makes 
it necessary only to notice the principal features of interest worth the 
attention of visitors. 

The grand staircase is painted by Verrio : after ascending it, the 
first apartment is called the Guard Chamber. On the walls are a 
great number of military implements, ornamentally disposed, and 
some pictures. The succeeding room, called the King's First Pre- 
sence Chamber, contains a number of female portraits, by Sir Godfrey 
Kneller. In King William's bed-room is the well-known series 
commonly called King Charles the Second's Beauties, being the por- 
traits of the most beautiful ladies of his court ; they are principally 
from the hand of Sir Peter Lely, and are 19 in number. After 
passing through a great many fine apartments, filled with pictures, 
the visitor arrives in a splendid room, constructed expressly to contain 
the celebrated cartoons of Raffaelle. As, by the unanimous consent 
of all the connoisseurs and artists who have ever lived, they are 
accounted the grandest and most important emanations of the human 
mind produced in the art of painting, they compensate amply for 
the disappointment experienced on viewing the multitude of pictures 
in the other rooms. Fortunately they stand alone in the apartment. 
Although the light is not the most favourable, and they are hung too 
high above the sight, the spectator, if at all versed in the higher 
qualities of fine art, will be gratified to the utmost extent. The 
subjects are — 

The Death of Ananias. I Healing the Lame at the Beautiful Gate. 

Elymas the Sorcerer struck with Blind- j Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. 

ness. I Paul Preaching at Athens. 

The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. ] Christ's Charge to Peter. 

In a succeeding room are 9 pictures, painted in distemper, of the 
Triumph of Julius Caesar, by Andrea Mantegna, for the Duke of 
Mantua; they were brought to England in the reign of Charles I., 
who purchased the entire collection for 80,000/. This series is much 
decayed, but is a magnificent work, and the most important existing 
of the master. 

After viewing the pictures, the most interesting object is the great 
hall, 106 feet in length, 40 in width, and 60 in height. The timber 
roof, richly carved and gilt, is a remarkable monument of this kind 
of construction. The hall was begun to be erected by Cardinal 
Wolsey, but was completed by Henry VIII. Beyond the hall is 
another large chamber of similar style and epoch, called the With- 
drawing Room. The tapestry, stained glass, and other decorations of 
these two halls are fully and well described in the catalogue sold in 
the palace. 

The gardens (see also article " Gardens") are laid out in the 
formal French style of Le Notre, and being well kept, afford 
a very agreeable promenade. Immediately adjacent is another 

T 



410 LONDON. 

royal demesne of great extent, called Bushy Park, the principal 
feature of which is a broad avenue of horse-chestnut and lime 
trees, upwards of a mile in length. Altogether, a visit to Hampton 
Court, for its architectural varieties, some few fine pictures, parti- 
cularly the cartoons, the palace gardens, and Bushy Park, makes 
an interesting day s engagement. There is, besides, no lack of ac- 
commodation at the various inns and places of refreshment, for every 
clas% from those in the highest rank of life to the humble operative. 

THE COLLECTION OF T. H0LFORD, ESQ. 

The collection forming by this gentleman is temporarily placed in 
the house in Russell Square which was formerly occupied by Sir 
Thomas Lawrence. It already consists of about 120 pictures by the 
ancient masters, many of them being of first-rate celebrity. Mr. 
Holford is erecting a mansion on the site of Dorchester House, m 
Park Lane; and when it becomes ready for occupation, the pictures 
will be transferred to adorn the various apartments of his residence. 

The front parlour of the house in Russell Square is entirely hung 
with portraits. The principal ones are, whole-lengths and life-size, 
of a Spanish General, by Velasquez; the Abbe Scaglia, and a Young 
Lady of Rank, by Vandyck ; and a Gentleman in old Spanish cos- 
tume, by Dosso Dossi. Several of the other fine portraits, mostly 
half-lengths, are admirable works, by Bellini, S. del Piombo, Titian, 
and Tintoretto. The back parlour contains two of the famous 
Caracci series, painted for the Giustiniani Palace (the third picture, 
bv Annibal Caracci, being in the collection of Mr. Tomline, of Carl- 
ton Terrace). The pictures here are by Agostino and Ludovico 
Caracci. These three famous pictures came to England in the Duke 
of Lucca's collection, and not being purchased for the National 
Gallery, after some negotiation by the trustees, they were subsequently 
exhibited in most of the cities of the United Kingdom, before they 
were separated and passed into the hands of private gentlemen who 
knew how to appreciate these glorious works. The drawing-room, 
on the first floor, contains principally the Dutch and Flemish pic- 
tures; but there is a fine half-length of a Lady, by P. Veronese, 
and some exquisite small pictures by Murillo, Greuze, and others. 
In the Dutch school, the long View of Dort from the River, formerly 
in Lady Stuart's collection, and a large Hobbima, in perfect preser- 
vation and freshness of tint, rank as the great ornaments. There 
are also fine pictures by Teniers, Wouvermans, Paul Potter, C. Du 
Jardin, W. Vandevelde, and many other famous painters of this 
school' The lesser drawing-room is rich in Titian, Giorgione, Bom- 
fazio, Fra Bartolomeo, Palma Vecchio, and more particularly a 
lar^e picture of the Holy Family and Saints, by Andrea del Sarto, 
and a wonderfully superb picture, by Gaudenzio di Ferrara, ot the 
Holy Family and St. John, which places this painter in the highest 
rank of art. In an inner room are— a celebrated Evening scene, by 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — H. T. HOPE, ESQ., M.P. 



411 



Claude; a large Landscape, by N. Poussin; a smaller one, by Gaspar 
Poussin; a capital Sea piece, by Backhuyzen; and several of Rubens'* 
exquisite sketches; two of them — the slight one for the Entry of 
Henry IV., in the Luxembourg series, and the other, of the As- 
sumption of the Virgin, for the picture on the high altar of the 
Cathedral of Antwerp — are of the most masterly character. 

Mr. Holford very liberally grants permission to view his collection, 
while the pictures remain in Russell Square, to any stranger recom- 
mended by artists or amateurs of known distinction. 

THE COLLECTION OF H. T. HOPE, E9Q., M.P., PICCADILLY. 

The pictures of the Dutch and Flemish masters here collected are 
of the very highest quality of art in these schools, and have the ad- 
vantage of having been obtained by this gentleman's ancestors (bankers 
at Amsterdam) principally from the painters themselves, who have 
contributed their choicest works. The Dresden Gallery is alone com- 
parable, the royal collection at the Hague being decidedly inferior. 
Mr. Hope has also many capital Italian pictures, and a remarkably fine 
selection of ancient Greek sculpture. Among the modern sculpture 
are the Jason of Thorwaldsen and the Venus of Canova ; there is, 
besides, an extensive series of Magna Grsecia ware, and other arti- 
cles of taste and virtu- The following is a catalogue of the pictures, 
but as the mansion which is destined, to contain them is not yet 
completed, and only a portion at present hung in the rooms, it is im- 
possible to describe them in regular succession. 

Agostino Caracci. The Holy Family. 



THE ITALIAN GALLERY. 

Corregio. A Magdalen. 
Claude. Landscape, with "Waterfall. 
N. Poussin. An historical subject 
Palma Vecchio. Venus and Cupid. 
Gaspar Poussin. An Italian Landscape. 
Corregio. Portrait of Caesar Borgia; from 

the Orleans Gallery. 
Albano. The Virgin appearing to Saint 

Justinian ; from the same gallery. 
Guercino. Christ bound. 
RafFaelle. Portrait of Marc Antonio. 
Spagnoletto. A Saint. 
Schiavone, The Nativity. 
RafTaelle. The Dancing Girl. 
Romanelli. The Virgin and Child. 
Domenichino. The Infant Christ. 
RafTaelle. St. Michael vanquishing the 

Dragon* 
Titian. Our Savour tempted; from the 

Orleans Gallery. 
Guercino. Our Saviour appearing to 

Mary Magdalen. Angelica and Me- 

dora, life size. 
Titian. The Holy Family and St. 

Catherine. 



Schidone. The same subject. 

Domenichino. Christ bound. 

Fra Bartolomeo. Saint Francis praying. 

Tintoretto. The Holy Family. 

Tomaso de San Friano. The Visitation, 

an altar piece. 
Domenichino. Saint Sebastian. 
Salvator Rosa. Martyrdom of a Saint. 
Andrea del Sarto. Saint Sebastian. 
Domenichino. Saint Cecilia. 
Giorgione. Judith with the Head of 

Hoiofernes. 
Paul Veronese. Wisdom accompanying 

Hercules; from the Orleans Gallery. 
Guido. The Grecian Daughter. Hymen 

burning the Arrows of Cupid. The 

Adoration of the Shepherds. 
Salvator Rosa. Mountainous Coast 

Scene. 
Geminiani. Christ at Emmaus. 
Guido. The Head of Lucretia. Bacchus 

and Ariadne. 
Ludovico Caracci. The Magdalen. 
Paul Veronese. Himself between Virtue 

and Vice; from the Orleans Gallery. 
Guido. Head of the Saviour. 
T 2 



412 



LONDON. 



Vasari. The six Italian Poets; from the 

Orleans Gallery. 
N. Poussin. Apollo and the Muses, life 



DUTCH AND FLEMISH GALLERY. 

Vandyck. Charity, figures half length, 
life size. Ascension of the Yirgin. 

P. P. Rubens. A small Landscape. 

Yandyck. The Virgin and Child. 

J. Jordaens. Repast with Our Saviour. 
A composition of figures in conversa- 
tion. 

P. P. Rubens. The Death of Adonis, a 
large composition of life-size figures; 
from the Brandt collection. 

Berkheyden. Yiew in a Dutch City. 

Yan Os. Fruit on a Table. 

J. Yanderheyden. Buildings in a City 
in Holland. 

Jan Steen. The Repast, many figures. 

Rembrandt. Portraits of a Lady and 
Gentleman. 

"William Mieris. The Temptation. 

Yosterman. Landscape, Cottage Scenery. 

J. and A. Both. Italian Landscape and 
Figures. 

L. Backhuyzen, Sea Piece with Ship- 
ping. 

Netscher. Lady at a "Window with 
Parrot and Ape. 

Jan Steen. The Repast, numerous 
figures. 

N. Berghem. The Sybils Temple and 
Falls of Tivoli. 

Weenix. Dead Hare and Dogs. 

G. Lairesse. The Death of Cleopatra. 

"William Mieris. A Woman selling 
Yegetables. 

"William Yandevelde. Small Sea Piece. 
A pair of similar subjects. 

Lingelbach. Italian Market Place, with 
Figures. 

William Mieris. A Woman selling 
Onions. 

Weenix. Game Piece, with dead Stag 
and Birds. 

E. Yan der Neer. The Marriage. 

B. Denner. The Head of an old Man. 

William Mieris. Two Women playing 
with Dice. 

Holbein. The Portrait of a Gentleman. 

Yan der Heist. A Halt of Travellers. 

Ommeganck. Cattle in a Landscape. 

G. Metzu. Figures, entitled Curiosity. 

Yan Huysum. Small classical Land- 
scape. 



Yan der Neer. Figures in Conversation. 

Paul Potter. Three Cows in a Land- 
scape. 

Rembrandt. Our Saviour in the Tem- 
pest. 

C. Bega. An Interior, with Figures. 

Breemberg. St. John preaching to the 
Multitude. 

C. Dusart. Exterior of a Cottage, with 
many Figures. 

Vanderheyden. A pair of Yiews in 
Dutch cities. 

Yan Huysum. Landscape, Italian 
Scenery. A similar subject. 

Adrian Ostade. Exterior of a Cabaret. 

Yan Deelen. The Interior of a Church. 

Cornelius Poelemberg. Adoration of the 
Magi. 

Yan der Werff. A Group of Figures. 

Weenix. Dead Swans and a Peacock. 

Terburgh. An Interior; the Music 
Lesson, 

C. Du Jardin. A Garden Scene, with 
Cavaliers. 

Terburgh, The Trumpeter. 

Gerard Dow. Figures by Candle-light. 

Yan Tol. A Head, called the Usurer. 

J. Yan Huysum. A Bouquet of Flowers. 

Slingelandt. A Woman at a Window. 

Francis Mieris. An old Gentleman with 
a Yiolin. 

Metzu. A Lady reading a Letter, a 
Servant waiting. 

A. Yandevelde. An enclosed Pasture, 
with Cattle. 

Backhuyzen. Large Marine Yiew, with 
Yessels of War. 

Metzu. The Student writing. 

William Mieris. A Lady bargaining for 
a Fowl. 

Adrian Ostade. Conversation at a Cot- 
tage Door. 

J. Yan Huysum. Fruit and Flowers. 

William Mieris. A Gentleman offering 
Grapes to a Lady. 

Schalken. A Man reading by Candle- 
light. 

J. Ruysdael. Landscape, with Cattle 
and Figures. 

Yerkolie. A Lady bathing, with At- 
tendants. 

A. Yandevelde. Cattle watering, Evening. 

P. de Hooge. An Interior, with Figures. 

Weenix. Dead Swans, a Hare, and 
other objects. 

Philip Yandyck. Two Ladies with a 
Parrot. 



GALLERIES OP PICTURES. — H> T. HOPE, ESQ., M»P„ 



413 



A Nymph and a Sea 



C. Poelemberg, 
Monster. 

Van der Ulft. A View in Rome. 

Ochterveld. A Musician and two 
Women drinking. 

Berkbeiden. The Stadthouse at Amster- 
dam. 

Van Os. A Group of Flowers. 

G. Coque3. A Cavalier and Lady, with 
Attendants. 

Schumann. The Connoisseur. 

Van der Werff. The Incredulity of St. 
Thomas. 

William Mieris. A Gentleman proposing 
to a Lady. 

Van der Werff. The Magdalen reading. 

Wynants. A Road traversing a barren 
Scene. 

Paul Potter. Cattle in a Storm. 

D. Teniers. Soldiers playing at Draughts. 
G. Dow. Woman at a Window, with a 

Hare, &c. 

D. Teniers. Soldiers in a Guard-room 
smoking. 

Paul Potter. 
Figures. 

Van der Werff. Lot and his Daughters. 

Van Tol. The Interior of a School. 

Slingelandt. A Monk reading. 

P. Wouvermans. The Halt of a Hunting 
Party. 

Adrian Ostade. Figures outside a Cot- 
tage. 



Exterior of a Stable, with 



The General Writing De- 



Hobbima. View in a Forest, with 
Cottages. 

Terburgh. 
spatches. 

P. Wouvermans. Landscape, with Fi- 
gures, and a Bagpiper. One of the 
painter's most celebrated works. 

Metzu. A Lady in a Blue Velvet Tunic. 

A. Cuyp. Cattle on the Banks of a River. 

Gyssells* Dead Swan and many small 
Birds. 

C. Du Jardin. Horses in a Landscape. 

G. Flink. The Portrait of a Lady. 

Berkheiden. A pair of Town Scenes. 

Gyssells. A Kermesse, with a multitude 
of Figures. 

Hugtenberg. A pair of Battle Pieces. 

Ouwater. A View in Amsterdam. 

A. Storck. A pair of Sea Pieces. 

Berkheiden. Another pair of Town 
Scenes* 

G. Flink. The Portrait of a Gentleman. 

Breughel and Rottenhammer. An Alle- 

gory* 
Griffier. View on the Rhine. 
William Mieris. The Judgment of Paris, 
Van der Ulft. The Old Town-hall of 

Amsterdam. 
Verkolie. Jupiter and Saturn. 
Berkheiden. Four Views at the Hague. 
C. Poelemberg. Nymphs bathing. 
Dubois. Damocles. 



G. Lens. Bacchus and Ariadne. 
The possessor of this remarkahle gallery has usually favoured ap~ 
plicants, properly introduced, with a card of admission for a party on 
one day in each week of the months of May and June, 

st. james's palace. 
In this edifice the Sovereign holds the Levees and Drawing Rooms* 
The first are attended by gentlemen only, and usually take place on 
appointed Wednesdays during what is termed "the season" in London. 
The "Drawing Rooms" are destined for the Royal reception of ladies 
as well as gentlemen, and are held on appointed Thursdays. The suite 
of apartments used for these purposes have windows looking into St. 
James' Park, and are of considerable dimensions. They may be said to 
be handsomely furnished, but fall very short of any regal magnificence 
worthy of the mighty kingdom of Great Britain. There were for- 
merly some fine pictures by the great masters, and decorative furni- 
ture, but they have been removed since Her Majesty's accession, and 
they now contain only some good portraits with inferior ones and 
copies. On ascending the grand staircase, a guard chamber, adorned 
with a number of military arms in fanciful devices, is on the left 
hand. Passing through a similar one, usually decorated with arms, 



414 



LONDON. 




ST. JAMES'S PALACE. 



the first room of the state apartments is entered. This is called the 
Tapestry Room, as the walls are hung with this material ; the an- 
tique fireplace still retains the initials of Henry VIII. and Ann 
Boleyn, interlaced with true lovers' knots. The Ball Room succeeds, 
and is the first grand apartment facing the park. Two large pictures 
of the Siege of Tournay and the Siege of Lisle hy the Duke of Marl- 
borough are hung in it; and there are likewise portraits of George L 
and George II., Queen Anne, and some of the females called King 
Charles's Beauties, copies of those at Hampton Court. The next room 
in succession is the Drawing Room : it contains portraits of George 
III., the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York, all by Sir Joshua 
Reynolds; and the Admirals Lord Nelson and Earl St. Vincent, 
painted by Hoppner. There are also here some of the female por- 
traits above named. The Throne Room follows in succession. At the 
western end the Royal Chair of State is placed under a canopy em- 
blazoned with the heraldic bearings of the Sovereign. On the walls 
are hung large pictures of the Battles of Vittoria and of Waterloo, 
by G. Jones, R.A.; whole-length portraits of George IV. and the 
Duke of York, by Sir Thomas Lawrence; a portrait of Charles II. ; 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — H. A. J. MUNRO, ESQ. 415 

and a picture of a young Lady returning from fishing. Immediately 
behind theThroneRooni is a smaller apartment, called the Council 
Chamber. It contains two magnificent whole-length portraits, by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds, of Count La Lippe and the Marquis of Granby ; a 
portrait of Lord Rodney, by Hoppner ; and portraits of George II., 
Admiral Keppel, a German Prince, and George III. ; the last by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds* 

Returning to the guard room first entered, a long corridor, called 
the Entree Gallery, contains the following whole-length portraits : — 



Henry VIIL, said to be by Holbein. 
Queen Mary, daughter of Henry VIIL 
Queen Elizabeth, by Zucchero. 
King James I. 



Charles I., copy after Vandyck. 

Charles II. 

James II. 

William III. and Mary his Queen. 



The state apartments are permitted to be viewed by strangers on 
application to the Lord Chamberlain, at his office in the Stable Yard. 

The chapel royal connected with the state rooms is 6hown to 
strangers on application to the keeper. It has nothing remarkable in 
art but the highly-decorated ceiling, the design for which was from 
the hand of Hans Holbein. 

H. A. I. MUNRO, ESQ., OP HAMILTON PLACE, PICCADILLY, 

Is the collector of a great number of fine pictures of the ancient 
foreign, and of the modern English schools. In the latter portion 
are several of the finest landscapes and compositions of J. M. W. 
Turner, R.A.; also pictures by Richard Wilson, Bonington, Etty, and 
most of our celebrated artists. The ancient part comprises among 
the number the celebrated 



Eaffaelle. " La Vierge aux Candelabres." 
It was originally in the Borghese Pa- 
lace, Rome, and afterwards in the col- 
lections of Lucien Bonaparte and the 
Duke of Lucca. There are numerous 
engravings of this singularly important 
and enchanting performance. 

Raffaelle. The Holy Family, with St. 
John, engraved by Forster under the 
title of "La Vierge a la Legende." It 
was formerly in the gallery of Charles I. 



Claude. A grand Landscape; from the 

Palazzo Spada. 
Murillo. St. Anthony holding the Infant 

Saviour in his Arms ) from the Royal 

Collection of Spain. 
A. Watteau. Portraits of Two Young 

Ladies, known by the title of <f 'Les 

Deux petites Marquises." A work of 

singular attraction. 
Annibal Caracci. The Toilet of Venus ; 

from the Tanari Palace at Bologna. 



The above are but a few of the fine and numerous works com- 
posing this collection, which comprises a good specimen of most of 
the great painters of former times. The two pictures by Raffaelle 
alone give a standard of consequence to it, and it is here alone that 
Turner's great ability in landscape composition can be best estimated, 
about a dozen of his performances being hung on the walls. 

KENSINGTON PALACE. 

The collection of Byzantine, early Italian, German, and Flemish 
pictures, forming the collection of his Serene Highness Prince Louis 
D'Ottingen Wallerstein. This collection is of great interest, being 
the only one of a similar class in England. It is placed in the state 



416 



LONDON. 




KENSINGTON PALACE. 



apartments on the south side of the Palace, and occupies the rooms 
in which Her Present Majesty passed her youth. Admission is only 
obtained by Prince Albert's permission, for which purpose the keeper, 
Mr. Louis Gruner, No. 13, Fitzroy Square, may be addressed. 
Nos. 1 to 9, and No. 26, are paintings of 



the Byzantine School, and comprise 
productions between the tenth and the 
thirteenth centuries. This portion 
elucidates the style adopted in the 
East by the early Christian painters. 
For their introduction into Western 
Europe we are indebted to Charlemagne 
and his successors, to presents made 
by the Greek Emperors to the Carlo- 
vingian kings, and to the Crusaders in 
the eleventh and twelfth centuries. 
These primitive works are exceedingly 
curious. 
Nos. 10 to 25 consist of early Italian 
paintings, illustrating the first steps of 
art in Italy. Among these, Nos. 11 
to 14 represent legends of St. Mar- 
garet, and have been, since the four- 
teenth century, on the altar of the 
private oratory of the Abbesses of St. 
Margaret, at Eichstadt. Nos. 15 to 
23 comprise the pictures on a small 
altar-piece, with folding doors. The 
date 1367 is on the pedestal, and on 
the back is inscribed " Justus pinxit 
in archa." This is an elaborate work 
of singular merit for its antiquity. 



MASTERS OF THE EARLY GERMAN 
SCHOOLS. 

Nos. 27 to 30 are sacred subjects, by 
unknown masters. No. 31, also by 
an unknown master, representing the 
death of the Virgin, bears the date of 
1417. No. 32, The Virgin and Child, 
also by an unknown master, is said to 
have been presented in the year 1327 
by a certain Count Dillingen to the 
Chapter of Marie Madlingen, where it 
remained until 1802. No. 33 is a 
singular picture of the Trinity. No. 34, 
the Virgin and Child, by Heinrick 
Aldegrever. No. 35, the Martyrdom 
of St. Ursula and her Companions, by 
the same. Nos. 36 and 37, two pic- 
tures by artists unknown. No. 38, 
the Holy Family, with Saints, by 
Sigismund Holbein, uncle of the cele- 
brated Hans Holbein ; it formerly 
belonged to the Hohenzollern family. 
No.. 39, Virgin and Child ; school of 
Albert Burer. No. 40, the Daughter 
of Herodias, with the Head of St. 
John the Baptist; school of Lucas 
Cranach. No. 41, the Nativity, mas* 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — KENSINGTON PALACE. 



417 



ter unknown, signed Gr. B. _ No. 42, 
a Portrait, attributed to Martin Schaff- 
ner. dated 1530. No. 43, the Fall 
of Man, C. J. Beham, 1642. 

THE RHENISH, FLEMISH, AND DUTCH 
SCHOOLS. 

Nos. 44 to 47 are by unknown masters 
of the Rhenish and Flemish schools, 
who were influenced by the Byzantine 
art, and who lived previous to the 
time of Wilhelm of Cologne and the 
brothers Yan Eyck. Nos. 48 and 49, 
subjects the Annunciation, were in 
an ancient church near Andernach, 
since the fourteenth century. This 
pair, and No. 50, The Virgin and 
Child, are by unknown masters of the 
school of Cologne, and imitative of 
Italian art of the fourteenth century. 

BY WILHELM OP COLOGNE, THE VAN 
EYCKS, AND THEIR IMMEDIATE FOL- 
LOWERS, 

No. 51. St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. 
Matthew, and St. John the Evangelist. 
Wilhelm of Cologne. 

No. 52. Ecce Homo. Hubert van Eyck. 

No. 53. Virgin and Child. Jan van Eyck. 

No. 54. Virgin and Child. Margaret 
van Eyck. 

No. 55. A Pieta. Hugo van der Goes. 

No. 56. Deposition from the Cross* Ro- 
gier van Bruges. 

No. 57. Ecce Homo. By the same. 

No. 58. Mater Dolorosa. By the same. 

No. 59. Portrait of an Ecclesiastic. 
Hans Memling. 

No. 60. Madonna and Child in a Land- 
scape. Unknown. 

Nos. 61, 62, and 63. Coronation of the 
Virgin. A tryptich by an unknown 
painter, probably Antonello da Mes- 
sina. One of the most extraordinary 
and elaborate productions, of the high- 
est interest as a specimen of the arts, 
painted in oil medium in its early de- 
velopment. 

DUTCH MASTERS OF THE SIXTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

No. 64. Presentation in the Tempie, 
Israel van Mecheln. 



No. 65. Portrait of a Maiden Lady. By 

the same. 
No. 66. Virgin and Child. Cornelius 

Engelbrechtsen. 
No. 67. St. Peter and St. Dorothea. 

Lucas van Ley den. 
No. 68. Holy Family. Quentin Matsys. 
No. 69. Judith. By the same. 
No. 70. Portrait of a Female. Bernard 

van Orley. 
No. 71. Mount Calvary. Jan van Ma* 

buse. 
No. 72. The Magdalen. By the same. 
No. 73. Christ and Mary Magdalen. By 

the same. 
No. 74. Holy Family near a Fountain. 

Jan von Schoreel. 
No. 75. St. John in the Isle of Patmos. 

Joachim Patenier. 
No. 76. St. Christopher. By the same. 
No. 77. The Crucifixion. By the same. 
No. 78. Virgin, Child, and Two Saints. 

Dierick Stuerbout. 
No. 79. Virgin of the Rosary. Rogier 

van der Weyde. 
No. 80. Adoration of the Magi. Jan 

van Heemsen. 
Nos. 81, 82, and 83. Adoration of the 

Magi; a tryptich. Signed H. H.^ 

1554. 
No. 84. Adoration of the Infant Christ. 

Martin van Hemskerk. 
No. 85. Portrait of Cosmo I. Antonio 

More. 
Nos. ^6 f 87, and 88. Adoration of the 

Magi ; a typtich. Henri de Bles. 
No. 89. Portrait of a young Man. Bv 

the same. 
No. 90. The Circumcision. Arnouldt 

Bogaert. 
Nos. 91, 92, 93. Deposition from the 

Cross ; a tryptich. Michael Coxcie. 
No. 94. St. Francis receiving the Stig- 
mata. Unknown. 
No. 95. Adoration of the Magi. Idem. 
No. 96. Virgin and Child. Idem. 
No. 97. The Crucifixion. Idem. 
No. 98. A Pieta. Idem. 
No. 99. The Treachery of Judas. Signed 

A. T., 1601. 
No. 100. The Archangel Gabriel. Un- 
known. 
No. 101. A Girl writing. Idem. 
No. 102. Virgin and Child. Idem. 



I 3 



418 



LONDON. 




RESIDENCE OF THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE. 

COLLECTION OF THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE, BERKELEY SQUARE* 

The mansion of this distinguished statesman, with the garden, oc- 
cupies the entire southern side of Berkeley Square. It presents a 
long facade with a western aspect of great simplicity, and was built 
in 1765 by the brothers Adams, then the leading architects. All the 
apartments of reception are on the ground floor, and form a suite 
capable of receiving a larger number of guests than any other man- 
sion in London. The collection of ancient sculpture dispersed therein 
is one of the finest private collections existing in England, including 
more life-size statues than are to be found in the British Museum. 
In all there are about 50 statues, as many busts, besides bassi rilievi, 
and other important specimens of ancient sculpture. The collection 
was originally formed by Gavin Hamilton, who first excavated the 
site of Adrian's Villa, which has subsequently enriched the British 
Museum, and added so many celebrated works to other galleries in 
Europe. On entering the mansion, a noble statue of Diana at the 
moment of launching an arrow, in active movement, stands at the 
foot of the staircase. In the great dining room, nine antique statues 
of divinities and heroes are placed in niches. Among the latter are 
Germanicus, Claudius, Trajan, and Cicero. There is also the Sleep- 
ing Nymph, a recumbent figure, being the last work of Canova. 

The Front Drawing Boom. — Here stands the statue of Venus 
quitting the bath, the most admired of all the works of Canova. 
This is a repetition by the artist of the same figure placed in the 
Tribune at Florence, in juxtaposition with the famed Venus de 
Medici. A statue of a child holding an alms-dish, by Rauch of 
Berlin, stands opposite, and over the fireplace the picture by Rem- 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE. 



419 



brandt — Portrait of himself, holding a palette, from the Danoot 
collection, Brussels. 

Ludovico Caracci. Christ's Agony in the 

Garden. 
Murillo. The Immaculate Conception of 

the Virgin. 
Sir J. Reynolds. Head of a young Girl. 



THE DRAWING ROOM CONTAINS 

Sir J. Rej-nolds. Portrait of the Countess 

of Berkeley. 
Velasquez. Portrait of Pope Innocent X. 
P. Delia Vecchia. The wounded Soldier; 

four figures. 
Greuze. Head of a young Female. 
Guercino. Return of the Prodigal Son ; 

from the Giustiniani Palace. 
Murillo. The Virgin kneeling. 
Rembrandt. Portrait of an elderly Fe- 
male in a Ruff. 
Schidone. The Virgin and Child. 
Sir J. Reynolds. Portrait of Lady An- 

struther: the Sleeping Girl. 
Rembrandt. a.d. 1642. Portrait of a 

Lady ; a picture of excessive beauty, 
• formerly in the Julienne cabinet. 
Velasquez. Charles V. when a Child, 

lying in his cradle. 
Sir J. Reynolds. A Girl with a Muff. 
Domenichino. St. Cecilia; from the Borg- 

hese Palace. 
Schidone. The Virgin and Child. Fine 

as Corregio. 
A. del Sarto. The Riposo ; from Lord 

Radstock's collection. 
Morales. The Head of a Female. 
Velasquez. Portrait of the Due d' 

Olivarez. Portrait of himself. These 

are from the Royal Palace of Madrid. 
Venusti. The Holy Family and St. 

John. 



THE LIBRARY. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Portrait of Kitty 
Fisher. The Portrait of Laurence 
Sterne. Portrait of a Lady in a black 
Cloak. 

A. del Sarto. Portrait of himself. 

Titian. Portrait of a Gentleman, holding 
a roll of paper. 

J. Jackson, R.A. Portrait of Flaxman, 
the Sculptor. 

Bernardino Luini. St. Barbara. 

C. Jervas. Portrait of Alexander Pope. 

Vandyck. Portrait of a Lady. 

Rembrandt. Portrait of a Burgomaster. 

Van der Heist. Portrait of a Gentleman. 

Giorgione. Portrait of Sansovino, the 
Venetian architect. 

Gainsborough. Portrait of Dr. Franklin. 

Vandyck. Portrait of Queen Henrietta 
Maria. 

A. Caracci. Head of an old Man. 

S. del Piombo. Portrait of the Count 
Federigo di Bozzola ; from the Ghizzi 
Palace, Naples. 

Titian. The Magdalen ; from the collec- 
tions of Charles I., Queen Christina of 
Sweden, and the Orleans Gallery. 



The nnmerons portraits and heads in the Marquess of Lansdowne's 
possession, both in London and at his seat in Wiltshire, are all works 
of the highest beauty. Perhaps there is no other collection in which 
the human countenance appears with such glorious attributes of men- 
tal expression and artistic execution. 

The Grand Gallery is a superbly-decorated apartment, nearly 100 
ft. in length. The principal portion of the ancient sculpture is placed 
here. Among the whole-length statues are those of Hercules, Marcus 
Aurelius, Mercury, Diomede, Theseus, Juno sitting, an Amazon, 
Juno standing, Hercules when a youth, Jason, &c. Two fine Egyp- 
tian statues of black marble, found at Tivoli, are placed on each 
side of the fireplace. Many other fine specimens in busts, rilievi, &c, 
are among the rarities in this splendid hall. 

f Sir A. "W. Calcott. Landscape with Fi- 



J. Linnell. 
Davy. 



ANTE-ROOM. 

Portrait of Sir Humphrey 



gures. 
Eliza Baurnann. 
Exile. 



A Polish Family in 



420 



LONDON. 



H. Raeburn. Portrait of Francis Horner, 
Esq. 

Sir Thos. Lawrence. Portrait of the pre- 
sent Marquess of Lansdowne. 

W. Severn. Italian Peasants. 

Eckhardt. Sir Robert and Lady Wal- 
pole. 

Sir A. W. Calcott. Portrait of a Lady. 

Frank Stone. " True Love never did run 
smooth.'* 

W. Simson. A Dutch Family. 

C. R. Leslie, R.A. Sir Roger de Coverley 
going to Church. 

THE STUDY. 

F. P. Grerard* An emblematical Figure 
of Hope. 

Gonzales Ooques. Portraits of an Archi- 
tect and his Wife. 

Titian. The Head of Danae ; from the 
Orleans Gallery. 

H. Stilke, of Dusseldorf. Joan of Arc 



praying and holding the Consecrated 

Banner. 
Guido. The Head of St. Sebastian. 
G. Poussin. Landscape, the Figures by 

N. Poussin. 
Sir J. Reynolds, 'Life-size Portraits of 

Lady Ilchester, Lady Mary Cole, and 

Lady Elizabeth Fielding. 
N. Poussin, Landscape, with Ruins and 

Figures. 
A* Canaletti. View on the Grand Canal, 

Venice. 
T. Von Hoist. Portrait of a Lady. 
J. Ruysdael. View of Amsterdam. 
J. Both. Landscape, an Artist sketching 

from Nature. 
Tintoretto. Portrait of a Cardinal* 
J. Hackaert and A. Vandevelde. In- 
terior of a Wood near the Hague, with 

Figures hunting. 
Tintoretto* Portrait of Andrea Doria, 
Isaac Ostade. A Winter Scene. 

As all the preceding fine works are placed in the apartments in 
general use, it may easily be imagined that the collection is considered 
quite private. Admission to view it, however, is rarely refused to 
foreign artists of distinguished talent, of to persons who possess the 
advantage of introduction by personal friends of the noble possessor. 



NATIONAL GALLERY, 



The pictures forming this public collection are placed in the wes- 
tern wing of the building in Trafalgar Square. They consist entirely 
of what is termed the old masters — amounting in number to 175 only; 
amongst them, however, are many very capital works of the Italian 
School, and a few of the Dutch and Flemish School. So limited a 
number of pictures cannot fairly represent the great artists of past 
times ; many of the highest fame not having a single specimen placed 
herein, and several are represented by very second-rate works. 
Nor is there much appearance of the national collection becoming 
worthy of England's greatness, from the apathy of the public autho- 
rities in acquiring really fine works when opportunities arise ; three 
pictures only having been purchased by government during the last 
five years. 

In the vestibule is placed a marble vase sculptured by Sir Richard 
Westmacott, R.A., from a colossal block of marble, taken at Paris, 
when entered by the British troops. The principal relief commemo- 
rates the battle of Waterloo. In the hall stands a statue of Sir D. 
Wilkie. 

There are 8 pictures by Annibal Caracci; 3 by Ludovico Caracci; 
10 by Claude, among which are some of his very finest works, in- 
cluding the famous ones painted for the Due de Bouillon ; by Cor- 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. NATIONAL GALLERY. 



421 




THE XATIOXAL GALLERY. 



regio, 6 : three of them — an Ecce Homo, Mercury instructing Cupid, 
and the Holy Family, called " La Vierge au Panier" — are renowned 
performances. By Domenichino, 4; by Francia, 2 capital pictures; 
by Guido, 8; by Murillo, 3; by Parmegiano, a celebrated picture 
called "the Vision of St. Jerome;" by Gaspar Poussin, 6; by Nicholas 
Poussin, 8 ; by Raffaelle, 4 secondary works ; by Rembrandt, 8, in- 
cluding his chef-d'oeuvre, the Woman taken in Adultery; by Ru- 
bens, 9, some of them' excellent, particularly the Judgment of Paris, 
and the Peace and War ; by Sebastian del Piombo, the great picture of 
the Resurrection of Lazarus, painted in jealous rivalry of RafFaelle's 
Transfiguration; by Titian, 5; by Vandyck, 4, one of which is the 
fine portrait of Gevartius ; by Velasquez, 2; and by Paul Vero- 
nese 2. A catalogue is sold in the gallery for 4 J., and a descrip- 
tive and historical catalogue by R. N. Wornum, revised by C. L. 
Eastlake, Esq., R.A., may be purchased for Is. 

The gallery is open to the public, without any restriction, during 
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in every week. The 
other two days are reserved for the use of students. The gallery is 
closed during six weeks of the autumn season. 



THE NATIONAL INSTITUTION, PORTLAND GALLERY, REGENT STREET. 

This is a new association of artists which has sprung up within 
these three years, and if steadily maintained will be of great advan- 
tage to the numerous body. It was started on the principle of free 
exhibition, but the attendant expenses forbade the idea being further 
carried out than to give a few weeks of free admission at the close of 
the season. The greatest advantage the society offers is the privi- 
lege for themselves and other artists (not members) to exhibit their 
pictures favourably, by every one having a portion of what is called 
among them "the line," that is, the portion of wall opposite the spec- 
tator's eye. The gallery is commodious and well lighted : hitherto, 



4i22 LONDON. 

the walls have been well occupied by interesting pictures in an exhi- 
bition which takes place in the spring, and is continued open for 
three months, at a fee of 1$. for admission. A novelty in the cata- 
logue is that the price of every picture exhibited is printed therein 
for the information of purchasers. 

THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, CHARING CROSS. 

The front of this mansion towards the street is a singular example 
of the seventeenth century; the central portion, which contains 
the gates opening into the quadrangle, being adorned in the fullest 
degree with the ornaments employed in this style. Every other 
part of the house . is characterised by its great simplicity ; it, how- 
ever, contains many fine apartments and some excellent pictures. 
Among these will be found the well-known Cornaro Family, by 
Titian, a work well worthy of its reputation ; by Guercino, St. Se- 
bastian bound ; G. Bassano, the Adoration of the Shepherds ; Van- 
dyck, a group of three portraits ; Snyders, a Fox Hunt, and a Deer 
Hunt ; G. Schalken, a Girl with a Candle, and some others. The 
great feature of Northumberland House is the ball room or grand 
gallery, in which are placed large and very fine copies, by Menga, 
after Raffaelle's School of Athens, in the Vatican, of the size of the 
original ; also, the Assembly of the Gods, and the Marriage of Cupid 
and Psyche, in the Farnesina ; the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, 
from Annibal Caracci's picture in the Farnese Palace; and Apollo 
driving the Chariot of the Sun, from the fresco, by Guido Reni, in 
the Villa Rospigliosi at Rome. The copies of these celebrated works, 
and the other decorations of this extensive apartment, constitute it 
core of the landmarks of high art in the metropolis; but admission 
to see it is unattainable, unless by a very powerful personal intro- 
duction. 

LORD OVERSTONE, IN PARK LANE, 

Has some rare specimens of the Dutch school, by its greatest 
masters ; some of them are from the cabinet of Baron Verstolk van 
Soelen, at the Hague, which was bought entire, and principally 
shared by his lordship and Thomas Baring, Esq. 

MR. SHEEPSHANKS, OF RUTLAND GATE, HYDE PARK, 

Possesses an extensive collection of pictures by English artists, 
amounting to nearly 400 in number. It is in this gentleman's house 
that the peculiar beauties of the English school of painting can be 
best appreciated. The collection is peculiarly rich in the works of 
Mulready, Leslie, and Sir Edwin Landseer. Very ready permission 
to see the collection is accorded to applicants, upon recommendation 
by known artists or amateurs. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — SIR ROBT. PEEL, BART. 423 

MR. JONES, LIVING IN THE CORRESPONDING HOUSE AT RUTLAND 
GATE, OPPOSITE MR. SHEEPSHANKS, 

Has some fine pictures and sculptures. Among the former, he is 
the possessor of Danby's grand picture of the Deluge. 

LORD GARVAGH, 26, P0RTMAN SQUARE. 

The only picture of consequence here is the one by RafTaelle, from 
the Aldobrandini Palace, at Rome, representing the Virgin Marv 
holding the infant Christ, who is presenting a pink to the youthful 
St. John. It is renowned as one of the most beautiful performances 
in England of this, the greatest of masters. 

EARL DE GREY, 4, ST. JAMES'S SQUARE. 

In this mansion there are several of Vandyck's very finest por- 
traits, mostly whole-lengths ; a picture, by Titian, of a young female 
holding a casket, commonly known as Titian's Daughter; a fine 
picture by Salvator Rosa ; a pair of capital landscapes by Claude ; 
and some few of the Dutch school. 

EARL N0RMANTON, 3, SEYMOUR PLACE, CURZON STREET, 

Is the possessor of some important pictures by Holbein, a fine 
Holy Family by Parmegiano, and works of several of the living 
painters of the English school. 

THE COLLECTION OF SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART., WHITEHALL GARDENS. 

This collection almost entirely comprises the fine works of the 
Dutch and Flemish school. It was formed by the late Right 
Hon. Sir Robert Peel, and consists of examples of the highest 
excellence by the various masters, selected from all the royal and 
great galleries which have been either pillaged or dispersed by the 
revolutionary occurrences which have disturbed Europe during the 
past half-century. 

P. P. Rubens. The " Chapeau de Paille." i the sale of Rubens's effects, after his 
This truly wonderful picture is known decease, by the Cardinal de Richelieu, 
to all connoisseurs by the repeated en- and afterwards passed into the Gallery 
gravings which have been made from j of Lucien Bonaparte, 
it. and from all the writers on art ha v- D. Teniers. "La Surprise facheuse;" 



ing extolled it as the perfection of 
colour. When it was brought to Eng- 
land in 1S22, upwards of twenty 
thousand persons were admitted to view 
it on paying a shilling each. After 
this exhibition, it was purchased by 



an Interior. Four small Pictures re- 
presenting the Four Seasons, each by a 
single figure. This esteemed series 
has successively adorned the cabinets 
of De Yerrue, Le Prade, Blondel de 
Gagny, Gros, Nouri, Destouches, Le 



the deceased Baronet for 3500Z., and j Brun, and Prince Talleyrand, 
now occupies the place of honour in j Gonzales. A Family Scene, with numerous 
the Gallery. Silenus, with Satyrs and j portraits. 

other Figures : painted with the utmost : W. Vandevelde. A Light Breeze, with 
luxury of colour, and appropriately I an approaching Storm. A Calm, 1661; 
placed in the dining room over the side- a most brilliant picture, from the col- 
board. This picture was purchased at | lection of the Due de Berri. 



42* 



LONDON. 




RESIDENCE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL, BART. 



G. Metzu. The Duet; from the collec- 
tions of the Due de Choiseul, Due de 
Praslin, and Prince Talleyrand. 

Hobbima. The Water Mill among 
woody scenery, 

G. Netscher. The Soap Bubble. The 
finest work of the painter; formerly 
possessed by Raudon de Boisset, Pou- 
lain, Calonne, Le Brun, and the Due 
de Berri. 

William Mieris. A young Woman at a Win- 
dow in conversation with a Gentleman. 

P. Wouvermans. A Group of Figures 
in a barren place. 



J. Ruysdael. A Waterfall; from the 
Brentano cabinet. 

Adrian Vandevelde. Winter Amuse- 
ments, with skating; from the collec- 
tions of Mariette, Prince de Conti, and 
Count Pourtales. 

Hobbima. A View in a Forest. 

J. Wynants. Heath Scene, with Figures. 

A* Vandevelde. Figures, and Cattle 
crossing a Brook ; from the collections 
of Raudon de Boisset, Due de Praslin, 
and Sir Simon Clarke. 

W. Vandevelde. The Beach at Schevel- 
ing, figures by Adrian Vandevelde; 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — SIR ROBT. PEEL, BART. 



425 



formerly in the cabinets of M. Schim- 

melpenninck, and Count Pourtales. 
A. Cuyp. Cows drinking on the Banks 

of a River. 
G. Netscher. Maternal Instruction; from 

the Orleans Gallery. 
J. Van Ostade. Winter Scene on a Canal. 
"William Yandevelde, 1654. Calm at Sea, 

F. Mieris. "Le Corsage Rouge;" from 
the cabinets of Gaignat, Due de 
Praslin, and Mr. Beckford. 

G. Metzu. The Music Lesson. 
Sebastian Ricci. A Mythological Subject. 
N. Berghem. Landscape, Ruins, and 

Cattle; from the Braancamp, Due de 

Chabot, Tolozan, and Sir Simon Clarke's 

collections. 
L. Backhuyzen. Sea-Shore; from the 

Lebrun Gallery. 
JanSteen. The Music Master; dated 1671. 
G. Netscher. A Lady with a Distaff; 

from the collections of Blondel de 

Gagny, and Prince Galitzin. 
P. Wouvermans. Interior of a Stable; 

from the collections of Count de Merle, 

and Watson Taylor, Esq. 
D. Teniers. " Le mauvais Riche." The 

Torments of Wealth. 
Wynants. Landscape, 1659; figures by 

Lingelbach. 
P. Wouvermans. Halt of Officers; from 

the cabinets of Poulain, Count Du* 

barry, and Mr. Webb, 
C. Du Jardin. Cattle reposing, 1658; 

from the collections of the Due de 

Praslin, Robit, and Sir Simon Clarke. 
Backhuyzen. The Mouth of the Thames, 

many vessels. 
P. De Hooge. An Interior with Figures ; 

formerly in the collections of Van 

Leyden and the Count Pourtales. 
Paul Potter. Landscape and Cattle, 

dated 1654. One of his most ex- 

- quisite works, and probably the last he 
ever painted, as he died early in this 
year. It has been possessed by Lin- 
dert de Neuville, Van Loquet, and 
Lord Gwydir. 

Hobbima. The Avenue. A pure page of 
Nature of the most extraordinary truth, 
made out of common materials. 

De Koningh. Extensive View over a 
flat Country. 

G. Dow. The Dealer in Game. One 
of the most important works of this 
extraordinary painter ; from the various 

- collections of the Due de Choiseul, 



Prince de Conti, Due de Chabot, 
Dupre, and from Fonthill Abbey. 

Terburg. The Music Lesson. How 
greatly this picture has been esteemed 
as one of the finest of this master, may 
be inferred from its having successively 
adorned the cabinets formed by Ju- 
lienne, Prince de Conti, Marquis de 
L'ange, Due de Praslin, Sereville, 
Prince Galitzin, and Mr. Barchard. 

J. Van Ostade. Entrance to a Village, 
with many Figures ; from the Choiseul 
Gallery. 

Hackaert and N. Berghem. Stag Hunt 
in a Wood. 

A. Vandevelde. Farm Buildings and 
Cattle. 

P. de Hooge. Interior of a Paved Court, 
with Figures, 1658. True to Nature, 
almost to illusion. 

Vander Hey den. View in Cologne, 
figures by A. Vandevelde. 

P. Wouvermans. Coast Scene with Fish- 
ermen. The last piece painted by this 
great artist. It was commanded by 
Elizabeth, Queen of Spain, whose arms 
and the words. " Elizabetha Regina" 
are placed on the back, but the painter 
unfortunately died a few days before 
the payment for it arrived. 

Hobbima. Ruins of the Castle of Brede- 
rode. 

A. Cuyp. Landscape, a ruined Castle 
standing in a Moat. 

C. du Jardin. Cattle and Figures cross- 
ing a Brook. 

A. Van Ostade. The Alchymist, 1661. 
A small picture of the rarest perfection ; 
which may be imagined, as a dealer 
gave 800 guineas for it, before it was 
sold to the late Baronet. 

A. Cuyp. A Dutch Pasture Scene with 
Cattle. 

W. Vandevelde. A small Calm; from 
the Choiseul cabinet. A pair, being 
a Light Breeze and a Gale ; both from 
the Count Pourtales' cabinet, and of 
first-rate excellence. 

P. Wouvermans. A Landscape with an 
Ass. 

C. du Jardin. Landscape and Figures; 
from Victor's cabinet. 

P. Wouvermans. Barren Road with 
Figures. 

Lingelbach. The Hay Season. 

Moncheron. The Garden Scene, figures 
by A. Vandevelde. 



426 



LONDON. 



Rembrandt. Portrait of a Gentle- 
man. 
Ruysdael. Grand Woodv Landscape. 
Sir David Wilkie, R.A." The famous 



picture of John Knox preaching before 
the Lords of the Congregation. 
Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Snake in the 
Grass. Robinetta. 



In the library are placed 18 original drawings by Rubens and 
Vandyck, from the collections of Sir Thomas Lawrence and others ; 
all of the greatest consequence, and inconceivably fine. 

The drawing-room is likewise adorned with the whole-length por- 
traits of Her Majesty and His Royal Highness Prince Albert, painted 
by Winterhalter, and presented by Her Majesty to the late Baronet. 

THE QUEEN'S GALLERY, BUCKINGHAM PALACE. 

In an extensive corridor that occupies the centre of a long range 
of apartments on each side of it, the collection of pictures under this 
designation is placed. The gallery thus formed receives light from 
the roof; and on the walls are hung the Dutch and Flemish pictures 
collected by his Majesty George I V. His predilection was entirely 
for this school; and the rare and numerous specimens he acquired 
afford proof of a consummate judgment in this branch of art. The 
first acquisition made, was the purchase of all the Dutch and Flemish 
pictures belonging to Sir Francis Baring; others were continually 
added, under the advice of Lord Farnborough, as occasions offered. 
The gallery in the palace has just been re-decorated, and the fol- 
lowing is a detailed list of the pictures which adorned it, and which 
are intended again to occupy the walls: — 

Claude. Landscape, with Story of Europa ; A. Cuyp. There are no fewer than nine 
from the Ghigi Palace, Rome. 

J. B. Greuze. " La Trompette," a Mother 
with Children in a Cottage, one of 
whom plays with a toy trumpet. 

Le Nain. The Young Gamblers ; from 
the Aldobrandini Palace. 

Titian. A Woody Landscape, with Sheep 
and Figures. 

A. Watteau. By this artist there are 
five pictures, four of which were painted 
for George I. when the painter came 
to England. 

L. Backhuyzen. A Calm; from the ca- 
binet of Count Pourtales. 

N. Berghem. By this elegant painter 
there are six capital specimens, con- 
sisting of a Landscape with an ex- 
panse of country traversed by a river, 
dated 1655. The Rush Gatherers. 
A mountainous Landscape with figures. 
Two other Landscapes with figures, and 
a picture called " The Ford," dated 
1650. 

Jan Both. Philip baptising the Eunuch ; 
from the cabinet of Smeth van Alpen. 



capital performances by this artist; 
among them is the celebrated picture 
of the Trooper. A Landscape, from 
the collection of Van Slingelandt. A 
Grey and a Brown Horse. A Gen- 
tleman and a Lady riding. Two 
Cavalry Soldiers. Ducks on a River. 
View on the River Dort, with a passage 
boat ; and two Landscapes with Cows. 
Gerard Dow. Eight pictures by this 
exquisite painter are in the collection, 
all of them remarkable for their mar- 
vellous execution. They comprise " La 
Menagere ; " from the Prince de Conti, 
Beaujou, and Geldermeester cabinets. 
A Girl chopping Onions ; from the collec- 
tions of Gaignat, Prince de Conti, Due de 
Praslin, and Geldermeester. The Gro- 
cer's Shop ; from the Choiseul Gallery. 
The Fruit Seller, from the same. A 
Woman at an Arched Window; in the 
Royal Collection since 1697. The 
Sick Chamber. An Interior, with a 
Mother nursing her Child, and a 
small Head of an old Man. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. QUEEN S GALLERY. 



427 



Karel Du Jardin. 
Landscape, a Hilly 
Country. Two 
Youths gambling, 
-with other Figures. 
An exquisite pic- 
ture of Cattle in a 
Meadow. Another 
picture of a similar 
subject, from the 
Choiseul collec- 
tion; and an Italian 
Landscape with 
figures ; a cele- 
brated work from 
the various cabi- 
nets of the Count 
de Vence, Blondel 
de Gagny, and the 
Count de Merle. 

Gr. Coques. A Family 
Group in a Land- 
scape ;. from the 
collection of Lord 
Eadstock. 

Bernard Graet. Small 
Figures of the Fa- 
mily of the Burgo- 
master Six. 

Frank Hals.. Portrait 
of a Gentleman. 

M. Hobbima. A 
Dutch Hamlet 
among Trees, and 
a small Woody 
Scene, with a 
Water Mill. 

Peter de Hooge. The 
Card Party, from 
the collection of 
Count Pourtales ; 
and the Court Yard 

, of a House, with a 
Woman Spinning. 

M. Hondekoeter. 
Live Fowls and a 
Dog in a Land- 
scape. 

Cornelius Janssen, 
Greenwich Palace 
in the time of 
Charles I., who is 
represented with 
his family pro- 
menading in the 
park. 




428 



LONDON. 



N. Maas. A Young Woman with her 
Finger on her Lip, descending cau- 
tiously a staircase. 
G. Metzu. By this pleasing and esteemed 
m painter six pictures belong to the royal 
collection. They are : A Young Girl 
selling Grapes. An Interior, with a 
Gentleman tuning a Violoncello near 
a Lady with a Music Book. The Por- 
trait of Himself holding a Palette and 
Brushes. A Lady in a Crimson Corset 
holding a Guitar. A Girl at a Window 
holding a Bunch of Grapes ; and the 
well-known picture called " Le Corset 
Bleu." 
Jan Miel. An Italian Mountebank. 
Francis Mieris. Four specimens of this 
painter's agreeable Pictures comprise 
a Boy at a Window blowing Bubbles ; 
a Lady feeding a Parrot; a Gentle- 
man smoking; and a Lady with a 
Spaniel in her Lap. 
William Mieris. Three pictures : — the 
Fruiterer's Shop ; a Dutch Family 
in humble Life ; and an Interior with 
a Lady and Gentleman at Table, waited 
on by a Negro Servant. 
Jan Molinaer. A Peasant Girl crossing 

a Brook. 
C. Netscher. A pair of small Portraits 
of William III. when Prince of Orange, 
and of the Princess Mary his Wife. 
A. Ostade. By this capital painter, the 
collection boasts of nine pictures. 
The subjects he chose are entirely 
from the humbler class, representa- 
tive only of their daily habits. Five 
of these pictures are composed of 
Boors Drinking, Smoking, Eating, or 
Gambling. A sixth is a Dutch Family 
in a Cottage, dated 1668. A picture 
of Dutch Courtship, consisting of two 
Figures, another of a Peasant Woman, 
and an Interior with a Woman and 
Child seated, with two other figures, 
from the Geldermeester cabinet, com- 
plete the number. 
Isaac Ostade. A capital picture of a 
Halt of Travellers by a Roadside Inn, 
from the Geldermeester cabinet; and 
a Rustic Family at a Cottage Door 
listening to a Man playing the Fiddle. 
C. Poelemberg. Landscape with Ruins 

and Figures. 
Paul Potter. There are four of the rare 
pictures of this great artist. A 
young Bull and two Cows in a Mea- 



dow, the Cattle of larger size that! 
usual with this painter. Two Hunts- 
men on Horseback and other Figures 
halting at a Farm-House. Two Pigs 
lying down, from the Slingelandt ca- 
binet ; and a Landscape with a Stable 
and several Figures, from the cele* 
brated collections of Lormier, Braan- 
Gamp, Randon de Boisset, and Gelder- 
meester. 
Rembrandt. The performances by this 
great master in the collection are of 
first-rate beauty and importance. They 
are, Christ appearing to Mary Mag- 
dalen, formerly in the Hesse Cassel 
Gallery, whence it was abstracted by 
the French, and presented to the Em- 
press Josephine, from whose palace of 
Malmaison it was sold in 1816. The 
Adoration of the Magi; the transpa- 
rent gloom behind wonderful in exe- 
cution. The Shipbuilder and his 
Wife. She is giving him a letter as 
he appears seated at a table ; life-size 
figures seen to the knees ; from the col- 
lection of Smeth van Alpen. The Bur- 
gomaster Pancras and his Wife, also 
life-size, seen to the knees ; from the 
collection of Henry Hope, Esq. Half- 
length Portrait of a Lady standing at a 
Window. A Portrait of Himself, and 
the Portrait of a Jewish Rabbi, half- 
length. 
P. P. Rubens. A grand picture, 9 
feet high, and 12 feet in length, con- 
taining eleven full-length and life-size 
figures. It represents Pythagoras re- 
commending temperance to his disci- 
ples ; nymphs and fauns behind, and 
in front a profusion of fruit : this last 
is painted by Snyders. Formerly in 
the Royal Collection of Spain, and 
afterwards possessed by Joseph Bona* 
parte. A Landscape called " La Prairie 
de Lacken." This picture descended 
in the family with the Chapeau de 
Paille to M* Van Haveren, and was 
afterwards possessed by M. Aynard. 
The Assumption of the Virgin, a study 
for the great altar-piece in the cathe- 
dral at Antwerp ; formerly in the col- 
lection of the Count d'Arcy, and Sir 
Simon Clarke. St. George and the 
Dragon, in a Landscape, which por- 
trays the river Thames between Rich- 
mond and Windsor. It was painted 
by Rubens when he came to England, 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — QUEEN S GALLERY. 



429 



and has been successively possessed by 
King Charles I. and the Due de 
Richelieu, from whence it passed into 
the Orleans Gallery. Pan and Syrinx ; 
from the collection of the Due de 
Montesquieu. A Man with a Hawk, 
called " The Falconer," life-size, whole 
length. From the collections of the 
Due de Praslin and M. Geldermeester. 
And the Family of Olden Barneveldt, 
a composition of seven figures, the 
principal one life-size, seated, and 
half-length, the others in the back- 
ground, and a pair of allegorical female 
figures personating Time and History 
in front. 

J. Ruysdael. Landscape, with a Cot- 
tage and Windmill, among bleaching 
grounds. 

G. Schalken. Seven Figures at a Game 
of Forfeits. Formerly belonged to 
Louis XVI. A Musical Party, from 
M. Geldermeester's Cabinet ; and a 
Lady with a Candle in her Hand, 
putting aside a Curtain, from the Le 
Brun Gallery. 

P. van Slingelandt. A Lady, seated, 
making Lace, while a Child is asleep 
in a Cradle. From the Hesse Cassel 
Gallery, and afterwards possessed by 
the Empress Josephine, and Maxi- 
milian, King of Bavaria. 

Jan Steen. An Interior, with an ele- 
gantly-dressed Female pulling on a 
Stocking : a Spaniel is by her side. 
An uncommon picture by this painter : 
it came from the collection of the Che- 
valier Yerhulst. There are five other 
pictures, representing a Dutch Merry- 
making, a Dutch Revel, Twelfth Night, 
a Village Revel, and the Card Players ; 
all of the painter's joyous and carous- 
ing scenes. 

D. Teniers. By this universally known 
painter there are thirteen pictures, 
several of them from celebrated collec- 
tions, and mostly of his most esteemed 
manner and period. A Village Fete, 
with thirty-one figures, dated 1645, 
from the Geldermeester collection. A 
similar subject, with fifty figures, 
dated 1649, from the Gallery of the 
Prince of Orange. A Village Fair, 
from the Poulain Cabinet. Interior of 
a Guard Room, called " Le Tambour 
Battant," from the Choiseul Gallery. 
Fishermen on the Sea Coast, from the 



Poulain Gallery. Teniers' Wife play- 
ing the Guitar, and Two Children, 
from the Orleans Gallery. The Inte- 
rior of a Kitchen, an Old Woman 
peeling Turnips. A large Landscape 
and Farm-House, with Teniers and two 
Ladies talking to the Gardener. The 
Alchymist in his Laboratory. A pair 
of small Landscapes with Figures. A 
Village Fete, with thirty figures of 
larger size than usual. Another ditto 
with forty figures, and a small picture 
of four Boors playing at Cards. 

G. Terburg. A Young Lady reading a 
Letter to her Mother, from the Gelder- 
meester Cabinet; and a Lady and Gen- 
tleman drinking Wine. 

J. Vanderheyden. Two pictures of Dutch 
Scenery, one House on the Banks of a 
River, the other Buildings in a Town, 
both with figures by Vandevelde. 

Vandyck. The Marriage of St. Ca- 
therine, from the collection of the 
Chevalier de Burtin of Brussels; and 
Christ healing the Lame Man, for- 
merly in the collections of Verhulst 
and Smeth van Alpen : both these 
pictures are superlative works of the 
painter. A Study of Three Cavaliers, 
and a Portrait of a Gentleman in Black. 

A. Vander Meulen. Thirteen pictures, 
mostly of Combats or Views of Palaces 
in France, with figures of Court Per- 



Eglon Van der Neer. The Death of 
Cleopatra, from the Braancamp collec- 
tion, and a Lady and Gentleman with 
Music, in a Landscape. 

A. Van der Neer. An Evening Scene on 
the Banks of a Canal. 

A. Vandevelde. A Hilly Landscape 
with Ruins and Cattle, dated 1659, 
from the Geldermeester Cabinet. Cattle 
at Pasture, dated 1664, from the same 
collection. Cattle in a Woody Land- 
scape, from Smeth van Alpen's collec- 
tion. The Sea-Shore at Schevening, 
dated 1660. A Dutch Dairy Farm, 
dated 1666. The Shepherd, in a Woody 
Landscape, watching his Flock, and a 
Hunting Party of Ladies and Gentle- 
men, mounted and on foot, in a bright 
sunny Landscape, dated 1666. These 
seven pictures are of exquisite beauty. 

William Vandevelde. A Calm, from 
the cabinet of Smeth van Alpen; a 
similar subject from the Geldermeester 



430 



LONDON. 



collection, a Brisk Gale, with an agi- 
tated Sea ; and a Breeze, are the sub- 
jects of the four line pictures by the. 
unrivalled painter of marine subjects. 

Adrian Vander Werff. Roman Charity; 
two Children with a Guinea Pig; and 
Lot and his Daughters, are the subjects 
of this artist's three pictures in the 
collection. The last-named was for- 
merly in the collections of the Due 
de Choiseul, the Prince de Conti, and 
M. Calonne. 

Philip Wouvermans. Nine pictures of 
this talented painter, comprising a 
Landscape with Figures on Horseback. 
A Horse Fair, rich in Figures, taken 
from the Hesse Cassel Gallery by the 
French, and presented to the Empress 
Josephine. A Halt of Cavalry before 



some Tents, called " Le Coup de Pis- 
tolet," from the Le Brun, Nogaret, and 
Tolozan collections. A Waggon at- 
tacked by Robbers, from the Le Brun 
and Geldermeester collections. A 
Hawking Party. The Hay Cart and 
Figures, from Smeth van Alpen's ca- 
binet A Horse Fair. The Farrier's 
Tent, and a Skirmish of Cavalry. 

J. Weenix. A Hare and Dead Game. 

J. Wynants. A Hilly Landscape with 
Figures of a Hunting Party by P* 
Wouvermans. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Death of 
Dido, three Figures of life size. Cymon 
and Iphigenia, also life-size figures, 
and considered the most beautiful and 
poetical composition of the master; and 
his own Portrait, wearing Spectacles. 



Permission to view this extensive and choice collection is only 
granted by application to the Lord Chamberlain, at St James's 
Palace. It may be readily understood that the favour is only con- 
ceded to persons of known respectability, or properly recommended ; 
and the pictures can only be viewed when Her Majesty and the 
family are absent from the palace. 

The private apartments contain a number of portraits of Her Ma- 
jesty's ancestors and various members of the Royal Family, by Sir 
Godfrey Kneller, Sir Peter Lely, Allan Ramsay, N. Dance, J. S. 
Copley, Gainsborough, M. Wright, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir D. 
Wilkie, and others. In the State Drawing Room is a picture, by Van^ 
dyck^ of Charles I., and his Queen presenting him a branch of laureL 
There are also a few English pictures; among which a pair, by 
Zoffany, represent the Assembling of the Members of the Royal 
Academy, and the Interior of the Florentine Gallery; by Sir David 
Wilkie, His Majesty George IV. entering the Palace of Holyrood, 
and the well-known picture of Blind Mans Buff; by Sir William 
Allan, a picture called the Orphan Daughters ; and the Duenna, by 
G. S. Newton. 

THE COLLECTION OF SAMUEL ROGERS, ESQ., F.B.S. AND F.S.A.j 
NO. 22, ST. JAMEs's PLACE. 

The house which contains this distinguished gentleman's collec- 
tion is comparatively small ; the interior is, nevertheless, overflowing 
with the choicest examples of fine art, the result of a long gathering, 
guided by infinite taste and learning. With the most liberal feeling 
for the enjoyment by others of these very select and rare perform- 
ances, Mr. Rogers readily grants permission to view them, by the 
introduction of any known artist or connoisseur, 

A. Sacchi. Christ bearing the Cross; with the Doctors; from the Aldo- 

formerlyin the Orleans collection. brandini Palace. 

Mazzolina di Ferrara. Christ disputing Titian. " Noli me tangere ;" from the 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. SAM. ROGERS, ESQ. 



431 




RESIDENCE OF SAMUEL RO^EKs, ESQ. 

Orleans collection. Barry says of this 
picture. "The mellow and glorious 
union of landscape and history, of the 
Poussin size, is the completest I have 
seen, for all and every part." 

A. Watteau. Two figures in a garden 
scene. 

P. P. Rubens. A triumphal procession, 
a celebrated work, composed from part 
of Montegna's procession at Hampton 
Court, with additions by the great 
Flemish master. From the Balbi 
Palace. 

Murillo. St. Joseph and the Infant 
Saviour ; from Mr. Hope's collection. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds. The renowned 
picture of Puck in Shakspere's Mid- 
summer Night's Dream. 

Rembrandt. An Allegory. Formerly 
Sir J. Reynolds's. 

P. P. Rubens. Landscape, Moonlight. 
Idem. 



A. del Sarto. Head of St. John ; from 
the Mareschalchi Palace. 

Sir J. Reynolds. The sleeping Girl. 

Richard Wilson. Landscape, Evening. 

Corregio. The Holy Family ; from the 
Orleans Gallery. 

Annibal Caracci. The Coronation of the 
Virgin ; from the Aldobrandini Pa- 
lace. 

Giorgione. Small whole-length of a 
Knight in Armour. 

Raffaelle. The Virgin and Child ; from 
the Orleans Gallery. 

Domenichino. Landscape. From the 
Borghese Palace. 

Bassan. Lazarus and the rich Man. 

Rembrandt. A Forest Scene, with Sun- 
set Effect. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds. The Strawberry 
Girl. 

Gainsborough. Landscape, Morning. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds. View from Rich- 
mond Hill. 

Titian. The Apotheosis of the Emperor 
Charles V. 

Gainsborough. A Landscape, with Cattle. 

Leslie, R. A. Edward V. and his Bro- 
ther in the Tower. 

J. Van Eyck. Virgin and Child in a 
gothic niche. An extraordinary per- 
formance by this very early master. 

Titian. Head of an elderly Man. 

Sir J. Reynolds. Cupid and Psyche. 

Memling. His own portrait, dated 1486. 

B. R. Haydon. Napoleon on the Rock 
at St. Helena. 

Holbein. Portrait of a Gentleman. 

Canaletti. View in Venice. 

Fra Angelico. Salome dancing before 

Herod. 
Sir J. Reynolds. A Girl with a Bird in 

her Hand. 
Rembrandt. His own Portrait. 
Tintoretto. The Miracle of St. Mark. 
Claude. Landscape, with the Piping 

Shepherd. 
Ludovico Caracci. The Virgin and 

Child, with six Saints. 
Raffaelle. Our Saviour on the Mount ; 

from the Orleans Gallery. 
Velasquez. The Prince of the Asturias, 

on Horseback. 
N. Poussin. Landscape; the Campagna 

of Rome. 
R. P. Bonington. The Turk reposing. 
Cesare D'Arpino. A Warrior on Horse- 
back. 



432 LONDON. 



Sir Gr. Beaumont. Conway Castle ; 
figures by Wilkie. 

P. P. Rubens. Landscape, a Woody 
Scene. 

Giotto. The fragment of a fresco, con- 
taining the Heads of St. Peter and 
St. Paul ; executed a.d. 1295. 

Gaspar Poussin. A Landscape. 

Domenichino. Landscape, with Apollo 
and Marsyas. 

Baroccio. " La Madonna del Gatto f 
from the Salviati Palace. 

N. Poussin. The Adoration of the 
Shepherds. 

Paul Veronese. Mary Magdalen anoint- 
ing the Feet of our Saviour. A small 
repetition of the large one in the 
Durazzo Palace at Genoa. 



Bassan. The good Samaritan. Formerly 
Sir J. Reynolds's. 

Rubens. The Evils of War. The 
original study for the great picture of 
this subject at Florence. From the 
Balbi Palace. 

T. Stothard, R.A. The Blessings of 
Peace. 

Guido. The Head of our Saviour 
crowned with Thorns. Formerly pos- 
sessed by B. West, P.R.A., and justly 
celebrated as one of the most sublime 
impersonations of the Divinity ever 
achieved by human talent. 

Guercino. The Madonna and Child; 
from the Borghese Palace. 

Lorenzo di Credi. Coronation of the 
Virgin. 

The house also contains an extensive collection of Etruscan 
vases, some antique bronzes, sculptures, and a variety of lesser objects 
of art — all distinguished for rare excellence. In the library hangs, 
framed, the original agreement of Milton for the sale of his w Para- 
dise Lost" to a publisher for the sum of five pounds, and duly 
signed by the immortal poet. 

THE ROYAL ACADEMY 

Was founded in the year 1768, by George III., and consists of 
forty members, entitled the Royal Academicians; twenty associates, 
from whom the members are chosen as vacancies occur; and six asso- 
ciate engravers. All official duties are fulfilled by the Academicians, 
who elect from among themselves, annually, the President; they also 
appoint a Secretary and Keeper, which offices are held for life. The 
affairs of the institution are managed by a council of eight members, 
besides the President, four of whom go out by rotation every year. 
They also elect among the body, Professors of Painting, Sculpture, 
and Architecture, and appoint a Professor of Anatomy, who must be 
a surgeon. Each of these professors delivers a course of lectures 
annually, to which the students, and all artists who have contributed 
works to the annual exhibition, are admitted. Schools are esta- 
blished, under the superintendence of visitors (who are always mem- 
bers of the Academy), for drawing from the plaster cast, the living 
model, and for the practice of painting : there is also an architectural 
class. All instruction is given to the pupils free of expense, the 
Academy being self-sustaining from the proceeds of an annual 
exhibition of the works of the members, associates, and other livino 
artists of talent. It is the grandest display of the highest pictoria 
art in England, and usually opens the first week in the month of Mav 
and closes the last week in July. The Royal Academy possesses ar 
extensive collection of casts from all the renowned works of an- 
tiquity, a considerable part of which was presented by George IV 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. SOCIETY OF ARTS. 433 

Every Academician upon his election is bound to present a specimen 
of his talent, consequently the Academy possesses a complete series 
of such works ; many of them are, however, only secondary works. 
There are, besides a very celebrated copy of the Last Supper by 
Leonardo da Vinci, made by his pupil Marco Aggione, copies of 
the Descent from the Cross and the two Volets, by Rubens, made by 
Guy Head, and copies of the Cartoons of Raffaelle, by Sir James 
Thornhill. All these are of the size of the originals. There is 
also a very beautiful series of small copies, in oil, after the famous 
frescoes by Raffaelle, in the Vatican, and a few other useful and 
excellent copies of renowned works. The Academy also possesses 
an unfinished bas-relief of life-size figures, in marble, by Michael 
Angelo. It contains, in a circle, the Virgin with the Infant Saviour 
in her lap and St. John approaching, all of the highest beauty and 
dignity. This was presented to the Academy by the late Sir George 
Beaumont, who gave his pictures to the National Gallery. In the 
Library are two very fine cartoons, in excellent preservation, by 
L. da Vinci, the subject of one being the Holy Family and St. Anna, 
the other is that of the celebrated Leda. 

THE SOCIETY OF ARTS IN THE ADELPHI. 

This Society, which is of old standing, is composed of a number of 
gentlemen, either scientific, or desirous of encouraging science and 
art. By means of a small annual subscription from each of the 
numerous members, they give prizes and premiums for either novel 
inventions or meritorious works of art and design. In the year 
1774, when they first occupied the building in the Adelphi where 
they now hold their meetings, they made a proposal to the living artists 
to execute a series of pictures for the decoration of the great room, 
offering for remuneration only the proceeds of an exhibition of these 
pictures when they should be completed. The artists were not 
stimulated to accept an offer presenting such uncertain prospects of 
recompense, until 1777, when James Barry, a member of the Royal 
Academy, undertook the onerous task. The pictures occupied him 
seven years, and when they were exhibited produced little more 
than 500Z. The subjects are six in number, and fill the four walls 
completely. They are all 11 \ ft. high; two of them are 42 ft. in 
length, and the other four are each 15 ft. long. The two great 
pictures represent the Procession of the Victors at the Olympic 
Games, and Elysium, or the State of Final Retribution. The four 
lesser subjects are — the Story of Orpheus; Navigation, or the Triumph 
of Commerce ; a Grecian Harvest-Home ; and the Distribution of 
Premiums by the Society of Arts. Another picture, by Barry, of 
Adam and Eve, is placed on the staircase; and a few minor works of 
art and ingenuity are always to be seen in the rooms. The public 
are usually admitted gratis to view the pictures, by applying per- 
sonally every Wednesday. (See also article " Learned Societies/') 



434 LONDON. 

SOCIETIES OF PAINTERS IN WATER COLOURS. 

The Old Society, as it is called, in this very fascinating region of 
fine art, originated in the year 1808, when its first exhibition of 
water-colour performances took place. A few years afterwards the 
annual display was removed to a more suitable situation and premises 
in Pall Mall, where it is open to the public early in the month of 
April, on the payment of Is. The exhibition comprises usually 
about 500 various pieces, among which landscapes predominate. As 
this society limited the exhibition entirely to their own members, 
and a considerable increase of practitioners in this branch had taken 
place, the necessity of further facility for placing this class of art be- 
fore the public became obvious. In 1832, a New Society of Painters 
in Water Colours was installed at No. 16, Old Bond Street, where 
its first exhibition was opened. This new society appealed to the 
public against the exclusiveness of its predecessor, and invited all 
other artists, not members, to assist with their contribution of pic- 
tures for the exhibition. The public sympathy and patronage was 
liberally accorded for presumed liberality; but no sooner had the 
new society become well established, than they adopted the same 
exclusiveness they complained of, and now allow only the works of 
their own society to be exhibited at their new premises in Pall Mall. 
The charge for admission here is also Is. 

THE COLLECTION OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND, 
STAFFORD HOUSE, ST. JAMES'S. 

The principal feature of the pictorial embellishments of this 
mansion may be designated as of the Spanish school ; although the 
examples of Italian, Dutch, and Flemish art, with some English 
pictures, are of first-rate excellence. The gorgeous decorations of 
the various apartments where these fine works are placed, and their 
being constantly occupied by the family, forbid the possibility of their 
being seen by any but by particular and intimate friends of the noble 
duke, or by those introduced by some distinguished personage. On 
the ground-floor, in the 



GREEN LIBRARY. 

Feucheres. A bronze statue, life size, of 
the present Marquis of Stafford in 
Highland Costume. 

Sir Edward Landseer, R.A. Whole- 
length Portraits of Lady Mary Levison 
Gower, and the Marchioness of Staf- 
ford, with Dogs and a tame Fawn. 

Gruido. Atalanta and Hippomenes. 

Watteau. A pair of Subjects of Ladies 
and Gentlemen enjoying rustic Fes- 
tivities. 

Rottenhammer and D. Seghers. The 
Holy Famity, encircled by a Garland 
of Flowers. 



D. Teniers. Landscape, with Ducks in a 

Pond. 
A. E. Chalon, R.A. Portrait of the 

Duchess of Sutherland. 
Winterhalter. Scene from the Decameron 

of Boccacio. The engraved picture. 
A drawing of Flowers, by the Princess 

Adelaide of Orleans, presented to the 

Duchess. 

ANTE -ROOM. 

Guardi. A pair of Italian architectural 
Scenes. 

Moucheron and A. Vandevelde. Land- 
scape and Figures ; from the ^collection 
of the Duchesse de Berri. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. DUKE OF SUTHERLAND. 



435 




STAFFORD HOUSE. 



A. Pynacker. Landscape ; rom the j 
same collection. 

D. Teniers. A Medallion, decorated 
with Flowers, Fungi, and Fruits, in- 
closing an Incantation of Witches. 

Hackaert and A. Vandevelde. Figures ) 
hunting in the Wood near the 
Hague. 

Le Nain. A Piper playing to Children. 

Velasquez. A Halt of Travellers. 

Decker. View on a Canal, Figures by A. 
Ostade. 

Lingelbach. Market Scene with Figures, 
outside an Italian city. 

G. B. Weenix. Landscape, with Ruins 
of Buildings. 

Guardi. Portico of the Ducal Palace, 
Venice. 

De Heusch. Landscape on the Rhine. 
Ruysdael. View over an Expanse of 
flat Country, with Figures by A. Van- 
develde. 

W. Romeyn. Landscape, with Figures 
and Cattle. 



Wynants. A rustic Landscape, with 
Figures. 

P. De Konnigh. Landscape, a vast Ex- 
tent of Country. 

Van der Meulen. A Combat of Cavalry. 

Canaletti. View in Venice. 

Jan Miel. A Priest bestowing Alms. 

Orizonta. View in the Environs ot 
Rome. 

Tintoretto. The Pope seated, giving 
audience to Cardinals, Friars, and 
Attendants. 

Eckhout. Cavaliers playing at Back- 
gammon. 

Claude. An Italian Landscape. 

Breckelencamp. A Woman saying Grace. 

S. di Ferrara. The Virgin, Child, and 
St. John. 

Guardi. View of Venice, seen through 
an Arch. 

DRAWING-ROOM. 

Carlo Dolce. The Salvator Mundi. 
J. Van Goyen. A River Scene, with 
u 2 



436 



LONDON. 



D. Wingfield. The Cartoon Gallery, 
Hampton Court. 

Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of the Mar- 
chioness of Westminster. 

Sir A. W. Callcott. A Classical Land- 



Subject from the 
View of Conway 



scape. 

T. Stothard, R.A. 
Spectator. 

Sir George Beaumont. 
Castle. 

Sir David Wilkie. The Breakfast Table. 

B. R. Haydn. Cassandra foretelling 
Hector's Death. 

F. Danby, A. R.A. The Passage of the 
Red Sea by the Israelites. The 
pillar of light to guide their wander- 
ings is a triumph of artistic skill. 

THE DINING ROOM. 

P. P. Rubens. A Group of Bacchanals. 

Pietro della Vecchia. Soldiers reposing. 

Sir Thomas Lawrence. Whole-length 
Portraits of the Duchess of Sutherland 
and Lady Elizabeth Leveson Gower. 

Pordenone. The Woman taken in 
Adultery. 

Bendemann. Lamentation of the Is- 
raelites in the Desert. 



Figures. This is, without exception, 

the finest work of the artist. 
Murillo. A Pair of half-lengths, life- 
size, of Saint Justina and Saint 

Rufina. Works of the highest excel- 
lence ; they were painted for the 

Chapter House of the Cathedral of 

Seville. 
G. B. Panini. A pair of architectural 

Subjects. 
Raffaelle. Copy of the Madonna della 

Sedia. 
G. B. Panini. The Marrriage of Cana, 

composed of a multitude of figures; 

from the Due de Beni's Gallery. 
P. P. Rubens. The Marriage of St. 

Catherine. 
Artois. Grand Landscape, Woody Scene 

in Flanders. 

ANTE-ROOM. 

George Morland. Small Landscape. 

Barker of Bath. An English Landscape. 

George Morland. A Coast Scene. 

Sir T. Lawrence. Portrait of Earl 
Clanwilliam. 

W. Etty, R.A. Festival before the 
Flood ; a superb composition of seven- 
teen figures. 

In the two corridors, which nearly traverse the mansion, on the 
ground-floor, there are many pictures by English artists, comprising 
—-The Day after Chevy Chase, by T. Bird, R.A., and others by 
John Martin, B. R. Haydon, West, Allston, Westall, &c. ; also a 
drawing, by Prince Albert, of his son, the Prince of Wales, which 
the Prince presented to the Duchess. From these corridors are 
entrances to the inner-hall, whence the grand staircase ascends to the 
state apartments. It fills the entire centre of the mass of building, 
and in loftiness occupies the total height, receiving abundant light 
from a range of lantern-windows, divided by the colossal caryatides 
which support the ceiling. Whatever wealth could obtain of skill 
and art to achieve the most magnificent coup a! ceil in the metropolis, 
has been here lavished with consummate skill. The complete sur- 
face of the floor and staircase is covered with scarlet cloth ; the balus- 
trades of the hand-railing are of a graceful, complicated pattern, 
richly gilt. On the first landing is placed the marble statue of a 
sybil, by Rinaldi. From this landing two flights of steps diverge 
upwards to a gallery, which passes round three sides of the hall, and 
decorated with marble columns and balustrades. Copies, by Lorenzi, of 
several of Paul Veronese's colossal pictures fill various compartments. 
From the base to the ceiling of this grand architectural feature, sculp- 
ture, carving, gilding, and every ornament that could aid its magnifi- 
cence, have been employed to complete it. The first apartment entered 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. DUKE OF SUTHERLAND. 



437 



from the landing is the grand banqueting-hall. In a recess is placed 
the statue of Ganymede, by Thorwaldsen. A small ante-room leads 
to the gallery or hall-room, occupying the entire western side of the 
mansion ; this apartment is unequalled for gorgeousness of decoration 
by any other in the palaces and mansions of England. The ceiling 
of the central portion contains Guercino's celebrated picture of St. 
Grisogono borne to Heaven by Angels; and in compartments on 
each side of the fire-place are two famous pictures, by Murillo, of 
the Prodigal Son's Return, and Abraham and the Angels, formerly 
in the Hospital de la Caridad, Seville, and obtained from thence by 
Marshal Soult, who sold them to the Duke of Sutherland for 12,000 



guineas. 



IN THE GALLERY. 



Spagnoletto. Head of St. Peter, 
Philippe de Champagne. Portrait of 

Colbert, the Minister of France under 

Louis XIV. 
Titian. Portrait of a Gentleman. 
Morone. A Portrait of a Gentleman. 
F. Mole. St. John preaching in the 

Wilderness. 
Gaspar Poussin. A Classical Landscape. 
Andrea del Sarto. Holy Family and St. 

John. 
Corregio. The Mule Driver. This 

little picture is reputed to have been 

painted for a tavern sign. It was in 

the collection of Queen Christina, and 

afterwards in the Orleans Gallery. 
Paul Delaroche. Lord Strafford going to 

execution. 
Giiido. Head of a Magdalen. 
Cignani. Virgin, Child, and St. Anthony 

of Padua. 
Albert Durer. The Death of the 

Virgin. 
Julio Clovio. The Holy Family, with a 

number of Saints. 
Zurbaran. A Saint; from Marshal 

Soult's Gallery. 
C. du Jardin. David with the Head of 

Goliath. 
Zurbaran. The Nativity. St. Martin ; 

from Marshal Soult's Gallery. 
A. Caracci. The Martyrdom of St. 

Bartholomew; from the collection of 

Charles I. 
Pellegrino da Modena. The Virgin en- 
throned, with Saints. 
Murillo. St. Francis and the Infant 

Christ. 
Raffaelle. Christ bearing his Cross ; from 

the Ricciardi Palace. 



Murillo. Head of a Peasant Girl ; pre- 
sented by Marshal Soult. Three 
small pictures of sacred Subjects. 

Guercino. An Italian Landscape. 

Annibal Caracci. St. Stephen with 
Angels. Christ blessing Little Chil- 
dren. The Riposo ; from the Orleans 
Gallery. 

Nicolo del Abate. The Rape of Proser- 
pine. 

C. Maratti. The Virgin teaching the 
Infant Christ to read. 

Paul Veronese. Christ at Emmaus ; from 
the Orleans Gallery. 

Zurbaran. The Holy Family and St. 
John. 

Ciro Ferri. The Virgin and Child. 

G. Bassano. Presentation in the Temple ; 
from the Orleans Gallery. 

A. Veronese. Christ and the Woman of 
Samaria. 

Spagnoletto. 
Emmaus. 

Tintoretto. Portrait of an Old Man. 

Zuccaro. The Transfiguration of the 
Saviour. 

Alonzo Cano. God the Father, holding 
a Globe. 

Tintoretto. Companion Portrait of an 
old Man. 

Gennaro. A young Man reading. 

N. Poussin. Nymphs and Satyrs. 

P. P. Rubens. The Holy Family and 
St. Elizabeth. 

G. Bassano. Noah and Family entering 
the Ark. 

Guido. The Head of an elderly Female. 

L. Spada. A young Man reading. 

Cesare D'Arpino. Saint Michael. 

Guido. The Circumcision in the Temple. 

Zurbaran. St. Andrew. From Marshal 
Soult's Gallery. 



Christ and his Disciples at 



438 



LONDON. 



Velasquez. Don Francis Borgia entering 
the Jesuits' College ; several life-size 
figures ; from Marshal Soult's. 

Vandyck. Portrait of a Gentleman ; 
extremely fine. 

Titian. The Education of Cupid ; after 
Corregio, but undoubtedly painted by 
Titian as a study ; from the Braciano 
and Orleans collections. 

Morone. The Portrait of a Jesuit, 
called also Titian's Schoolmaster. A 
wondrous and justly-extolled chef- 
d'oeuvre of portrait painting ; from the 
Borghese Palace. 

School of the Caracci. Saint Margaret. 

P. Subleyras. Portrait of Pope Bene- 
dict XIV. 

Gruercino. An Allegory of Saint Gre- 
gory-. 

Parmegianino. Portrait of a Gentleman ; 
from the Aldobrandini Palace. 

Paul Veronese. Composition, with a 
Nobleman praying. 

Ludovico Caracci. The Holy Family. 



Vandyck. Portrait ot the Earl of 
Arundel ; from tne Orleans Gallery. 

Titian. Saint Jerome in the Desert. 

Varotari. Jephthah's Daughter and her 
Companions. 

Schiavone. The Entombment. 

Murillo. Portrait of a Gentleman. 

Domenichino. Saint Catherine of Alex- 
andria. 

L. Penni. Virgin and Child ; from the 
Lucca Gallery. 

Gerard della Notte. Christ before Pilate ; 
figures of life size. Painted for Prince 
Giustiniani, and afterwards in the gal- 
lery of the Duke of Lucca. 

L. Bassano. A Pastoral Fete. 

Sasso Ferrati. The Virgin and Child. 

Eubens. An Historical Sketch in "gri- 
saille" 

Pourbas. Portrait of a Gentleman. 

Titian. Portrait of a Cardinal. Por- 
trait of a Cavalier. 

A marble group of Cupid in a Bed of 
Roses, by Smith. 



LORD WARDS COLLECTION. 

At present his lordship's pictures are placed in one of the galleries 
of the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, for the convenience of admitting his 
friends to view them advantageously. The collection numbers about 
70 works, some of them of the highest character. It contains a 
large altar-piece of the Crucifixion, painted by Raffaelle in his ear- 
liest period, when he was studying under Perugino; and it bears 
such analogy to his master s hand, that if it were not inscribed with 
RafFaelle's name, and recorded in the history of the epoch, it would 
be so attributed. Another wonderful work is a composition of an 
immense number of figures of angels, cherubims, saints, holy and 
divine personages, by Angelico da Fiesole — admirable for grace and 
the religious fervour of expression. A three-quarters' length portrait of 
a lady, by Rembrandt, a matchless Canal etti, and two pictures by 
Guido, are among the greatest ornaments. In the early Italian 
school, an extraordinary picture, by Crivelli, formerly belonging to 
Mr. Coningham, and an altar-piece in three compartments, by the 
same painter, grace the collection, with other specimens of fine art 
worthy of the association. 

THE MARQUIS OF HERTFORD'S COLLECTION. 

This collection bids fair to surpass in importance any other forming 
at the present time, or even to equal any other pre-existing. It con- 
tains the rarest works that unbounded wealth could obtain during 
the few past years, from the galleries of Cardinal Fesch, the Salt- 
marshe collection, Lord Ashburnham, the late King of Holland, and 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 



439 



many others. They remain unplaced until his lordship's new man- 
sion in Piccadilly shall be completed to receive them. 

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, APSLEY HOUSE, HYDE-PARK CORNER. 




APSLEY HOUSE 



Many works of art of high importance decorate this mansion in the 
various apartments, the principal of which is a magnificent saloon, 
occupying the entire western side. On the walls are hung many of 
the finest pictures ; and it is in this room the grand annual banquet 
is given by his Grace, on June 18, the anniversary of the Battle of 
Waterloo, to the principal officers of the army who fought on the 
occasion. 

In the inner-hall stands the colossal statue of Napoleon, by Canova. 
The figure is nude, holding a winged Victory in the right hand. On 
the entrance of the allied armies into Paris, after the battle of Wa- 
terloo, it became a trophy of war, and was presented by the congre- 
gated sovereigns of Europe to the illustrious hero in whose mansion 
it is now placed. There is also a bronze copy of the monument, by 
Rauch, at Berlin, dedicated to the veteran Blucher. 

The collection of pictures is not extensive, but exceedingly choice ; 
several of them were presented to the Duke by the King of Spain, 
after their recovery from the baggage of Joseph Bonaparte, captured 
at Vittoria. The greatest gem is considered to be Christ's Agony in 
the Garden, by Corregio. It is a small picture, which has always 
borne the highest reputation, and was for a long time in the Royal 
Palace of Madrid. A similar subject, long attributed to Corregio, 
but now believed to be an old copy, is in the National Gallery. By 
Velasquez, there is the famous picture of the Water Seller, also from 
the royal collection of Spain ; besides his own portrait, and the por- 



440 



LONDON. 



trait of Pope Innocent X. A capital picture by Spagnoletto, called 
the Witch ; the Adoration of the Shepherds, Lorenzo di Credi ; and 
the Annunciation, a composition of Michael Angelo. After the 
battle of Waterloo, his Grace acquired from Monsieur Bonnemaison 
admirable copies which the artist had made from the four celebrated 
pictures by RafFaelle, belonging to the Spanish Government. The 
subjects are well known by the titles of the Spasimo, La Madonna 
del Pesce, the Pearl, and the Visitation. There is here also a repe- 
tition of the Madonna della Ledia of RafFaelle, by his pupil, Julio 
Romano. In the other schools of ancient art, are works by Claude, 
Vandyck, several by Jan Steen ; the Peace of Munster, by Ter- 
burg ; a composition of 80 figures, from Prince Talleyrand's cabinet ; 
and specimens by D. Teniers, A. Ostade, P. Wouvermans, J. Van 
der Heyden, P. de Hooge, and other celebrated painters. By English 
artists there are the well-known picture, painted for the Duke by Sir 
David Wilkie, representing Chelsea Pensioners reading the Gazette 
of the Battle of Waterloo. The Battle of Waterloo, by Sir William 
Allan, R.A. By Sir Edwin Landseer, two pictures — one portraying 
a Highland Family, and the other, Van Amburgh, the Lion Tamer, 
in the cage with the wild beasts ; and also, by Sir David Wilkie, 
a whole-length portrait of George IV., in Highland costume ; Wil- 
liam IV., whole length, in a naval uniform; and the bust only of 
Lady Lyndhurst. The collection is strictly private, and can only be 
viewed by especial permission, which is very difficult to be obtained. 

WHITEHALL CHAPEL. 

The ceiling of this chapel, formerly the banqueting house, was 
painted by Rubens, at the command of Charles I., in 1630. It con- 
sists of nine compartments, each of which contains a picture alluding 
to the prosperity and reign of James I. The central compartment, 




BANQUETING HOUSE, WHITEHALL. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. WINDSOR CASTLE. 441 

which is of oval form, represents the king seated on clouds, with his 
feet resting on a globe, grouped with various allegorical figures ; this 
is usually called the Apotheosis of James I. A second central com- 
partment exhibits the king seated on his throne, habited in the royal 
robes, and attended by figures emblematical of the happiness of his 
reign in banishing discord and the evils of war. The third grand 
picture has also the king enthroned, extending his sceptre towards an 
infant, afterwards Charles I., borne by female figures personifying 
Scotland and Ireland, and attended by Britannia. On each side 
of the central picture are friezes composed of numerous genii, angels 
and savage animals led by them, with abundance of fruit and sheaves 
of corn, portraying the good government of the king's reign. The 
four small compartments are occupied by emblematical groups of 
Wealth and Honour, Strength, Wisdom, and Justice. 

Rubens was paid 3000/. for painting the series. They were taken 
down 15 years ago, and found to be in perfect preservation, and of 
the most refined execution of this great master. They had under- 
gone, at various times, attempts at restoration, but these daubings 
were removed with the greatest facility, and the pure tints of the 
artist discovered beneath, uninjured and in their full perfection. 

WINDSOR CASTLE. 

Her Majesty has graciously commanded that the suite of state 
apartments in this noble pile of building should be open to the 
public, without expense, under the following arrangement. 

Tickets to admit a party of four or six persons are issued by the 
Lord Chamberlain, and may be obtained, gratis, on application to 
Messrs. P. and D. Colnaghi, Printsellers, 14, Pall Mall East; Mr. 
Moon, Printseller, 20, Threadneedle Street; Mr. Mitchell, Book- 
seller, 33, Old Bond Street ; Messrs. Ackermann, Printsellers, 96, 
Strand ; Mr. Wright, Bookseller, 60, Pall Mall. 

The tickets are available for one week from the day they are 
issued. The party applying for them as above is required to give his 
or her name, which is inserted on the tickets. They are not trans- 
ferable, and it is contrary to Her Majesty's command if payment 
for, or in reference to, them be made to any person whatsoever. 

The days for the public to be admitted by this means are Mon- 
days, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The hours are — from the 
1st of April to the 1st of October, between eleven and four; and 
from the 1st of November to the 3 1st of March, between eleven 
and three. 

A small guide book, price one penny, printed by command of His 
Royal Highness Prince Albert, may be purchased at all the above 
named shops, where the tickets are issued. More extensive descrip- 
tions of the castle, and of the parks and forest are to be purchased 
of the booksellers in the town of Windsor. 

The suite of state apartments to which the public have free ad- 

u 3 



442 



LONDON. 



mission, consists of the Queen's Audience Chamber, the Old Ball 
Room, the Queen's State Drawing Room, the State Ante Room, the 
Grand Vestibule, the Waterloo Chamber, the Presence Chamber, St. 
George's Hall, the Guard Chamber, the Queen's Presence Chamber. 

The portion of the castle occupied as a residence by Her Majesty 
can only be viewed by an express permission of the Lord Chamber- 
lain, to be obtained on application to him at the office in St. James's 
Palace. These permissions are only granted upon reference to some 
known person of respectability, and, of course, are only available 
when Her Majesty is resident elsewhere. The state apartments 
above enumerated are open to the public, whether Her Majesty is in 
the castle or not. The access to them is by an entrance undei a 
small Gothic porch adjoining King John's Tower. Passing up a small 
staircase and through an ante-room, the first of the state apartments 
is the Queen's audience chamber. The ceiling is painted by Verrio, 
and the walls are embellished with tapestry, representing events from 
the book of Esther. Over a door is a whole-length of Mary Queen 
of Scots, by a painter unknown, in a frame exquisitely carved by 
Grinlin Gibbons ; and, similarly placed, a whole-length portrait of 
William II., Prince of Orange, by Gerard Houthorst. The succeeding 
apartment, called 

The Ball Room, contains the following pictures, painted by Van- 
dyck. 

1. Henry Count de Berg, half length in 

armour. 

2. King Charles I. and his Queen Hen- 

rietta Maria, whole-lengths, life- 
size, sitting. 

3. Mary, Duchess of Richmond, as St. 

Agnes, full length. 

4. Thomas Killigrew, and Thomas Ca- 

re w, three-quarter length. 

5. Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of 

Charles I., three-quarter length. 

6. Venetian Lady Digby, whole length, 

sitting, with emblems repelling the 
calumnies of the day against her 
chastity. 

7. The Duke of Buckingham and his 

brother, Lord Francis Villiers. 
Youths, full length. 

8. The Prince of Carignan, in armour, 

three-quarter length. 

9. The Queen of Charles I. A Profile, 

half length. 

10. The Princess de Cantecroy, whole- 

length. 

11, Children of Charles I., five figures, 

full-length. 

Besides tbis fine and extensive gathering of the works of this 
eminent artist, the room contains some bronzes, from the antique. 



12. King Charles I. Front, profile and 

three-quarter face. This picture was 
painted expressly by Vandyck for 
the sculptor Bernini, to make the 
king's bust from, and remained in 
Italy until George IV. purchased it 
for 1000 guineas. 

13. The Queen of Charles I., half-length, 

in white satin. 

14. Lucy, Countess of Carlisle, whole. 

length. 

15. Sir Kenelm Digby, three-quarter 

length, sitting. 

16. King Charles II. when a boy, whole- 

length. 

1 7. Sir Anthony Vandyck, half-length. 

18. Henrietta Maria, Consort of Charles 

I., whole length. 

19. Three Children of Charles I., whole 

length. 

20. The Countess of Dorset, whole length. 

21. King Charles I. on Horseback, ac- 

companied by his equerry M. de 
St. Antoine on Foot, life-size figures. 

22. Portrait of a Gentleman. 



GALLERIES OF PICTURES. — WINDSOR CASTLE. 



443 



The Queen's State Drawing Room. The ceiling is painted by 
Verrio, and there are nine pictures by Zuccarelli in the room, besides 
the portraits of Henry, Duke of Gloucester, George I., George II., 
George III., and Frederick Prince of Wales. Passing through the 
state ante-room, the grand staircase succeeds; on the landing-place 
is a colossal statue of King George IV., by Sir Francis Chantrey ; 
here, crossing the grand vestibule, which contains some ancient ar- 
mour, the Waterloo chamber is entered. It is a recently-erected 
room of large dimensions, and is adorned with the celebrated collec- 
tion of portraits of the sovereigns, warriors, and diplomatists, who 
were distinguished in the great political events of 1813, 1814, and 
1815. The portraits are all painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, un- 
less otherwise expressed, and are as follows : — 

1. The Due de Richelieu, Minister of 19. Count Nesselrode. 

20. The Pope Pius VII. 

21. Count of Capo d'Istria. 

22. Prince Metternich. 

23. Viscount Hill, by Pickersgill, R.A. 

24. Charles X. King" of France. 

25. Prince of Schwartzenberg. 

26. The Archduke Charles of Austria. 

27. Lieut.-Greneral Sir Thomas Picton. 

28. The Due d'Angouleme. 

29. The Duke of Brunswick. 

30. Leopold, King of the Belgians. 

31. General Sir James Kemp, by Pick- 
ersgill, E..A. 

32. The Hettman, Count Platoff. 

33. The Duke of Wellington. 

34. Marshal Blucher. 

35. Count Alten, by Reichmann. 

36. The Marquis of Anglesey. 

37. Count Czernitscheff. 

38. William II., King of Holland. 



Foreign Affairs in 1815 

2. General Overoff. 

3. The Duke of Cambridge. 

4. The Earl of Liverpool. 

5. King William IV., by Sir D. Wilkie. 

6. King George III., by Sir W. Beechey. 

7. King George IV., whole-length, in the 

Robes of the Garter. 

8. Lord Viscount Castlereagh. 

9. The Duke of York. 

10. Baron Von Humboldt. 

11. The Right Hon. George Canning. 

12. The Earl of Bathurst. 

13. Count Munster. 

14. Cardinal Gonsalvi. 

15. The Prince of Hardenberg. 

16. Frederick William III., King of 

Prussia. 

17. Francis I., Emperor of Austria. 

18. Alexander I., Emperor of Russia. 

The next apartment, called the Presence Chamber, is decorated 
with tapestry, and contains on a pedestal a magnificent malachite 
vase, presented to Her Majesty by the Emperor of Russia. This 
room leads to 

St. George's Hall, an apartment 200 ft. long, 34 broad, and 32 
ft. high. The decorations have all of them allusion to the order of 
the garter, and there are portraits of the sovereigns of England 
from James I. to George IV. The state banquets take place oc- 
casionally in this vast apartment. 

The Guard Chamber contains a variety of arms and military tro- 
phies. In a glass case over the fireplace is the shield presented by 
Francis I. to Henry VIII., at the meeting on the field of the Cloth 
of Gold, near Calais. The workmanship of it has been attributed 
to Benvenuto Cellini. There are the busts of Wellington by Chan- 
trey, the Duke of Marlborough, by Sievier, after Rysbrach, and of 
Nelson also, by Chantrey, in this room. 



444 LONDON. 

The Queen's Presence Chamber concludes the suite of state apart- 
ments ; the walls are hung with tapestry, and the portraits of the 
Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick, and the Princess Dorothea of 
Brunswick, both painted by Mytens the elder, and a portrait by 
Mignard of Henrietta Maria, daughter of Charles L, afterwards 
Duchess of Orleans. 

Leaving this part of the Castle, the visitor's attention is called to 
an enormous building, known as the Round Tower; the ascent to 
the top is by a hundred steps, and the view from the summit em- 
braces a vast extent of country, including Windsors renowned park. 
The chapel, called St. George's Chapel, is also deserving of a view. 
In it the installation of the knights of the garter takes place, and 
their insignia are placed over the stalls. There is a monument to 
the memory of the Princess Charlotte, consisting of several figures, 
in very questionable taste ; some early paintings in the recesses at 
the back of the stalls, and at the upper end of the chapel, near the 
altar, some curious early iron-work, conjectured to have been exe- 
cuted by Quintin Matsys, the blacksmith of Antwerp. Adjoining 
St. George's Chapel is the tomb house, and the opening into the vault 
containing the mortal remains of many members of the present Royal 
Family. Visitors are also invited to view the royal stables. For 
viewing the stables, the round tower, and St. George's Chapel, the 
attendants expect a small gratuity. 

The town of Windsor possesses no interest. By the Great Wes- 
tern and the South Western railways, trains convey travellers seve- 
ral times in the day, the rapid journey enabling them to view the 
Castle, and, if desirable, to take a drive to Virginia Water, or to 
visit Heme's Oak, immortalized by Shakspeare in the Comedy of 
^ The Merry Wives of Windsor." (See article " Gardens," &c.) 

LONDON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. 

The new works in University College were finished by the beginning of 1851, and 
include the Flaxman Hall, and adjoining apartments and the Library. The Flaxman 
Hall is the central apartment under the Cupola, and was designed by Professors 
Cockerell and Donaldson for the reception of Flaxman's models, presented by Miss 
Denman. This hall is a fitting memorial of the great English sculptor, and its 
architectural details are richly decorated. In the vestibule is a large group, Flaxman's 
restoration of the torso of the Hercules Farnese. Under the dome is his St. Michael 
and Satan, and around the walls of the hall are his various monumental and other 
bas-reliefs, arranged in compartments. An adjoining room contains the Shield of 
Achilles and other works. The library, designed by Professor Donaldson, is a large 
room in the Italian style, more richly and finely decorated than is common in London 
libraries. Here is the marble statue of Locke. The books are chiefly the gift of 
Dr. Hulme, Messrs. Ricardo, Morrison, and other benefactors, whose names are 
recorded in gold letters under the cornice above. (See also article "Learned So- 
cieties," &c.) 

Although not usually included under the Galleries of Art, the Glyptotheca in the 
Colosseum properly belongs to them, and is one of the London interiors most deserving 
of attention. It is a circular gallery under the dome of the Colosseum, supported 
by richly-decorated columns, and under which are models of works of modern 



SCATTERED PICTURES. 



445 



English sculptors finished in imitations of marble. The theatre of the Cyclorama in 
the same building is likewise worthy of inspection as a specimen of luxurious archi- 
tectural decoration. 

SCATTERED PICTURES TO BE SEEN IN THE PLACES HEREIN MENTIONED. 



Distemper paintings in Carpenters' Hall, Lon- 
don Wall, viz. Noah building the Ark, King 
Josiah ordering the Temple to be repaired, 
Christ assisting Joseph at Work, and Christ 
teaching in the Synagogue. 

Fire of London, by Waggoner. In Painter 
Stainers' Hall, Little Trinity Lane. 

Holbein's Picture of Presenting the Charter to 
the Company of Surgeons. In Barber-Sur- 
geons' Hall, Monkwell Street, City. 

Magdalen, by Sebastian Franck. "A small, 
pretty picture on copper, in Painter Stainers' 
Hall. 

Picture by Hudson— A Conversational Party. 
In Goldsmith's Hall, Foster Lane, Cheapside. 

Portraits of the Sovereigns Charles I., Charles 
II., James II., William III., Queen Anne, 
George III., and Queen Charlotte ; also, Por- 
trait of Pitt, by Hoppner; the Duke of 
York, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, R.A. ; Por- 
trait of the Earl (Chancellor) Eldon, by 
Briggs, R.A. ; Portrait of the Duke of Wel- 
lington, by Wilkie, R.A. In Merchant 
Tailors' Hall, Threadneedle Street. 

Portraits of the several masters and officers of 
the Merchant Tailors' Company :— Sir Tho- 
mas White, 1561; Sir Thomas Bow, 1562; 
Robert Dow, 1578; John Vernon, 1609; 
Robert Gray, 1628 ; Walter Poll, 1649. 

Portrait of Queen Anne, by Chesterman. In 
the Council Chamber, Guildhall. 

Portraits of several members of the Haber- 
dashers' Company. In the Hall, Staining 
Lane, Cheapside. 

Portrait of Nicholas Revett, Architect, who 
accompanied James Stuart to Athens, and 
who conjointly published the large work of 
Stuart and Revett's " Athens." In the Insti- 
tute of British Architects. Presented by 
John Weale, of High Holborn. 

Portrait of Thomas Telford, Engineer; Por- 
trait of James Walker, Engineer ; Portrait of 
Robert Stephenson, Engineer. In the Insti- 
tution of Civil Engineers. 

Portrait of Lord Hood, by Gainsborough. In 
Ironmongers' Hall, Fenchurch Street. 

Portrait of Dean Colet. In Mercers' Hall, Iron- 
monger Lane. 

Portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham. In ditto. 

Portrait of Henry VIIL, by P. Bordone. In 
Merchant Tailors' Hall, Threadneedle Street. 

Portrait of Mrs. Crawthorne, 1568, who gave 
the Belle Sauvage, on Ludgate Hill, to the 
Company of Cutlers. Cloak Lane, College 
Hill. 

Portrait of Lord Nelson, by Sir W. Beechey. 
In Drapers' Hall, Throgmorton Street. 

Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, and her Son 
James I. when a Child, by Zucchero. In 
Drapers' Hall, Throgmorton Street. 

Portraits of William III. and Queen Mary, by 



Murray. In Fishmongers' Hall, London 
Bridge. 

Portraits of George II. and Queen, by Shackle- 
ton. In ditto. 

Portrait of the Duke of Kent, father of Her 
Majesty, by Sir William Beechey. In ditto. 

Portrait of Admiral St. Vincent, by Sir Wil- 
liam Beechey. In ditto. 

Portrait of Her Majesty, by Herbert Smith. In 
ditto. 

Portrait of Clarencieux Herald Lord Camden. 
(Painters Hall.) 

Portrait of the Prince of Wales (father of 
George III.), by Frye. In Sadlers' Hall, 
Cheapside. 

Portrait of Adrian Charpontico, painter. In 
Salters' Hall, Oxford Court, St. Swithins' 
Lane. 

Portrait of Sir Andrew Judd, Lord Mayor, 1551. 
In Skinners' Hall, Dowgate Hill. 

Portrait of the Duke of Sussex, by Sir William 
Beechey. As Grand Master in Freemasons' 
Hall, Great Queen Street. 

Portrait of Sir John Cutler. In Grocers' Hall, 
Poultry. 

Portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte, 
by Ramsay; of George IV., by Northcote; 
of William IV., by Sir Martin Shee; and of 
Sir Hugh Myddleton. In Goldsmith's Hall, 
Foster Lane, Cheapside. 

Portrait of Charles II., by J. B. Gaspars. In 
Painter Stainers' Hall. 

Portrait of Charles II.'s Queen, by Hugsman. 
In ditto. 

Portrait of William III., by Sir Godfrey 
Kneller. In ditto. 

Portrait of Queen Anne, by Dahl. In ditto. 

Portrait of Sir Hugh Myddleton, by Janson. 
In ditto. 

Portrait of Sir Martin Bowes, and his Cup be- 
queathed to the Goldsmith's Company. In 
ditto. 

Portrait of Her Majesty, by Sir George Hayter. 
In ditto. 

Portrait of Queen Adelaide. By Sir Martin 
Shee. In ditto. 

Portraits of Charles II., James II., Marie 
d'Este, and Prince George of Denmark, are 
in Vintners' Hall, Upper Thames Street. 

Portraits of interesting literary characters — 
Prior, Steele, Richardson, Mrs. Richardson, 
Alderman Boy dell, Wing the Astrologer. In 
the Stationers' Company's Hall. Also a fine 
picture by West, R.A., of Alfred and the 
Pilgrim. 

In the South Sea House there are several 
curious portraits of the governors of that 
remarkable company which are worth seeing, 
especially by those whose families have been 
connected with commerce a century or so 
back. 



A great number of fine pictures are in the possession of private individuals, but it 
would be useless to particularize these, as they are constantly changing owners; and 
many are in the town mansions of the nobility and gentry, besides the more important 
works already named. 



446 LONDON. 

GAS WORKS AND GAS LIGHTING IN LONDON. 

A convenient and cheap mode of obtaining artificial light is, in these 
latitudes, one of the greatest advantages that science can confer on the 
inhabitants of a large city. Those who remember the night appearance 
of London fifty years ago, when the dim oil lantern in the street, and the 
flickering candle in the shop window, served for little more than to 
render darkness visible, will the more readily appreciate the brilliant 
illumination now seen almost universally throughout the metropolis. 
The introduction of gas lighting has not only tended to improve the 
thoroughfares, to render the traffic more convenient, and to stimulate the 
trade of the shops ; but has also had a most important influence in pro- 
tecting property against the attempts of the robber, to whom the dark 
and lonely state of unlighted streets and roads has always given en- 
couragement and shelter. 

Gas lighting is an invention of the present century, the first applica- 
tion of it, on any scale of magnitude, having been made by Mr. Murdock, 
at Soho, near Birmingham, about 1802. A year or two afterwards Mr. 
Winsor, a German, exhibited it for the first time in London, and projected 
a company, to be called the National Light and Heat Company, for the 
purpose of applying the principle on a large scale. In 1807, he lighted 
one side of Pall Mall with gas ; and having obtained subscriptions to a con- 
siderable a,mount, proceeded to try experiments, in which he expended the 
whole of the money subscribed ; his supporters, however, nothing 
daunted, persevered in their attempt, and in 1809 applied to Parlia- 
ment for an Act of incorporation, to enable them more effectually and 
beneficially to carry on their works. They encountered much opposition, 
and their application was unsuccessful ; but they returned to the charge, 
and in 1810 obtained their Act, which was followed on the 30th of April, 
1812, by the grant of a charter of incorporation. This was the origin of 
"The Gas Light and Coke Company," more generally known as the 
Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company, the first established, and now 
the largest in London. Their first works were in Cannon Row, West- 
minster ; but finding this site inconvenient, they removed to Peter 
Street, or Horseferry Road, where their principal establishment now 
stands. Their first trials on a large scale were very costly, as experi- 
ments of this nature must necessarily be; but in 1813 they engaged 
Mr. Samuel Clegg, whose name is connected with some of the greatest 
improvements in gas lighting, and soon after this time their 
arrangements rapidly improved. 

After the successful establishment of this Company, others arose 
for lighting other districts of the metropolis, and the demand for the new 
light went on steadily increasing. We have no room here either to give 
the history of the various companies, or to trace the successive improve- 
ments by which the art of making, purifying, and distributing gas has 
arrived at its present state of perfection ; we must content ourselves with 
briefly describing the state o£ things at present existing. 

London is now supplied with gas by fourteen companies, having twenty 
gas-making establishments in different parts of the town and its suburbs. 

The Chartered Gas Company, already alluded to, have three stations ; 
the principal one in the Horseferry Road, Westminster ; another in Brick 
Lane, Finsbury ; and a third in Curtain Road, Shoreditch. 

The City Gas Company, was established in 1817 ; their works are 
situate in Dorset Street, Blackfriars Bridge. 



GAS WORKS AND GAS LIGHTING. 447 

The Imperial Gas Company was established in 1821. They have three 
stations ; one near Battle Bridge, King's Cross ; one at Fulham ; and 
one in the Hackney Road. 

The Ratcliff Gas Company, established in 1823, have works at New 
Crane, Wapping. 

The British Gas Company, established in 1824, have works in Broad 
Street, Ratcliff Highway. 

The Phoenix Gas Company was established in 1824, and supply the 
south side of London only. They have three gas-making stations ; one 
in Bankside, Southwark ; one at Greenwich ; and one at Vauxhall. 
They have also two separate gas-holder stations, one in Wellington 
Street, Blackfriars, and one at Kennington. 

The Independent Gas Company was established in 1825, and their 
works are at Haggerstone. 

The Equitable Gas Company, established in 1830, have works at Thames 
Bank, Pimlico. 

The London Gas Company was established in 1833. Their works are 
in Lambeth, near Vauxhall Bridge, but their mains cross the bridge, and 
extend a considerable distance on the north side of the Thames. 

The South Metropolitan Gas Company was established in 1834, and 
have works in the Old Kent Road. 

The Deptford Gees Company, established in 1836, have works at Dept- 
ford Creek. 

The Commercial Gas Company, established in 1840, have works at 
Stepney. 

The Western Gas Company established in 1849, a station at Kensall 
Green, for the purpose of supplying the north-western part of London 
with gas, made from a peculiar kind of coal (Cannel Coal), and of a su- 
perior illuminating power to that supplied by the other companies*. The 
price charged is higher than for the ordinary gas ; but a smaller 
quantity suffices to produce an equal light. 

The Great Central Gas Consumers' Company was founded in 1850, in 
consequence of an agitation promoted in the city, for obtaining gas at a 
cheaper rate of cost than it had hitherto been afforded by the gas 
companies. Their works are at Bow Common. 

The united investment of the companies is nearly 4,000,000?., and the 
average dividend paid has been between five and six per cent. The total 
amount received for the sale of gas in 1848 was upwards of 700,000?. 

The general process of making coal gas is the same in all gas 
works. The coal, a compound of carbon and hydrogen with other mat- 
ters, is submitted to a red heat in vessels of cast iron or clay, called 
retorts : by which hydro-carbon gases and other volatile products are 
evolved, and a solid residuum of coke is left behind. The coke, after 
deducting what is used for heating the retorts, becomes a profitable arti- 
cle of sale. The gas as it first comes over from distillation is very impure, 
containing volatile oil or coal tar, ammoniacal vapour, carbonic acid, 
sulphuretted hydrogen, &c. and would be in this state totally unfit for use; 
the purification, therefore, of the gas is one of the most important objects 
of gas making. The gas is first cooled and washed with water, whereby 
the tar and ammoniacal liquor are condensed and deposited, after which 
the carbonic acid and sulphuretted hydrogen are removed by exposing the 

* Some of the other companies have lately begun to supply cannel coal gas, as well as that 
from Newcastle coal. 



448 LONDON.. 

gas to contact with lime * in close vessels called purifiers, and the gas is 
then ready for use. 

As the manufacture of gas must go on regularly, while the consump- 
tion is very irregular, it becomes necessary to provide means at each gas- 
making station, by which the surplus quantity made during the day time 
may be stored up ready for distribution when required. For this purpose 
large Gas-holders (or as they are often improperly called gas-ometers) are 
erected, consisting of huge sheet-iron vessels suspended by chains in 
an inverted position with their open mouths dipping in water ; when the 
manufacture of gas exceeds the consumption, these vessels rise and fill 
with gas, which is again given out at the time of the increased demand. 
Some of these gas-holders are very large : one belonging to the Imperial 
Gas Company, situate at Battle Bridge, is 120 ft. in diameter, and 45 ft. 
high, and contains about 500,000 cubic feet of gas. Some gas-holders 
are double, one vessel sliding inside another like the tubes of a tele- 
scope, and are hence called telescope gas-holders. One of this description 
at Kennington, belonging to the Phoenix Gas Company, is 150 ft. in 
diameter, and has two lifts of 20 feet each ; it contains nearly 700,000 
cubic feet' of gas. It is estimated that the various London gas com- 
panies combined have storage room enough for nearly 10,000,000 cubic 
feet of gas. 

The gas is propelled by the weight of the gas-holders through cast- 
iron mains or pipes laid in the streets, from which it passes by small 
wrought-iron service pipes to the street lamps and into the houses. The 
gas mains vary from 26 inches to 2 inches in diameter, and it is calcu- 
lated that there are 1900 miles of them laid in London and its suburbs. 

The burners, where the gas is ignited as it issues, are of a great 
variety of forms. The most common are, the argand burner, in which 
the gas issues from a horizontal ring of holes, each about one thirty- 
second part of an inch in diameter, and forms a cylinder of flame ; the 
batwing burner, whose name describes the form of its flame, the gas 
issuing from a narrow slit ; and the fish-tail or union jet burner, where 
a narrow flat flame is formed by the meeting of two jets at an acute 
angle. A moderate- sized argand burner will burn 5, a batwing burner 
4^, and a fish-tail burner 4 cubic feet of ordinary coal gas per hour. 

Gas is now generally paid for by measure, the quantity used being 
ascertained by an ingenious little instrument fixed in each house, called 
a gas-meter, which indicates accurately the quantity of gas passing 
through. It was formerly the custom to charge consumers so much per 
light ; but this plan causing much trouble and dispute, and being often 
unjust either to purchaser or seller, it is now almost entirely superseded 
by the other and incomparably better plan. The price charged has 
been subject to great reduction from time to time, as competition has 
increased and the art of gas making has improved. When the gas- 
meter was first introduced about 1820, it was fifteen shillings per thou- 
sand cubic feet ; in 1848 it was six shillings. In that year an agita- 
tion was commenced for cheap gas, which ended in the formation of 
a new competing company, and in the reduction of the price to four 
shillings within and five shillings without the city. Public street 

* Several ingenious plans have been devised from time to time as substitutes for the use of 
lime, the objection to which is its expense and the difficulty of getting rid of the offensive 
resulting compound without causing nuisance. The most modern of these is Mr. Laming'* 
patent process for the use of hydrated oxide of iron, which has been lately introduced with suc- 
cess at the Chartered Gas Works, by the superintendent, Mr. F. J. Evans. This material may be 
easily re-vivified in the purifier in order to be used repeatedly over and over again. 



GAS WORKS AND GAS LIGHTING. 



449 



lamps (for which about a quarter of the whole quantity of gas made is 
required) are charged, by agreement, at a lower rate. The charge for 
cannel coal gas is- six shillings per thousand feet. 

The cheapness of gas, as compared with other modes of procuring 
artificial light, may be seen from the following table* : — 



Comparative Cost of Light from Candles, Lamps, and Gas. 


Tallow candles (dips) 

Ditto ditto (moulds)... 
Composition ditto 


Quantities and 

Prices of 
Candles and Oil. 


Quantities and Prices of Gas 
for an equal light. 


Cubic feet. 


At 5s. per 
1000. 


At As. per 
1000. 


lib. 

lib. 

lib. 

lib. 

1 gall. 

IgaU. 


s. d. 
6 

8 

1 

2 4 
4 
8 


21 
21 
25 
25 
175 
217 


s. d. 
IJ 

o n 

o 14 
o 14 

104 

1 l 


s. d. 
1 
1 
IJ 

o h 

84 

o 104 


Wax ditto 


Solar and pale Seal oil ... 
Sperm oil 





This table shows that gas is only about one-sixth the price of tallow, or 
one-twentieth that of wax candles, and one-eighth that of sperm oil. 

The annual consumption of coal for gas-making in London in 1849 
was about 380,000 tons. It is principally brought from the Durham coal 
field, and its average price delivered at the gas stations in London is 
about 14s. 6d. per ton. One ton of this coal yields about 9000 to 9500 
cubic feet of gas, and leaves a residuum of 13^ cwt. of coke in the 
retorts. 

Gas has now a periodical literature of its own, a c Journal of Gas 
Lighting' being published monthly in London (under the management 
of Mr. T. G. Barlow, gas engineer), for the purpose of circulating informa- 
tion interesting to gas companies and their customers. 

The quantity of gas made in 1849 was 3,500,000,000 cubic feet, the 
ordinary maximum daily made being about 15,000,000 cubic feet. On 
some days, particularly on Saturdays in the dark season, a larger quan- 
tity than this is required ; it is supposed that as much as 18,000,000 
cubic feet are occasionally supplied in one day. The consumption of gas 
appears constantly on the increase. From 1827 to 1839 the annual 
quantity of gas consumed in the metropolis doubled what it had been 
from 1822 to 1827 ; and from 1837 to 1848 it again doubled what it 
was in the preceding ten years. And in consequence of the late reduc- 
tion in price, it is confidently expected that the consumption will still 
go on fast increasing. New applications of gas are continually offering 
themselves, and, among others, cooking may be named as one of the most 
successful. Hitherto gas has been but little used in private houses, 
even for lighting purposes ; but in proportion as unfounded prejudices and 
mistaken ideas respecting it disappear, and as the convenience, economy, 
and safety of its use become more appreciated, it cannot be doubted 
that the domestic use of gas will prove one of the most extensive 
branches of consumption. 

* Extracted with merely the alteration of the price of the gas, from a valuable little work 
on " The Advantages of Gas in Private Houses/' by Mr. J. O. N. Rutter, 1850. 



450 LONDON. 

GARDENS, CONSERVATORIES, AND PARKS. 
It is an observation so common as almost to have become trite, that 
whatever distinctive peculiarities may be found in any of the different 
provincial towns of England, something exceedingly like them will be dis- 
covered in one unnoticed corner or other of the vast metropolis. There 
are, it is assumed, types or examples in some part of London of every- 
thing that is thought to have only a local character in a great num- 
ber of country towns. But whatever amount of truth there may be in 
this opinion, the state of gardening around the metropolis is usually 
and perhaps justly regarded as embodying all that is known of excel- 
lence throughout the country, and as affording a fair criterion by which 
the progress of horticulture may be judged. And though there will 
doubtless be places, in rural districts, where local advantages, or superior 
means, or unusual skill, may carry some particular branch of gardening 
to a higher point than is commonly attained around London, yet, in 
general, gardening practice, within a radius of twenty miles all round 
St. Paul's, will be in advance, or at least comprehend all the excellence, 
of what is done throughout the rest of the country. 

A description of metropolitan gardening, or a tour of observation 
through the London gardens, ought, therefore, if these premises be 
correct, to include specimens of whatever is really meritorious all over 
England. Possibly, however, the rule will hold good more extensively in 
reference to practical matters than as regards questions of taste ; differ- 
ence of climate and other local features often developing peculiar local 
beauties. 

In an ornamental point of view, the environs of London present several 
general characteristics. The valley of the Thames, from London up to 
Hampton Court, is rich in all the beauties which water-side villas and 
villages commonly impart. The neighbourhoods of Fulham and 
Putney, Kew, Isleworth, Twickenham, Richmond, and Teddington, 
may be specially singled out as affording pleasant banks and islands, 
or interesting villas. The celebrated villa of Pope, at Twickenham, 
has been converted into an extraordinary modern residence, in a mixed 
Chinese style ; and Strawberry Hill, the seat of Horace Walpole, 
in the immediate neighbourhood, still remains. A handsome Italian 
structure nearly adjoins Pope's villa. The railway bridge across the 
river near Richmond has created a particularly good object in the 
scenery of that pleasing neighbourhood, and this is well seen both from 
Richmond Bridge and from a point on the river opposite to what was 
the Marquis of Ailsa's villa, at Twickenham. At Richmond Bridge 
there is a row of new villas just erected on the Middlesex side, which 
exhibits a very desirable mode of separating the houses in a short terrace, 
and breaking their outline, by placing a conservatory between every two 
of them (see illustration opposite). The subordinate entrances, too, are 
very well masked by a low wall which forms part of the elevation, and 
a balustraded wall is carried along the front of the whole. As respects 
their general elevation, and their fitness for composing parts of a land- 
scape, there is much about these villas of a truly artistic character. 

Hampstead is very well wooded, having some rather extensive open 
tracts of country and gentlemen's seats in its neighbourhood. From 
various parts of these hills, the views of London are extremely good ; 
and the prospects into Hertfordshire, towards Barnet, as well as more 
westward, are exceedingly rich and varied. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. 



451 




RICHMOND TERRACE. 



Between Hampstead and Ken sal Green there are other inferior hills, 
which occasionally rise into swells, and are continued towards the west, 
presenting broad masses of trees and glades of grass, with admirable sites 
for villas. Farther westward, on the Surrey side of the Thames, Rich- 
mond Hill, and the high ground on which the Park is situated, stands 
up conspicuously, with its ample crown of trees ; and this range extends 
back to Roehampton, and Putney Heath, and Wandsworth ; affording 
numberless positions for villas, and being splendidly furnished with 
woods. There are probably some of the finest villas round London in 
this direction. Wimbledon Hill, which is almost on a level with Putney 
Heath, is yet in part detached by the low ground in Wimbledon Park, 
and, from a great many points around the parks of Mrs. Marryatt, Mr. 
Peach, and that formerly belonging to Earl Spencer, displays the most 
charming diversity of lawn and trees, 

Cedars of Lebanon, of great age and size, constitute a peculiar and 
very observable feature in the landscape of the suburbs, and are un- 
usually numerous on the west and south-west sides. As the adjuncts ot 
stately mansions or elegant villas, along the valley of the Thames, they 
are remarkably telling ; and the traveller can scarcely pass a hundred 
yards down portions of the western roads, without coming upon fresh 
specimens or groups of them. It is scarcely necessary to add that they 
communicate a very marked and aristocratic character to the district. 
And they are as beautiful in a young state as they are venerable and 
majestic when old, They are here met with in avenues, and standing 
opposite each other near a house, or on a lawn, or as single trees, or parts 



452 LONDON. 

of a mixed plantation. But very rarely are they found grouped toge- 
ther in masses of three, four, or more on lawns or in parks. Those at 
Holland House are a distinguished exception, but they are unfor- 
tunately now so shattered as to have lost their principal beauty. No 
tree, perhaps, if we may judge from the imperfect examples we have 
seen, and the more satisfactory representations of those still existing on 
Lebanon, is better adapted to unite into a splendid group for a lawn, or 
for the slope of a park, or especially for a swell or knoll in either a 
park or garden, where they would be sufficiently sheltered. As trees for 
detached grouping, with their own species alone, both this and the 
Deodar have, we are convinced, yet to develop a new and most uncom- 
mon character in the southern counties of England. 

Lombardy Poplars, again, are very freely (not often very judiciously) 
introduced into the scenery around London. 

Beeches do not appear at home anywhere along the flat grounds near 
the Thames ; but at Burnham, a little below Slough, there are some 
celebrated ones, growing on a thin, light, gravelly soil, and Windsor Park 
contains some superb specimens. In the neighbourhood of Sevenoaks, 
Kent, also, the beeches at Knowle Park are of the finest order, while those 
in the Marquess of Camden's park, adjoining, are superlatively beautiful, 
being planted on the slope of a hill, and spreading down their branches 
on the grass in the most graceful and natural fringe imaginable. On 
the top of a hill not far from this, but nearer London, are the famous 
Knockholt Beeches, which, standing alone in a large tuft, make a con- 
spicuous landmark which can be seen for thirty miles around. 

Of Spanish Chestnuts, we shall have some prodigious specimens to 
notice on a property of the Duke of Devonshire, near Chiswick. In 
Kensington Gardens, Greenwich Park, and other places, there are some 
very fine ones, which we shall also describe. It is a first-rate park tree 
for the low sheltered tract by the sides of the Thames ; and is hardly 
enough esteemed. The extraordinary avenue of horse-chestnuts in 
Bushy Park will be referred to in the proper place. 

Weeping Willows, especially in the Surrey suburbs, are much used in 
some of the smaller villa gardens ; and though more commonly reserved 
for the margins of water in larger places, or for overshadowing tombs in 
cemeteries. 

Those who visit the neighbourhood of London in the autumn, will be 
much pleased by the appearance of the Virginian creeper, which abounds 
on houses, cottages, walls, gateways, &c. The mixture of red and yellow 
and a purplish tint in its foliage at that season imparts a great richness 
to its appearance. It is most cultivated on the western side of the town. 

Public Parks. — London, like most other large and populous towns, has 
gradually spread itself so completely over the open spaces which formerly 
surrounded it, that it is now, as respects the number of its inhabitants, 
by no means liberally supplied with breathing places, or the means of 
open-air recreation. And this encroachment on its suburbs has been 
effected with such comparative slowness, and so silently, that it is only 
by the occurrence of modern epidemics, producing that attention to 
sanitary matters which forms such a prominent feature of the present 
age, that the necessity for good public parks has been duly recognised, 
and the insufficiency of those already existing properly felt. Attention 
having, however, been awakened to the matter, the evil has already been 
in part remedied, and further provision for meeting the public wants is 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. 453 

in process of being made. There are also many open commons in the 
vicinity of the metropolis, which, as we shall afterwards show, answer all 
the purposes of parks. 

St. James's Park, being one of the oldest, and nearest to London, we 
shall first describe. It contains about eighty-seven acres, but must ori- 
ginally have been much larger ; what is now Pall Mall having formerly 
been within the inclosure. First formed by Henry VIIL, it was re- 
arranged and planted in the reign of Charles II. by Le Notre, the great 
French architect, by whom the gardens at Versailles were designed. At 
this period, a chain of small ponds was converted into a lake. Very 
recently, in the time of George IT., the whole was again remodelled, 
the lake greatly enlarged, and a number of new plantations added, 
as at present existing. This park is conspicuous for its fine sheet 
of water, which is kept full and pure by a supply from several water- 
works, and is much enlivened by an extensive collection of aquatic 
birds, belonging to- the Ornithological Society, which are a source 
of constant interest and amusement to the public. The eastern 
end of the lake is tolerably well masked by a long island, which 
is, however, almost entirely clothed with willows, and there is 
here a pretty Swiss Cottage belonging to the Ornithological Society, 
and used as the residence of their keeper. There is a fountain at 
the western end, opposite Buckingham Palace. The margin of the 
water, on the northern side, adjoins a gravel walk for some distance, 
and being unprotected against the action of winds, forms a hard and 
disagreeable line. As a rule, vegetable forms only are at all adapted 
for uniting with water along its margins, when these are tame and flattish ; 
and grass, relieved by specimens or masses of shrubs and trees, is in such 
cases by far the most appropriate. Where the banks are steeper and 
bolder, rocks or roots, sprinkled irregularly over the surface, and accom- 
panied with more ragged and wilder plants, will be exceedingly desirable. 

Numerous winding walks conduct the pedestrian sometimes between 
the new plantations and sometimes along the side of the water ; but 
the public have also free access to the grass in all parts. In addition to 
a considerable number of fine old elms which yet remain, there is a large 
collection of ornamental trees and shrubs in the younger plantations, and 
most of the rarer kinds have their names, native country, year of intro- 
duction, and tribe to which they belong, neatly painted on iron labels. 
The borders are also filled with the common kinds of herbaceous plants 
and annuals, which, however, present but a starved appearance. 

The principal circumstance worthy of notice in this park is the 
glimpses or views which are obtained, in walking about it, of so many 
noble or striking architectural objects, to which the old elm trees form 
such varied and excellent foregrounds, supports, or frames. In no other 
place that we have seen, are so many striking combinations of this 
kind produced. From several of the London bridges, a far greater 
variety of objects may be taken in at a glance ; but the wooding and the 
park are altogether wanting as a foreground. As seen from this park, 
however, we may particularly mention the towers of Westminster 
Abbey, which are well introduced and well accompanied from so many 
points ; the New Houses of Parliament, which, when completed, will af- 
ford several excellent groups ; Buckingham Palace, as viewed from the 
east end of the lake, near the Swiss Cottage, the entire length of the 
lake stretching out between the palace and the observer ; the Duke of 



454 LONDON. 

York's and Nelson's Columns ; with Carlton Terrace, Marlborough 
House, and a variety of other mansions. Even inferior houses, or such 
as have no great architectural pretensions, acquire a character, and make 
pleasing parts of a picture, when they appear half shrouded with vene- 
rable trees. 

On the north side of the park, but not within the railing, is the Mall, 
which is composed of four broad avenues of trees, three of which are ap- 
propriated to pedestrians only. One of these avenues conducts to the 
centre of Buckingham Palace, which is thus advantageously seen at the 
end of a long vista. The trees forming these avenues appear to have been 
all elms at one period ; but as some of these are dead, they have, 
unhappily, been replaced by elms, limes, and planes promiscuously. If 
the whole of the trees in these avenues could be allowed to stand on a 
broad strip of turf, the ground being well broken up and renewed before 
the grass was laid, they would certainly be shown to more advantage, have 
a more natural appearance, and probably stand a better chance of becoming 
and remaining healthy. Beneath the trees, a great number of seats are 
provided for the public use, as well as in the park. 

The Green Park, separated only from St. James's along part of one of 
its sides by the Mall, is a more open area of fifty-six acres, which was at 
one period larger, but was reduced by George III. to enlarge the gardens 
attached to Buckingham Palace. A few years ago it was much im- 
proved, on the Piccadilly side, during the time when Lord Duncan non 
was Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, by the removal of the 
old ranger's house, and throwing the whole of the gardens, &c, into the 
park. From the higher ground near the reservoir at the north-east 
corner of the park, commanding and beautiful views into Surrey may be 
obtained, including the Norwood and Wimbledon hills, and more distant 
prospects. Along the east side are several first-rate mansions, especially 
Stafford House, at the lower corner. The close fence which surrounds 
the garden is curious, as being made of slate. Bridgewater House, 
which is next to Stafford House, has just been built for the Earl of 
Ellesmere by Mr. Barry, and is a particularly fine specimen of an Italian 
mansion, with the garden arranged architecturally, and intended to be 
surrounded, apparently, with a balustraded wall. Among the common- 
place and paltry gardens attached to many of the best houses in 
this part of London, the visitor will be pleased to see this attempt 
to elevate one of them into something like character. But it is 
impossible to include in this commendation the mean bank of shrubs 
which screens the basement story of the building ; which may, however, 
be only temporary, and be intended to be replaced by an appropriate 
ornamental wall. If this idea of an architectural town garden, where 
the area is so small, can be carried out effectively, and all the details 
be well filled in, it will be worthy of the mansion which it accompanies. 
Spencer House, the town residence of Earl Spencer, adjoins Bridgewater 
House. The purple lilacs and laburnums seem to succeed very well in 
the gardens here. There are some very flourishing young trees and 
handsome thorns in the park near this corner ; and they here contribute 
greatly to relieve the boundary line, suggesting the advantage that 
would be derived from a few more, higher up, where they could be more 
boldly thrust into the park. At the entrance to this park from the 
west end of Piccadilly, there is a handsome triumphal arch, designed 
by Mr. Decimus Burton. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. 455 

Hyde Park is entered from Piccadilly, opposite the triumphal arch, 
by a series of three arches, with a screen and lodge, also designed by 
Mr. Decimus Burton. Apsley House, with the gardens at the rear, is 
on the right-hand corner of the entrance to Hyde Park, which contains 
349 acres. There are other entrances from Park Lane, from the end of 
Oxford Street, and from Bays water, with one from Kensington, and two 
comparatively new ones at Knightsbridge, and another from Kensington 
Barracks. 

A large portion of this park being high, dry, and very little cumbered 
by trees, it is, perhaps, the most airy and healthy spot in London. It is, 
therefore, an excellent place for walking in, and has many paths, which 
are well kept, and can be used at pleasure by the pedestrian, who may 
also walk anywhere on the grass if he prefers it. Excellent drives, 
which are diligently attended to, and from which all but private vehicles 
are excluded, likewise furnish the means of enjoying carriage exercise, 
and make this one of the most frequented resorts of the higher circles, 
at all seasons, but especially from April to July, and between the hours 
of five and seven, p.m. It was even thus fashionable for drives and 
promenades in Charles II.'s reign. There are here, too, peculiar facilities 
given to equestrians in a road known as Rotten Row, where the fine gravel 
is always allowed to remain loose, so that horses can gallop over it with- 
out the least danger from falling. And as the road is devoted solely to 
this purpose, while it extends, probably, almost two miles in length, it 
affords ample scope for horse exercise, and is much used. Adjoining this 
road, in a large open green space between the Cavalry Barracks and 
Kensington Gardens, is built the Exhibition Palace. 

One of the park drives leads to a sheet of water called the Serpen- 
tine, part of which is in Kensington Gardens, the division being effected 
by an elaborate stone bridge, built by Rennie in 1826, which, having a fence 
along its centre, is useable by persons either in Hyde Park or Kensington 
Gardens. The Serpentine is a long canal-like piece of water, covering fifty 
acres, with no particular character, but expanding into a broad sheet at 
the south end. On the east margin, near the receiving house of the 
Royal Humane Society (which was designed by Mr. J). Burton), are 
several boat-houses, some of which belong to the Royal Humane Society, 
whose officers are always on the alert to prevent accidents from bathing 
or skating. At this point, also, sailing or rowing boats may be hired 
during the summer season, and, besides affording an agreeable recreation, 
they give a great deal of animation and finish to the water, which would 
otherwise have but a dull appearance. During a calm afternoon, when 
the water is thus studded with a variety of little vessels, and the banks 
are dotted over with gay company, and enlivened by passing equipages, 
this water assumes its most attractive aspect. Early in the morning, 
under certain restrictions, it is extensively used as a bathing place, as 
many as 12,000 persons sometimes bathing in it on a Sunday morning. 

Behind the receiving house of the Royal Humane Society is a large 
government depot for gunpowder and military stores, and on the south 
side of this are some of the best and oldest elm trees in the park. A 
little below the south end of the Serpentine is an ancient spring, from 
which a draught of pure water may be always obtained. Opposite the 
principal entrance from Piccadilly is a huge statue of Achilles. This, 
and the equestrian statue on the triumphal arch at the Green Park 
entrance, are appropriate testimonials, in the immediate neighbourhood 



456' LONDON. 

of Apsley House, of the national esteem for the Duke of Wellington's 
character and actions. (See the article " Statuary.") 

From the high ground between Hyde Park Corner and theEdgware Road, 
the best notion of the character and advantages of Hyde Park may be 
obtained. Here, looking westward, the old trees by the margin of the 
Serpentine form a broken fringe to some parts of the horizon, and occa- 
sional bursts of the gleaming water are caught through their stems, while 
the more ample woods of Kensington Gardens stretch farther into the dis- 
tance. On the south, some of the Surrey hills are also visible, and several 
church towers and spires, on various sides, with a few other good build- 
ings, rise as it were out of the midst of the park trees, near the margin, 
and furnish centres for some very effective groups. Over this high 
ground, too, are frequently, during the summer, spread some of the best 
metropolitan reviews, which, in themselves, often compose the finest 
pictures, and which set off the open space of the park to the highest ad- 



It will be observed that the three parks already described are in one 
continuous chain, occupying nearly 500 acres. Kensington Gardens, 
including 300 acres more, are virtually an extension of Hyde Park, 
thus bringing the whole of this fine park space into one area. Be- 
fore George XL's time, indeed, nearly the whole of these gardens were 
actually included in Hyde Park ; Queen Caroline having enclosed them, 
and formed the Serpentine out of a number of small ponds. In the year 
1550 the French ambassador hunted with the king in Hyde Park, which 
was then well stocked with game, and kept as a royal enclosure. The 
iron railing now extending along the south side was substituted for a 
close wall in George IV.'s reign ; and the open railing along the Bayswater 
Road has since very properly been put up in place of a similar wall, so 
that passengers along the outside roads get the full benefit of the open 
space and trees. More recently still, a noted old half-way house, on the 
Knightsbridge Road, which had become a great nuisance, has been de- 
stroyed, and a new entrance made near the site of it. It is this entrance 
which will give access to the centre of the wonderful glass palace. 
Hyde Park, celebrated already for many interesting historical events, 
and as the place of daily concourse for all the aristocracy resident in 
London during " the season," will henceforth be noted chiefly as having 
supplied the site of, perhaps, one of the greatest and most important 
gatherings the world has ever witnessed. 

Regent's Park, which probably comprises about 450 acres, is situated 
on the north-west side of London, and is of modern foundation, 
although it was once the site of an old Marylebone Park. In 
this park, the comparatively recent principle of letting off part of 
the land for villas and terraces has been adopted ; and several fine 
villas, with ample pleasure grounds, besides a number of stately terraces, 
which are built so as to present two good fronts, the offices being kept in 
the basement, and concealed, adorn and improve the park rather than 
interfere with its effect. The handsome villa of the Marquis of Hert- 
ford, on the north-west side is, especially, a conspicuous ornament, but 
the plantations about it, chiefly composed of poplars, are of the com- 
monest and most inferior character, and quite disfigure both the house 
and the park. Mr. Bishop's mansion and. observatory is an object also of 
science and beauty. 

Regent's Park was laid out in 1812 by Mr. James Morgan, from the 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. 457 

designs of Mr. Nash, architect, by whom the principal terraces (with one 
or two exceptions, which were done by Mr. D. Burton) were planned. It 
was named after George IV., then Prince Regent, who is said to have 
contemplated building a palace on the north-east side. We are informed, 
however, that Mr. Nash reserved the inner circle, now the Botanic Gar- 
dens, as the site for this proposed palace. The park was not opened to 
the public till 1838. The full extent of this, which is decidedly one 
of the finest of the London parks, is nowhere seen, in consequence of 
the public road crossing it towards the south end, and the inner circle , 
being taken out of it. And besides the inner circle, it includes the site 
of the Zoological Gardens, which are on the north-west side. The gar- 
den of" Baron Goldsmid, near the inner circle, rather enhances the 
beauty of the park, being so well seen from the opposite side of the lake. 
The Coliseum, on the east side of the park, with its ample dome, con- 
tributes much to the effect from various points. 

That part of the park near the ornamental water is in all respects the 
most interesting. The water itself is of a good form, with its termina- 
tions well covered, and several fine islands, which are well clothed with 
trees. It lies also in the midst of some villas and terraces, from which 
it receives additional beauty. It is on the south side of the park. Some 
noble weeping willows are placed along its southern margin. Three 
light suspension bridges, two of which carry the walk across an island at 
the western end of the lake, are neat and elegant, but the close wire 
fence at their sides sadly interferes with the beauty of their form. These 
bridges are made principally of strong wire rods. It is to be regretted 
that the material which came out of the lake at the time of its forma- 
tion has been thrown into such an unmeaning and unartistic heap on 
the north side ; although the trees which have been placed upon it 
in some measure relieve its heaviness. Here, perhaps, more than any- 
where else, a good mass of shrubs, as undergrowth, would have been 
of the greatest assistance. Passing along the western road from 
Portland Place to the inner circle, there is a very picturesque and 
pleasing nook of water on the right, where the value of a tangled mass 
of shrubs for clothing the banks will be very conspicuously seen. 

Between the water and the top of the long walk lies the broad open 
space we have before mentioned, which is on the slope of a hill facing 
the west. Perhaps, as this area is intersected with several walks, it may 
be a little too bare, and might possibly be improved by a few small 
groups of trees or thorns ; but, in parks of this description, such a 
breadth of grass glade, especially on the face of a hill that does not 
front any cold quarter, is of immense value, both for airiness and for 
effect. It will only want some scattered groups of trees along the edge 
of the slope, near the summit, to form a foreground to any view that 
may be attainable from the top of the hill, and also to get a broken 
horizontal line when looking up the slope of the hill from the bottom. 
The space we are speaking of is by no means favourably circumstanced in 
the latter respect, as the hill is crowned by the fourfold avenue of the 
long walk, which presents an exceedingly flat and unbroken surface line. 
This consideration renders it very undesirable to carry avenues over any 
kind of eminence, when they are at all likely to be viewed from the side, 
and particularly when they are seen from lower ground. 

Almost adjoining Regent's Park on the north-west side is Primrose 
Hill, to which the public have free access, and which is a very favourite 

x 



458 LONDON. 

spot for a summer ramble. It is in the form of a large roundish swell or 
knoll, and, being unplanted, affords views of a very ample and diversified 
character, besides yielding admirable exercise to those who are vigorous 
enough to run up and down its face. 

Greenwich Park was laid out by Le Notre about the same time as St. 
James's, and contains 200 acres. Now, however, except in the remains 
of many of the avenues, there are happily not very strong traces of 
the formal style of that artist left, as it is not on a beautifully- varied sur- 
face like this that straight walks and regular lines of trees are at all 
tolerable. The natural advantages of this park are superior to those of 
any yet described. The ground itself is undulated with great variety, 
sometimes being thrown up into the softest swells, and in other places 
assuming a bolder and more sudden elevation. Around the site of the 
Observatory it is particularly steep, and attains a considerable height. 
Everywhere, too, it is studded with noble specimens of ancient trees ; 
and in this respect there are none of the other London parks at all equal 
to it. Some of the best trees are Spanish chestnut, and the largest are 
on the south side. Many of these are truly fine and venerable, and would 
command admiration even if found in the heart of a purely rural dis- 
trict. The elms, which are abundant, are likewise large and noble ; and 
there are some picturesque Scotch firs in the neighbourhood of the Obser- 
vatory. These last are old enough to show the peculiar warm reddish 
colouring of the stems, and the characteristic horizontal or tufted heads. 
In this state, the Scotch fir is certainly one of the most picturesque trees 
we possess, and is the more valuable because each individual plant com- 
monly takes a shape and character of its own. 

The avenues still remaining in Greenwich Park are composed chiefly 
of elm and Spanish chestnut, the latter being mostly confined to the 
upper part of the park. They are of different widths, and take various 
directions, many of them not appearing to have any definite object, and 
some being formed of two single rows, others of two double rows of trees. 
But there is one avenue, perhaps the finest, which, widening out at the 
base to correspond with the width of the Hospital, is there composed of 
elms, but as it ascends the hill is made up wholly of Scotch firs, which are 
exceedingly good. In a general way, the trees in the avenues have been 
planted much too thickly, and have greatly injured or spoiled each other. 
In many instances, too, where plants have died out, they have been re- 
placed by a most unhappy mixture of sorts, which, being also very poor 
specimens, detract much from the effect. At the upper part of the park 
are some aged and fine thorns, which have become very picturesque. 

Victoria Park, on the north-east side of London, near Hackney, was 
commenced in 1842, and opened in two or three years from that time. 
It contains nearly 300 acres, and is chiefly for the use of the large and 
crowded districts of Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, and Shoreditch. The 
site of it is in no way an inviting one, and it is severed into two parts 
by a public road. But it is marvellous what a few trees, well disposed, 
and a little skill in the shaping of ground, and in the arrangement of 
walks and roads, will effect for a place in five or six years. For even 
here, where everything has been done in the most imperfect manner, — 
the trees in irregular plantations being placed in rows ; the walks and 
roads made to follow every little irregularity of surface, and even to be 
more irregular than the ground itself; the ground, which was newly sown 
down with grass, not at all levelled ; and the margin of a large sheet of 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. RICHMOND. 459 

water left with a steep gravelly bank from one to two or three yards in 
nearly perpendicular height, — such is the softening and ameliorating in- 
fluence of trees, that the mere plantations already begin to produce an 
air of comfort, and shelter, and variety. 

Richmond Hill and Park. — Frequently as we have been attracted to 
Richmond Hill by the high estimate in which its scenery is popularly 
held, we have always returned from it with some degree of disappoint- 
ment. Much of the beauty of any scene will of course depend on the 
state of the atmosphere ; and there may occasionally be times when 
even the most common-place combinations will be so favourably lighted 
up, and so exquisitely tinted, while their defects are just sufficiently 
veiled in a kind of luminous mist, that they will appear perfectly 
charming. On the other hand, there will more frequently be seasons 
when, by a bad arrangement of the lights with respect to the position of 
the spectator, or by a deadening gloom, in which no individual features 
acquire their proper character, even beauty degenerates into dulness. 
But allowing for all these changes, the prospect from Richmond Hill, 
or that part of it where the terrace walk has been formed, opposite 
the Roebuck Inn, has never appeared satisfactory to us. Take away the 
river from the scene, and it at once becomes tame, and inferior to fifty 
others at a less distance from London. But as we are aware that the 
river is considered the chief object, we may remark that there does not 
appear to be enough of this visible to make a really fine landscape, and 
the nearer margin of the part that is seen is extremely bare and meagre. 
To render the view of such a river good, a considerable length of it 
should be seen, or several of its windings, or it should widen out and 
encompass two or three picturesque islands, while the banks should be 
clothed chiefly with herbage, with occasional tufts of bushes and shaggy 
weeds, or larger masses of trees. Nothing could be more defective than 
the margin of the Thames on the side next Richmond Hill. It is sim- 
ply a rough towing-path, without any assistance from vegetation. And 
nearly the whole of the ground between the river and the top of the 
hill is similarly inharmonious. Indeed, the great and radical deficiency, 
which would ruin almost any such prospect^ is the want of a proper fore- 
ground. If, near the top of the slope, which is admirably fitted for the 
purpose, a few irregular groups of trees and shrubs, with occasional tufts 
of such plants as thorns, or furze, or broom, a little lower down, were in- 
troduced, the whole would at once take a new character ; and though 
that would not alter the position of the river as viewed from this point, 
it would transform the entire scene into something infinitely better. 

Higher up the hill, by the Star and Garter Hotel, a greatly superior 
view of the river may be had ; and in a warm calm evening, when the 
light from the setting sun, or the reflection from the clouds after he has 
gone down below the horizon, is thrown full on the still water, the aspect 
of the river from this spot is very lovely. There is still, however, the 
want of a suitable foreground. 

The park at Richmond, which is 10 miles from London by the South- 
Western Railway, or 15 by the river, is of great size, including no less than 
2253 acres. To those who are not so particular with regard to time, we re- 
commend, in favourable weather, and when the tide is rising, the route from 
London by a Thames steamer, as one which would yield a much richer 
variety of scenery, reveal many pretty villas, and be altogether more 
pleasant. But on no account should this course be taken when the tide 

x 2 



460 LONDON. 

is flowing out, as the banks of the river are then most disagreeable, and 
very little ean be seen; and there is always the chance of the boat 
running aground. 

There are many entrances to Richmond Park. Besides the principal 
one, which is opposite the Star and Garter Hotel, there is one for King- 
ston, another at Roehampton, a third towards Putney, and a fourth at 
East Sheen, with some others. Entering at the Richmond gate, the visitor, 
if walking, should strike off by the footpath to the right, and never touch 
upon the drive again till he crosses it where it descends to the Kingston 
entrance. Rambling along under the fine old trees, a group or two of 
handsome middle-sized horse-chestnuts will soon be observed on the 
left, exhibiting the desirableness of planting two or three trees of one 
sort together in parks. The house on the right, which is speedily reached, 
is the present residence of Lord John Russell, the site of which is a truly 
enviable one. Farther on, the bank begins to take a rougher and wilder 
character, and to be dotted about with tangled bushes, and clothed with 
fern. Along the sides of the footpath, too, among ancient oaks, of 
various character and sizes, specimens of fine old thorns, most pic- 
turesquely clothed or half-clothed with masses of ivy, begin to abound, 
and are thickly scattered over the brow of the hill at intervals, for nearly 
a mile. The lover of picturesque forms will find many a beautiful 
picture among these thorns, especially if seen just after the young 
leaves have expanded, or when they are in bloom, or after the foliage has 
begun to change colour and the haws to ripen. In all these stages, they 
present the most striking contrast to the ivy which invests them, and 
which is now seen jutting out in broad patches, then retiring, then just 
peeping forth and again retreating, and sometimes clothing the summit 
with a complete crown of dark green, the flowers and incipient fruit 
being very beautiful in autumn. 

If the park be now skirted, in the direction of Wimbledon, an exten- 
sive young plantation of oaks on the right will be seen to have a quan- 
tity of Deodars and others of the Conifer tribe recently introduced in 
different spots, and protected from the game. These will no doubt some day 
become attractive objects in the park, when they have acquired sufficient 
age to be relieved from protection, and to stand out by themselves. 
Views of Wimbledon Common and Putney Heath begin next to unfold 
themselves, and the White Lodge, the house of the ranger, now occupied 
by H.R.H. the Duchess of Gloucester, is approached. In the neigh- 
bourhood of this villa there are some admirable park-like scenes, 
comprehending several beautiful specimen trees, broad and bold glades 
of turf, portions of an ample lake among the trees in the hollow, 
a finely-broken woody and hilly horizontal outline, and, on the north 
side, a splendid glade, which has all the effect of an avenue, without any 
of the trees being in lines. This is a most interesting and artist-like 
vista, which only wants terminating by some object large and good enough 
to justify its employment ; although the house, of course, supplies such 
an object from the other side of the park. (See also pp. 882, 883.) 

Windsor Park, which is now made less than an hour's ride from London 
by both the South-Western and Great Western Railways, is divided into 
two portions, the Little and the Great Park. The former of these, occu- 
pying about 500 acres, lies more immediately around the Castle, on the 
east and north sides, and is only so far accessible to the public as that 
there is a free path across it from Datchet to Frogmore, and the road 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — WINDSOR. 461 

which at present runs from Staines to Windsor is, for part of its course, 
within this park. The North Terrace at Windsor Castle further overlooks 
a large portion of the Little Park, and the South-Western Railway now 
crosses a corner of it. Since the Windsor branch of the last-named 
railway was formed, a small new lodge has been erected near the 
terminus, and a drive made to conduct to the castle by going through the 
Little Park, and round the east end of the castle. The necessity for 
passing through Windsor town has thus been avoided ; and an avenue of 
Deodar Cedars has been planted along the straight portion of this drive, 
until it enters among the old trees of the park. The hideous wall which 
formerly bounded the Little Park on the northern side has also been re- 
moved ; and Her Majesty, with great liberality, has allowed space for 
cricket-playing in that part of the park. 

But a most important alteration in the arrangement of the Little 
Park has further been commenced, and will probably soon be carried 
out. It is the diversion of the road which now enters Windsor, by way 
of Frogmore, along the south front of the Castle, and throwing it into 
the Long Walk by carrying it at the back of the Frogmore Kitchen 
Gardens. The path from Datchet to Frogmore, which now crosses the 
Little Park, will then, it is said, have to be abandoned. This will get 
rid of the cramped appearance of the Little Park on the south side, 
and render that part of the park much more worthy of the castle. 
(See page 869.) 

The path from Datchet across the Little Park reveals nearly the 
whole of it to the public, except a portion immediately beneath the east 
front of the Castle. Near the Frogmore end of this walk, at a short 
distance to the east, is the Queen's dairy ; and one of the shattered and 
decaying old oaks, which are seen about the highest point of the walk, 
and which is surrounded by a paling, against which ivy is planted, is 
said to be the famous Heme's oak spoken of by Shakespeare, and here 
portrayed in p. 452. There are several other ancient oaks in the neigh- 
bourhood of this. Frogmore Lodge, the residence of the Duchess of 
Kent, is included in the Little Park. 

Until the reign of Queen Anne, Windsor Castle was severed from the 
Great Park, which has been a part of Windsor Forest, by private pro- 
perty. At this period, however, sufficient land was purchased by the 
Crown to connect the Castle with the Great Park by means of what is 
styled the " Long Walk," and its accompanying avenue. Magnificent 
as this avenue is, and nobly as it maintains the connection between the 
Castle and the park, every visitor of taste will regret that so superb a 
palace should have anything but Crown property lying between it and 
the Great Park, and that the communication between the two should be 
so contracted. It may be allowed that nothing could better atone for or 
disguise during summer the meagreness of this strip of land than the 
double avenue which has been created, and which is one of the hap- 
piest possible ideas. But still the fences, and the houses and gardens, 
fields and farms behind, to ill force themselves into notice ; and, in spite 
of all effort, help to divorce this truly regal castle from the equally 
magnificent park. 

The drive known as the Long Walk is described as three miles in 
length, in a straight line, and is supported on either side by two rows of 
elms, which have attained their full size, and, with a few very unim- 
portant exceptions, are yet in the greatest vigour and luxuriance. This 



462 



LONDON. 




HERNE'S OAK IN WINDSOR PARK. 



avenue will be sure to strike the visitor as exceedingly grand. It is 
somewhat marred, however, by being carried over a considerable swell in 
the ground about half way up it, which helps to shorten its apparent 
length, and to make the drive seem as if it were not straight, while a 
more decidedly objectionable feature is, that it ascends a hill away from 
the Castle at the further end. If there are any two circumstances which, 
more than others, require to be kept in view in the formation of avenues, 
they are that the ground over which they run should be nearly level, or 
have one continuous ascent towards the mansion or principal object to 
which they lead ; and that, consequently, this object should be on the 
highest ground, at least as respects the avenue. Any avenue that com- 
mences on a hill, and passes down that hill towards its terminating object, 
even though it afterwards rise again near the end, must ever appear to 
some extent inverted ; and every undulation or swell of the ground in it 
will necessarily be a deformity. The idea which is conveyed to the mind 
by the elevation of the Long Walk at Windsor, as it reaches its termina- 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — WINDSOR. 463 

tion in the Great Park, is, that the castle ought to be somewhere about 
the site of the statue of George III., by which this walk is so appro- 
priately finished. 

Those familiar with the Champs Elysees at Paris will remember that 
the Grand Avenue there, like this at Windsor, is partly on a steep 
ascent, away from the palace of the Tuileries to the Triumphal Arch at 
the summit. And although this circumstance enhances the effect as 
viewed from the front Of the palace, yet, regarded as an approach to the 
Tuileries, it causes the latter to appear more or less buried in a low 
marshy tract. 

Some notion of the length of the Long Walk will be formed when, 
in standing near the Castle, the visitor is informed that the equestrian 
statue of George III. at the top of the walk is, including the pedestal, 
above 50 feet high ; and that the statue itself (man and horse) stands 
26 feet in height. It was designed by Westmacott, and erected by com- 
mand of George IV. No termination to such a walk could be more 
felicitous ; and as the visitor approaches it, he will find that the pedestal 
or base has been very artistically constructed of large rude blocks of 
stone, to resemble a natural mass of rock ; and the peculiar roughness 
of the site, with the tasteful diffusion of a few large stones about the 
neighbourhood of the pedestal, fitly harmonize with and carry out 
the idea. 

From this elevated spot, some conception — though a very inadequate 
one — may be formed of the character of the Great Park, which extends, 
however, a considerable distance to the south, where it cannot be seen, 
and embraces an area of 1800 acres. The views from this point towards 
the Castle, and in an easterly and north-easterly direction, are truly 
magnificent ; and the steep ascent round the statue should by all means 
be climbed, in order to command the scenery more perfectly. Those 
who happen to be on foot should strike across the park in a south- 
easterly course from the statue, by a partially beaten foot-path, for Cum- 
berland Lodge, where a greenhouse and small garden (once much fre- 
quented by George IV.) are shown to the public, and from whence Vir- 
ginia Water will be reached in little more than a mile. 

At Cumberland Lodge is a vinery containing a vine of the black Ham- 
burgh kind, which is, in some respects, said to be even more extraordinary 
than the far-famed one at Hampton Court. It has a stem which measures 
two feet nine inches in circumference, and covers the roof of a house 138 
feet long by 16 feet wide. In the autumn of 1850 it had 2000 bunches 
of grapes upon it, both bunches and berries being large and well 
ripened. No particular preparation seems to have been made for it, as 
it was only growing in a light, dry, shallow border. 

Some of the most enchanting park scenery, with trees fully worthy of 
it, will be found in various directions around the statue, and between it 
and Virginia Water. The admirer of the picturesque will here be able 
to roam about amidst scenes that will supply new features for examina- 
tion at almost every step. And yet the greatest unity and harmony of 
character will be observable. 

Arrived at a line of fence and a porter's lodge, not far from Cumber- 
land Lodge, those who wish to see the whole of Virginia Water should 
inquire of the porter for a path to the left, by way of a tall pillar which 
will then be visible ; and by this route they will be able to make the 
entire circuit of the lake. The plantations will now be seen to have a 



464 LONDON. 

far younger look, and there are some beautiful tufts of young birches (a 
tree much too seldom used in park decoration) on the left, among which, 
and mingling with the thousands of common rabbits which will be seen 
here, is a large quantity of purely white rabbits, which have a very 
lively and pretty appearance, and are quite worth introducing into 
extensive plantations, for their beauty. 

Leaving the pillar, erected by George III. in memory of the 
military achievements of the Duke of Cumberland, on the right, 
and following one of the green walks or drives (with which the woods 
here are frequently intersected) in a nearly straight course, the 
visitor will come at length to a rocky waterfall at one of the heads 
of the lake, and taking a path to the left, if the gate is closed, he 
will speedily find himself on the grassy margin of the lake, where 
he will notice some extraordinary specimens of the Scotch Laburnum, 
and from which the views of both water and plantations imme- 
diately become very attractive. This lake is said to be the largest 
sheet of artificial water in the country, and covers several hundred 
acres. In its general outline, it has been particularly well treated, and 
presents a great deal of variety. 

"Walking along from the point at which we have supposed the visitor 
to come first upon the lake, in about a quarter of a mile he will arrive 
at the overflow from the water, which is conducted over a number of 
bold masses of rock, so as to form a broken cascade. This waterfall has 
likewise rocky accompaniments at the side, and is best seen from the 
bridge below it. The whole has been much praised, as conveying a 
favourable impression. 

From the site of the waterfall to a little beyond the classic ruins, the 
most satisfactory part of the whole of the scenery on the borders of 
this lake will be found. Here there is a good open glade of grass on 
the slope of a bank, upon which a cottage is situated, and the sides of 
the drive are more irregular, and groups of trees, with some tasteful 
masses of rocks, interpose at intervals between the drive and the lake. 
In a recess on the left, near a massive archway which leads beneath the 
public road, there is a collection of the Elgin marbles, piled together in 
a variety of classic shapes, and very tastefully grouped. A number of 
middle-aged Scotch firs and other pines contribute additional interest 
to this pleasing nook. 

From the eastern and southern fronts of the Castle, as well as from 
the Little Park and Frogmore, that portion of the Great Park which lies 
eastward from Snow Hill exhibits a very varied and charming character. 
Extending along the ridge and slope of a hill, the trees about the sum- 
mit are most pleasingly, yet softly, broken up, and the face of the hill 
is adorned with large masses of trees, here and there (but most irregu- 
larly) intersected with patches of greensward. 

On the whole, the Great Park at Windsor is, like the Castle, quite 
unrivalled. Each is worthy of the other; and both together compose 
a fitting and most truly royal abode for the Sovereigns of Great Britain. 
The only cause for regret (which is of course unavailing) is, that this 
superb castle does not stand in the midst of its magnificent park. It 
should, perhaps, be mentioned that the Great Park is the Windsor Forest 
of former times, which has been celebrated by Pope and other poets. 

Batter sea Park, though not yet formed or even begun upon, is to 
supply a new recreation ground for the dense population of Vauxhall, 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC.— BATTERSEA. 465 

Lambeth, &c, and to secure the present open space, which goes by the 
name of Battersea Fields, from that encroachment of dwelling-houses 
and streets to which it was rapidly yielding. This is an object for 
which an Act of Parliament has been obtained, and to carry which into 
effect the Government are only waiting for means. Battersea Fields, 
the site of this contemplated park, include, we should suppose, more than 
200 acres. The ground is situated by the side of the Thames, opposite 
Chelsea Hospital, and the South-Western Railway runs along within a 
short distance of its south margin. 

A park for the Finsbury district of London has also been for some 
time contemplated, and the local authorities have repeatedly moved in 
the business ; but the Government do not appear, at present, to be in a 
position to allow them pecuniary aid, being in a manner pledged to 
proceed with Battersea Park, when funds can be spared. The proposed 
site of the Finsbury Park is in the neighbourhood of Highbury, and 
would include nearly 300 acres. From the astonishing quickness with 
which the suburbs of London are becoming filled up with streets and 
houses, notwithstanding the tendency which railways have to draw off 
the people to reside farther from town, every attempt to snatch a clear 
piece of country from the general fate, and to provide a belt of pure 
air, or the means of obtaining it, entirely around the crowded seats of 
business, should be delightedly hailed, and strenuously fostered. 

Clapham Common, which is in all respects the best, and the nearest to 
London, has an area of about 200 .acres, and, being altogether on high 
land, is an exceedingly healthy and' pleasant spot. It possesses a great 
many fine groups of trees, and, on the south side, we may specially 
notice a number of comparatively modern clusters, in which the prin- 
ciple of planting two or three trees of one sort by themselves has been 
adopted, and the heads are growing together so as to look like one 
handsome specimen. Several walks and roads traverse the common ; 
and ponds — some of them deserving the name of small lakes, with 
islands — are of frequent occurrence. 

At a very little distance from this common, by either the upper or 
lower roads, Wandsworth Common is reached, which is also a large tract 
of ground. On the north side of this, fronting some villas which are 
locally known as the u Five Houses," the trees, again, are most judi- 
ciously arranged to cover the boundary ; and along the south-east side, 
some open fields allow the eye to travel across to the villas, gardens, and 
plantations of Balham and Brixton Hills. 

A short walk, of less than half a mile, from the south-west corner of 
Wandsworth Common, is Tooting Common, in Streatham parish. A 
place on the right, shortly after this common is arrived at, with a park 
paling in front, was nearly all a part of the common a few years ago, 
and the ornamental water in front of it was made out of some old gravel 
pits. Onwards is the bottom of a fine avenue of elms, which ranges 
along the front of a house and park once occupied by Mr. Thrale, the 
brewer ; and here the great Dr. Johnson was a frequent visitor, indeed, 
for some time, an almost constant resident. It is now occupied, we 
believe, by a Jewish family. Looking across the common to the left, 
a splendid mass of oaks will be seen spread over the grounds of a 
cluster of villas on Bedford Hill, and a small avenue to the left leads 
to another villa. 

Passing up the road to Streatham Church, and turning along the old 

x 3 



466 LONDON. 

Brighton road, with splendid elm trees overshadowing it on both sides, 
and a good deal of park-like scenery on either hand, a walk of ten 
minutes will reveal Streatham Common, a beautiful grassy slope, en- 
vironed with trees, and having a number of villas on the south side. 
Unlike the other commons we have noticed, this is almost entirely free 
from furze, unless it be near the top, and has lately been well drained. 
Except, however, a tuft of old elm trees around a pond at the bottom, 
the sward is wholly unfurnished with trees, and a few small groups, scat- 
tered tastefully along the sides, and more sparingly towards the top of 
the first sudden slope, are only wanting to make this one of the most 
pleasing of the smaller commons. From the summit of the first slope, 
and various parts of the upper common, and from what are called " the 
Duke's Fields," a little to the northward, the prospects obtained are not 
surpassed in any other part of the suburbs, and the elm trees, in par- 
ticular, are extremely grand. Towards the bottom of this common, on 
the north side, is a pleasant villa, now the property of John Gray, Esq., 
but built by the last Earl of Coventry, and lived in by the Dowager 
Countess until her death. Near the site of the present villa, a palace, 
which was once a favourite with Queen Elizabeth, formerly stood ; and 
some hints for improving the grounds attached to this villa will be 
found in Repton's " Sketches" on landscape gardening. 

Mitcham Common, two miles west of Streatham, is an immense but 
by no means pleasing tract, being so completely unplanted, and having 
very few villas on its margins. It is, however, an admirable open plot, 
with good views of the Norwood and Streatham hills on one side, and 
prospects of other parts of the country on the south-west. We have 
also found it an interesting place for a botanizing ramble ; Genista 
anglica, Spircea filipendula, and many other by no means common plants, 
being plentifully found there. On the south side, too, it is bounded by 
the plantations which screen Beddington Park, once the magnificent 
seat of the Carew family, and still retained by a branch of the same, 
where some of the earliest specimens of exotics and of general garden- 
ing were formerly to be seen ; and where, it is said, a cherry-tree was 
retained in fruit to a very late period of the year, by covering it up, in 
order to gratify and surprise Queen Elizabeth during a visit. Here, 
also, the first orange trees known in this country were grown in the 
open ground, and protected during winter. They were believed to have 
been raised from seeds of the earliest oranges imported into England by 
Sir Walter Raleigh. The severe frosts of 1739-40 entirely destroyed 
them. A trout stream (where there are some extraordinary fish), a 
glorious avenue of elms, and a few ancient trees in the park, are still 
interesting. Returning to Mitcham Common, let us hope that it will 
not be long before the very light expense and trouble of planting and 
inclosing some good clumps of trees in various parts of it will be 
incurred. 

Scarcely more than two miles further westward lies the extensive and 
varied common of Wimbledon, including Putney Heath, which is not 
separated from it, and will yield a lengthened and most agreeable ram- 
ble. Indeed, this is much the largest common which the neighbourhood 
of London possesses, and furnishes a greater diversity of character. It 
must contain at least 1000 acres, and extends nearly to Kingston. On 
the north-east side it is bounded by Wimbledon Park, on the west by 
the villas and parks about Putney Heath and Roehampton, and, further 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. KENSINGTON. 467 

on, by Richmond Park ; while it is comparatively open on the south and 
south-west sides. For the most part, it is clothed with heath, which is 
short and small in the neighbourhood of Wimbledon Park, but strong 
and wild towards the vicinity of Richmond Park, where the ground 
becomes more rugged and broken, and the whole aspect is that of a wild 
moorland tract. Nearer Wimbledon village there is a smooth grass 
sward, and Putney Heath is a good deal covered with furze. There is an 
old telegraph station on Putney Heath. 

Around the sides nearest Putney and Roehampton, the trees on the 
contiguous property keep the outline pretty well hidden and broken, 
and there are a few trees near Wimbledon. The rest of the common is, 
however, very bare, and the hard line of fencing round Wimbledon Park 
sadly wants covering in parts by masses of plantation. All the northern 
part of the common would, in fact, bear a great deal of planting ; and 
the quantity of soil which is sold from it might well afford a small 
outlay for such an improvement. At the Kingston end, nothing would 
look so well, or thrive so freely, as masses of Scotch fir, which are 
admirably fitted for growing among wild and shaggy heather, and look 
most natural in such a position. From twenty to forty years ago Wim- 
bledon Common was the scene of some of the most splendid military 
reviews, which are now rarely held there. Wimbledon peat is much 
celebrated among gardeners for heaths and orchids, and the great 
demand made for it causes it to be sold at a high price. It is a light- 
coloured and fibrous heath-mould, with no disposition to sourness or 
the retention of water, and having but little sand in it. Doubtless 
it is of first-rate quality for plant-culture. 

Eastward of Barnes Church, the woody park which bounds the com- 
mon, and over which a beautiful church spire near Kensington now rises, 
belongs to Barn Elms, the former residence of Mr. Cobbett, and more 
recently tenanted by the late Vice-Chancellor, Sir Lancelot Shadwell. 

Public Gardens. — Our account of these will include such as belong 
to the country, and are open without fee to the public at certain periods, 
together with those which have been created by subscription or by 
public bodies, and are accessible to the members of those bodies, and to 
the general public through the introduction of such members. In 
respect to accommodation of this kind, London, with its extensive 
pleasure-grounds at Kensington, its noble Botanic Garden at Kew, the 
more mixed garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, embracing 
general gardening of all sorts, and including exhibitions which have 
acquired a world-wide fame, the beautiful promenade and scientific 
Botanic Garden in the Regent's Park, likewise distinguished for its exhi- 
bitions, and the ancient Physic Garden at Chelsea ; — with such a com- 
bination of attractive and useful gardens — not to mention those devoted 
more exclusively to zoological purposes — the metropolis has advantages 
with which few other large towns in Europe can at all compete. 

Kensington Gardens lie close to London, and are, as before remarked, 
in immediate connection with Hyde Park, to which they form an excel- 
lent adjunct, of quite a distinct character. Intended only for the 
pedestrian, they are conspicuous for presenting one immense and almost 
continuous mass of shade, beneath which the public may freely enjoy a 
most luxurious summer ramble, which, but slightly varying in its prin- 
cipal features, and only traversed here and there by a broad open walk 
can be prolonged to a well-nigh indefinite extent. 



468 LONDON. 

The foundation of these gardens was laid by William III., but in his 
reign they did not occupy more than 26 acres. Queen Anne enlarged 
them to 56 acres, and had them laid out by her gardener, H. Wise, who 
afterwards became quite a celebrity in landscape gardening. Addison, 
in his* Spectator, seems to have been delighted with those dawnings of 
the modern natural manner exhibited by this artist in his treatment of 
the old Kensington gravel-pits, thus converted into a portion of Ken- 
sington Gardens. In the time of George II., however, Queen Caroline 
extended these gardens to their present size, by taking nearly 300 acres 
out of Hyde Park, and having the whole laid out by Bridgman. At 
this period, also, the Serpentine was formed out of a series of ponds ; 
and a large and somewhat circular basin of water was made in the 
neighbourhood of the palace, at the point from whence the principal 
avenues diverge. Kent was afterwards employed to alter these gardens, 
and encountered much ridicule by endeavouring to imitate nature so 
closely as to plant a number of dead trees. 

Standing near the palace, and looking eastward, the leading features 
of the gardens present themselves, and consist in three principal open- 
ings or avenues, the best of which are terminated by Hyde Park, the 
intermediate and surrounding parts being filled in with dense masses of 
ancient trees. As the avenues are not sufficiently regular or contracted 
to acquire the dignity of art, and not expanded or broken enough to 
resemble nature, this scene is by no means impressive, like that at 
Hampton Court ; and none of the vistas are at all happily terminated. 
But there is a massiveness about the trees, an appearance of age, and a 
total absence of anything that indicates the proximity of the town, 
which cannot fail to produce a striking effect on the observer, especially 
on a summer's day. The view down these avenues from the other side 
of the gardens, near the Serpentine, is much better, being terminated 
by Kensington Palace. 

Of individual features, if we enter the gardens near the bridge over 
the Serpentine, and keep on the east side of the water, some noble old 
Spanish chestnut trees, which are well worthy of notice, will be found 
on the right, just within the gates. From this point to the head of the 
Serpentine, the walk beneath the fine old trees, with glimpses of the water 
and of the lawn and trees on the opposite bank, is one of the best parts of 
the gardens, the trees being more mature and more picturesquely dis- 
posed, and the ground less flat and tame, and the whole scene forming 
better and more varied combinations, than will be found anywhere 
else throughout the gardens. 

Immediately in front of the palace is a small flower garden, of quaint 
design, and inclosed with a low iron railing ; while between this and 
Kensington there are some rows of capital old elm trees, which are here 
very rich and fine. At the bottom of one of the short avenues which 
they compose is a lofty architectural alcove, of the reign of Queen 
Anne. Keeping along the southern margin of the gardens, and crossing 
the end of the broad walk (which is 50 feet in breadth), the new walk 
already mentioned will soon be reached, and here the gardening visitor 
will find a large number of the newer and rarer kinds of shrubs, all 
legibly named ; and, though not yet of any remarkable size, all appear 
healthy and flourishing. It is in the introduction of these rarer plants 
that the idea of a "garden" is perhaps better sustained than in most of 
the other features of the place, which are more those of a park. The 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — KEW. 469 

demand, indeed, for evergreens and undergrowth in these gardens is 
most urgent ; and if (which we greatly doubt) there exists a well- 
founded objection to the use of shrubs and bushes in tufts, or as single 
plants, there certainly can be no reason why solitary specimens or 
varied groups of the many kinds of thorn, pyrus, mespilus, laburnum, 
pine and fir, evergreen oaks, hollies, yews, &c, should not be most 
extensively planted, and a large proportion of the younger and smaller 
trees in the densest parts cut away to make room for them. We recom- 
mend those who wish fully to appreciate Kensington Gardens, to go 
there on a hot and sunny, or dusty, or windy day, when they will ex- 
perience, particularly in the northern parts, the pleasure of having a 
shady and sheltered retreat, free from all the dust, and dirt, and bustle 
of the busy thoroughfares. (See also p. 416.) 

Kew Gardens. — The public gardens at Kew are at present divided into 
two portions, accessible by separate entrances and at different periods, 
and known severally as the "Botanic Gardens" and the "Pleasure 
Grounds." As some special reasons doubtless exist for keeping them 
apart, we can only express the hope that they will ere long be so far 
united as to be accessible from each other, that the public may thus 
have the additional privilege of taking a pleasant ramble and a scien- 
tific survey on the same day, and without the trouble of going round 
more than a quarter of a mile to reach the separate entrances. At 
present the Botanic Gardens are open every day, except Sundays, to 
respectable persons, from one o'clock till six ; while the pleasure grounds 
can only be entered on Thursdays and Sundays, from Midsummer to 
Michaelmas. 

An excellent guide to the Botanic Gardens at Kew has been prepared 
by the Director, Sir W. J. Hooker, and from this we shall glean only 
such particulars as a personal survey could hardly furnish ; necessarily 
treating the subject somewhat lightly, because the gardens have already 
been so well described. 

The history of these gardens may be soon told. They came into 
possession of the Royal Family through the Prince of Wales, father of 
George III., by whose princess both the pleasure grounds and exotic 
department were principally formed. In George III.'s reign, while Mr. 
W. Aiton was gardener, and under the auspices of Sir Joseph Banks, the 
gardens were greatly improved, and the extensive orangery, a large 
stove, and other buildings, erected from the designs of Sir W. Chambers. 
Until the death of George III., the collection of exotics and the number 
of plant-houses were continually on the increase, and the gardens had 
then acquired great celebrity. After this period, and until the year 
1840, little or no progress was made, and the collection was chiefly 
remarkable for the great size and richness of many of its specimens. 
At that time, however, public attention having been drawn to the sub- 
ject, and a commission of inquiry, headed by Dr. Lindley, having been 
formed to report on the state of these gardens, the Commissioners of 
Woods and Forests happily took them under their charge, and appointed 
Sir W. J. Hooker — so distinguished as a botanist — to be director, and 
Mr. John Smith — previously well known as a careful and intelligent 
cultivator, and long connected with Kew — as curator. 

Under the management of these gentlemen, and by the aid of liberal 
parliamentary grants, the Botanic Gardens at Kew have undergone a 
complete transformation. By the addition of a large tract from the 



470 



LONDON. 



pleasure grounds, and by the destruction of all the old kitchen gardens, 
the space has been extended from 11 acres to 75 acres. An immense 
stove, with accompanying flower gardens, has been prepared ; many new 
and superior plant-houses have been erected ; a museum is founded ; a 
pinetum planted ; and, what is of great national importance, the whole 
has been thrown freely open to the public for their unrestricted instruc- 
tion and enjoyment. 

The entrance to Kew Gardens was formerly by a narrow alley from 
the side of Kew Green, along which the visitor proceeded, as it were by 
stealth. Now, however, a bold and highly appropriate entrance has 
been made at the end of Kew Green, where massive and enriched piers, 
gates, and open railing, extend across the end of the green. They are 
from the designs of Mr. Decimus Burton, and we have thought a sketch of 
part of them, here introduced, would be quite an ornament to our pages. 
Entering by these gates, Taxodium sempervirens and Cryptomeria 
iaponica will be noticed on the lawn to the right. They are described 




ENTRANCE GATES TO KEW GARDENS. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — KEW. 471 

as having stood three winters uninjured, and being plants which, from 
their novelty and the elegance of their forms, are much sought, it will be 
satisfactory to find them thus hardy. The Taxodium, we may mention, 
has even borne the much more northerly latitude of the neighbourhood 
of Liverpool, and is at present very flourishing. 

As an accompaniment to the noble entrance gates, the large Archi- 
tectural Conservatory on the right is very telling. It was brought here 
from Buckingham Palace. Though a good architectural feature, how- 
ever, it was built at a period when the requirements of plants were 
little understood or little cared for ; and hence it is far more heavy, and 
lofty, and dark than modern cultivators would approve. It is heated by 
an extraordinary number of small pipes, placed chiefly at the sides, by 
Mr. Perkins. This house, like all the others, is very conveniently num- 
bered, and, from being nearest the gate, is known as No. 1. It contains 
a great many exceedingly fine Banksias, Dryandras, Grevilleas, Acacias, 
&c, and some huge and magnificent specimens of Rhododendron ar- 
boreum. The BanJcsia solandra, Cunninghami, spinulosa, and latifolia, 
with the Dryandra formosa, are particularly large and good. Nowhere 
in Britain — perhaps in Europe — is there anything at all equal to the 
plants of this tribe at Kew. 

One of the finest views of the great stove is that obtained from about 
the end of the long walk, where it is seen in perspective. Regarded as 
a whole, it cannot be considered a great architectural feature. The 
semicircular heads of the two lofty side entrances, and the attic in the 
middle portion of the building, appear to us particularly exceptionable. 
But in the superior height and breadth of the central part, in the 
adaptation of the whole to its intended object, and in the mechanical 
arrangements for ventilation, and for painting, repairing, &c, there is 
much to admire. Looked at pictorially, the building suffers — as every- 
thing of the same size would — by being so entirely unsupported. At 
present it stands alone, in a comparatively naked plain, with not a tree 
anywhere near it, to enter into a composition with it. This extreme 
nakedness and rawness — which the transparency of the material of 
which it is composed renders all the more glaring — are among its most 
defective characteristics, pictorially viewed. 

As regards the building itself, we are happy in being able to furnish 
the following account, for which we are indebted to the architect. 

This large building is constructed wholly of iron and glass, on a stone 
basement, and was erected from the designs and under the superintend- 
ence of Mr. Decimus Burton. 

The masonry was executed by Messrs. Grissell and Peto, and the rest 
of the works by Mr. Richard Turner, of Dublin, who commenced in 
1844, and completed the whole in 1848. 

The whole of the ribs and sash bars are of wrought iron, rolled to the 
forms required while in a soft state by means of powerful rolling- 
machines ; the ribs are composed of several pieces welded together, and 
bent to the curves required. They exhibit a method of construction 
which the contractor, Mr. Turner, was, it is believed, the first to intro- 
duce, and in this building. The glass used in the building is the result 
of many experiments made by Mr. Robert Hunt, of the Museum of 
Economic Geology, on the actinism of the solar rays, by which he found 
that the peculiar tint of green here adopted prevents the scorching effect 



472 - LONDON. 

upon foliage complained of in houses glazed with white glass. The glass 
is of great thickness, to resist the effect of hail-storms. 

The building contains upwards of 40,300 superficial feet of glass, or 
nearly an acre. The total length of the building is 362 feet 6 inches, 
the centre portion being 137 feet 6 inches long, and 100 feet wide, and 
69 feet high to the top of the lanthorn light ; the wings are each 112 
feet 6 inches long, and 50 feet wide, and 33 feet high to the lanthorn. 

A gallery runs round the centre portion of the house, at a height of 
27 feet above the floor, from which fine views of the house and its 
beautiful inhabitants are obtained, and to which the ascent is by a light 
iron spiral staircase, inclosed by iron rods, which support climbing 
plants. The plants for which this house was erected, being natives of 
tropical countries, require that a heat of 80° should be maintained, while 
the external temperature is at 20° (Fahrenheit); this is effected by 
means of twelve boilers (Messrs. Burbidge and Healy's patent) placed in 
two vaults under the house, and upwards of 4J miles of iron pipes dis- 
tributed under the floor and stone tables surrounding the house, giving a 
heating surface of about 28,000 superficial feet. As each of the boilers 
supplies a distinct set of pipes, the heat is readily and economically 
regulated by increasing or diminishing the number of boilers in use, and 
the house may be warmed in any particular portion, and climatised at 
pleasure. The heated air ascends through a perforated floor of cast-iron 
plates, supported on iron columns and girders, except where stone-paved 
paths interfere. The fuel to supply the furnaces is brought on a railway 
in a brick tunnel 550 feet in length, in which also are the smoke flues, 
which lead from the furnaces into one large vertical flue in a tower, 
which forms an ornamental object from various parts of the gardens. 

The rain which falls on the Palm House roof is conveyed through the 
hollow pillars of support to a continuous tank under a stone shelf round 
the whole of the interior of the building, where its temperature is raised 
by its close contiguity to the heating pipes. This tank is capable of 
containing 42,000 gallons. Water also from the river Thames is supplied 
by means of a steam engine and pumps from an iron tank fixed at a 
height of 75 feet in the tower, from whence pipes distribute the water to 
the gallery and other parts of the house. The opportunity is thus afforded 
of throwing an artificial shower over the tops of the plants ; the steam 
engine also forces water into all parts of the garden. Ample ventilation 
is provided by means of rolling sashes on the roofs, by vertical pivot 
sashes, and by the panels in the stone basement of the building ; the 
whole of these ventilators, as well as the sashes, being readily opened 
and closed simultaneously by means of simple machinery. The cost 
of the structure, including the tunnel and tower, was about 33,000£. 

Entering by the door at either end, the visitor will suddenly see before 
him one of the most extraordinary and perfect collections of tropical 
plants which is possessed by any garden in Europe. The wonderful 
variety of form in the foliage, and the extreme healthiness and richness 
of all the plants, are alike worthy of note. The mode of arranging the 
plants is to place a quantity of dwarf and showy ones on the narrow 
stages immediately under the glass, and all the rest along the centre, 
at the two ends, just leaving a sufficient path on either side of the house 
for visitors to walk comfortably on. All the plants are kept in tubs or 
pots, which stand on a kind of iron net-work or open grating with which 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — KEW. 473 

the floor is covered, and through which the heated air ascends, as already- 
explained. In the disposal of the plants, the highest are placed in the 
centre, and the lowest at the sides. This gives the whole a very formal 
appearance. In the central part, however, a more irregular and natural 
system of grouping has been followed, and with the happiest effect. 
This somewhat square middle space, with its broader and more varied 
masses of plants, just indicates the desirableness of making large houses 
of a squarer form than usual, and not so long and narrow. A house of 
the latter kind may be a very good repository for plants ; but a broader 
one would be equally suitable, and would, at the same time, furnish the 
means of arranging the plants far more artistically, and with much better 
effect. 

The plants brought together in this large stove are all more or ]ess in- 
teresting, and many of them very deeply so. Fortunately the visitor to 
whom such things are not familiar will easily be able to gather the re- 
quired information from the labels which are attached to each plant, and 
which generally give the common as well as scientific name by which 
they are known. Here, besides the stately palms, some of which are 
superlatively fine, are most of the rich tropical fruits, together with plants 
which produce spices, gums, or other articles known in commerce. Here, 
also, in a small basin on the eastern side of the house, is the Egyptian 
Papyrus, from which paper was first made, many of the plants mentioned 
in Scripture, the Yalisneria spiralis, also in water, where it uncoils its 
curious stems in proportion to the depth of the water in which it is 
placed, the sugar-cane, the cocoa-nut palm, the bread-fruit tree, the 
chocolate tree, the coffee tree, the celebrated banyan tree, the sensitive 
plants, and a great multitude of equally interesting objects. As more 
conspicuous features, the palms are extremely striking, and the bananas 
are also fine, and fruit well. Many of the palms flower and fruit abund- 
antly ; and numerous other things, which are rarely seen elsewhere, ex- 
cept in a small state, regularly blossom and fruit here. 

Among the more elegant and peculiar ornaments of this stove, the 
tree and other ferns will be sure to rank high in the visitor's esteem. 
The remarkable grace and beauty of their forms, and the tender green 
of their foliage, convey altogether a most pleasing and novel impression, 
such as scarcely anything else in the house produces. These ferns are 
especially to b e admired when seen from the staircase or the gallery; 
and, indeed, the view of the whole collection from the gallery affords 
quite a new idea of tropical vegetation, and should by all means be ob- 
tained. In going up the winding stairs, the observer will also notice 
how finely a species of Bauhinia, with its singular and large two-lobed 
leaves, is covering the railing, and how well both it and Passiflora 
quadrangularis are spreading along the sides of the gallery. The climb- 
ing plants, indeed, both in this and other parts of the house, will, when 
they have acquired two or three years' more growth, immensely relieve 
and diversify the interior of the building. Towards the north end, we 
observed the singular club gourd, Cucurbita maxima, with its large pen~ 
dulous club-shaped fruit. At present, the climbers at the sides of the 
house are grown in boxes beneath the stages, and trained up behind 
them ; a more regular provision for placing them in a better situation 
appearing to have been overlooked in the erection of the house. 

Walking round the outside of the arboretum, the visitor will at length 
arrive at the Temple of Minden, in the southern corner of the garden, 



474 



LONDON. 



and pursuing the same walk, will pass the great chimney tower, and 
along the eastern margin of the water. Here some of the finest front 
views of the great stove may be had, and from this point the artist has 
taken the beautiful picture shown in our frontispiece. A little farther, 
on a mound of considerable elevation, is the temple of iEolus, very 
happily placed, and picturesquely embosomed in trees. This mound, 
with its temple and trees, make a very good picture from many points. 
A short walk to the right (though not to the extreme right, which leads 
to the museum) will conduct to the British Garden, where those who are 
interested in the study of native plants, will find most of the indigenous 
species arranged under the heads of the natural orders. A little to the 
left is also the grass garden, in which the student of exotic pasture 
or other grasses may correct his knowledge of them, and derive any fresh 
information. 

Near this spot are the houses numbered 3, 4, 5, and 6. The first of 
these is chiefly filled with Mesembryanthemums and similar plants. 
No. 4 is a propagating house, which is commonly kept fastened up, but 
may sometimes be entered, when a number of curious or novel things will 
be found in it. In No. 5 will be seen some very interesting young stove 
plants, the extraordinary Platy cerium grande growing on a board fixed 
to the wall, the lemon grass, a very curious strong-growing grass (An- 
dropogon Schcenanthus), with a delicious scent, like Aloysia citriodora, 
and, on the other front stage, nestling among mosses and Lycopodiums, a 
number of charming little plants, with pitcher-like leaves, variegated 
Tillandsias, and other rare and pleasing objects, some of them with 
variegated leaves. The plants on this stage include the beautiful little 
Cephalotus follicularis, many Sarracenias, the Dioncea muscipula^ &c. 
The manner in which they are arranged and grown is most happy and 
appropriate ; and the admirer of pretty exotic plants will be sure to be 
much pleased with this group. 

Entering No. 6, one of the great modern wonders of this garden reveals 




VICTORIA LILY. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — KEW. 475 

itself. This is the house dedicated to the superb new water lily, Victoria 
regia. These gardens have the honour of first raising this extraordinary 
plant from seed, and distributing it throughout the country. And al- 
though it first flowered at Chats worth, and next at Syon House, the plant 
in this stove has since bloomed abundantly, and is in excellent health. 
Indeed, it seems already to require a larger cistern to grow it in, which, 
as this is one of the very few places where it can be seen by the public, 
we hope it will speedily receive. The plant is now well known to have 
been discovered by Mr. (now Sir R. H.) Schomburgk in British Guiana, 
in 1837. Drawings were afterwards exhibited, and seeds repeatedly 
brought over ; but as these did not germinate, the idea of a plant with 
leaves from 5 to 6 feet across, and flowers 15 inches in diameter, began 
to be reckoned among those travellers' stories which men who go 
out of the beaten track are supposed to have a peculiar facility in con- 
cocting. At length, however, in 1849, Dr. Rodie, of Demerara, sent fresh 
seeds to the Kew Gardens, and as the plants from these have seeded 
profusely in this country, every one who will go to the expense of cul- 
tivating this vegetable phenomenon may easily obtain specimens. It 
appears to be a decided perennial ; and is cultivated here in a high 
temperature, with a fresh supply of water slowly but constantly running 
through the tank. The leaves of the Kew plants have not yet reached 
the dimensions of those at Syon and Chatsworth, nor do they turn up 
quite so much at the edges : but there is every prospect of their speedily 
becoming in all respects equal. The flowers are large and very fragrant, 
of a creamy white, streaked and stained with deep pink towards the 
centre. A small sketch of both plant and flower is here furnished. 
Other aquatic plants are grown in the corners of the tank with the 
Victoria, and contribute much to improve its appearance. It has, in 
fact, rather a tame look unless aided by some taller-growing plants. 
When the leaves begin to turn up at the edges, however, it becomes 
more interesting ; the extraordinary veins and spines on the under sur- 
face of the leaves, and their deep crimson colour on that side, imparting 
to it a much more striking character than when the upper surface alone 
is visible. In the Nymphwa cosridea, and other allied plants which ac- 
company the Victoria in this stove, the visitor will have an opportunity 
of comparing the giant proportions of this new water lily with the more 
common and familiar forms. 

Leaving the Aquarium, and walking westward, the collection of grasses 
is nearly in front of us, and by keeping these on our left, we soon per- 
ceive the fine specimen of Araucaria imbricata on the lawn. This is the 
first plant of this favourite pine which was introduced into Britain, and 
was formerly protected with much care, but is now found perfectly hardy. 
Unlike all the other specimens in the country that we have seen, 
it has a bare stem to the height of 10 or 12 feet, and then expands 
into a broad, dense, hemispherical head. It is exceedingly curious and 
handsome, and has borne its large cones for the last four years. We 
noticed three of them on the plant last autumn. In Chili, where it is 
very abundant, the cones are said to reach the size of a child's head; 
and the individual seeds, which are about the size of acorns, though 
somewhat longer and less round, are eaten both for dessert and as 
articles of general food, being much like the Spanish chestnut in 
flavour. 

In strong and admirable contrast with this singular Chili pine, the 



476 LONDON. 

habit of which is so peculiarly rigid and bold, there is a lovely specimen 
of the weeping birch on the same lawn in the immediate neighbour- 
hood. The extreme grace and elegance of this tree, whether with or 
without foliage, are particularly well set off by the strength and stiff- 
ness of its sturdy neighbour, and will not fail to command notice. 
Indeed, to the admirer of hardy trees, these are two of the most attrac- 
tive plants in the garden. 

The Greenhouse (No. 7) is a little to the westward of the spot just 
pointed out, and is very rich in the various kinds of New Zealand 
plants. The observer will, no doubt, be much struck with the great 
diversity of new and pleasing types which are here gathered together 
from one country. Nothing could be more beautiful than many of 
these are in point of form. The Dacrydium cupressinum is remarkably 
elegant, and there are fine plants of it here. Of the strange Aralia 
crassifolia, with its long, thick, and variegated leaves, there are also 
large plants ; Thuya Doniana, a delightful new Arbor vitse, some novel 
species of Phyllocladus, and many allied plants, are likewise to be met 
with in this house, and of very unusual size. The lover of rare plants 
and beautiful forms will, in fact, have a great treat from the examina- 
tion of the treasures in this greenhouse, and will, if we do not mistake, 
be tempted to linger long in their inspection. He must by no means 
omit to notice the rare antarctic beech, which is so dwarf in its habit 
as almost to make one suspect it had been imported from China, and 
the yet more interesting evergreen beech {Fagus betuloides), which is 
almost equally dwarf, and is remarkable, as Sir W. J. Hooker tells us, 
"for its being the most southern-growing tree in the world ; indeed, but 
little vegetation of any kind exists beyond it." Some large plants of 
Magnolia fuscata, well known for the peculiar scent of its flowers, will 
be found at the west end of the house, where Sparmannia africana — a 
plant that is more frequently found in a stove — flourishes and flowers 
most profusely ; and there is also " one of the oldest and noblest speci- 
mens of the original Rhododendron arboreum in Europe." 

Not far from the western end of this house there is a basin of water 
containing aquatic plants, many of which will be found worthy of 
notice ; but the tussack grass of the Falkland Islands (Dactylis cwspitosa) 
is specially to be examined, because it is supposed likely, having stood 
out for three years, to become a valuable agricultural plant, on 
account of the great quantity and excellent quality of the herbage it 
produces. 

A short distance from the back of No. 7, an old stove in two compart- 
ments (No. 8) may be entered, and will be found to contain, in the 
smaller or western part, a quantity of Tillandsias, Bromelias, <fec, some 
of which grow naturally on trees like Orchids, and are very useful for 
suspending in stoves. Their flowers are often borne in long spikes, and 
are very showy. In the larger portion of this house, the members of the 
Aloe tribe are gathered together ; and among their quaint forms will be 
distinguished the more beautiful and pensile species of Littwa, and the 
taller and conspicuous Fourcroya gigantea. Two plants of this latter 
kind " had been," says Sir W. J. Hooker, " in the royal gardens, first of 
Hampton Court and then of Kew, probably from the earliest introduction 
of the species into Europe, upwards of a century ago (in 1731). On one 
and the same day, in the summer of 1844, each was seen to produce a 
flowering stem, which resembled a gigantic head of asparagus, and grew 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — KEW. 477 

at first at the astonishing rate of 2 feet in the twenty-four hours. So 
precisely did the twin plants keep pace with each other, that at the 
very time it was found necessary to make an aperture in the glass roof 
of the house for the emission of one panicle of flowers (26 feet from 
the ground), a similar release was needed by the other. The rate of 
growth then most sensibly diminished ; still, in two months, the flower- 
stalks had attained a height of 36 feet ! The flowers were innumerable 
on the great panicles : they produced no seed, but were succeeded by 
thousands of young plants, springing from the topmost branches, and 
these continued growing for a long while after the death of the parent 
plants, both of which perished, apparently from exhaustion." Only 
young plants are, therefore, now to be seen in this collection. 

Near the centre of this stove is a strange-looking plant, with a stem 
not unlike the common Elephant's foot (Testudo elephaTitipes), but 
bearing grass-like leaves. It is from America, as we were told, and is 
unknown. Two extraordinary specimens of the Old-man Cactus (Cereus 
senilis) should likewise be pointed out, on account of their unusual size. 
They are actually from 12 to 15 feet high; but clothed with the white 
bristly hair, which gives its common name to the plant, only at the summit. 
Judging from the ordinary rate of growth in this species, Sir William 
Hooker supposes these specimens may probably be as much as a 
thousand years old ! If this be really the case, — and we know how 
careful Sir William is in putting forth such statements, — it gives a new 
and double significance to the name of the plant. 

No. 9 is generally kept locked up, being a propagating house ; but 
No. 10, which is a large house devoted to Australian plants, is one of 
the best examples of modern construction and arrangement in the 
gardens. It is a long building, ranging nearly north and south, with 
what is called a span roof, which is only just high enough to enable 
persons to walk beneath it comfortably. There is a narrow flat stage on 
each side for plants, and the rest of the collection is placed on the 
ground in the centre, a walk running along on each side of this central 
mass. In the middle of the building it expands to a much greater 
breadth, which produces a good deal of variety and character. This 
house is light and well glazed, and peculiarly adapted for the tribe of 
plants generally placed in it. It is kept gay during the summer by 
retaining in it those plants which happen to be in flower, and by the 
use of the more showy but transient ordinary decorations of green- 
houses. In the early part of spring, a very large proportion of the 
usual occupants of this house will be in flower. Perhaps April and May 
will be the best months. The collection of plants of this tribe is very 
perfect, and comprises most of the newest and best acquisitions, as well 
as those good old ornamental species which are now too seldom found 
elsewhere. 

There is a large stove north of the Australian house, appropriated 
to orchids and ferns, of the former of which there is a very complete 
collection. This house (No. 11) is partly a new span-roofed building, 
and partly old, the division being only a glass one, and the doors being 
generally kept open between the two parts. The celebrated orchids of 
the late Duke of Bedford, and of the Rev. J. Clowes, of Manchester — 
both enthusiastic collectors — were added by gift to those previously 
existing here, and have greatly enriched the stock. On the whole, the 
orchids are well grown, and there are generally some of them in flower. 



478 LONDON. 

The ferns on the north side of the house are in the best health, and 
furnish many highly interesting examples. Towards the middle of the 
house, near the partition, are some large pitcher-plants, with their sin- 
gular goblet-shaped leaves. 

Another stove (No. 12) contains a miscellaneous collection of plants, 
and is kept at a lower temperature than the Orchid House. The 
Begonias, of which there is a great variety, and some of which are very 
lovely, make a conspicuous appearance here. 

Two greenhouses (Nos. 13 and 14) are assigned to an additional por- 
tion of Australian plants and Cape heaths, the latter being grown 
in No. 13. In the house No. 14 are many excellent specimens. In 
the neighbourhood of these houses there is a bed of Cape heaths planted 
in the open ground, and apparently protected during winter ; and there 
are also several frames around this cluster of houses, in which will be 
found numerous plants that will afford interest to the more curious and 
inquiring cultivator. 

The only other houses to which we shall refer are a stove (No. 16) at 
the back of the Museum, and the Cactus House, No. 19. Both of these 
are situated in what was the old kitchen garden, near the road from 
Kew to Richmond. In No. 16 are seemingly grown those rich and 
delicate tropical plants which will not thrive without a moist bottom 
heat. The nutmeg, clove, mangosteen, mahogany tree, Assam tea, the 
cow tree, the famed upas tree, and the Paraguay tea, are among the 
many plants which deserve to be examined here. The highly tropical 
forms of Cannas, Curcumas, Alpinias, &c, here abound. In this house, 
therefore, some time may very agreeably be spent ; and the tempera- 
ture, though high, is sufficiently humid to render it easily endurable. 

No. 19, the Cactus House, is one of those best worth visiting, both 
because it contains a very first-rate collection, and because this is one of 
the very few houses in which any attempt at what we would call 
natural treatment or effect has been made. Let us add, that what is 
here done is with the happiest results. A walk passes through nearly 
the centre of the house on a raised level, between which and the front 
path there is a low pit, filled with the different kinds of Echinocactus, 
Mammillaria, &c. The specimens are planted out or plunged in the pots, 
among irregular masses of fused brick, so as to appear to be growing 
among small loose rocks. And though the material used is none of the 
most pleasing, and the forms into which it is thrown might with advan- 
tage be greatly varied on the surface, so as to take a less flat and more 
natural character, yet we cannot but point to the practice as a very 
decided step in the right direction, which we hope ere long to see 
extended to other departments and houses in these gardens, and 
executed with spirit. Plants of Lycopodium are growing here and 
there among the Cacti, and enliven the whole mass considerably; 
though they will undoubtedly require watching and restraint to prevent 
them from spreading too far, or producing too much moisture. It is 
difficult to conceive, without seeing them, what a change this system of 
treatment produces in the appearance of the tribe, and how well they 
seem to thrive under it. Of course the beds in which they are planted 
are most thoroughly drained, being filled with loose brick rubbish, or 
some similar material. Among the plants occupying this pit is the 
great Visnaga, of which the spines are used for tooth-picks in Mexico, 
from whence it derives its name. " The weight of this single specimen," 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. KEW. 479 

observes Sir "W. J. Hooker, " is 713 lbs., and it is in the most perfect 
health and vigour. It was drawn by oxen from the interior of Mexico 
(San Luis Potosi) to the coast for shipment, and arrived in excel- 
lent condition." Another specimen which weighed a ton was re- 
ceived at the same time, and appeared likely to grow, but it afterwards 
decayed. 

Between the central path of this house and the back, the taller Opun- 
tias, Euphorbias, species of Cereus, <fec, are arranged, and the kinds of 
Stapelia, &c, occupy the front stage. As is well known, many of the 
larger forms bear the most splendid flowers. The cochineal insect, from 
which the brilliant dye called cochineal is obtained, may here be seen in 
abundance on the Opuntia coccinilifera. It is a small whitish mealy 
bug, and is so valuable in commerce, that Humboldt states there is 
exported from Mexico alone as much cochineal as yields annually the 
enormous sum of half a million sterling. 

Many of the smaller members of this family here flower profusely, 
and produce very pretty blossoms, while some have showy fruit. From 
several of the Euphorbias a deadly poison is extracted, which is used on 
arrows and other weapons in South Africa. In this house, also, there is 
a small collection of plants from Africa, obtained near Ichaboe, where 
the great beds of guano exist. " More than one of them are remarkable " 
(we quote again from the l Guide' to Kew Gardens) "for exuding gum 
resin, and that marked Momonia Burniannii (the old Geranium spiiio- 
sum of Linnaeus) for becoming when dead a mass of gum resin, of which 
the quantity is so great in these burning sands, that it has been im- 
ported, in the hope of its proving valuable as an article of commerce. 
This particular plant on its arrival, and for four years, had been, to all 
appearance, perfectly dead, and more than half converted into a gum 
resinous substance, exhibiting only a few crooked lifeless-looking 
branches. Suddenly, in the spring of 1850, it has put forth leaves, and 
is full of life and vigour." 

The Museum is a recent addition to these gardens, and by no means 
the least attractive or valuable one. At present it is confessedly but 
the beginning of what will, no doubt, some day include everything that 
such a depository could be wished to contain, not even omitting a 
herbarium. Even now, half an hour or an hour may be most amus- 
ingly and instructively spent in examining the specimens of the 
plants which produce hemp, flax, straws, vessels, caoutchouc, gutta- 
percha, and a variety of other things, with the numberless products 
manufactured from these, and articles illustrative of the different 
processes of manufacture. Here are also the plants which produce 
paper, and specimens of different papers, the opium plant, and the im- 
plements used in the preparation of the opium of commerce, sections 
of different woods, specimens of woods and barks, a great many sorts 
of seeds and seed vessels, specimens of plants used in medicine, or 
for chemical or other useful purposes, spices and dried fruits of many 
kinds, and an almost infinite variety of other vegetable products, mostly 
of a useful character. The museum is adorned, likewise, with models in 
wax of the Victoria regia and other flowers ; and with many drawings 
of the Victoria, the Rafflesia Arnoldi, and a multitude of other plants. 
Perhaps the article which is most perfectly illustrated — and to which 
public attention has been a good deal excited of late — is the gutta- 



480 LONDON. 

percha, of which there are numerous specimens exhibiting its applica- 
bility to a number of ornamental objects. 

If Thursday be chosen for visiting Kew, parties who have thoroughly 
looked through the Botanic Gardens may quietly stroll through the 
pleasure grounds, which are not closejd till dusk, and which will not 
demand a lengthened survey. They can be entered at either of the two 
gates on the Richmond Road, or by one situated at the side of the 
Thames. As the latter is the one usually chosen by persons going from 
the Botanic Gardens, we will suppose the visitor to start from that 
point. 

Allowing for the abstractions which have been made to enlarge the 
Botanic Gardens, these pleasure grounds now contain nearly 130 acres. 
Just before the gate is reached, two or three very large elms will be 
noticed, one of which is said to have been planted by Queen Elizabeth, 
but was blown down about eight years ago. The stump is still pre- 
served. It may be well also to point out the long island in the river, 
opposite Kew Palace, where a plantation of trees was happily made to 
cover the town of Brentford, which it certainly does in the summer 
season, while at the same time it adds to the beauty of the river at this 
point, and would be a still finer object were there not so many common 
willows upon it. These last, growing up rapidly to one uniform height, 
and having all the same common-looking character, greatly detract from 
the appearance of the island, which might be much improved by 
sprinkling of lower trees among them. Nothing would look better than 
alders of various kinds in such a position, and they are very fast 
growing. A few deciduous cypresses, also, which would flourish here, 
might greatly relieve the appearance. 

Horticultural Society *s Gardens. — Situated at Turnham Green, which is 
better known from being in Chiswick parish, these gardens — taking in a 
far wider range of objects than the Botanic Gardens at Kew — have 
acquired great celebrity from their having been established at a period 
when gardening was in a very low condition in this country, and from 
having been the principal means of raising it to its present extraordi- 
nary and yet rapidly-improving state. 

Founded in 1802, and incorporated by charter in 1808, the Horticul- 
tural Society issued its first volume of " Transactions" in 1812, and in 
1822 arranged with the Duke of Devonshire for the lease of 33 acres of 
land at Chiswick, in order to form a garden. Previously to this, a small 
piece of ground had been temporarily occupied by them at Brompton. 
In 1824, the orchard and great part of the garden was planted and 
arranged, and in 1825 the arboretum was completed. During all this 
time, T. A. Knight, Esq., so widely known by his valuable experi- 
ments and writings on horticultural matters, was the president of the 
Society, having largely contributed to its establishment, and, by his 
great exertions, laid the foundation of its subsequent usefulness. Mr. 
Joseph Sabine was then, also, the honorary secretary, and had much of 
the practical management of the Society's affairs. 

Acting upon the comparatively dormant horticultural mind, this 
Society, besides establishing frequent meetings in its rooms at Regent 
Street, at which superior gardening products were exhibited, and the 
cultivators stimulated by prizes, invited communications from all par- 
ties on subjects relating to horticulture, and published these in a com- 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — CHISWICK. 481 

bined form in their " Transactions." They also commenced a gardening 
library, which has been subsequently so much augmented as to become 
a most valuable repository of all that relates to the art, and which is 
readily accessible to respectable persons. When the garden was formed, 
moreover, they employed it for cultivating and testing all the known 
kinds of fruits and vegetables, trees and flowers, and trying various 
methods of treatment, and practically experimenting on every new sort 
of machinery or appliance used in the various branches of horticulture. 
The collection of fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants thus became 
a living cyclopaedia of reference as to every object of value to the 
cultivator; and, during successive seasons, every different mode of 
managing the numerous products of a garden has been tried. 

At the same time, by opening communications, and establishing 
exchanges, with the various public, commercial, and private establish- 
ments throughout our own country and the world, the Society has been 
enabled to gather together, at various times, a prodigious mass of new 
and valuable plants as well as information; the former of which it 
has distributed to its members through the medium of cuttings, &c, 
and the latter by means of its " Transactions." 

Nor has it been at all inactive in adopting more direct methods of 
obtaining new and interesting objects from previously unexplored 
resources. At different periods since its origin, it has sent out numerous 
collectors, specially commissioned to search for novel and useful plants 
in tracts before untrodden, save by the wild beast or the savage, and 
the aggregate of such acquisitions is now quite startling. There are, 
in fact, but few of our most prized modern ornamental plants which the 
Society has not, in some way, been the means of introducing, or of 
making more generally available. The list of its own exclusive collec- 
tors is now a considerable one ; and among them the name of the 
unfortunate Douglas will long live as having introduced such excellent 
hardy plants as Ribes sanguineum, Berberis aquifolium, Sptrcea arice- 
folia, Gaultheria shallon, Garrya eUiptica, Acer macrophyllum, several 
first-rate species of Pinus and Abies, Nemophila insignis, and many 
other annuals, Mimvlus moschatus and cardinalis, some showy Lupines, 
and, in short, above 200 hardy plants, all of which are more or less 
ornamental. The more recent acquisitions, also, of Hartweg in Mexico 
and the neighbouring countries, and Fortune in China, are of great 
value, and will contribute much, in the present and future ages, to do 
honour to the Horticultural Society. 

In addition to the shows periodically held at Regent Street, the 
Society began an exhibition — of fruits only — at the gardens, in the 
month of June, 1831; and this was extended to flowering plants, and 
held in the months of May, June, and July, in the year 1833. These 
exhibitions have since been regularly continued; and, by the amount 
of the prizes offered, and the emulation which is excited among culti- 
vators through having their objects examined by such multitudes of 
the higher class of visitors, have tended, almost more than any other 
means, to bring plant cultivation in England to its present truly won- 
derful state. Those who have the good fortune to witness one or more 
of these displays, when, besides the extraordinary richness of the plants 
and flowers, all the beauty and fashion of the metropolis are quietly 
promenading the gardens, and the best military bands are filling the 

Y 



482 LONDON. 

air with delicious music, will certainly form a very exalted notion of 
what the Horticultural Society has done for gardening. 

The exhibitions of the Society are still kept up in the gardens for one 
day in each of the three months above named, and for several years 
the Duke of Devonshire, who has been president of the Society ever 
since the death of Mr. Knight, has very handsomely allowed his^ beau- 
tiful grounds at Chiswick, which adjoin the Horticultural Gardens, to be 
thrown open to those who attend the July exhibition. For the year 
1851, we are informed, the Society has made special provision for 
gratifying the visitors to the metropolis, by allowing Mr. Hosea Waterer, 
of Knap Hill, to exhibit his magnificent collection of rhododendrons 
and other American plants ; and there is also, we believe, to be a special 
show of fruit, with other novel features, on some day in the month of 
August, hereafter to be announced. 

The fruit department of the gardens of the Society was formed the 
earliest, and constituted originally one of the leading features of the 
establishment. It is now, and has been for the last twenty-four years, 
under the superintendence of Mr. Thompson, whose knowledge of the 
fruits grown in this country, and skill in their cultivation, is justly 
considered unrivalled. If any proof were needed of the advantage of 
confining one man's attention to one department, in order to secure the 
highest knowledge and excellence, Mr. Thompson would supply that 
proof to demonstration. Earnestly devoted to his main pursuit, there is 
not a variety of fruit, or peculiarity in their habit, or delicate distinction 
of flavour, or aptitude for receiving any particular treatment, with 
which he is not thoroughly familiar. 

At an earlier period, when this garden was first formed, its fruit 
department embraced the culture of such things as pine apples, and the 
forcing of peaches, figs, cherries, &c, with the growth of mushrooms and 
such like objects. Now, however, nothing of this kind is attempted be- 
yond trying a few grapes, and proving melons, cucumbers, or similar 
plants. After having given several years to ordinary forcing, and shown 
some of the best examples of it, the experiment was found too expen- 
sive, and the modes of cultivation, or the sorts of fruit used in that way, 
changed too little to warrant a large machinery being kept up solely 
to test them. The existing fruit department is therefore confined almost 
wholly to hardy things. 

There is a large quarter of old apple and pear trees, occupying an 
acre and a half. A quarter newly planted with pears, to be trained 
as espaliers, contains about half an acre. Another quarter, of about 
a third of an acre, is appropriated to select plums ; and one of the 
same extent to cherries. There is also a plot, of similar dimensions, 
just planted with general fruits, in which every known method of train- 
ing is to be exemplified. A trial ground, for new fruits of every kind, 
contains three-quarters of an acre ; and there is a large border for the 
newest and best strawberries, with a border for apple trees all round the 
orchard. 

The fruit room is large, and situated at the back of a peach wall. It 
has a north-westerly aspect, and is entered through another small room, 
so as never to admit the external air when it is wished to be excluded. 
It is generally kept almost dark, and well ventilated, the windows being 
matted up in winter just to keep out frost, and no fire heat employed. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. CHISWICK. 



483 



The fruit is laid on wooden shelves, arranged in tiers, and formed of 
strips of wood about three inches wide, with small openings between 
each piece. The more valuable sorts of pear are wrapped individually 
in soft paper. Nothing could be more simple than the arrangement of 
this fruit room, the great point which requires attention being to see that 
it is just sufficiently ventilated to carry off the moisture which exhales 
from the fruit, without drying the air so much as to cause any of the 
articles to shrivel. Almost total darkness is also maintained. 

Two or three years back, the Society rendered great service to horti- 
culture and agriculture, by commissioning Mr. E. Solly, jun., to carry 
out a series of experiments in the garden, on the efficacy of the different 
modern manures ; and that gentleman also delivered a course of lectures 
on the subject at the Society's rooms in Regent Street. 




CONSERVATORY, HORTICULTURAL GARDENS, CHISWICK. 

Approaching the large conservatory at its western end, it exhibits a 
very light and elegant exterior ; but, in conjunction we believe with 
most persons who have seen it, we cannot admire the mode in which the 
entrance is there effected. The walk is made to descend gradually for 

y 2 



484 LONDON. 

some distance, so as to get the door beneath the plinth of the house, and 
there are steps to the right and left after entering, to conduct to the level 
of the floor of the house. This is essentially awkward and inconvenient, 
and gives the impression, from the outside, of going down into the house, 
instead of rising to it as would be desirable. So far is this plan from 
improving the elevation, too, that we cannot but think a bold square- 
headed door, with proper mouldings, would be rather an advantage to 
the appearance of the building at this end. 

Entering this conservatory, which is remarkably neat, and has, if any- 
thing, too much light for the plants — a fault which, if it exists anywhere, 
is peculiarly modern, and arises out of the excess of a virtue — the 
character of the house, and the arrangement of the plants in it, will be 
almost sure to please. It has a curvilinear roof, formed entirely of light 
iron, and glazed with patent sheet glass. The present portion, which is one 
wing of the proposed building, intended to be 500 ft. long, and to have an 
octagonal centre compartment, was erected by Messrs. D. and E. Bailey, 
of Holborn, in 1838, from the designs of Alfred Ainger, Esq. It stands 
in a direction nearly east and west, on a raised platform, and is 180 ft. 
long, by 27 ft. high, and about 27 ft. in breadth. The eastern end, which 
is upright, is only temporary, till the other parts are added. The glaz- 
ing will be observed to be beautifully done, and all the work about the 
building is nicely finished. By the ventilators in the sides (beneath the 
stages), the air is caused first to pass over a gutter of water, collected 
from the rain which falls on the roof, and it thus becomes partially 
charged with moisture. It afterwards passes over the hot-water pipes ; 
and in this way, whenever heat and air are required at the same time, 
becomes slightly warmed before it reaches the plants. 

Within the house, there are narrow stages along the side walls, and a 
path on each side of a central bed. Small and showy flowering plants 
are generally kept on the stages, and on the north side there is a 
limited collection of the cactus tribe, with Echeverias and other suc- 
culents. It is found that the strong light is rather prejudicial to plants 
on the southern stage, as it dries them up so quickly, and causes them 
to require frequent waterings. It may here be observed, too, that the 
leaves of the larger plants in the middle of the house frequently 
become burnt opposite a particular angle of the glass, and acquire 
numerous brown blotches ; but those plants which have woolly leaves 
do not appear to suffer. It is only the leaves which have a smooth 
surface that are at all affected, and these simply, as we have said, where 
they happen to come within range of the rays which pass through a 
certain curve of the glass. 

Down the centre of this conservatory is a bed of soil, in which the 
bulk of the plants are inserted, without pots. Here they grow most 
luxuriantly, and produce magnificent specimens, causing one greatly to 
regret that, in consequence of the rapidity of their progress, they have, 
in a few years, either to lose their leading shoots, or be removed. Even 
with this drawback, however, the effect they produce in giving an air of 
picturesque wildness and resemblance to nature, is so good and so very 
desirable, that it strongly inclines us to prefer sacrificing a few plants 
every year in order to attain this extreme healthiness, variety, and 
vigour. By a very little contrivance, a succession of plants, in dif- 
ferent parts of the house, may be kept advancing, so as never to 
render the practice of this system productive of bareness and feebleness. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. CHISWICK. ±85 

There are so many plants, moreover, which will always keep within 
moderate limits, that are peculiarly fitted for planting out in this 
way. 

Those plants which have most arrested our notice in this conservatory 
are the tea-scented roses placed here and there along the sides of the bed, 
and which thrive here in great splendour; the Hedychiums on the 
northern side, near the western end, which flourish and flower superbly ; 
the Brugniansias, which are admirable conservatory plants, but want a 
little autumn pruning; the charming Hydrangea-like Lucidia gratis- 
si?na, which seems most congenially placed on the north side, and blooms 
profusely in November and December ; Poly gala grandiflora^ quite a 
tree ; Acacia oxyced/rus^ a variety of A. pvlchella, and other species of 
the genus, singularly elegant when in flower ; Cestrum aurantiacura, 
very large, and equally handsome, during autumn, whether in a large or 
small state, for its bright orange flowers ; Araucaria brasiliensis, pro- 
ducing cones ; the large Altingias at the eastern end, which one laments 
to see necessarily decapitated ; and, without further multiplying ex- 
amples, the many elegant climbers, especially Kennedya {Hardenhergia) 
macrophylla, which scrambles up some wires to a great height, and forms 
an immense mass of the richest foliage and flowers in summer, looking 
like the splendid drapery to some luxurious Eastern scene. In the wild 
and free manner in which this and other climbers are left to dangle 
about, there is much of nature, and at the same time indications of the 
highest art ; for it is one of the last attainments of art to realize any- 
thing like a natural appearance. We shall be much mistaken if the 
visitor of taste is not as highly pleased with the Kemudya we have 
mentioned as with any other thing, however rare, in the whole garden. 

With the long walk previously existing opposite the main entrance, 
and which has now been finished by an alcove brought from another 
part of the garden, and the pediment of which is unluckily much wider 
than the vista through which it is seen, the arboretum has three bold 
straight walks on its eastern, northern, and southern sides. There is also 
a walk, though of less consequence, along the western margin. The space 
by the sides of the northern walk, and between it and the boundary 
wall, however, is the most interesting part of the arboretum. 

On the conservative wall along this side of the garden, there is a large 
collection of such plants as are naturally climbers, and either hardy or 
nearly so, together with those tender shrubs which, requiring the pro- 
tection of a wall with a southerly aspect, will yet bear some little 
amount of training. 

The plan adopted for sheltering the plants on this wall is to have a 
narrow border, not three feet wide, with a row of rude pillars along the 
front, and a light frame-work of wood at the top to support a thatch 
which is applied during winter. This thatch, which is only just suffi- 
cient to cover the border, at once turns off all the wet, and checks radia- 
tion, while it does not materially interfere with the action of light and air 
on the plants. 

In the area which we supposed the visitor first to enter, there is an 
orchid house, in which the pots containing the plants are placed on a 
thin bed of gravel, to keep them moist without making them too damp. 
This house is kept pretty hot, and rather above the average for moisture, 
and the plants look very healthy. A large specimen of the lovely 
Phaloenopsis amabdis is nearly always in flower. A stove near this house, 



486 LONDON. 

with a broad span roof, which is entered rather uncomfortably by two or 
three descending steps, contains a mixed collection of stove plants, with 
climbers trained to trellises in pots, and many pretty little plants of rare 
kinds of Begonia, Achimenes, Gloxinia, Centradenia, Columnea, &c. 

Another house used as a stove (formerly a vinery) has many newer 
things in it, and is better deserving of a visit by those who are in search 
of novelties. The gigantic specimen of Loelia superbiens, which blooms 
freely every year, is usually kept in this house ; as is likewise a very 
large plant of the old Dendrobium speciosum, which few persons can 
flower, but which here produces an immense number of blossoms, though 
not every season. A low span-roofed greenhouse, with a path in the 
centre, and broad flat stages, the glass coming down nearly to the level 
of the stages at the side walls, is described as a very useful house, with 
a particularly simple heating apparatus, which is capable of doing a 
good deal of work at a light expense, and with little trouble. The 
boiler used is called the Exeter drum boiler, and supplied by Mr. 
Jervis, of Exeter. The upper part of the boiler is a sort of hemisphere, 
connected with the lower part by upright pipes, and the fire is in the 
centre of the lower part, as it is in most of the conical boilers. Shewen's 
boilers are also used in these gardens, with the happiest results. 

Another span-roofed greenhouse, of more pretensions, and ranging 
north and south, stands near the one last mentioned, and was presented 
by Messrs. Hartley & Co., of Sunderland, to exhibit the application of 
their patent rough glass. It is a neat and elegant house, and the large 
panes of glass give it a very superior appearance. 

A little way off, in the other direction, a plain span-roofed pit, with a 
path down the centre, has just been completed at a trifling expense. It 
is entered by two descending steps, and, without being much (if any) 
dearer than those pits which are only accessible from without, it enables 
the gardener to get into it in all weathers, for the purpose of watering 
and for other tendance, without exposing the plants to rains or cold, 
and at a much smaller sacrifice of convenience. 

The experimental ground, in which these pits occur, is used for raising 
new annuals, for testing different kinds of produce, for examining the 
properties and value of agricultural plants, for trying experiments with 
manures, for gourds, vegetable marrows, general flowers, or any object or 
thing which happens to require examining, and for which there is not a 
regular place provided elsewhere. And while thus referring to experi- 
ments, we may state that Mr. Gordon raised a very good hybrid variety of 
Anemone japonica here, which found its way into many of the gardens 
about London last year, and, like the original species, is much esteemed 
as a summer bedding plant. 

Returning through the arboretum to the principal entrance, we will 
just remark that access to the gardens can be easily obtained through 
the order of a Fellow of the Society ; and gardeners, we believe, are al- 
ways admitted on application at the Turnham Green Gate. Candidates 
for membership must obtain the introduction of three Fellows of the 
Society, and the yearly subscription is four guineas. Tickets for admis- 
sion to the gardens on fete days can be had through the medium of 
Fellows of the Society ; or respectable parties may apply to the Vice- 
Secretary, 21, Regent Street. The exhibitions in Regent Street are open 
to any one introduced by a member, and are held once or twice in every 
month, on Tuesdays. The days on which the Garden Exhibitions are 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. REGENT S PARK. 



48? 



held are always duly advertised in the newspapers. We must not omit 
to add that the Society distributes the plants which are introduced 
through its means with the greatest liberality, as well to nurserymen 
as to its unprofessional members, and that grafts of the best kinds of 
fruits are likewise freely distributed. 




GROUND PLAN OF BOTANIC GARDENS, REGENT S PARK. 

Royal Botanic Gardens, Regent's Park. — When these gardens were 
first projected, those at Kew were in a wretched condition, and difficult 
of access, while the Horticultural Gardens were formed and conducted 
on a much wider basis than was here contemplated, and did not embrace 
at all many of the objects which the founders of these sought to com- 
pass. It is well known that the Horticultural Society never attempted 
to establish a botanical collection, or, indeed, any collection at all, ex- 
cept of hardy shrubs and trees, and fruits. There was, therefore, a 
legitimate field open to this Botanic Society for the formation of a bo- 
tanical collection, and the site which they chose for their gardens would 
necessarily, by its proximity to the better parts of London, give them 



488 LONDON. 

another claim to support. The success with which their exertions have 
been crowned, notwithstanding the great improvements which have been 
effected at Kew, shows at once the reasonableness of their plan, and the 
deep hold which gardening has taken of the English mind ; for it now 
appears that there is ample room for this new claimant to patronage, 
without detriment to the older institutions. 

The Royal Botanic Society was incorporated by Charter in 1839, and 
the garden commenced in 1840. This garden stands on the site of the 
Inner Circle, Regent's Park ; a spot said to have been reserved for a 
palace by George IV. It was long occupied as a nursery-garden by Mr. 
Jenkins, and derived the advantage from this circumstance of having a 
number of ornamental trees, some of which are of a respectable size, 
already existing upon it. The many specimens of Weeping Ash, the 
large Weeping Elms, and the numerous more common trees on the south- 
western side of the gardens, are among the older tenants of the place. 
Some first-rate specimens of Andromeda floribunda, too, for which 
Jenkins's nursery was celebrated, still exist, and are in the American 
garden. 

Although situated, as it were, in London, this garden does not suffer 
much from the smoke incident to the metropolis, being on the north- 
western side of it, and in a not very populous, though highly aristocratic 
district. Comprising only about 18 acres, too, this place, by being in the 
midst of Regent's Park, and having the ground falling away from it on 
most sides, while conspicuous hills and swells rise in the distance, is made, 
by a wise treatment of the boundary, to appear at least twice as large 
as it really is ; for, from the middle of the garden, the fences are scarcely 
at all seen, and the plantations are now beginning to blend with those 
outside, and with the surrounding country, so that a great indefiniteness 
of view is procured. 

In the year 1840, before the garden was begun, the Society appointed 
Mr. Robert Marnock, the designer and former curator of the Sheffield 
Botanic Gardens, to the curatorship of this establishment ; and from the 
plans, and under the direction of this gentleman, assisted by Mr. Decimus 
Burton as architect, the garden has since been laid out. 

In a landscape point of view, we may safely affirm that Mr. Marnock 
has been particularly happy in the arrangement and planting of this 
garden. As a whole, the avowedly ornamental parts are probably superior 
to anything of the kind in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. Much 
has been attempted, especially in the variation of the surface of the 
ground ; and almost all that has been proposed is fully and well achieved. 
We would particularly point out the clever manner in which the boundary 
fence is got rid of on the northern and north-western sides, as seen from 
the middle of the garden ; the beautiful changes in the surface of the 
ground, and the grouping of the masses of plants, in the same quarter; 
the artistic manner in which the rockery is formed, out of such bad 
materials, and the picturesque disposal of the plants upon it ; and the 
treatment of the large mound, from which so many and such excellent 
views of the garden and country are obtained. We might also refer to 
the singularly delightful arrangement of the American and Coniferous 
plants, brought last year for exhibition, in which a great deal of the 
highest taste was displayed, and which we understand has now been re- 
arranged in a stilj more interesting manner. 

Entering by the principal gate (9 on the ground plan), not far from 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. REGENTS PARK. 489 

York Gate, the first thing deserving notice is the very agreeable and 
effective manner in which the entrance is screened from the gardens, 
and the gardens from the public gaze. This is not done by large close 
gates and heavy masonry, but by a living screen of ivy, planted in 
boxes, and supported by an invisible fence. There are, in fact, two 
screens; one close to the outside fence, opposite the centre of the 
principal walk, and having an entrance gate on either side of it ; and 
the other several feet further in, extending across the sides of the 
walk, and only leaving an opening in the centre. By keeping the ivy 
in boxes, it does not interfere with the continuity of the gravel walk, 
and has a neater appearance, and can, we suppose, be taken away 
altogether, if required. At any rate, it has a temporary look, which 
is of some consequence to the effect. These screens are from 6 to 8 ft. 
high. In a small lodge at the side, visitors enter their names, and 
produce the orders of Fellows of the Society, which are necessary for 
seeing the gardens. Gardeners are admitted by a gate on the east 
side of the Circle, nearly opposite the road which crosses the Park from 
the neighbourhood of the Colosseum. 

After passing through the screen we have thus described, a broad, bold 
walk is entered upon, at the end of which, on a slightly-raised platform, 
is that portion of the great conservatory which the Society has already 
been able to complete. But before advancing to an examination of that 
building, we would recommend the visitor to turn to the right, and, 
taking the various features of the garden in regular course, accomplish 
the entire circuit of it without having to travel over the same ground 
twice. 

Adopting this route, the ascent of the large mound (7) will be one of 
the first things that commands attention. And directly the visitor gets 
upon these walks, he will perceive that an entire change of character has 
been contemplated. Instead of the highly-artificial features of the broad 
walk opposite the entrance, we are here introduced to an obvious imitation 
of nature. The surface of the ground is kept rough, and covered only 
with undressed grass, — such, we mean, as is only occasionally and net 
regularly mown ; the direction of the walks is irregular, or brokenly 
zigzag, and their sides ragged ; the plants and trees are mostly of a wild 
character, such as furze, broom, ivy, privet, clematis, thorns, mountain ash, 
&c, and these are clustered together in tangled masses. Such a style is 
too seldom thought of or well carried out to render a fair specimen of 
it otherwise than agreeable, or indicative of real taste. But we must 
be permitted altogether to doubt its fitness for this locality. In the 
very midst of a highly-cultivated scene, which is overlooked at almost 
every step, and adjoining a compartment in which the most formal sys- 
tematic arrangement is adopted, in beds, and almost within the limits 
of the great metropolis itself, such an introduction of the rougher and 
less cultivated features of nature is assuredly to be deprecated. It can- 
not be too strongly insisted on, that art is not a thing to be ashamed of 
in gardening, although, in general, it should in no way be obtruded. 
And whenever the rougher characteristics of nature are brought into a 
polished garden, there is just as much necessity for keeping them secluded 
and by themselves, as there is for isolating the conspicuous evidences of 
art in one of Nature's wildest scenes. 

Several platforms on the face of the mound, and especially one at the 
summit, afford the most beautiful views of Regent's Park and its villas. 



490 LONDON. 

Primrose and other neighbouring hills, and the more distant country. 
On a clear day, with the wind south-west, west, or north-west, these 
landscapes are truly delightful. There is a mixture of wood, grass, 
mansion, and general undulation, which is singularly refreshing so near 
London, and which abundantly exhibits the foresight that has been dis- 
played in the formation of this mound. Unquestionably, when the 
atmosphere is at all favourable, the ascent of the mound is one of the 
greatest attractions of the garden to a lover of landscape beauties. The 
classic villa of the Marquis of Hertford in the Park, is a very conspicuous 
object in the view. 

Descending the mound on its eastern side, a small lake (8), out of which 
the material for raising the mound was procured, is seen to stretch along 
its base, and to form several sinuous arms. Like the mound itself, an 
air of wildness is thrown around this lake, which is increased by the 
quantity of sedgy plants on its margins, and the common-looking dwarf 
willows which abound near its western end. In this lake, and in some 
of the small strips of water by which it is prolonged towards the east, 
an unusually complete collection of hardy water plants will be found, 
and these are planted without any appearance of art, so as to harmonize 
with the entire scene. Being all labelled, as is almost everything else 
in the garden, there will be no difficulty in ascertaining their names. 
There is a rustic bridge over one arm of the lake, which, being simple, 
and without pretension, is quite in character with the neighbouring 
objects. 

Between the lake and the boundary fence, in a little nook formed on 
purpose for them, the various hardy ferns and Equiseta are cultivated. 
The plants of the former are put among masses of fused brick, placed 
more with reference to their use in affording a position for growing 
ferns, than for their picturesque effect. This corner is, in fact, altoge- 
ther an episode to the general scene, and does not form a part of it. 

On a border near these ferns, and extending along the south side of 
the lake, are several interesting collections, illustrative of one of the 
Society's objects, which is to show, in a special compartment, the hardy 
plants remarkable for their uses in various branches of manufacture. 
Commencing at the western end of this border, we find first the plants 
which afford tanning materials. The Rhus cotinus and coriaria, the 
Scotch Fir, the Larch, and the Oak, are among these. It is unfortunate 
that the whole of the plants in this border have not more room ; because, 
being of such very different habits, they will soon outgrow their position, 
and will then require to be thinned out or removed/ Next in order 
are the plants whose fibre is used for chip plat, comprising Salix alba, 
the Lombardy Poplar, &e. Then follow the plants whose fibre is 
adapted for weaving cordage, &c. The Spartium junceum, Flax, and 
Hemp, rank in this class. The plants used in making baskets or mat- 
ting, &c, next occur, and embrace the Lime and Osier among others. 
Grasses of different kinds then illustrate the plants whose straw is used 
for platting. The Cork tree and Populus nigra furnish examples of 
plants whose bark yields cork. A collection of plants whose parts 
furnish materials for dyeing finishes the series, and includes some spe- 
cies of Rhus, Hippophae, Salix, <fec. Altogether, this is a very instructive 
border, and all the objects are labelled under the respective heads here 
given, so that they may be readily referred to. If they had proper room 
to grow in, the compartment would be one of increasing interest. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — REGENTS PARK. 491 

A large herbaceous garden (6) adjoins the lake at its eastern end, and 
the plants are here arranged in beds, according to the natural system, 
the species of each order being assigned to one bed. Of course the beds 
will thus vary greatly in size. They are edged with box, and have 
gravel walks between. Three or four crescent-shaped hedges are placed 
here and there across this garden, partly for shelter, but principally 
to act as divisions to the larger groups of natural orders. These 
hedges separate the garden into the great natural divisions, and each of 
the compartments they form is again subdivided into orders by walks 
4 ft. in width, the sub-orders being indicated by division walks of 2 ft. 
in width. The inquiries of the student are thus greatly aided, and he is 
enabled to carry away a much clearer impression of the natural system 
than can be had from books. This is an excellent place for ascertaining 
what are the best and most showy herbaceous border flowers. 

Further on, in the same direction, is a garden (5) assigned entirely to 
British plants, disposed in conformity with the Linnasan system in long 
beds, with alleys between. In this division will be seen how very orna- 
mental are some of the plants to which our soil gives birth ; and the less 
informed will be surprised to find that many of their garden favourites 
are the natural products of some part or other of our own country. 

A well-stocked Medical Garden (4) terminates this chain of scientific 
collections, and is more pleasing than the other two, on account of the 
plants being much more varied. The arrangement of this tribe is 
founded on the natural system, and the plants are in narrow beds, 
which take a spiral form. If the visitor will commence with the Ranun- 
culaceae, and carefully observe the way in which the names on the labels 
read, so as to keep these names constantly before him, he will easily be 
able to follow through the whole collection in the order adopted. All 
the hardy plants used in medicine are thus brought together, Without 
reference to their habits, a great deal of useful knowledge being thereby 
conveyed in a compact form. 

This last feature of the garden may possibly be deemed a superfluous 
one in a metropolis which possesses what is termed by way of distinction 
a Physic Garden. And we are not by any means certain that a botanical 
collection of plants with various habits, arranged solely with relation to 
their natural alliances, can ever be satisfactorily kept up. It is clear, 
indeed, that in a few years many of the plants in this medical depart- 
ment must be abandoned, or renewed with smaller specimens ; for such 
as grow to the size of trees would soon fill all the space, while there will 
not be room for any of them, except the very smallest, to grow to their 
full and natural dimensions. This evil is, it seems, proposed to be re- 
medied by replacing the plants with younger ones as soon as they get 
too large. 

Near the Medical Garden are the plant-houses, pits, and reserve ground 
(2), in which all the plants are grown for stocking the conservatory, 
flower-beds, borders, &c. Here we were happy to notice, during a visit 
last autumn, that three useful new span-roofed houses had been erected, 
in a kind of series, which is to be yet further extended. A detached 
greenhouse contained a considerable number of Pelargoniums, pruned 
and trained into tall upright plants, which are very useful among 
masses of smaller things in the conservatory during summer. The plan 
is worthy of imitation in any place where the plants have to stand on 
the ground, as, by being rendered thus tall, their flowers are brought 



4<92 LONDON. 

more on a level with the eye. There were likewise some standard 
Azaleas here, of the Indian varieties, which are serviceable in a similar 
way to the Pelargoniums. 

The new houses are constructed in a very simple manner, with a path 
down the centre, flat shelves or stages at the sides, the hot-water pipes 
under the stages, near the walls, the lights resting on the side walls, and 
all fixed, with ventilators in the shape of small sashes here and there 
along near the top of the larger lights, on both sides of the centre. One 
of these houses, which is used for orchids, has no means of ventilation 
at all, except at the end, over the door, where there is a small sash 
capable of being opened. And with proper shading, it is found both 
here and elsewhere that orchids very seldom require fresh air. The col- 
lection of orchids here, as of stove and greenhouse plants in general, is 
not at present extensive, but is continually increasing. The beautiful 
Phaloenopsis amabilis was producing seed-vessels, which appeared likely 
to contain sound seeds. 

One of the span-roofed houses is almost wholly occupied with a cis- 
tern containing the great Victoria regia, Nymphcea coerulea, and other 
aquatics. Although kept at a high temperature, and planted in a tank 
of great dimensions (27 ft. by 17 ft.), through which hot-water pipes 
pass, and where the water is maintained in motion by the action of a 
small revolving wheel, the Victoria did not seem, last October, in a happy 
or healthy state. Since that period, however, the water having been 
changed, it is, we learn, progressing as satisfactorily as could be wished, 
and is now one of the finest plants in the country. At the farther end of 
the aquarium, is a cluster of handsome plants, including a very large and 
striking specimen of Asplenium nidus, a new species of Ficus, with sin- 
gularly fine leaves, and, trained to the roof, a very luxuriant plant of the 
snake gourd {Trichosanthes colubrina). This last curious object bears 
long thin fruit, sometimes from 3 to 4 ft. in length, like a very slender 
cucumber, but strangely twisted, especially towards the end, and having 
white streaks on a green ground. When ripe, it changes colour to a 
bright red, which renders it exceedingly showy. 

From the reserve ground, a few steps will lead to the large conservatory, 
which is more appropriately termed the Winter Garden. At the eastern 
end of this conservatory, and in a corresponding place at the other end, 
there is a very large vase placed on the gravel, no doubt for containing 
plants in summer, but without either plinth or pedestal. Along the front 
of the conservatory, at the edge of the terrace, are several more vases, 
of a handsomer kind. 

This large conservatory is doubtless the most remarkable thing in the 
garden, and is, perhaps, of its kind, the best in Europe. It is rather more 
than a third part of an extensive design, which is intended to be carried 
out as soon as the means of doing so can be realized. The original 
intention was, we believe, to connect this great glass house with the out- 
side road, by a long glass corridor, so that visitors during winter might 
step from their carriages into the building at once, and proceed, between 
rows of plants, to the main portion of it, without having to walk through 
the open garden. This part of the plan has, however, been abandoned. 
It is of the very lightest description — built wholly of iron and glass. 
The front is simply adorned with a kind of pilaster, composed of ground 
glas?, neatly figured, which gives a little relief, without obstructing 
the light. And the central flattish dome has an ornamented kind of 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. REGENTS PARK. 493 

crown, which helps to break the outline. Otherwise, on the exterior, 
there are no pillars— not even to the doors — and nothing but the very 
lightest cornice, and no decorations of any kind on the ridges of the 
roof. The roof is for the most part composed of a series of large ridges, 
the sides of these being of an inverted sort of keel shape, and a trans- 
verse ridge extending along the principal front from either side of 
the projected domical portion. There are smaller lean-to additions at 
each end, but these are only temporary, and the back is finished with an 
upright face till the building can be enlarged to its proper width. At 
present, the extreme length is 176 ft., and the width at the widest part 
100 ft. Ultimately the greatest length will be 375 ft., and the utmost 
width 200 ft. The house is ventilated at the top by small sliding lights, 
worked by little winches attached to the pillars. These pillars them- 
selves are so exceedingly slender as scarcely to be noticed when the 
house is well stocked with plants. It is fairly open to debate whether, 
in the effort to secure the greatest amount of lightness, too much 
character has not been sacrificed ; and whether, in such a large building, 
the introduction of more massive exterior pillars or pilasters, a bolder 
cornice, some broad and decided frame-work for the doorways, and a 
slightly-enriched roof, would not have signally improved the elevation 
without in the least degree unduly interfering with the supply of light. 

The conservatory is marked No. 1 on the ground plan which we have 
given. We have been favoured with the following account of it. 

This building stands on the north side of the Society's grounds. Its 
construction is simple in character, and without architectural pretence, 
the principle on which it was designed being, with limited funds, to 
obtain the largest possible extent of garden covered and enclosed with 
glass, and temperately warmed, as a promenade for the Fellows of the 
Society and their friends, in winter as well as summer. 

Its length, as already stated, is 176 ft., and breadth 75 ft., exclusive 
of a centre circular projection ; where the internal width is 100 ft. 
The upright sides are 14 ft. high, and the roof at the centre 32 ft. high. 

The roof is supported in the front by a cast-iron moulded gutter, and 
by iron columns in the interior of the building, placed at 12 ft. distance 
from each other, in bays or divisions of 25 ft. span. These columns 
afford support to a variety of climbing plants. 

The warming is effected by means of hot water circulating in cast- 
iron pipes, 2500 ft. in length, placed in brick chambers under the 
surface of the floor; and by a continuous iron tank 18 in. wide and 
6 in. deep, placed in a brick chamber around the building, having a 
heating surface equal to 2000 ft. of 4 in. pipe. The top of the tank 
has openings, with circular covers, to emit vapour when required. The 
heated air escapes by perforated castings level with the floor. Air 
ducts communicate with the chambers containing the pipes and tank, 
bringing air to be heated from parts of the house most remote from 
the heating surface. 

Two boilers for heating the water are placed in a boiler-house about 
30 ft. to the north-west of the building, one for heating the water in 
the pipes, the other that in the tanks. An auxiliary boiler is also 
provided, for giving increased temperature to the water circulating 
in the pipes, when required. An outer chamber of brickwork is con- 
structed around the furnace-room, from whence also heated air is 
transmitted to the interior of the house. Additional boiler power is 



494 LONDON. 

now being added, to compensate for the extra heat required for the 
stove. 

Ventilation is provided by means of sashes made to slide on the roof, 
and worked simultaneously by means of simple machinery ; and at the 
ends of the house, and in the front by casements hung on pivots. The 
roof water is conveyed by the iron columns and under-ground pipes 
into three large tanks. The total cost was about <£7000. 

The Architect was Mr. Decimus Burton, and the Contractor Mr. 
Richard Turner, of Dublin. 

As in the Horticultural Society's Gardens, three great exhibitions are 
held here, for flowers and fruit, in the months of May, June, and July. 
The same kind, and about an equal quantity, of objects are brought to 
each of these gardens. But the visitor to London, who happens to in- 
clude a show at both the gardens during the period of his stay, should 
by all means go to both. The grounds of the two are so very different 
that it is quite worth while to see the effect of a large number of ele- 
gantly-dressed persons promenading in them, apart from the interest 
of the exhibitions themselves. The annual subscription to the Society 
for membership is two guineas, and the entrance fee five guineas. 

Chelsea Botanic Garden. — The primary object of this garden was to 
cultivate all the medical plants which were known in this country, so 
as to form a constant source of reference to medical students. Another, 
but more secondary purpose, was the gathering together a collection of 
rare exotic plants ; and many of the most ornamental inhabitants of our 
gardens were first distributed from this estabKshment. 

It is decidedly one of the oldest of existing gardens. Some of the 
earliest greenhouses known in Britain were erected and heated here. The 
ancient cedars of Lebanon, supposed to be the first known in this country, 
are said to have been planted in 1683, being then about 3 ft. high and 5 
years old. In the year 1720 Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., a celebrated phy- 
sician and naturalist, having purchased an estate at Chelsea, gave the 
site of this garden to the Apothecaries Company, on condition of their 
making an annual present of plants to the Royal Society. Philip Miller, 
the well-known author of the "Gardeners' Dictionary," and one of the 
earliest writers on gardening subjects, was, we believe, the first curator of 
this garden, and had the management of it for fifty years, having re- 
signed in 1770, at the age of eighty. 

At the time the garden was formed it must have stood entirely in the 
country, and had every chance of the plants in it maintaining a healthy 
state. Now, however, it is completely in the town, and but for its being 
on the side of the river, and lying open on that quarter, it would be 
altogether surrounded with common streets and houses. As it is, the 
appearance of the walks, grass, plants, and houses, is very much that 
of most London gardens — dingy, smoky, and, as regards the plants, im- 
poverished and starved. It is, however, interesting for its age, for the 
few old specimens it contains, for the medical plants, and, especially, 
because the houses are being gradually renovated, and collections of 
ornamental plants, as well as those which are useful in medicine, 
formed and cultivated on the best principles, under the curatorship of 
Mr. Thomas Moore, one of the editors of the " Gardeners' Magazine of 
Botany." 

This garden is situated by the side of the Thames, near Chelsea 
Hospital, and is entered by a gate in a side lane. It covers only a small 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. TEMPLE. 495 

area, and is not laid ont for much ornamental effect. On entering 
by the gate we have mentioned, the principal plant houses are nearly 
straight before the visitor, being only a trifling distance to the right. 
The herbaceous garden and more decorated part lies to the left, and the 
medical department, with the lecture room and offices at the back of it, 
are on the extreme right. The first thing to be noticed is an ancient 
cork tree, which is a good deal enfeebled by the bad atmosphere, but is 
large and tolerably sound. This must have been one of the first spe- 
cimens introduced into Britain. In the middle of the garden is a fine 
marble statue of Sir Hans Sloane, by Rysbach, with all the smoothness 
taken from its surface by the action of the weather, and thus made to 
resemble stone. It is an example of what may be expected from marble 
when a great many years exposed in our climate. 

Between the statue and the river, on either side of a walk which leads 
to the margin of the water, are two venerable cedars They are not 
remarkably large nor particularly handsome, some of the branches 
having been shattered by a storm in 1809. The circumference of the 
trunk of one of them is 15 ft., and that of the other 12 ft. Their 
conspicuously flat heads give them, however, a most striking character ; 
and standing so near the river, in a low district, they are seen for some 
distance, and always tell powerfully on the landscape. Every passenger 
by the steam-boats must have noticed and admired them. 

Temple Gardens, London. — Those who have only seen these gardens at 
a dull season of the year will at once assume that, except for their his- 
torical associations, and as presenting a rather dusky green plot of open 
ground in the desert of London houses and streets, we can have nothing 
worth communicating with respect to them ; — nothing, at least, that would 
render a visit remunerative. Such, however, is not the case. We have 
ourselves been both astonished and delighted by an inspection of them 
in the later autumn months ; and from the information of two of our 
kind friends, as well as from our own cursory glance at them, we now 
furnish a brief account of what is here to be seen. 

These gardens are divided into two parts, one belonging to the Inner 
Temple and the other to the Middle Temple. The former of these is a 
considerable area, of about three acres. Except a slight extension to the 
west, along the water side, it is of a nearly square figure. A border for 
flowers extends round three of its sides, that towards the river being kept 
open. The rest is neatly-mown grass, with broad gravel walks in good 
condition, the one by the side of the river being largest, and affording a 
good river view at high water. A few small trees are scattered about, 
three elms on the grass appearing to be very healthy and thriving. 
There is an ancient sycamore on the lawn, now unfortunately dead, 
which once stood close by the side of the river, that here formed a bay. 
The trunk and branches of this tree are now very judiciously being- 
covered with ivy, and with the aid of props will last a long time. 
Nothing could be plainer than the whole of this garden, which wants a 
few masses of shrubs and some good fountains. In the borders, however, 
many old summer flowers, such as sweet-williams, wallflowers, irises, mi- 
gnonette (which is a first-rate town plant), and other well-known but fre- 
quently discarded herbaceous plants, with numerous crocuses and snow- 
drops in spring, are successfully cultivated by Mr. Brome, the gardener. 
But the chief feature of the garden is the chrysanthemums, which under 
his management here attain a surprising degree of perfection. 



496 LONDON. 

Of much more contracted dimensions, the garden of the Middle Temple 
is arranged with superior taste, having more trees and shrubs, and a 
number of beds happily placed about the lawn, so as in some measure 
to disguise its shape and limits. Here, too, besides the flowers before 
mentioned, and stocks, and annuals, chrysanthemums are the leading 
element. 

Nearly adjoining this is a smaller plot, half enshrouded with trees, in 
the middle of which is one of the few fountains of which London can 
boast. Although of the plainest description, with a simple half-inch jet, 
which throws the water 10 ft. in height, it is difficult to convey an ade- 
quate notion of the cheering effect which its sound, and sparkle, and cool- 
ness, communicate to the passers-by in the heart of the metropolis on a 
hot and dusty summer's day. Were the jet of a different character, and 
made to scatter the water more, the pleasure it occasions would be still 
increased. When looking at it, even as it is, however, one cannot help 
regretting that such objects are not of frequent occurrence in a town of 
such magnitude and with such resources. 

At the back of the Temple Church, in a small piece of ground fronting 
the master's house, is a remarkable Jargonelle pear-tree, fully 35 ft. high, 
well branched, and with a proportionately stout trunk. In this dingy 
corner, where everything is darkened with soot, it is pleasant to see such 
a vigorous specimen, and to learn that it last year bore nearly a bushel of 
tolerably good pears. 

Hampton Court. — The great merit of this very striking place is that it 
has a character of its own, and that this character is alike adapted to the 
situation and country in which it happens to be placed, and to the palace 
of which it is the accompaniment. Perhaps there is not another garden 
round London of which this can be so truly said, or one of which the 
visitor will carry away such a clear and lasting impression. And though 
it has lately been the fashion to decry the style of gardening of which 
Hampton Court presents one of the very few remaining specimens, we 
doubt whether, in its leading features, anything more suited to the dig- 
nity of such a palace, or more in harmony with the flatness and tameness 
of the surrounding country, can be found. In this praise, however, we 
do not include what is called " the wilderness," which is only a subordi- 
nate and inferior part of the whole, and which might be removed with- 
out any loss, beyOnd the shadiness of walks which it affords. 

It is most unfortunate, as far as the effect of the garden is concerned, 
that the public are only admitted through the wilderness. If access 
could be obtained by what are termed the " flower-pot gates," the noble 
terrace walk, which passes the east front of the palace, and which is 
probably one of the finest in England, would then be entered at once. 
Starting from these gates, after just glancing at the beauty of the flower 
baskets and groups of fruit by which their piers are surmounted, let the 
visitor imagine the wall on the right to be architecturally treated, in a 
manner worthy of the palace, and carried through in the same style to 
the margin of the river, the walk being terminated by appropriate iron 
gates and piers, or by a handsome small temple or summer house, and a 
more majestic picture can hardly be conceived. Passing along this walk 
towards the palace, the wall on the right will be seen to be covered with 
a variety of climbers, and, just by the side of the Tennis Court, which is 
the first part of the building that is reached, there is a very fine speci- 
men of Catalpa syringarfolia. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — HAMPTON COURT. 497 




HAMPTON COURT GARDENS. 



When the centre of the palace is gained, the outline of the garden and 
the avenues in the park will then be distinctly perceived. The principal 
part of the garden is comprised within a semicircular figure, from the 
sides of which, running north and south, a broad and lengthened oblong 
strip is extended. Besides the principal walk along the palace front, 
there are three leading walks radiating from the entrance to that front, 
flanked with lines of yew trees, and prolonged to the very entrance margin 
of the park by avenues of lofty limes. At the end of one of these ave- 
nues, the tower of Kingston Church gives an excellent finish to the vista. 
But this happy circumstance reminds one too strongly of the defective- 
ness of the terminations of the other avenues, which would acquire much 
greater dignity by having a tower, pillar, or some object of the kind to 
stop them. A very artistic group of trees, carried up to a point by a 
large Lombardy poplar, would even be a sufficient finish to the central 
avenue. 

About the middle of the central walk in the garden, is a large archi- 
tectural basin of water, with a fountain, and a number of remarkably 
fine gold fishes. From the boundary of the garden, along the middle of 
the central park avenue (which, it should be observed, is much broader 
than the side ones), is a piece of water about three-quarters of a mile in 
length, and with straight sides, which is quite in harmony with the rest 
of the place ; and a narrower canal, with a walk by its side, behind a 
noble grove of lime trees, is continued from this, near the margin of the 
garden, throughout its entire length. It is filled with aquatic plants and 
fishes ; but, from the proximity of the lime trees, is seldom perfectly clean. 



408 LONDON. 

At the south-west corner of the garden, fronting the orangery, is a 
large lean-to house containing the famous vine. The inside dimensions 
of this house are about 72 ft. in length, and 30 ft. in breadth. The vine 
is planted inside the house, and the whole of the floor is paved with flag- 
stones. The roof is almost entirely covered with branches, which are not 
trained in any particular method. One of the branches is described as 
110 ft. long. The tree bears a pretty equal annual crop, neither the 
bunches nor berries being large, but the latter generally ripening and 
colouring well without any fire heat. About 1200 pounds was stated 
to us as the average yearly produce of the vine ; and the grapes are sent 
to supply her Majesty's table. In the autumn of 1850, when we last saw 
it, the crop was healthy, and quite free from mildew. It has been con- 
jectured that the roots of this vine have found their way into an old sewer 
near the house, and that this helps it to retain its vigour. The tree is 
believed to have been planted in 1768, by Lancelot Brown, who was 
once gardener at Hampton Court, and who afterwards became so much 
noted as one of the first practitioners of the English style of landscape 
gardening. 

Near the labyrinth is an entrance known as the " Lion gates," which 
are particularly handsome ; and on the opposite side of the road is Bushy 
Park, with its magnificent avenue of horse chestnuts. These splendid 
trees are remarkable both for their size and for the great variety in their 
character, as regards the period of their coming into foliage and shedding 
their leaves, the shape and surface of the fruit-shell, and the appearance 
of the leaves. From the time when they first begin to unfold their leaf- 
buds till the autumn has quite stripped them, they are always interest- 
ing, but particularly so in June, while they are in full flower, and towards 
the end of September, when the leaves are changing their tints. The 
avenue is broken not far from the Hampton Court entrance, by a large 
circular basin, with a figure on a pedestal in the centre. The trees are 
made to follow the outline of this basin, and although an interruption 
to the line is thus occasioned, they acquire more variety of character at 
this point. The avenue is backed up on each side by several rows of 
lime trees, and there are many picturesque thorns scattered about the 
park on the east side. 

Hampton Court Gardens were originally commenced by Cardinal 
Wolsey, who formed the wilderness and the labyrinth. In the reign of 
Charles II. the large semicircle on the east side of the palace was planted. 
But it was reserved for William III., who resided a good deal at the 
palace, to bring the garden to its highest state. At this period, the art 
of clipping yew and other trees into regular figures reached its highest 
point, being greatly favoured by the King. Four urns, said to be the 
first that were used in gardens, were also planted by William III. in 
front of the palace. Walpole says that the walls were once covered 
with rosemary, and that the trees were remarkable specimens of the 
topiary art. (See also pp. 883 and 884.) 

Beulah Spa. — Situated at the southern end of the range of low hills 
on which Norwood stands, and being not more than seven or eight miles 
from London, this place was formed sixteen or eighteen years since, and 
became one of very fashionable resort. It is made, for the most part, 
out of a young oak plantation or coppice, on the south slope of the hill, 
and, with the exception of a small open lawn about the centre, and a di- 
minutive piece of water near one side, consists of an almost infinite series 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — BUCKINGHAM PALACE. 499 

of walks cut through the wood, these walks being hidden from each other 
by low bushes, brambles, and wild brushwood, the whole forming a very 
agreeable summer retreat, on account of its wildness, and rusticity, and 
indefiniteness, and shade. On the upper side, however, there is a more 
open terrace walk, from which, as well as from a point where a camera 
obscura once stood, extensive views are obtained. Around the lawn al- 
ready mentioned, and in other parts, some good rustic buildings, some of 
which have possessed considerable merit, exist ; but these and the entire 
place are all now more or less decayed and neglected ; and the remains of 
Perge Wood, which lie between it and the Annerly Station of the Croydon 
Railway, and which formerly had a fine forest-like character, will afford 
more pleasing wood walks, while better views of the country, on all sides, 
may be had from various other points in this most agreeable and pic- 
turesque neighbourhood. 

In dismissing the public gardens of the metropolis, on which we have 
dwelt longer, because they are more decidedly national, and because, 
also, we can point to them with a good deal of general satisfaction, we 
must remark, by way of excuse for having offered what may seem to be 
so many objections and hints for improvement, that we have considered 
these gardens, from being the property of the nation, or from belonging 
to public bodies, as legitimately open to criticism. In these cases, there- 
fore, we have departed a little from the plan laid down, partly because 
a free discussion of such matters, when it does not trespass on private 
feelings and rights, is always beneficial, but chiefly to carry the visitor 
away from the contemplation of the defects by showing him how, with a 
few trifling alterations, particular points may be restored to their proper 
influence. In accomplishing the remainder of our task our hope is to be 
able to adhere to our first rule. 

Private Gardens. — The environs of London are, as might be ex- 
pected, rich in almost every variety of these ; though they are more 
generally such as belong to the villa class than those which are proper 
to the country mansion. Among them, however, will occur some fine 
examples of different kinds of gardening. But as these gardens are not 
so readily accessible, and do not comprise such a variety of objects, as 
the public ones before described, we shall sketch their principal features 
more lightly, endeavouring merely to show the more distinctive charac- 
teristics of each. 

Buckingham Palace Gardens are attached to the London residence of 
her Majesty the Queen ; and those who have not actually been through 
them will be surprised to learn that they comprise about 40 acres, of 
which nearly 5 acres are devoted to a lake. Considering how thoroughly 
they are imbedded, as it were, in the town, this is an area, for exclu- 
sively private use, quite worthy of even a Royal Palace ; especially as it 
is bordered on the north side by the open space of the Green Park, 
while the east front of the palace overlooks the whole of St. James's 
Park, with its large sheet of water. 

On the south and west sides, these gardens are inclosed by streets 
and their accompanying houses. The buildings on the southern side 
being most inconveniently near the palace and gardens, and being 
mostly of an inferior character, have been happily shut out by a large 
bank of earth, raised in George IV.'s reign, and planted both with 
trees and shrubs. The existence of a number of fine old elms, too, in 
the western part of the gardens, includes all but here and there a 



500 



LONDON. 



portion of the lofty houses in 
Grosvenor Place, so that in fact 
the gardens are rendered almost 
entirely private during summer ; 
while, by the arrangement of 
the planting in many parts, the 
most perfectly secluded spots 
are secured, where no effort is 
required to imagine oneself in 
the midst of a purely country 
district. 

Windsor Castle Gardens, — 
With the exception of the flower- 
garden on the eastern terrace 
of the Castle, these gardens are 
more commonly known as " the 
Slopes." They extend from the 
town of Windsor, at the north- 
western corner of the Castle Hill, 
to the public walk which crosses 
the Home Park from Datchet to 
Frogmore. Occupying, as their 
name implies, the face of a long 
hill which is picturesquely va- 
ried in parts, and commanding 
the most splendid occasional 
prospects into an extensive coun- 
try, and always having the mag- 
nificent accompaniment of the 
Castle, of which the most de- 
lightful peeps or open views are 
sometimes obtained, a walk 
through these gardens will do 
little more than satisfy the 
curiosity of the visitor. In all 
matters of taste, they certainly 
cannot be taken as models. And 
it is greatly to be deplored that 
so glorious a palace, on a site 
so peculiarly favourable for pic- 
turesque treatment, and over- 
looking such a number of inte- 
restingand classic scenes, should 
have no ground attached to it 
which really deserves the name 
of a pleasure garden. 

Before entering upon the 
Slopes, however, we shall carry 
the visitor to the Castle terraces. 
That on the northern side is 
always accessible to the public, 
and, in walking along it, just within the wall, some highly beautiful 
scenes will be unfolded, to which the trees on the slope of the hill 




GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — WINDSOR. 501 

often form appropriate foregrounds. To the west, especially of an 
evening, the windings of the river Thames, somewhat disfigured of late 
by the long wooden bridge and viaduct of the branch from the Great 
Western Railway, stretch away in great beauty and variety into the dis- 
tance, and are often exquisitely illuminated. On the north, a little 
below the terrace, Eton College, of which there is an excellent view, 
frequently becomes visible through the trees. In the north-east, Har- 
row-on-the-Hill, with its gleaming church spire, is a very conspicuous 
object. And the bank itself, beneath the Castle, has, in parts, a beau- 
tiful clothing of shrubs and trees, as viewed from the terrace, particu- 
larly towards the western end. 

The eastern terrace is only open to the public on Saturdays and 
Sundays, after two o'clock. This terrace, which is a continuation of the 
northern one, and on the same level, surrounds a sunken area of between 
three and four acres, which, being on that side of the Castle where the 
private apartments are situated, is formed into a geometrical flower- 
garden. Nothing could be finer than the views from this terrace into 
the open country, across the Little Park. A few old elm trees in the 
Little Park serve to break up the scene into several portions, the out- 
lines and character of which change as the visitor shifts his position ; 
and after the eye has ranged over an immense tract of country, richly 
clothed with trees, and diversified with smaller swells and undulations, 
the view is terminated by some of the Surrey hills that lie nearest to 
London, and by here and there a glimpse of one or two of the Kentish 
eminences. To the south-west and south, the nearer high ground of 
the Great Park, with its noble woods, forms the line of the horizon ; 
and much of the country seen from the north terrace is observable also, 
in a different aspect, from the eastern one. Bastions are thrown out at 
the angles of the terrace, which contribute to heighten its effect : and 
the visitor can pass from it along the south front of the Castle, from 
which the best idea of the long walk and the statue which terminates it 
will be obtained. 

Steps from the raised terrace conduct, at several points, down into the 
flower-garden, which is further connected with the terrace all round by 
a sloping bank of grass. The general shape of this flower-garden is 
oblong, with a semicircular end. But it is not entirely regular, the 
northern side being the widest, and having some extra flower-beds in 
front of the orangery. The terrace itself forms an irregular pentagon. 

A broad walk leads from some steps in the centre of the Castle down 
the middle of the flower-garden to another flight of steps which carries 
it on to the terrace. In the centre of the garden there is a circular 
basin, containing a fountain composed of numerous small jets ; and 
round this basin the middle walk passes, diverging right and left into 
other walks, at right angles from it. These side walks join another 
walk that passes entirely round the garden. Between the cross walk 
and the Castle are two oblong areas, around the edges of which flower- 
beds are ranged, on the grass, the centre being kept as open lawn. 
These beds are slightly raised, with sloping grass edges, and are filled 
with roses, and a variety of the usual summer flowers. In the space 
between the cross walk and the terrace other beds occur, and are fur- 
nished chiefly with shrubs. There are also a few beds between the 
surrounding garden walk and the terrace banks, and these, too, are 
supplied with shrubs. In both these latter cases, the shrubs are 



502 LONDON. 

commonly arranged in masses of one sort, occupying either the whole or 
a portion of a bed. We observed groups of Phillyrea, Arbutus, Laurus- 
tinus, and many others ; but nothing either very rare or very effective, 
and nothing at all, in the wayof shrubs, having any reference to the 
style of the garden or the character of the Castle. 

Beneath the terrace on the northern side of the flower-garden is a 
conservatory or orangery, furnished with the hardier sorts of old green- 
house plants, and having a grass slope from it up to the level of the 
flower-garden, with a number of flower-beds on this slope. This orangery 
appears most unhappily placed, being so much below the level of the 
flower-garden, and having the ground sloping directly down to its front. 

Scattered throughout the flower-garden, but arranged symmetrically, 
are some exceedingly handsome urns, of considerable size, and the high- 
est character and keeping. But, placed among these, there are likewise 
many bronze and other figures, brought from other Royal gardens, and 
only fit to be the accompaniments of an Italian palace. A noble bronze 
cast of the celebrated Warwick vase is placed near the Castle, opposite 
the centre. The wall of the terrace immediately beneath this east front 
of the Castle is covered with good climbing plants of various kinds. 

In the choice of flowers to fill the beds in the flower-garden, and the 
levels of the verges to the walks, and the line of edgings to the walks, 
and the general keeping of the garden, nothing like a high tone of 
gardening, or first-rate order, was at all observable when we saw the 
garden last autumn. Everything seemed to be arranged and kept in a 
decidedly inferior manner. 

A door through the back wall of the orangery leads us at once to the 
Slopes ; and here we immediately begin to see the country on this side 
in fresh aspects. The trees, through the openings among which we look, 
acquire additional height and importance now that we are on a lower 
level, and it is more easy, by choosing a position, to use them as chang- 
ing frameworks to the various pictures, or for excluding things that are 
not wished to be seen. 

Taking the walk towards the west, in order to get to the bottom of 
the Slopes, we see, in descending, more of the boldness of the hill on 
which the Castle stands, and learn how beautiful this bank might easily 
be made by the free introduction of an appropriate undergrowth of dif- 
ferent sorts of bushes, grouped a good deal into irregular masses, thrown 
carelessly about as if they have been dropped there by nature, and 
tangled over occasionally with the wild honeysuckle, briar rose, clematis, 
and ivy. No place could be better adapted than this bank for such 
semi-natural treatment. 

The garden around what is known as Adelaide Lodge, a small 
summer cottage, is prettily situated, and was completed under the 
superintendence of the late Queen Dowager. The ground about this 
lodge has some very pleasing undulations, and falls away very grace- 
fully, many firs and other large evergreens, with mixed masses of 
several kinds of shrubs, being judiciously placed on the lawn and 
round the margins of the garden, so as to give the whole an agreeable 
and picturesque air. Numerous flower-beds, used for verbenas, pelar- 
goniums, and similar summer ornaments, are placed on the lawn in the 
neighbourhood of the lodge ; and not many yards from it a gate will 
admit us into the path across the Home Park, proceeding by which, 
to the right, we may visit her Majesty's kitchen gardens. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — FROGMORE. 



503 



The royal kitchen gardens at Frogmore exhibit as fine a specimen of 
kitchen and frnit gardening, in all the departments of the latter, as is to 
be found in Europe. We doubt, indeed, whether there is any other garden 
of the kind which will, in its principal features, bear the least comparison 
with it. And this is precisely as it should be ; for, in a country where 
gardening is carried to so high a point, we naturally expect to see some 
of the most perfect examples in the royal gardens. 

These kitchen gardens are of comparatively recent formation, having 
been begun at the end of 1841. They are the result of the abandonment 
of the old royal kitchen gardens at Kensington, Hampton Court, Cumber- 
land Lodge, Maestricht, and Kew, and the determination to concentrate 
the whole into one first-rate establishment. It having been found so very 
unsatisfactory to have the royal gardens scattered about as they were be- 
fore, this method of combining them, and thus increasing their efficiency, 
was adopted at the recommendation of a commission of inquiry, of which 
Dr. Lindley was the head. 

In order to enable the reader better to understand the general arrange- 
ment of these gardens, we present a ground plan of them, on a small scale, 
as they existed in 1849, which we are obligingly permitted to use from 
cuts which have appeared in the Gardener *s Chronicle. A slip of 8 acres 
has been added to the lower part of them, making the entire area of 
the gardens about 32 acres. 

Being only about a mile from Windsor Castle, the pleasure grounds 
at which are destitute of any kind of plant structure except the 
orangery, one of the aims in forming these gardens has been to combine 




GROUND PLAN OF GARDEN AT FROGMORE. 



504 



LONDON. 




UNDER GARDENERS HOUSE. 




FORCING HOUSES 



ornament with use, and render them sufficiently neat and attractive to 
be worth visiting by her Majesty and the guests at the Castle. Hence, 
in the great range of houses, a compartment at each end has been re- 
served for greenhouse and stove plants; a broad terrace walk, with 
flower-beds and borders, and vases on a low terrace wall, extends along 
the front of the range ; a handsome fountain, with a large basin com- 
posed of Aberdeen granite, occupies the centre of the garden ; the walls 
are adorned with sculptured ornaments at the end of the terrace ; and 
rooms are fitted up, in the front part of the gardener's residence, for the 
use of her Majesty. 

An air of extraordinary cleanliness and order pervades every part of 
these gardens. The walks are all gravelled, with neat box-edgings, and 
kept scrupulously free from weeds or soil ; the sides of the walks are 
furnished with well-trained and regularly-trimmed fruit trees ; the crops 
are all even, and free from weeds, and arranged with great regularity ; 
the range of houses is, both in its structure and keeping, a perfect 
model of neatness and elegance ; and even the back sheds, and the de- 
partment filled with pits and the smaller forcing houses, are equally 
tidy, and seem to invite inspection. The walls of the back sheds are, 
indeed, covered with pretty climbing plants in summer, and look more 
like a row of beautiful little cottages than the places in which the 
materials of a kitchen and forcing garden are stored, and its processes 
carried on. 

We proceed, however, to describe the gardens, with reference to the plan, 
p. 503. Entering by a bold gateway, adapted for carriages, at 25, the 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. FROGMORE. 



(505) 





AT FROGMORE. 



porter's lodge (24) is on the right, and the broad terrace walk immedi- 
ately opposite the entrance. The range of glass, extending to the length 
of nearly 1000 ft., inclusive of the gardener's house, stretches to the 
right of this terrace walk, and has an aspect a little east of south. On 
the left-hand side of the terrace walk is a broad grass verge, with a few 
semicircular flower-beds and an herbaceous border (39), backed by the 
terrace wall, which has vases on it in the centre and at either end, and 
40 is a series of oblong flower-beds. The vine border (41) is also kept 
filled with flowers, and, when we saw it last autumn, looked very gay 
with alternate rows of the Tom Thumb and a pale pink Pelargonium, 
which were particularly luxuriant. Gates and piers finish the terrace 
walk at 26, which number indicates a gate or door wherever it occurs. 

Just within the entrance gates, between the lodge and the range of 
glass, there is a very handsome plant of Clematis montana on the wall. 
It is treated somewhat like a vine, being trained to several upright stems, 
and spurred back every year. The result is that it throws out great 
tufts of its charming white flowers from each of the joints, and has a 
curious as well as beautiful appearance. 

In examining the range of glass houses, it will be seen that the tame- 
ness of their front line is broken by the additional projection of the 
stove and greenhouse at the ends (No. 1), and also by the greater width 
of the large vineries (5). The houses on either side of the great vineries 
are likewise broader than the two smaller vineries which adjoin the gar- 
dener's house, and the pine stoves (2). And the heights of all these 

* z 



(506) LONDON. 

correspond to their width. The end plant houses are highest and 
broadest, and the pine stoves next them are lowest and narrowest. Be- 
tween every two of the houses there is likewise a small glazed porch, 7 ft. 
square, which makes a further break both in the front line and the eleva- 
tion. And the handsome gardener's house (13) in the old English style, 
which occupies the centre of the range, contributes yet more to vary and 
enliven it*. 

There is much in the construction of these fruit houses which is calcu- 
lated to excite our admiration. They are of the usual lean-to character, 
with low upright sashes in front. But the roof is entirely of iron, ex- 
cept that the rafters are capped with light strips of wood, to prevent 
them from becoming too hot, and the sash bars, which are made hollow in 
order to allow for their expansion and contraction, are of copper. The 
doors, too, are of iron, with brass hinges to avoid rust. The houses are 
ventilated by means of the front lights ; the whole of the lights in each 
house being raised simultaneously, to any required extent, by one or 
more turns of a winch placed at each end, and connected with a hori- 
zontal bar passing through them. Every alternate upper light is also 
made to slide down with the utmost facility on pulleys, by a " quadrant 
wheel jack," which acts most perfectly, the ropes being formed of patent 
copper wire. Other ventilators, for winter use, are placed above the 
houses, in the wall, where a grating is inserted, and communicate with 
the houses through openings in the upper part of the back walls ; these 
-being furnished with flap doors, all which can be opened or shut at once 
by simply turning a winch attached to the proper machinery. The most 
complete ventilation can thus be secured in safety at all seasons, and 
with the smallest possible expenditure of labour. The whole arrange- 
ment is of the simplest description, and appears to answer well, very 
rarely getting out of order. The only improvements that have been 
made upon it are in some smaller new houses which have subsequently 
been erected, and in which the front lights are made to open outwards, 
turning on a centre pivot, and not upwards, while the winch for working 
the apparatus is kept within the house, and is not thus exposed to the 
action of the weather, and can be more conveniently worked. 

Claremont is the well-known seat of his Majesty the King of Belgium, 
and was assigned to him by the Crown on his marriage with the Princess 
Charlotte. It has been occasionally used by the Queen for short periods 
of retirement from Court life, and is now occupied by the family of the 
late King of the French. It was here, indeed, that the exiled Louis 
Philippe found a home, and here he breathed his last only a few months 
since. 

We cannot wonder that our Queen should choose this place as a quiet 
retreat from the forms and show of a palace residence, as it is eminently 
adapted to foster the idea of seclusion. Standing on an eminence in the 
midst of its own ample woods, the prospects from the house and grounds 

* Other Numbers on the plan indicate the following :— 3. Peach houses; 4. Apricot and Plum 
house; 6 and 7« Pine pits; 8 and 9. Cucumber houses; 10. Pits for melons, strawberries, &c. ; 
11. Cherry houses, exhibiting improvements in ventilation; 12. Asparagus beds, heated by hot 
water; 14. Dwelling and sleeping rooms of the workmen; 15. Mushroom houses; 16. Fruit 
rooms; 17. Seed rooms; 18. Store rooms; 19. Open sheds for barrows, &c; 20. Potting sheds; 
21. Work rooms for indoor operations ; 22. Sheds for washing vegetables; 23. Tool sheds; 27. 
Apricot wall; 28. Peach and nectarine walls ; 29. Cherry wall; 30. Walls for plums; 31. Walls 
for pears; 32. Walls for currants and gooseberries; 33. Walls for figs, mulberries, &c. ; 34. Dwarf 
plum trees; 35. Dwarf apple trees; 36 and 37- Pear-trees on trellises; 38. Dwarf cherries; 43. 
Manure and compost yard; 44. Stables, cart-sheds, &c. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — CHISWICK. (507) 

are purely sylvan or rural. There is scarcely a human habitation visible 
for 30 or 40 miles on the south and west sides, and the neighbouring 
village of Esher and the high road to Portsmouth are quite concealed on 
the north and north-east by woods or swells in the ground. 

Chiswick House {the Duke of Devonshire's). — From the reputation for 
taste which the Duke of Devonshire has acquired, the visitor who is un- 
acquainted with the gardens attached to this elegant villa will no doubt 
expect to see something beautiful, and we do not think he will be dis- 
appointed. This is certainly one of the most satisfactory and delightful 
places round London, and being only five miles from Hyde Park Corner, 
and thrown open, with his Grace's usual liberality, to all who attend 
the July exhibition of the Horticultural Society (which adjoins it), we 
shall describe it more at length. 

The great characteristic of the place, like that of Claremont, is seclu- 
sion. Although close upon the great world of London, and in the very 
midst of a populous district, the quietness and privacy of these gardens 
are complete. They are, however, placed in such a district as to render 
any but the most limited views from them impossible and undesirable ; 
and hence the whole of their attractions are within themselves. They 
cannot boast of varied and beautiful undulations of surface either ; but 
there is an air of finish, and richness, and classic refinement about them 
which quite compensates for the want of natural picturesqueness. 

Much of the state in which these gardens are now seen is due to the 
present Duke. Before he came to the title, the place was a very cramped 
and meagre one. A great deal of additional land has been acquired, and 
appropriated to ornamental purposes. In fact, the estate, under the 
influence of his Grace's enlightened feeling, has been quite transformed. 
Approaching it from the high road at Turnham Green, what is called 
the Duke's New Road, by the side of the Horticultural Gardens, has 
been formed by the present Duke, and has a row of handsome lime 
trees on either side of it, which have now attained a considerable size. 
Access is obtained to the place by this route through a pleasant and 
private avenue, without going round by the narrow and awkward lanes 
of Chiswick. 

Across the western lawn in a rather more northerly direction, beyond 
the capital specimens of Abies Douglasii, Pinus Cembra, and other ex- 
cellent Pines, a glimpse of the classic temple, with its Doric porch and 
its small dome, but half hidden amongst large yews and other trees, is 
obtained. The manner in which this beautiful temple is half seen half 
concealed, and the harmonious grouping of the trees and shrubs around 
it, makes a charming picture from the house and from numerous other 
points throughout the grounds. 

At a short distance to the right of the temple, a peep is just procured 
of the elegant Palladium bridge over the canal, which is distant and 
bold enough to form a good object in the scene, and enriches without 
encumbering it. 

Further to the right, and situated on the top of the lawn, near the 
house, some gorgeous old cedars, the lower branches of which spread 
down in the most graceful manner, and sweep the grass, constitute one 
of the noblest features of the place. They are not so large as in some 
other gardens, — either as regards the girth of their stems or their height ; 
but probably they are unequalled in beauty, and stand in a peculiarly 
appropriate position. A broad gravel walk passes along the garden front 

*z 2 



(508) LONDON. 

of the house, and another broad walk strikes off from this, at a right 
angle, opposite the centre of the house. The cedars are on either side 
of this latter walk, their branches spreading out to within 8 or 10 ft. of 
the gravel, and 50 or 60 yards from the house. There were formerly 
three of them on each side, but one unluckily died a few years ago. Each 
of them has a different character ; but they are sufficiently alike to 
blend well together, and those on the top of the western lawn acquire, 
from their position, and from getting more sun, a most magnificent aspect. 
Between the cedars and the house, and likewise at the other end, spe- 
cimens of the Deodar Cedar have been planted, and are now from 15 
to 20 ft. high. Stone figures of a bear and a boar stand on large pedes- 
tals in a line with the front of the cedars, near the house, and there are 
large stone urns nearer to the cedars, at each end ; thus maintaining the 
dignity and art-like character of the whole. 

A very charming effect is realized on this side of the house by having 
two of the windows in the basement story formed into mirrors, in one 
sheet. In these the whole of the lawn and the cedars, &c, are most 
clearly reflected ; and, as the scene is altogether in such a high style of 
art, there is nothing unworthy or objectionable in this expedient, which 
is really a very excellent and novel one. One of the large bold upper 
windows, which is fitly enriched (the house being in the Italian style), 
and glazed with immense sheets of plate glass, coming opposite the walk 
of which the cedars compose the side fittings, and a fine porphyry urn 
being placed on a stand just within the central compartment of this 
window, the effect of this is also good from the other end of the walk. 

The large central walk is terminated by a circular plot of grass, 
at the back of which, arranged in a half circle, and enshrouded with 
large evergreen oaks, are some very ancient and mutilated marble 
figures of Caesar, Pompey, and Cicero, from Adrian's Villa at Rome, 
interspersed with ornamented stone seats from the Roman Forum. At 
either corner there are busts of Homer and Hesiod, and the ends are 
occupied with large stone figures on pedestals of a lion and lioness, with 
busts of Virgil and another poet at the other corners. This classic spot 
is called the Poets' corner. Seated in the midst of it, beneath the shade 
of the venerable old oaks, and looking out to the lawn, the cedars, and 
the house, with the tops of the other tall cedars at the entrance side of 
the house clustering around the dome, it would be difficult to imagine a 
scene more finished, consistent, and classical. 

Within the flower garden, the beds are arranged in regular figures, 
divided into several compartments on each side, so as to suit the general 
form of the plot. A few of these compartments have the beds cut out 
in the grass, with broad grass margins; but the bulk of them are 
separated by gravel walks, with box edgings. Some of the larger and 
central beds in the compartments are raised a foot or two above the rest, 
to relieve the flatness which would otherwise result from having so large 
a surface covered with flowers. The system of putting one sort of plant, 
vvith flowers of a distinct and decided colour, in each of the beds, is the 
one adopted for filling this garden, and answers most effectively. Indeed, 
in so large a space, any other plan would be productive only of confusion ; 
for, when the garden was furnished with mixed herbaceous plants, 
several years ago, it had an exceedingly tame and common appearance. 
A few small sculptured figures, on pedestals, and some plain vases, filled 
with scarlet Pelargoniums and other summer plants, form agreeable 



GARDENS, FARKS, ETC. SYON. (509) 

breaks and raised points in the garden during summer. Pansies are a 
good deal used for covering the beds during winter and spring ; but, as 
the flower garden is so large, and in quite a detached portion of the 
pleasure grounds, no systematic attempt is deemed necessary for supply- 
ing it with evergreen furniture in the winter. This flower-garden, with 
its accompanying range of glass houses, shrubberies, &c, is part of the 
additions made to the place by the spirit and taste of the present Duke. 

Corney, another small property, formerly belonging to the Earl of 
Macartney, and situated by the side of the Thames, a little above Chis- 
wick Church, belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, and is used as a bath- 
ing place. On the lawn, near where the house once stood, are magnifi- 
cent specimens of the Tulip tree, and there are very fine plants of 
various thorns, of Pyrus spectabilis, and of Liguidambar styraciflua. The 
masses of Portugal laurels are also unusually large. On the terrace, too, 
by the river side, are some handsome plants of the Pinus pinea, the seeds 
of which were collected by his Grace on Mount iEtna. 

At the Grove, which also belongs to the Duke of Devonshire, and is 
still higher up the river, near Strand on the Green, there are in the 
park some extraordinary Spanish chestnut-trees, the magnitude and 
grandeur of which are probably nowhere surpassed. The girth of three 
of them, at one foot from the ground is respectively 22 ft. 2 in., 24 ft. 
4 in., and 26 ft. 2 in. They are perfectly sound, to all appearance, with 
a clear straight trunk, and most spreading and well-balanced heads. 
Many others exist besides those of which the dimensions are thus given, 
and are almost equally large. When in full foliage, and covered either 
with flowers or fruit, they are truly glorious objects; for very few things 
in nature can equal a majestic old tree, whether in picturesque decrepi- 
tude and ruin, or, as in this case, in the full richness and luxuriance of 
its meridian strength. 

Syon House, the seat of the DuJce of Northumberland, is about two miles 
higher up the river than Chiswick, and is between Brentford and Isle- 
worth, nearly opposite Kew Gardens. It is at present occupied by the 
Dowager Duchess. The gardens have been much celebrated as contain- 
ing an extensive collection of large hardy exotic trees, and a splendid 
range of plant-houses, with a bold mass of rockery in front, and a well- 
arranged kitchen garden, comprising many forcing-houses, which are 
built chiefly of iron, and, at the time they were erected, combined every 
known contrivance that could render them perfect. 

At the present time the only one of these features that has undergone 
much alteration is the kitchen-garden department, which, not being so 
much required, has been allowed to fall somewhat into the shade. Some 
of the forcing-houses, indeed, are now devoted to plant culture ; and two 
very interesting new houses have been erected in this department — the 
one for the culture of tropical fruits, and the other for growing the large 
water lily (Victoria regia). 

The kitchen garden covers between three and four acres, with an 
extensive range of glass houses in it. Its shape is a nearly regular 
parallelogram, but the ends are not at right angles to the sides. The 
forcing-houses, which are placed nearly across the middle, stand some- 
what obliquely to the sides, and have almost a full south aspect. The 
roofs, fronts, and ends are composed mainly of iron, the bars of the sashes 
being of copper. Although built at a time when metal roofs were little 
known, and much distrusted by some, they have always been found 



(510) 



LONDON. 



to stand satisfactorily. They were originally all heated by common 
flues, and were built by Messrs. Richards and Jones, of Birmingham. 
Comparatively little forcing is now done in them ; but we observed a 
quantity of very excellent greenhouse plants occupying the pit of one of 
them, and some similarly good stove plants in another. Mr. Ivison, the 
gardener here, has evidently fallen into the right method of cultivat- 
ing these ; for only ornamental sorts seem to be kept, and each plant 
is treated individually, according to its character and habits, and made 
into a specimen. 

The lily house at the end of this range, which has been enlarged and 
altered expressly for this plant, is a span-roofed erection, with a porch 
and second door to prevent the external air from acting on the plant. 
It contains a slate tank, 21 ft. square, which is occupied principally by 
the Victoria. The plant flowered here very shortly after that at Chats- 
worth, and has since continued to bloom and bear seed most profusely, 
being in the best possible health. It is planted out near the centre 
of the cistern, and the water in the tank is kept heated, while the 
atmosphere of the house is maintained at a high temperature. A small 
water wheel, over which a supply of water is continually flowing, keeps 
the water in the tank always fresh and constantly in motion. When we 
saw the plant last autumn it had fifteen full-grown leaves on it, which 
were a good deal curved upwards at the edges, as in its native state, and 
several younger leaves were appearing. These latter have something of 
the appearance of a light-coloured hedgehog or an indented Melocactus, 
being curiously folded up, and presenting only their prickly under surface 
to view. Several other aquatics, chiefly N elumbiums, are grown at the 
sides and towards the corners of the tank, but are not allowed in any way 
to interfere with the Yictoria. 

In a back corner of the kitchen garden, adjoining the lane that leads 
from Brentford through Syon Park, is the large tropical house. This is 
a lofty structure, with an upright back wall, and a curvilinear iron roof. 
It has a glass division in the centre, and contains a collection of tropical 
fruits which is probably quite unique in this country. Many of the 
plants are very large, and as they are kept in a rather high temperature, 
with an abundance of moisture, all of them appear healthy. Several 
things have, we believe, fruited here which have not borne fruit anywhere 
else in Britain ; and many plants which here fruit profusely are scarcely 
ever seen to fruit in general collections. Indeed, it is pretty well known 
that this tribe of plants must have a peculiarly high temperature and 
much moisture, and plenty of room to grow in, ere they can be expected 
to succeed. 




SYON PLANT HOUSES. 



In general shape the plant houses at Syon take the form of a crescent, 
which is a decided improvement on the old straight ranges. The centre 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. SYON. 



(511) 



of the building, which is broadest, rises into a lofty dome, and the two 
end houses are also broader and higher than the intermediate parts. 
The whole of the framework of the roof being formed of light iron bars, 
and the ends and centre being stone pillars and cornices, while the en- 
tire range stands on a well-finished and raised 
stone basement, adorned with handsome vases 
and urns at either end, the effect of the struc- 
ture is one of great neatness, and elegance, and 
richness. Everything about it looks good and 
substantial, yet light and fitted for its object. 
And if the length of the range did not demand 
that, for the sake of proportion, it should be 





References to Syo)i Conserva- 
tories. 
The centre division has 17 
four-inch cast-iron pipes below 
the paths and all round. 

1. The steam from the main. 

2. Condensed water outlet. 
The two square divisions, ad- 
joining the centre one, have 14 
four-inch pipes round three 
sides of each. 

3. Steam entrance. 

4. Vapour valves, for steaming 
the house. 

5. Condensed water outlet. 

6. Steam entrance. 

Tbe other curved divisions 
have five pipes in front, and 
four at the back of each divi- 
sion. 



SYOX FLOWER GARDEN. 

7. Vapour valves. 

8. Condensed water outlet. 
Tne end divisions, forming 

the extreme wings of the range, 
have eight pipes all round. 

9. Steam entrance. 

10. Vapour valves. 

11. Condensed water outlet. 

12. Main. 

13. Main from the boiler con- 
ducted in the wall. 

14. Boiler house. 

15. Boilers. 

16. Coal shed. 

17. Chimney, divided into four 
flues, to cut the column of 
smoke. 

Flower Garden. 
I 18. Compartments of beds (fol- 



low flowers), edged with box 
upon gravel, and circum- 
scribed bv a grass verge, 
planted with dwarf standard 
roses. 

19. Large vase and pedestal, 
upon a grass plot. 

20. Small vases, on circular 
grass plots. 

21. Small junipers. 

22. Irish yew. 

23. Cvpress. 

24. Auracaria imbricata. 

25. Yucca gloriosa. 

26. Hybrid rhododendrons. 

27. Fountain. 

28. Standard roses. 

29. Rock, &c. 



(512) LONDON. 

kept as high as it is, the various houses would be by no means ill 
adapted for growing and preserving plants. The two end portions of 
the building, which has many glass partitions, are of a somewhat square 
figure, and are used as conservatories, for containing such large plants 
as orange-trees, camellias, brugmansias, &c., with a few showy flowers 
set among them to create a little gaiety. They are without stages, 
and the plants stand about in groups on a paved floor. 

In the front of this range of plant houses is a flower garden, the 
shape of which seems rather appropriate to a building in the form of a 
crescent ; there is also a basin and fountain, with a group of dolphins 
forming the pedestal of the jet. There are rows of standard roses by 
the sides of the walks, and the beds, which stand on grass, are each 
furnished with only one species of plant. A walk strikes off from the 
fountain in the direction of the house. 

On the lawn at either side of the flower garden, where the area in 
front of the houses is extended into something like an oblong figure, 
there are several good specimens of the dwarf er and rarer shrubby and 
half-shrubby plants. We noted Aralia spinosa, which was just coming 
into bloom last autumn, as a lawn plant of great character ; and 
Mahonia fascicular is seemed to stand out well as a hardy bush. 

On the northern side of the house, which is a plain heavy structure 
in the Gothic style, with battlements round the edge of the roof, there 
is a small bare lawn, having a sunk fence to separate it from the park, 
and a few bushes along the inside to cover the fence. At either end of 
this line of fence, a small square lodge is placed, though by no means 
harmonizing with the style of the house. A public footpath exists 
through the park on this side of the house, and is separated from the 
estate at the Isleworth end, by means of large upright revolving iron 
gates, which answer the purpose of turnstiles, but at the same time form 
a fitting part of the large general gateway. 

The drive through the park towards the lodge in the Hounslow Road 
crosses a small strip of water by a raised iron bridge, in a part where it 
takes a considerable curve, and the extreme slenderness of this bridge, 
its want of architectural character, the sudden rise in the road to get 
over it, its occurrence at such a sharp turn in the drive, and the absence 
of all support or concealment from trees or bushes on the side most 
needing it, render it one of the most awkward things imaginable. Be- 
tween the bridge and the house, there is a short and good double avenue 
of limes. Near the side of the water are admirable groups of deciduous 
cypress ; and in other parts of the park the old thorns are truly splendid, 
having acquired quite the character of trees. Groups composed entirely 
of the common Acacia exist on the westerly side of the park, and are 
highly picturesque. There are also some extremely beautiful low spread- 
ing horse-chestnuts and noble hop-hornbeams between the bridge and the 
entrance lodge, as well as in other parts. The short piece of drive, and 
its park-like accompaniments, from the entrance lodge to the bridge, are, 
as seen in going towards the house, of the best description possible on so 
flat a surface. 

Bedford Lodge, the residence of the Dowager Duchess of Bedford, is 
situated at Camden Hill, Kensington, in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Holland House. It affords a very interesting illustration of how much 
may be done in a small suburban place, which has many disadvantages 
of position, by carefully working in all those features of the neighbour- 
hood which happen to be favourable, and by a well-considered arrange- 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC.— KENWOOD. (513) 

ment of the space actually belonging to the estate. Although containing 
little more than four acres of land, and lying so near the thickly popu- 
lated district of Kensington, and having a public lane and road on two 
sides of it, with another villa and garden adjoining it on the east, and 
an atmosphere which is, of course, an almost exclusively London one, 
the gardener here has contrived to make it into a most delightful 
summer place, with a great deal of variety in it, and some very artistic 
effects. 

Wimbledon Park, the present residence of the Duke of Somerset, but 
once the property of Earl Spencer, is in one of those admirable situations 
which»are rarely met with so near town. The house, which is an unpre- 
tending structure, is situated a little to the east of Wimbledon Church, 
and it and the gardens command some of the best home views and dis- 
tant prospects which are to be found around London. 

A walk round the pleasure grounds here, on a favourable day, will 
furnish a multitude of most charming landscapes, especially to the north- 
west and south-east. It is said that no less than thirty churches can be 
seen from different points in the grounds. And though such a circum- 
stance is not in general to be taken as an absolute criterion of merit, 
yet in this case it affords a good indication of the style of the scenery ; 
for, being only ten miles from London, churches are of course the centres 
of population, and the numerous detached villas and clusters of houses 
which are dotted about through this richly-wooded scene, at once afford 
an evidence of habitation and of social life, while they picturesquely 
vary the aspect of the country. Nothing can be more effective in a 
landscape that is sufficiently rich in trees than the groups of dwelling- 
houses or isolated villas which jut out here and there over the face of a 
district around the village church, provided these do not come too near 
the eye, or take a too prominent position, and that the scene is broad 
enough to keep them duly subdued. And when, as in this instance, the 
surface of the country is greatly varied, being thrown up into occasional 
swells or ridges of hills, or expanding into a wide and winding plain — 
the buildings now occupying the face of some of the hills, and now being 
gathered together in a valley, or peering out from a tuft of noble tiees 
in either position — the entire scene becomes greatly enriched by such 
objects. 

On the north-western side of the garden, a short terrace walk, at the 
edge of a steep bank, overlooks some of the chief features of the park. 
With a few tufts of thorns as a foreground, and a screen of larger trees 
to support and confine the view, there is here presented a rough and 
broken bank sloping along into a hollow beneath, in which last a portion 
of the large lake is visible. 

Kenwood, the seat of the Earl of Mansfield. — This place has the great 
advantage of being situated between the picturesque hills of Highgate 
and Hampstead, embracing some of the intermediate heights, and nearly 
the whole of the beautiful intervening hollows, with their softly-rounded 
and various undulations. From this circumstance, and because it com- 
mands excellent views of Highgate Hill and church, the grounds would 
ecessarily be pleasing. But they are further and more markedly dis- 
tinguished by their extraordinary masses of wood, which are principally 
nade up of oak. These, occurring over the face of the various swells on 
he southern side, and also on some parts towards the. northern boundary, 
bind being so very dense as to grow together into broad masses, the upDer 

*z 3 



(514) LONDON. 

surface of which is only relieved by the changes in the ground itself, and 
by the slightly-different heights or tufting branches of individual trees, 
compose, altogether, a unique and highly sylvan landscape, which ac- 
quires much interest, beyond its own intrinsic attractiveness, from being 
so close to London. 

The abundance of oak trees throughout this estate is supposed to have 
imparted to it the name by which it is now known ; hern, which has been 
corrupted to hen, being the old British word for an acorn. The oak woods 
are also considered to be of spontaneous growth, and are therefore doubly 
pleasing. Mr. Loudon once thought they were composed of the Quercus 
sessiliflora alone ; but they have since been found to comprise a great 
deal of the Q. pedunculata, and a number of varieties apparently in- 
termediate between the two. 

Holland House is the London residence of Lord Holland, and stands 
about midway between the Kensington and Uxbridge Roads, a little to 
the west of the more densely populated parts of Kensington. The house 
is well known as a fine example of the ancient English mansion, and is 
rendered classic by having once been in possession of Addison, the 
essayist and poet, who wrote his Spectators in the library here, while the 
early days of Charles Fox were also spent in this home of his ancestry 
and family. A public path passed very near the south front of the house 
till about two or three years since, when it was happily diverted, and his 
lordship formed another for public use by the side of the park. 

In some parts of the gardens here there is much of that quaintness 
which one would expect to find in connection with so old a mansion, and 
which becomes an appropriate and characteristic feature in such a position. 
The flower garden, for example, is laid out with that intricacy and 
minuteness of pattern so common to ancient parterres, and all the beds are 
edged with box. At the corners of the beds, in some parts of the figure, 
the box is allowed to grow larger, and is clipped into the shape of a 
ball. In other parts, dwarf evergreen oaks, not more than a yard in 
height, are similarly clipped into globular shapes. The pattern, again, 
is so minute in other portions that the beds, being too small to admit 
flowers, are filled with sand of different colours. Others of the beds 
represent the initial letter of his lordship's title, in the quaint old Eng- 
lish character. And near an arbour in the wall which bounds the garden 
towards the north, and which arbour is dedicated in an inscription by 
the late Lord Holland to the poet Rogers, who spent much of his time 
here, there are two beds in the shape of foxes, in allusion to the family 
name of Fox ; and a lotus fountain adjoins these beds. A fine bust of 
Napoleon, by Canova, partially screened with evergreens, forms the centre 
of a compartment by itself, at the lower end of the flower garden. A 
long scroll of beds, filled with verbenas (one variety being placed in each 
bed), ranged along the side of the principal walk down this garden, 
looked very well when we saw them last year. The flowers used in all 
the beds are judiciously kept of the dwarf est character, that the precise 
figure of the beds may be preserved, and that the box-edgings may re- 
main conspicuous. The dahlia is believed to have been first introduced 
to this garden by the late Lord Holland. 

There is now a fine bold area on the south side of the mansion, 
inclosed within the terrace wall. It is paved with stone in the imme- 
diate neighbourhood of the building, and there are a few curious old 
exotic plants growing out of the pavement here and there against the 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — HOLLAND HOUSE. (-515) 

walls of the house. The rest of the area is laid down in grass, with a 
broad walk around it, and a fountain (the basin of which is of cast iron) 
in the centre. From this terrace the southern park is seen to be a very 
plain piece of grass, with some lines of elm trees down either side of it, 
and similar trees extending partly along the side next the Kensington 
Road. The site of the house is, however, fortunately high enough to 
afford views over the tops of the houses in the front of it, and across 
various tufts of trees in the neighbourhood, to the Surrey hills. The 
entrance to the place is by a neat gateway from the Kensington Road, 
up an avenue of elms. Mr. Scobie is Lord Holland's present gardener. 

The Manor House, at Fulham, is the seat of the Bishop of London, 
and is a small but neatly-kept place, in so flat a district that the views 
are confined to its own grounds. Nearly everything in the gardens here 
is good of its kind, though there is nothing conspicuously so. The 
kitchen garden is well cropped, and has excellent fruit trees, of nearly 
every class, on its walls. There are three forcing-houses here, heated 
with hot water, by the father of the present Mr. Weeks, of Chelsea. 
They are used as vineries, but a few plants are grown on a stage in the 
central one, and when they were visited last autumn, some pines were 
also placed in a pit belonging to one of them. 

In the vineries, Mr. Hay, the gardener, adopts the plan of growing 
two crops of grapes from one house every season, and has experienced a 
very satisfactory amount of success. The plan pursued is to train the 
earliest vines to upright trellises, which are nearly as high as the roof of 
the house. When the grapes on these are sufficiently coloured to be 
able to dispense with a portion of the light, the other set of vines, 
growing in the outside borders, and previously trained to the exterior of 
the rafters, is introduced and fastened up to the rafters, and the two 
crops then receive the same treatment. The first crop is brought 
on as early as possible, being generally cleared off by about April ; 
and the second crop is of course an autumn one. The latter con- 
sists mainly of black Hamburgh and black West's St. Peter's grapes ; 
but there are a few of the white sweetwater and muscat of Alexandria 
kinds. 

Pines, of which no great quantity is grown, are very well cultivated 
here, in pits, and appear most healthy. Some cucumber plants were 
likewise growing very favourably, last autumn, in a small pit. 

In the pleasure grounds, at the garden front of the house, there is a 
good open lawn, bordered with a few beds of flowers ; and a walk to the 
kitchen garden has also some flower-beds on the grass at each side of it, 
with two rows of standard roses. There is likewise a small American 
garden, well filled, with Magnolia purpurea and cordata. &c, growing out 
of the masses of rhododendrons, and greatly enlivening and varying 
their appearance in summer. The beds in this garden are so small, and 
the plants have grown so spreading, that many of the latter have to be 
cut into a complete hedge by the sides of the walks. 

Lord TankervilWs villa, at Walton-on-Thames, is one of those happy 
examples of architectural treatment which are all the more delightful 
because they are so extremely scarce. It is in the Italian style, and was 
designed by Mr. Charles Barry. We know of no instance in which the 
pictorial effect of the building has been so successfully studied, and its 
offices and accessories made to play so unobtrusive but important a part 
in the general composition from the garden front. Unfortunately, the 



(516) LONDON. 

place has been suffered to fall into a very neglected state for the last few 
years ; and, probably, ere this notice appears it will have passed into 
other hands. 

The garden attached to this villa has very little in its situation to 
recommend it. The country around it is flat and tame for the most 
part, and the river with a swampy margin. A towing-path also passes 
between it and the river. It has therefore to depend mainly upon itself, 
although the river, in some parts, is sufficiently below the level of the 
garden to render the view of the former pleasing. It likewise takes in a 
small portion of the wooded hills of the Oatlands estate. But the proxi- 
mity of the public road (although this was a good deal diverted at no 
very remote period), and the nearness to Walton Bridge, cause the place 
to be crowded up with trees on two of its sides. Between the house and 
the river, especially, the trees so press upon the building, and so narrow 
the garden, that the effect of both is greatly marred. 

Entering by a plain Italian lodge, and passing the stables on the 
right, a few paces bring us to the entrance porch, which is beneath a 
belvidere tower. A fine cedar tree, standing close to this tower, with a 
retiring wing of the building, and a small architectural flower garden 
behind, form altogether a group such as is seldom seen ; and a few other 
cedars on the adjoining lawn greatly help the effect. The flower garden 
is in a corner formed by the retirement of part of the building behind it, 
and the projection of the tower at one end of it. It is inclosed within a 
balustraded wall, decorated with vases, and is on a slightly-raised plat- 
form, the whole being in excellent keeping with the house. 

At the eastern side of the house, the garden stretches away, along the 
top of a bank, by the side of the river, being backed by the village of 
Walton and the kitchen garden on the south. A rather plain wing wall 
extends from the house to the kitchen garden, inclosing all the offices. 
From the lawn on this side of the house, however, the roofs and various 
small towers of the outbuildings, with the house and its scarcely seen 
tower, and the trees, produce another admirable picture, which is parti- 
cularly noticeable for the variety of outline and unity of character it 
presents. The roofs of all the buildings being covered with the broad 
tiles having [raised ridges, expressly made for structures in the Italian 
style, even the commonest outbuildings possess a certain richness and 
character, and harmonize well with the principal edifice. 

Oatlands, which is only a little higher up the river than the place just 
described, was laid out by Wright, a successor of Kent, and had formerly 
a great reputation. It possesses many good features, the principal of 
which are its water and its grotto. The water, which lies in a valley to 
the north-west of the house, is considered a clever imitation of a river, 
and might, when in proper preservation, have been mistaken for the 
Thames. The grotto is an extraordinary one, built by Bushell (a cele- 
brated constructor of these things) for the Duke of York. Its formation 
is said to have occupied many years. It is of considerable size, and is 
lined chiefly with shells, spar, and similar materials, so as to have a very 
artificial character. It is more a curiosity than an object of art ; the 
rules of art demanding that the material employed for these things 
should be of one general kind, and that they should be such as are found 
in nature, or might possibly be so. At one period, however, this grotto 
possessed considerable fame ; and there is a tradition that it was once 
occupied by a sort of congress of kings. In a secluded spot around the 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. KNOWLE. (51?) 

grotto is a very singular collection of tombs and memorials to the 
Duchess of York's dogs. These animals seem to have been great favour- 
ites ; and there are considerably more than a hundred monumental 
stones, of various shapes, on which the virtues of the different pets are 
set forth and their fate mourned, in several languages, and sometimes in 
the poetical effusions of eminent personages. The park contains much 
fine timber : but the greater part of the estate is now, we are told, to be 
carved up into building plots for villas. 

Dropmore, the seat of Lady Grenville, is about six miles from Windsor, 
and a little beyond Bumham. Although it scarcely comes within the 
range which we profess to include in our descriptions, it ought to be 
mentioned on account of its well-known Pinetum, which is probably the 
best and the most interesting in Britain, having been in existence so 
many years ; while its extensive flower- gardening decorations are also 
celebrated. 

From the front of the house some fine prospects are obtained through 
the bold masses of trees on the lawn, the land dropping away suddenly 
after presenting a sufficient foreground. The views take in Windsor 
Castle and the hills and woods of Windsor Great Park, with the valley 
of the Thames spreading out between. 

Parallel with the front of the house, the flower gardens extend for a 
considerable length to the west, and are backed by an architectural wall, 
and by conservatories, aviaries, &c. Being on a flat surface, a good 
opportunity is afforded for massing flowers of one colour, and this system 
is largely adopted. A good deal of variety and richness is produced 
by the use of vases, sculpture, large china jars, fountains, baskets, &e. 
There is also a Dutch flower garden, used chiefly for bulbs. On the wall 
at the back, too, there are many beautiful climbers ; and standard and 
pole roses are freely used in the decoration of this part of the place. 
Here are likewise some magnificent plants of Magnolia graiidiflora and 
Stvxtrtia virginica. 

Knovde Park is the magnificent seat of Earl Amherst, at Seven- 
oaks in Kent, and has come into his lordship's possession by marriage, 
having formerly been the family residence of the Dukes of Dorset, and 
once belonging, it is said, to Archbishop Cranmer. Although 24 
miles from London, it is such a noble old place that it requires a brief 
notice here. 

Situated in a very charming country, with all the ground softly and 
beautifully undulated, and enriched with the most splendid wooding, 
this park embraces some of the best features of the district, and is for 
the variety of its undulations, and the magnitude of its trees, equalled 
by very few others. The beeches are particularly grand ; and there are 
many picturesque old oaks, among which one, which is now dead and 
partially decayed, is fenced off for preservation, as being of gigantic size 
both as respects height and girth. A very delightful winding valley, 
having the top and part of the sides of its slopes picturesquely clothed 
with old trees, stretches across the park near bevenoaks, and is crossed 
by the drive that enters the park in the middle of the town. Some 
agreeable walks wind among the trees at the top of these slopes, and the 
public are liberally allowed access to them and to other parts of the 
park. 

The mansion is an exceedingly venerable old pile, for the most part erect- 
ed in the fifteenth century, though some portions are still more ancient. 



(518) LONDON. 

It is regarded as a very fine specimen of the castellated baronial hall, 
and is in the form of a quadrangle, with a spacious inner court. Regarded 
pictorially, it presents many attractions, and the rich clothing of ivy 
with which it is partially adorned greatly heightens its beauty. On the 
garden front especially, the ivy, by being closely cut in, forms a smooth 
and luxuriant mantle to the building, without interfering with any of 
its architectural features, or conveying the idea of wildness and neglect. 
To the lover of the picturesque, the private garden, with its ancient 
terraces, parterres, and sculptured ornaments,its long green alleys broken 
occasionally by overarching climbers or evergreens, and its numberless 
ancient specimens of exotic shrubs and low trees (the cypress, juniper, 
and arbor-vitae tribe, and the yews, being particularly prominent, and 
huge Magnolias being also numerous), will afford a rich and unusual treat. 
Most of the plants having been permitted to take their natural shapes, 
and some of them to mingle together in groups, the great age of many 
must of course have contributed to produce the most irregular and 
picturesque specimens, as well as most artistic combinations. Besides 
other strange and striking examples, there is an old lime tree on one of 
the lawns, the branches of which having naturally bent downwards 
towards the earth, have there struck root, and it is now surrounded 
with myriads of tufted trees of various ages and sizes, covering alto- 
gether an immense surface. The parent plant is, indeed, beginning to 
decay, and some of its numerous progeny are nearly as large as itself. 
Around the same stem a sort of natural bower is formed, from which 
there are many little winding avenues to the outside, realizing most per- 
fectly the picture of the Banyan, and its 

*' Pillar'd shade, 
High overarched, with echoing walks between." 

Mrs. Lawrences gardens at Ealing Park have acquired, and justly, 
a universal reputation, on account of the superb collection of plants 
which they contain, and the general taste displayed in the arrange- 
ment of the place. As they are most generously thrown open to the 
public for one day in each week during the summer, they demand to 
be pretty fully described. 

The entrance to the park is at the eastern corner, and after passing 
through the gates, the drive turns to the left, and crosses the open park 
till it reaches a long piece of artificial water, over which it is carried by 
a low bridge, which is in fact a neck of land dividing the lake into two 
levels, and soon arrives at the house. There is also a walk from the 
lodge to the house, just along the belt of plantation which covers the 
northern boundary. In the lake is a pretty island of weeping willows, 
which shows well from the house. The drive, walk, water, &c, were 
planned by Brown ; but the southern belt of plantation was afterwards 
thinned out with great judgment and effect by Repton, who saw that 
it was concealing the views into the country across the Surrey Hills, 
and of the Kew Pagoda, gardens, &c, and caused several varied open- 
ings in the line of plantation to be made, thereby greatly enlivening 
and expanding the place. 

From the house, which is so unfortunately contrived that the offices 
are on the south side, and can only be gained by passing the principal 
entrance door, an opening through an architectural wing wall at the 
north end brings us at once into the pleasure grounds. This wall is also 
used to connect the house with a conservatory, which stands on the right 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. MRS. LAWRENCE^. (519) 

as soon as the garden is entered, and is generally filled with Camellias, 
or other large flowering plants that are not grown as specimens. 

At the other end of the house, a short colonnade is thrown out, and 
supported by low evergreen trees, through which access to what is 
called the " Italian walk " is given. This is a straight walk, on a de- 
scending slope, with pairs of small figures on pedestals at either side of 
it, and good specimens of Irish yew between these. It terminates in a 
moderately large circular basin of water, in the centre of which, on a 
sufficient pedestal, is a figure of Apollo. The walk is kept confined 
towards the end by large evergreens, which narrow the vista, and 
confine the view pretty much to the principal terminating object in the 
middle of the basin. The figures on the pedestals at the sides are 
arranged in pairs ; on one pedestal Mars and Venus being placed, on 
another Cupid and Psyche, on a third Castor and Pollux, &c. The general 
effect is classic and elegant, and consistent with the style of the house. 

The lawn view from the front of the house is rich and varied. A 
great many specimen plants, especially of the coniferous tribe, are 
scattered about upon the grass, and their lower branches lie down upon 
it in the most graceful manner. A rustic arch, through which a small 
fountain is seen, and some fragmentary classic ruins, jut out from the 
mass of trees and shrubs at different points along the northern boundary, 
and prevent the abundance of green vegetable objects from degenerating 
into sameness. Certain cross avenues, however, break up the principal 
glade more than is desirable. One of these avenues is of Cupressus 
macrocarpa, backed by mixed evergreens. Near the house, among other 
choice specimens, is a large plant of Arbutus procera, which, with its 
smooth stems, and fine clusters of fruit in autumn, has a striking ap- 
pearance. Garrya elliptica is also large and handsome, and is a most 
valuable shrub for winter flowering. 

When the basin of water is reached, it is found to contain four other 
figures on pedestals, one of them representing Neptune, another a mer- 
maid, and the remaining two herons. On the east and west sides of this 
pond, the ground rises into a bank, with large masses of evergreens on 
the summit. The bank to the east is the highest, and has a splendid 
cedar of Lebanon upon it, the branches of which are held up by ivy- 
covered props, so as to allow of its being walked under. Close to this 
bank is the dairy, a pretty object, and decorated inside with a row of 
busts on brackets against the upper part of the walls, with flints, shells, 
&c., on part of the shelves. The door is of stained glass, with wreaths 
of roses and other flowers. 

In the neighbourhood of the dairy, under the large evergreen trees, 
is an oval arch, formed with masses of fused brick, and supported on 
either side with a miniature rockery of the same material, clothed with 
ivy, <fec. The design of the aperture is to afford a sudden and confined 
view towards the park, embracing part of the lake, on the margin of 
which latter some masses of fused brick have been set up to form an 
object to this view. Were the scene more definite and contracted, and 
did it embrace one principal and striking feature, it is probable that this 
idea of an oval opening, which starts from the level of the ground, and 
is about the height of a full-grown man, would be very effective, by 
yielding a kind of telescopic view without the awkwardness and trouble 
of having to approach so closely to a smaller aperture, or to move about 
with effort in order to obtain the desired survey. A better example 
occurs on the other side of the round pond, where, after threading our 



(520) LONDON. 

way amongst large laurels and other evergreens, which group themselves 
into a natural retreat called the Leicester bower, and turning at length 
between shaded masses of fused brick, which furnish a shaded home for 
ferns and alpines, we come all at once to another oval aperture, through 
which we look out to the pond and its figures, with the grassy bank 
and noble evergreens beyond. Here there has been more preparation, 
by a winding and uncertain path, in deep shadow, among imitation rocks, 
of which the arch forms a part ; and the burst of light which we sud- 
denly obtain through the arch, with the limited nature of the view, and 
the existence of a more definite object in the pond and figures, render 
this much more satisfactory, and, indeed, decidedly artistic. 

We cannot but remark on the felicity with which the oval figure has 
been chosen for framing these little scenes, and how well the shape and 
size of the aperture fulfil its intention. Any more irregular opening 
would have the effect of scattering too much the objects to be repealed, 
whereas this serves to concentrate and confine them. A circular aperture, 
again, would produce the same bad result as an irregular one, unless it 
were quite small, when it would have to be looked through with effort, 
and the whole scene would be taken in only by degrees. The oval, on 
the other hand, as here adopted, is in itself a beautiful figure, and 
directly the eye catches it, all that is wished to be seen through it is 
exhibited at once. The suddenness with which the view opens upon us 
is fully half of the charm. Any gradual unfolding of the scene would 
ruin it. 

Following the walk which runs along the boundary of the pleasure 
grounds, we see how nicely these are separated from the park. A very 
low hedge is placed in the bottom of a hollow, and its line is broken by a 
few dwarf evergreens, such as Rhododendrons, scattered here and there 
irregularly along the inside. Standing on the walk, therefore, or the 
lawn, we scarcely observe this boundary line, because it is so low and 
unobtrusive, and does not at all arrest the sight, while it is quite hidden 
from the other side of the place. 

A walk through the plant houses supplies continual food for wonder 
and admiration. The conviction is pressed upon us at every step that 
the power of cultivation " can no further go." And everything is done 
with a liberality as to space and conveniences which is quite of a piece 
with the fame of this establishment. The well-known success which 
attends the exhibition of plants from this place at the great metropolitan 
shows, will no longer be matter of surprise after the collection is seen. 
The only occasion for astonishment will be that any other competition 
should ever be able to carry off the highest prize. 

At the front of the principal group of plant houses is a somewhat 
square area, arranged as a flower garden, and having little wire 
temples, as supports for climbing roses, at the corners. Walls covered 
with climbers inclose it at the sides, and the charming Clematis montana 
is among the most conspicuous plants on these walls. There is ■ a foun- 
tain in the centre, and some vases are placed about in parts, while 
masses of stones at the base of the buildings, and in front of them, 
receive a variety of pretty trailing and alpine plants. The flower-beds 
are cut out of the grass, and are each furnished with a single kind of 
plant, in the usual manner. 

Gunnersbury, the seat of Baron Rothschild, is also at Ealing, about 
half a mile nearer London than Mrs. Lawrence's place. It is a retired 
and elegant villa, very agreeably situated. The house stands on the top 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — GUNNERSBURY. (521) 

of a sloping bank, which, affords an excellent opportunity for having an 
Italian terrace on the garden front. This terrace is particularly well 
treated, having a low wall with vases along the front, and being entered 
upon at one end by an enriched arch, attached to the house and supported 
with trees, while the other end is finished by a handsome alcove, contain- 
ing a statue of the Apollo Belvidere. 

From the terrace walk there is a pleasant view across a lake in the 
low ground and the small park to the woods and low hills on the Surrey 
side of the Thames ; everything in this scene being rich and accordant, 
and the whole being very nicely framed with old trees. 

A walk to the westward from the terrace conducts us along the side of 
the open park, where we soon arrive at a pleasing recess, in which is a 
marble statue of Eve at the fountain. This is very artistically embowered 
with ivy, and is so far kept out of sight till it is approached as to convey 
the idea of being a shaded and sacred nook, into which the living mother 
of mankind, represented in the figure, might have retired. Two tall and 
fine cypresses stand by the side of this recess, as if keeping a kind of 
guard over its sanctity. 

A little further from the house there is a nearly circular piece of water, 
open towards the park on one side and surrounded with noble trees in 
other parts. Both the lakes are supplied from a spring on the estate. 
This portion of the grounds was arranged by the celebrated Kent. The 
formality of the outline of the water is now slightly broken by the 
branches of some of the trees dipping into it. There is a very fine tulip- 
tree among the other large specimens, and a cluster of excellent cedars. 
Here, as elsewhere under similar circumstances, it will be noted that a 
wooden platform, for the purpose of using the boat, is thrust out into the 
water several yards, and has an exceedingly prominent and disagreeable 
appearance ; which might easily be obviated by deepening the water at 
any particular point along its margin, and making a small landing-stage 
to follow precisely the line of the water's edge. 

By the side of this piece of water, in the midst of the group of cedars 
just mentioned, is a classic temple, from the front of which there is a 
beautiful view over the water, the park, and the country. The interior of 
this temple appears to be used as a billiard room. It contains at present, 
however, a most interesting collection of stone figures, illustrative of the 
"Beggar's Opera," which formerly stood in the open air, but had unfor- 
tunately become so injured by exposure that they are now placed here. 
They are by Thorn, the well-known Scotch sculptor of Tarn o' Shanter 
and Souter Johnnie, and are among the greatest notabilia of the place. 
Although executed in sand-stone, they are taken from life with the utmost 
minuteness of detail, the tatters of the garments, the patches (some placed 
beneath and some upon the older parts of the clothes), the holes and 
mendings of the shoes, one of which has the sole coming off, and even 
the very stitches, with their customary want of neatness and concealment, 
by which the various attempts at preserving some degree of soundness 
are effected, are all represented with a wonderful fidelity and power. 
But the expression of some of the countenances is still more striking. 
In the face of the old soldier, with his wooden arm and leg, who has 
taken on his only knee the old woman whom he loved in youth, and 
holds her with his single arm, there is a marvellous expression of 
resuscitated voluptuousness which is almost more than responded to in 
the cunning but inviting looks of his ancient companion. The ferocity, 



(522) LONDON. 

too, of the stalwart tinker, who is taking his revenge on the terror-stricken 
and crushed little fiddler for supposed wrongs done to his wife, is most 
admirably depicted. There is, indeed, a spirit and a truthfulness about 
these objects which makes us regret that the unhappy artist did not use 
less perishable materials, and that he was not more cordially encouraged. 

At the north side of the temple containing these figures is a small 
circular flower garden, surrounded with festoons of climbers, on a wire 
frame, and nearly beneath them is a low iron trellis covered with China 
roses. This flower garden is very nicely furnished with plants in the 
summer, and the beds are not too crowded. In its neighbourhood there 
is an immense plant of Magnolia grandiflora, which is quite like a tree, 
and many beautiful specimens of various other low trees. Grunnersbury 
is rather famed for its large orange-trees, which are kept in an orangery 
in the lower part of the pleasure-grounds. 

Mrs. Marrijatfs, Wimbledon House, has been elaborately and pictorially 
described by Loudon, and, like Mrs. Lawrence's, is open once a week to 
the public in the summer season. At one period, too, Mr. Redding, the 
gardener, was a very successful exhibitor of plants, and a great many 
highly ornamental species were first introduced to this place, and origi- 
nally flowered here. Latterly, however, less attention has been paid to 
maintaining a high horticultural position ; the trees all over the estate 
have become crowded, plants are very rarely grown for the exhibitions, 
and scarcely anything is conducted with the same spirit as formerly. 

This estate, which comprises about 100 acres, is close to the delightful 
village of Wimbledon, and embraces some beautiful undulations of sur- 
face, charming views across Wimbledon Park, and, in one part, a very 
rich piece of the river Thames, with much of the valley through which 
part of the Thames flows, and the hills of Middlesex and Harrow in the 
distance. Although beautifully placed, however, and presenting some 
good natural features, the artist who designed it has by no means made 
the most of it ; and now that the trees are becoming crowded, the defects 
in the plan are more conspicuous. 

The house, which is very ample and complete, is rather too near the 
village, and hence the drive is a little too short for a place of this extent. 
Were the house farther away from other dwellings, and did we not see it 
directly we enter the gates, the shortness of the drive would be, as at 
Kenwood, an advantage. There is a conservatory attached to the house, in 
which, besides many sculptures and other ornaments, is one of the first 
plants of Jachsonia pinnatiscipula which bloomed here before flowering 
anywhere else in England, and still covers the roof of the conservatory. 

From the garden front of the house there is a good view across the 
park to a sheet of water in the hollow, and over the trees behind this to 
a wooded hill beyond. Besides a few effective groups of trees, a charming 
specimen of an old variegated holly, covered with ivy, stands in the park 
in front of the house. A walk to the right then carries us through a 
strip of pleasure ground on the north side of the park, and amongst 
some very large and varied evergreen oaks, and tufts of hollies, Portugal 
laurels, rhododendrons, &c. There is, in one part, a small hollow nearly 
filled with rhododendrons, which are now large and picturesque. There 
is also a gigantic single plant of the common rhododendron. 

At the bottom of the walk just spoken of we arrive at the lake, near 
the corner of which, on an island, are the remains of a chapel, once much 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — CHEAM. (523) 

used by the Prince of Conde during the time of his residence here. This 
island is approached by a bridge, now picturesquely covered with ivy ; 
and from the midst of the other trees which are growing on the island, 
two or three Lombardy poplars rise, and the whole form a most beau- 
tiful group. Unhappily they are now decaying at the tops, and will 
soon have to be removed. A walk to the north-west from this point 
leads round the boundary of the place, through what is called the 
wilderness, where there are some fish-ponds. Another piece of water is 
seen in the hollow below the larger lake. Skirting the lower margin of 
the principal lake by a green path, backed with trees and evergreens, 
we first pass an enormous beech tree of the noblest character, and after- 
wards, near the western end of the lake, come to a fine ivy-clad oak, and 
the original specimen of the Magnolia. It is from a point near the 
northern end of the lake that the view of the Thames and its valley is 
to be caught, and this, on a fine day, is one of the most delightful kind. 
Some of the principal London buildings are also embraced from this spot. 

At the south-western end of the lake there is an iron bridge. The walk 
to the right from this bridge takes us through a thin covert of trees of 
no particular character, by the side of a narrow winding continuation of 
the lake, till we merge into another open part of the park, by the side of 
which, with charming scenes across Wimbledon Park, we pass to the grotto. 
This structure takes the exterior form of a small temple, from the front of 
which the landscape is very sylvan, varied, and lovely. 

On entering the door of this apparent temple we are astonished to 
find ourselves in a grotto, built by Bushel, after the manner of that at 
Oatlands, and lined with similarly unnatural materials. Parts of this 
grotto, however, where spar only has been employed, and where the sur- 
face is broken up into a variety of intricate little cells and recesses, are 
good. A small aperture at the back, glazed with yellow glass, exhibits 
the branches and leaves of the plants behind it in a curious colour ; and 
no doubt some really desirable effects might be produced in this way by 
the employment of a more fitting colour. As a grotto this building is, in 
the main, most unsatisfactory ; and the mixing up together of the grotto 
and the temple is strangely incongruous. 

The gardens of A. Palmer, Esq., at Cheam, are only a short dis- 
tance from those of Sir E. Antrobus, on the other side of the village. 
The two places possess much the same character, and similar classes 
of plants are cultivated in them, especially Cacti and Azaleas. With 
both these latter tribes the collection is well furnished ; and although 
the houses are more commodious, and the plants less numerous, 
than at Sir E. Antrobus's, Mr. Falconer, the gardener, turns them out a 
good deal at the end of the summer and during the early autumn. A 
new seedling Azalea has been raised here by Mr. Falconer, and called 
Bianca. It has perfectly white flowers, which are large, and of a good 
shape, being much superior in every respect to the old A. indica alba. 

One of the houses here has lately been fresh glazed with rough plate 
glass, the panes in the upper lights being joined at the ends by being cut 
very square, and not at all overlapped. It is not yet ascertained whether 
this mode of glazing will keep out wet ; and it is exceedingly probable 
that, from the almost necessary imperfection of the joints, it will occa- 
sion drip. It certainly looks neat, and saves just a small quantity of 
glass. 

In the stove, some old plants of Remanthera coccinea are made to bloom 



(524) LONDON. 

freely every year, by hanging them up near the glass, and keeping them 
almost dry, during the latter part of the summer. Treated in this way, 
the plants themselves look a little yellow, but their showy llowers more 
than repay the diminished verdure of their appearance. 

Much attention is given by Mr. Palmer to growing and preserving the 
different kinds of fruit, and the apples, pears, &c, are all good, and are 
stored with great care. Some of the older kinds of apples are also to be 
found here in their genuine state. Down the middle walk of the kitchen 
garden, various plums are grown upon a wooden trellis, which is arched 
over it. The plan answers very well, and saves space, besides making 
the walk into a sort of bower. 

Nonesuch, the seat of W. F. G. Farmer, Esq., nearly adjoins Mr. Pal- 
mer's estate, but is a more extensive domain, with an ample park, and 
good pleasure grounds. The property has for many years been noted as 
having supplied the site of one for Queen Elizabeth's palaces, which had 
fine old terrace gardens attached to it. Scarcely a relic of these now, 
however, remain, and the present house is quite on the other side of the 
estate. A noble elm tree in the park, not far from the supposed site of 
the former palace gardens, still bears the name of Queen Elizabeth's elm, 
and is a beautiful specimen. 

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the gardens at Nonesuch 
were altered to the modern style by Whateley, the author of " Observa- 
tions on Modern Gardening," whose brother then owned the property. 
At a subsequent period the house and gardens were entirely removed, 
and now occupy a position near Cheam. They have been most exten- 
sively renovated and improved within the last seven or eight years by the 
conversion of the old kitchen garden into pleasure grounds, and the 
formation of a new kitchen garden on the east side of the approach from 
Cheam. 

Entering the estate from the village of Cheam, there is an avenue of 
Scotch firs leading from a main road to the house, by the side of the 
garden wall. This avenue is a rare and beautiful object, as the trees have 
become old, and many of them are very picturesque. 

On the south side of the house there is a charming piece of lawn, on 
which a grand old cedar spreads its branches over a large surface, while 
many venerable trees inclose a bold and pleasing hollow. Beyond the 
more immediate precincts of the house, a series of flower gardens, 
with patches of open lawn and masses of low shrubs and specimen plants, 
cover the site of much of the former kitchen garden, and are terminated 
by a raised terrace bank, along the front of a nice group of plant houses. 
Outside this terrace a pinetum has been formed, in which many of the 
plants are making a rapid growth, and will soon begin to acquire a good 
character. 

Cambridge House is the residence of H. Bevan, Esq., at Twickenham, 
just above Richmond Bridge. It is well placed for taking in a near view 
of Richmond Hill, with its scattered villas and broad masses of wood, 
while the garden front is not much overlooked from any public road. 
The pleasure grounds are not large, comprising chiefly a walk and nar- 
row lawn along the front of the house to the kitchen-garden, and having a 
number of specimen plants and a few flower-beds placed on the lawn. 
But they lie well open to the paj*k, from which they are only separated 
by a light fence, and which has thus all the effect of a large lawn. 
Many fine elms adorn the place in different parts. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — BURNTWOOD GRANGE. (525) 

Attached to the house is a good conservatory, in which, besides the 
usual decorations of plants in pots and climbers trained to the roof, there 
are many elegant ornaments, such as richly-carved brackets attached to 
the wall, for receiving conspicuous and spreading specimens, handsome 
marble basket-like vases, supported on the heads of beautiful marble figures, 
and filled with graceful plants, and other sculptured marble figures. An 
ail* of great richness and variety is imparted by these objects, which 
nearly always have a good appearance in a conservatory attached to a 
mansion. 

At a little distance from the house, there is a large and lofty green- 
house, or orangery, for orange-trees and other tall greenhouse plants. The 
roof is covered with vines, which answer well for a late crop. There is 
another show greenhouse, in which, among some good specimens of 
ordinary species, we noticed a number of seedling Pelargoniums of 
bedding-out kinds, and of the scarlet-flowered variegated sorts, and 
the cherry-coloured varieties raised at Lord Kilmorey's. Several of 
them are distinct, and will be useful in varying the appearance of 
flower-beds. 

A neat gateway, of open iron work, leads from the pleasure grounds 
to the kitchen-garden, where there are some excellent ranges of glass, 
in which grapes, peaches, pines, <fcc, are well forced, and in a lengthened 
succession. This department is a good deal attended to, and everything 
appears to be managed neatly and successfully. The houses are heated 
by hot water, and the pits, of which there are several ranges for pines, 
melons, cucumbers, &c, derive their heat from dung linings. In order 
to prevent the latter from looking untidy, or becoming a nuisance, 
and to save the heat from escaping, they are all covered with wooden 
shutters, which fasten down closely over them, and keep them entirely 
lout of sight. 

In one of the larger houses there is a nice collection of stove plants, 
including most of the more fashionable and showy kinds, with a variety 
of low climbers grown to trellises. Earthenware troughs are placed over 
the heating pipes in this house, for containing water to produce evapora- 
tion. A row of capital hollyhocks was growing in a border of the 
kitchen garden when we visited the place last October ; and this is one 
of the few gardens near London in which we observed any care bestowed 
on that very handsome and valuable flower. Its usefulness for planting 
among low shrubs, or towards the front of new ornamental plantations, 
to break the outline, is by no means appreciated as it should be. Mr. 
Pennycook is Mr. Bevan's gardener. 

Bumtwood Grange, the residence of H. Griseicood. Esq., between 
Wandsworth Common and GarrattLane, is a small place recently laid out 
and planted by Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting, and the house enlarged and 
remodelled, and a conservatory added to it, by Messrs. Trollope, of 
Parliament Street, London. The conservatory, which is in the Gothic 
style, like the house, we have thought so excellent, that we have ob- 
tained permission to give the annexed illustrations of it. Its merits are 
that it unites and harmonises well with the house, of which it forms a 
constituent part, and not a mere adjunct ; while there is a novelty and 
richness in the interior of the roof, and a simplicity in the arrangement 
of the plants, which also recommend it to notice. At a period when 
buildings of this kind are yet generally such commonplace things, mostly 
without any style at all, and just tacked on to the house at any point 
• where they may be wanted, without any regard to its harmonising with 



LONDON 




INTERIOR OF CONSERVATORY. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — BURNTWOOD GRANGE. 



(527) 




5 4 3 3 10 

I- i ' ' L— L 



PLAN OF CONSERVATORY. 



the design of the principal elevation, a conservatory like this is a 
pleasant and worthy deviation from the ordinary practice. 

Our engravings exhibit the elevation, with part of the house attached, 
a view of the interior, showing the form of the roof, and a ground 
plan in which the stages, borders, paths, &c, are delineated. From the 
first of these it will be seen that the conservatory occupies a corner of 
the building, where the main wall retires, and is therefore essentially a 
part of the general structure, not standing out beyond either the front 
or the end of the house ; while the lowness of the roof, as compared with 
that of the house itself, rather tends to heighten the character of a Gothic 
building like this. The ground plan will indicate that it is connected 
with both the drawing-room (b) and billiard-room (c), standing at the 
end of the former and in front of the latter, so that it can be enjoyed 
from both, (a) is the entrance from the garden. In the arrangement 
of the interior, too, regard has been had to the character of art which a 
conservatory attached to a drawing-room should maintain. Hence, the 
path is paved with mosaic tiles, the gratings for admitting hot air (d) 
being of brass, and a neat kerb-stone being placed around the sides 
of the path. The centre portion is paved with good flag-stones, and 
there is a light iron stage, of an oval shape, in the middle, while very 
handsome porcelain vases, filled with flowers, occupy the corners 
and also the corners of the path, as shown on the plan. Between 
the path and the walls there is a narrow border (f), covered with 
Lycopodiums, Heliotropes, and various low-growing plants, which make 
a neat fringe to the whole. Climbers are trained to the roof, and a 
chandelier is suspended from the centre. The main feature in the ground 



(bXb) 



LONDON. 




DAIRY, BUBNTWOOD GBANGS. 



plan is that the space is not at all crowded, and everything employed is 
good and tasteful. 

Another sketch which we insert represents a pretty dairy at the end of 
the house, which is appropriately fitted up, together with a series of 
terraces, with steps and vases, which occupy this part of the garden. At 
the top of these terraces is a nice span-roofed stove, filled with good 
plants, and having some novel and ornamental baskets of pottery ware 
suspended from the roof for receiving orchids, &c. Near this stove is a 
long flower garden, well filled with various summer plants. The lawns 
in front of the house are bordered with handsome evergreen shrubs, and 
there are particularly fine specimens of Andromeda fioribunda, with a 
beautiful Deodar cedar. The kitchen garden is well arranged, and con- 
tains some first-rate forcing houses and pits. The entire place is kept in 
the most perfect order by Mr. Hoskins, the gardener. 

Pain's mil, the seat of Mrs. Cooper, at Cobham in Surrey, about three 
miles further from London than Claremont, is a place which contains 
such splendid features, and has been so much referred to in different 
works as a grand specimen of modern landscape gardening, that we judged 
it worthy of a special pilgrimage, and were not at all disappointed. It 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — STREATHAM. (529) 

was laid out by the Hon. Charles Hamilton, son of the Earl of Abercorn, 
and is said to have been formed from an old common or waste. 

The house stands on the summit of a steep slope, at the bottom of 
which runs the river Mole, and a bold stone bridge, which carries the 
Portsmouth road over the river, forms a conspicuous and effective object 
from the house. As viewed from this bridge, too, the house itself has a 
very imposing appearance, its handsome portico, erected by Mr. Decimus 
Burton for a former proprietor, rising to the full height of the building, 
and being supported by massive pillars. It is also well furnished with 
large trees on either side, while the slope of the park in front is open 
enough to show all its beauty and breadth, while it is sufficiently studded 
with specimen plants to preserve it from plainness. A large Mespilus 
canadensis was, when we saw it in the autumn, and when it had ac- 
quired all its mellow red and yellow tints, a remarkable good feature on 
this park slope. 

Pain's Hill will occupy at least three or four hours to walk round it 
even hurriedly. It is, in many parts, far too much encumbered with 
trees, and would be greatly improved by judicious thinning, and by open- 
ings to admit views of the neighbouring country. But, for its specimen 
trees, its groups in the park, the beauty of its undulated ground, the 
charming diversity of scene which its lake presents, and for its admirable 
grotto, it is a place which will bear much examination and study, and 
may doubtless be inspected again and again with increasing pleasure. 

The gardens of Sigismund Rucker, Esq., at Wandsworth, though small, 
exhibit some interesting features, and contain a very fine collection of 
exotic plants, especially orchids. Of the latter tribe the plants here are 
probably unequalled in this country, and they invariably obtain some of 
the best prizes at the great exhibitions. The collection of heaths, too, is 
of the highest excellence, though these are gradually being dispersed, 
as opportunities arise, that more undivided attention may be given to 
the orchids. 

The place is situated on West Hill, and the house lies rather near 
to the road. There is little view beyond it. A small conservatory is 
attached to the house, and contains, among the usual floral ornaments, 
several elegant sculptured figures, China vases, <fec. The lawn, which is 
exceedingly neat, and very tastefully arranged, is decorated with nume- 
rous masses of Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Roses, and occasional beds of 
summer flowers, while there are many specimen plants of the Deodar 
cedar, Araucaria, Abies Bouglasii, various Pines, some excellent standard 
Rhododendrons, a beautiful patch of Juniperus sabina tamariscifolia, &c. 
Of the roses, the hybrid perpetual varieties are chiefly grown, and as 
these come into bloom after the Rhododendrons and Azaleas, and remain 
flowering till late in the season, the place is kept continually gay. 

William Leaf, Esq., has a delightful place at Streatham, in Surrey, 
which, though originally comprising the poorest elements, has, by the 
spirited diversion of the road in front of it, and of a public footpath 
which crossed the middle of what is now the lawn, been made into a 
thoroughly excellent villa garden. We believe it was laid out by the 
late Mr. Loudon. 

The house is in the Italian style, and a semicircular projection, sup- 
ported on pillars and surmounted by a dome, is thrown out from the 
front of the upper stories, while a terrace walk extends along the prin- 
cipal or garden front. Near the end of the terrace is a conservatory, 

*A A 



(530) LONDON. 

with a curvilinear iron roof, and having the specimens planted out in 
beds. The Acacias, Polygalas, and some other plants in it are extremely 
fine. 

In the garden and on the lawn there is a number of rare and orna- 
mental shrubs, A high bank has been thrown up, and happily clothed 
with pines and other trees at the lower part of the garden, to exclude 
the walls, &c, of a neighbouring estate. In the middle of a small pool 
of water an island is entirely covered with the common dogwood, which, 
spreading down its branches to the water, forms an interesting object at 
all seasons, but especially when its leaves change colour in the autumn, 
and while the red bark of its shoots is so conspicuous during winter. 

The delightful garden of John Warner, Esq., is situated about a mile 
from the Broxbourne Station on the Eastern Counties Railway, and 17 
miles from London. It has been under the superintendence of Mr. 
Williams for nearly 30 years. On the lawn near the house are some very 
fine specimens of the fern-leaved beech, weeping elm, deodar cedar, 
Daphne pontica, and many other very ornamental trees and shrubs. 

An excellent view of this lawn is obtained from a raised terrace of 
some length at the upper end ; and from this terrace a closely-shaded 
walk descends in a winding direction to a lake, which is crossed by a 
rustic bridge. Here the spectator is astonished by an admirable imita- 
tion of broken rocks, formed entirely of bricks and cement, which have 
all the appearance of having been worn by the current of a stream. Almost 
adjoining these is a rustic building, in full accordance with them. Apart 
from this is a garden partly devoted to dahlias, and adjoining the lawn 
on one side of it is a border of roses, consisting of dwarfs and standards, 
among which are many of the new and leading varieties. In the middle 
of this garden, and entangled into one mass, is a large column of roses, 
chiefly the R. sempervirens, the effect of which is decidedly good when 
in bloom. 

The Zoological Gardens, in the Regent's Park, do not contain much that 
requires notice in a gardening point of view, but demand a passing 
glance. They are entered from the road which surrounds the Regent's 
Park on the north-west side, and lie on both sides of that road, the two 
parts being appropriately connected by a short tunnel. Being situated 
within the actual boundary of the Regent's Park, they have the advan- 
tage of looking upon its large area of greensward on the south side. 

A straight principal walk passes through the garden at an oblique 
angle from the main entrance, and leads by a flight of steps over the 
roof of one of the larger menageries, this roof being balustraded at the 
sides, and forming a large terrace platform, from which much of the 
garden and the park may be viewed. The sides of the walk leading to 
this terrace are bordered by lines of standard roses, and a series of small 
flower-bed3, backed by shrubs. 

The rest of the garden is laid out in the most irregular manner possi- 
ble, so as to obtain a great number and variety of walks. Most of the 
shrubs and plants are healthy and flourishing, and some of them are 
handsome. On a raised bank at the south side of the garden, where the 
grass is carried up to the base of the shrubs which clothe its summit, a 
number of strong-growing herbaceous plants are scattered about in front 
of the shrubs and among them, and, growing out of the grass, they con- 
tribute to break and soften off the outline of the shrubs. In another 
part, there are one or two pleasing islands, clothed with a thicket of dog- 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. (531) 

wood, privet, &c., in the midst of pools used for water-fowl ; and besides 
being in themselves picturesque, on account of the denseness of their 
clothing, these islands form an excellent cover for the birds to retire into. 

In one part of the garden, where some evergreen shrubs and specimen? 
had been newly planted last winter, these were somewhat unnecessarily 
protected by having a quantity of straw loosely shaken over them. Some 
very large specimens of weeping ash have their branches fastened flatly 
to a trellis which forms a kind of covering to a place in which a number 
of birds are kept, and though they have a very artificial appearance, they 
create a good shelter. 

Several of the structures appropriated to different animals are pic- 
turesque and pleasing examples of the rustic style. The new aviaries, 
too, appear well arranged and excellent, and when partially clothed with 
climbers, as seems to be intended, they will be yet more suitable and 
beautiful. Everything in the way of buildings is, in short, substantial 
and respectable ; and the gardens are kept as neatly and well as the 
large number of visitors will allow them to be. There is a particular air 
of cleanliness and comfort about all the houses used for birds and 
animals. The inclosures for birds, &c, are surrounded mostly by a wire 
fence, with a row of close wires curved boldly outwards at about two feet 
from the ground, to prevent any small wild animals or vermin from 
entering the inclosure. 

Passing through the tunnel, that portion of the garden north of the 
park road is on the slope of a bank, with a canal at the bottom, and con- 
stitutes a pleasant and shady summer walk. The new museum, the 
giraffes, the huge hippopotamus, &c, are in this direction. There are 
some handsome thorns in a few of the inclosures. We cannot speak of 
the collection of animals, &c, in this place, though this is undoubtedly 
very perfect, and all are in the best condition. 

Nurseries, Florists' Gardens, &c. The characteristic of the Lon- 
don nurseries, and that which mainly distinguishes them from provincial 
establishments of this sort, is that they abound in indoor exotics. With 
a few exceptions, such as the great Exeter nurseries, for example, exotic 
plants that require protection or artificial heat are but sparingly and 
imperfectly grown in the provinces, as compared with London. And, on 
the other hand, provincial nurseries are, from having a better atmo- 
sphere, and often from a superior method of treatment, the best marts 
for hardy trees and shrubs. In general, there is far too much use made 
of the knife in the London nurseries, and ornamental plants are budded 
or grafted on stocks that are too tall, so that hardy plants obtained from 
them will often be many years before they become bushy, and some of 
them will never do so. This is a defect which is, however, in part reme- 
died in some establishments, and which will, we hope, soon be entirely 
done away with ; as nothing can be more objectionable than the pruning 
up of trees, that are intended for ornament, to bare tall stems. 

The nursery of Messrs. Loddiges, at Hackney, is one of the oldest and 
most celebrated of the London gardens of its class, although it is now, 
from the expiration of the lease of part of the ground, and the encroach- 
ments of a rapidly-enlarging population, becoming somewhat crippled, 
and is in process of transformation. The objects for which it has been 
most famed are its palms, orchids, camellias, and arboretum. The latter 
was long regarded as the most complete in the country, and contained 
many rare specimens, the whole of the plants being arranged alphabeti- 



(532) LONDON. 

cally by the sides of an almost labyrinthine series of paths. But the 
atmosphere having become so deteriorated by smoke, and the ground 
being wanted for other purposes, this most perfect collection, which has 
been the foundation of most others of the kind throughout the country, 
will, we believe, have gradually to be relinquished. 

The nursery of Messrs. Low and Co., at Clapton, is little more than two 
miles from Messrs. Loddiges, and may be visited at the same time. Here, 
from the system adopted of rapidly clearing off the stock, there is seldom 
any large specimen plants to be seen. But a very large stock of the 
most popular greenhouse plants is reared and kept in the best order ; 
and, from the enterprise of Mr. Low, great numbers of new plants are 
sure to be found in his nursery, at almost every season of the year. 

The stock of the hardier and more showy heaths, and of those plants 
which peculiarly suit the London markets, was particularly good when 
we called here last autumn. Both in the greenhouses and in long ranges 
of excellent pits, there was an extraordinary quantity of plants of this 
description, in the most beautiful health and keeping. In the pits a bed 
of large clinkers is made at the bottom, and small cinders, on which the 
pots rest, are placed over these. 

Messrs. Rollisson's Nursery, at Tooling, is about seven miles from 
London, on the Surrey side, and has been long noted for heath-growing. 
It has latterly, also, acquired a large collection of orchids, and contains 
a very good assortment of general greenhouse and stove plants, besides 
having an excellent stock of ornamental shrubs and trees, especially the 
American plants. The latter are grown in various plots, apart from the 
main nursery. 

At the end of the large new orchid-house, a very complete collection 
of Pitcher Plants is kept ; and as some of them are quite novel, and all 
of them are exceedingly interesting, we insert a popular description of 
the various sorts with which Messrs. Rollisson have obligingly favoured 
us. The plants are grown at the hottest end of the house, as they are 
excessively fond of heat and moisture. 

Nepenthes distillatoria, the common Pitcher Plant, was first introduced about the year 1789, 
and is by far the most generally cultivated. It is a native of China and the Indies, and is 
readily distinguished by its pitchers, which are usually from 8 inches to a foot long, of 
a pale green when young, afterwards of a reddish brown, especially near the mouth of the 
pitcher. The lid is of a circular form, and is furnished with a small spur * at the back. The 
leaves are usually about 18 inches in length and 3 inches wide, and smooth on the edges. 
Before the pitchers open, they are one-third filled wth a transparent fluid, by which ants, 
cockroaches, and other insects are attracted and drowned. Independently of the curious 
character of the plant, it deserves culture as an insect trap. 

N. loevis is the smallest of the genus, as regards both the plant and pitchers. The leaves 
are 7 or 8 inches in length, and lg inch wide, smooth and glossy, entire on the margin, and 
tapering to a narrow point. The pitchers are from 2 to 3 inches long, of nearly the same form 
as N. distillatoria, pale green when young, afterwards veined with red. They are furnished 
with two narrow fimbriated wings. This species may be distinguished at first sight, even 
without the pitchers, for the leaves, indeper" 1 " J * ' - i 

deeply channelled. It is from the East Indies. 

N. phyllamphora. The leaves of this plant are furnished with small teeth on the margin of 
each, by which character it may always be distinguished from all others in cultivation. The 
whole plant is of a much paler green than any of the others. The leaves vary from 1 foot to 
18 inches in length, and are from 3 to 4 inches wide. The pitchers are of a pale green, I 
entirely destitute of marks, about 6 inches in length, and similar in form to those of I 
N. distillatoria, the stem being smooth. It is a native of the East Indies. r 

N. Rafflesiana is very robust in habit. The stem is thick, and covered with a buff-coloured 

mealy substance; the leaves are very strong, being from the stem to the pitcher 3 feet in I 

length, undulated, and 5 inches across at the widest part. The pitchers are very beautiful, and 

are 10 inches in 1 — ~ : - 1 - 1 ^ I 

reddish brown. 



are 10 inches in length, pale green, and richly mottled and spotted inside and out with a glossy 
reddish brown. The lid is also similarly marked. When young, the plants produce pitchers I 
widest at the lower part, and furnished with two fringed wings; but as the plant advances, j 
the tendrils become spiral, and the pitchers are produced without wings and widest at the I 



rly i 
ed a 
ritcr 

* This spur is common to all the Nepenthes. 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. KNIGHT AND PERRY. (533 J 

upper part. When laden with its richly-coloured pitchers the appearance of the plant is truly 
noble. It is said to be from Singapore. 

N. albo-marginata is of dwarf habit compared with others of the same family. The leaves 
are 18 inches long, smooth and glossy on the upper surface and rough underneath, and about 
1£ inch wide. It may be distinguished by a beautiful white band round the outside of the 
mouth of the pitcher. The pitcher is pale green inside, and on the outside it is streaked with 
red, and 4 inches long. This is also from the East Indies. 

N. species, Java. This plant is new to the country, and supposed to be the one described by 
Dr. Blume under the name of Nepenthes Gymnamphora. It was sent from Java by Mr. 
Henshall, the collector to the Tooting Nursery, about two years since, along with another 
species mentioned below. The leaves at present on the plant are 7 inches long and 1| inch 
wide, tapering, surface smooth, margin minutely serrated. The pitchers are 3h inches long, 
contracted on the upper half, of a light green outside, and the inside beautifully spotted with 
red. The mouth of the pitcher reaches down to one-third of the length of the same, a 
peculiarity not to be found in any other Nepenthes; and although the pitchers at present on 
the plant are small, there is no doubt of its being a very beautiful species, for the pitchers 
gathered in its native locality and dried previous to their being sent home, are of large 
dimensions, of a purplish hue inside, and may now be seen in the Museum at Kew Gardens. 

N. species, Java. Like the preceding in form and size, but the pitchers are entirely destitute 
of spots or markings of any kind ; being pale green inside and out. 

A T . Hookeriana. In its general aspect this plant resembles N. Rafflesiana. The leaves are 
21 inches long and 4 inches across, margin entire, and the surface smooth. The pitchers are 
4 inches long, of a pale green, spotted and marked with red inside and out, gradually widening 
upwards, and invariably destitute of wings. The inside is furnished with a rim half an inch 
wide from the mouth downwards, which is sparingly striped with red. The lid is nearly erect, 
and, compared with N. Rafflesiana, the mouth is more horizontal. 

N. ampullacea. The stem and leaves of this plant are hoary, and the pitchers widely 
different from all others. They are usually about 3 inches in length, and 1| inch wide. The 
mouth of the pitcher is horizontal, which is not the case with any other Nepenthes. The 
operculum, or lid, is not half large enough to cover the mouth of the pitcher, being 1 inch 
long and only a quarter of an inch wide. In form the pitcher is elliptical, of a green colour in 
young plants, but when more mature they are spotted with red. The linear lid is alone 
sufficient to distinguish this species. It is from the East Indies. 

A 7 , sanguinea. The pitchers are of a beautiful red, but young plants will produce pitchers 
with only a few red spots and streaks. The leaves are thickly set on the stem, 16 inches long, 
and very smooth and glossy. The pitchers are 6 inches in length, a little contracted on the 
upper half, and furnished with two membranous fimbriated wings. The operculum is ovate. 
The plant, when sufficiently mature to produce its red pitchers, is strikingly beautiful. It is 
from Mount Ophir. 

N. Rafflesiana — var. This is in all respects, save in the colour of the pitchers, like Raffle- 
siana, but the pitchers are so intensely spotted and mottled, that they look as if the ground 
colour was red, with a few green spots upon it. As the plant constantly produces pitchers 
exhibiting this peculiarity, it may be considered a permanent variety. 

The beautiful Cephalotus follicularis, which is like a miniature pitcher plant, and the 
singular but more common Dionoea muscipula, accompany the pitcher plants already de- 
scribed, and make the collection of this tribe complete. 

The Exotic Nursery, King's Road, Chelsea, was founded in 1808 by 
Mr. Knight, who, having purchased the land it occupies, has almost 
annually built upon it fresh plant houses, and raised it to its present 
acknowledged eminence. In 1845 Mr. Knight associated with him his 
nephew Mr. Perry, and in their joint names the business is now con- 
ducted. 

It is very appropriately called the " Exotic Nursery," being particu- 
larly rich in plants that require shelter, and not, until very lately, 
including the culture of the commoner trees, but only of the more orna- 
mental and curious hardy plants. A new and handsome entrance has 
lately been made at the upper side of the nursery, on the Fulham Road, 
and by this or by the older one in the King's Road, the place may be ap- 
proached. The plant houses lie nearer the latter of these entrances, and, 
in fact, a glazed passage conducts from the door to the old conservatory, 
where there are some very large plants of Rhododendron arboreunt, which 
occasionally flower in great profusion. 

Passing through the conservatory, we enter a court surrounded with 
plant houses, and in this open space the bulk of the greenhouse plants 
are very tastefully arranged during summer, on a flooring of cinders. 
The plants are grouped together in masses, according to a fixed and 
regular plan, with passages between the groups ; and much variety is 
attained by the aid of taller plants, conifers, standards, &c. Some 

*A A 2 



(534) LONDON. 

standard bay-trees, with roundish heads, are particularly observable, and 
are considered a good substitute for orange-trees in Italian gardening. 
They simply require protection from very severe frost in winter. 

On the stages in front of the houses at the north side of the square, 
several ornamental oblong flat vases are placed, for containing aquatics. 
The pretty little JVymphosa pygmcea is grown in some of them. A small 
stove, further on, has its roof entirely covered with Stephanotis flori- 
bunda. This is a low span-roofed house, and has a bark bed in it, besides 
being heated by hot water. In a lofty orange house, the pretty little 
Otaheite orange is extensively grown, and is nearly always in bloom. 
The collection contains a great many Indian and hardy Azaleas, some of 
which are seedlings. A larger stove, in two compartments, comprises 
many singular and beautiful variegated plants ; and as these are now 
much sought after, we have obtained from Messrs. Knight and Perry the 
following list of the stove varieties which they cultivate : — 



Phrynum zebrina. 
Tillardsia zonata. 
Dichorizandra discolor nana. 
„ variegata. 

„ rubra striata. 

Duranta Beaumardii. 
Maranta zebrina. 

„ bi color. 

„ rosea- lineata. 

„ alba-lineata. 
Tillardsia campanulata. 



Tillardsia acaulis zonata. 
Croton pictum. 

,, angustifolium. 

,, latifolium. 
Draccena terminalis. 
Echites picta (climber). 
Eranthemum leuconerum. 
Hoy a variegata. 
Vriesia speciosa. 
Aspidistus variegata. 
ilis 



Jasminum gracilis variegatum (climber). 

Many of these plants are extremely beautiful, and all are worthy of 
being grown, as they tend so very much to enliven a collection in winter. 

The propagating-house is very complete in this establishment, and is 
freely shown to visitors. It has a northern aspect, and is filled with 
small raised frames the lights of which are hung on hinges at the top. 
In these frames the cutting pots are plunged in fine coal ashes. A 
potting and compost shed, and a house for young stock, are all under the 
same roof. 

A new Aquarium has recently been built here, partly to accommodate 
the Victoria regia, and partly to show how the now popular tribe of 
aquatics may be managed. This is the first nursery establishment in 
which anything of the kind has been attempted ; and there is scarcely a 
private garden at present in which a house so complete, and a collection 
so comprehensive, exists. We are much indebted to Messrs. Knight and 
Perry for being able to supply an interior view and section of this 
Aquarium, as well as to give a description of it, and add a list of the 
plants grown in it. (See opposite page.) 

This building was constructed by Messrs. Gray and Ornson, and is 
rather more than 37 ft. long by 30 ft. wide. It is composed of two 
span roofs, supported by iron columns, and incloses a slate tank, 30 ft. 
long and 22 ft. 9 in. wide, with the centre part intended for soil 
3 ft. deep, and the sides 18 in. A commodious path surrounds the 
tank on two sides and at the entrance end, while the furthest or eastern 
end of the tank is at the extremity of the house, thereby affording the 
means of giving up about 5 ft. at the eastern end of the tank to the 
Nelumbiums, Papyrus, and other tall-growing aquatics. The square of 
the tank (that is, 22 ft. 9 in. each way) is devoted to the Victoria 
regia, with the exception of the corners, which are occupied by Nymphcea 
stellata, rubra, coerulea, and sanguinea. The noble JY. dentata finds a 
place at the east end, under the centre of the house, which, perhaps, is 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. —KNIGHT AND PERRY. 



(535) 




INTERIOR VIEW OF THE AQUARIUM. 

barely high enough for the Nelumbiums. At intervals of 7 ft. along 
the sides and west end of the tank are placed little vases containing 
Nymphcea pygmcea, and the roof is relieved by pendent vases for orchids 
or other plants that delight in such a situation. At the west or entrance 
end of the house is a narrow platform occupied by a succession of oblong 
tanks for the culture of Aponogeton juncifolium, Pistis stratioles, and 
other curious little water plants requiring a high temperature. 




SECTION OF THE FORCING HOUSE. 

The atmosphere of the house is warmed by four 4-inch pipes, extend- 
ing the whole length on both sides ; and the water by eight 4-inch 
pipes, four of which traverse the deep, and four the shallow part of the 
tank. Ventilation is secured by six apertures (a, a, in the section), 
covered with sliding slates, in the wall on each side of the house, by 
twelve ventilators placed in the highest part of the two ridges of the 
roof, and by two larger ventilators at each end of the house. 

It having been judged by competent authority that motion in the water 
where the Victoria grows is a desideratum, it is imparted here, but in a 
novel way. The supply of water is brought from a distant reservoir, 



(536) LONDON. 

into which it is pumped by manual power, and is not abundant : it has 
therefore to be economized. It is introduced into the house by a large 
leaden pipe, which, narrowing itself at the orifice, discharges the water 
into a copper vessel containing about a quart, so fixed on an axis that 
when it is full, the increased weight at the lip of the vessel causes it to 
turn over and cast its contents into the tank, which, being about 
20 in. beneath, receives so great an agitation on the surface of the water 
as to put the whole in movement. The vessel regains its equilibrium by 
a weight attached to the base, and then receives a fresh supply, to be 
again discharged when the vessel is full, and so proceeding till the water 
in the reservoir is exhausted. At some future period this little device 
may be clothed in a more elegant form. 

The slate tank is set on a bed of concrete ; and the soil for the 
Victoria is composed chiefly of Wanstead loam, with a little leaf mould, 
and a good portion of silver-sand. 

Altogether, this Aquarium is a very complete and interesting struc- 
ture ; and that our account of it may be in no respect deficient, we 
insert a list of the water plants which it contains : — 



Victoria regia. 
Nelumbium album. 

,, luteUm. 

„ speciosum. 

„ Count of Thun. 

, , caspicum. 

Euryala ferox. 
Nymphaea dentata. 

„ stellata. 

,, rubra. 

„ coerulea. 

„ pygmaea. 

,, odorata. 

„ „ minor. 



Nymphaea san guinea. 
Thalia dealbata. 
Limnocharis Humboldtii. 

,, Plumierii. 

Pistis stratioles. 
Pontederia crassipes. 

,, cordatft. 
Caladium bicolor. 

„ pictum. 

„ esculentum- 
Ceratopteris thalictroides. 
Aponogeton juncifolium. 
Papyrus antiquorum. 



In the outdoor department this nursery is particularly well furnished 
with plants of the coniferous tribe. There is a most extensive and com- 
plete collection of the better kinds, all grown in pots, and embracing 
plants of various sizes. Messrs Knight and Perry have, indeed, pub- 
lished a very useful synopsis of the coniferous plants grown in their 
establishment. 

All the more ornamental American plants are also extensively grown 
here. The rarer Azaleas and Rhododendrons are especially abundant and 
good. We observed, also, a very fine specimen of that peculiarly hand- 
some plant, the Andromeda arhorea. Messrs. Knight and Perry have 
likewise a new autumn-flowering laburnum, which we saw blooming 
profusely in October last, and which will be a curious and interesting 
addition to the shrubbery. The trained fruit-trees are likewise good at 
this nursery, and are first trained to stakes, in the open quarters, then to 
a very low wall, and ultimately to a higher wall, to prepare them 
for sale. 

In order to afford the gardeners entering this establishment an oppor- 
tunity for improving themselves, and to render those who are recom- 
mended to places more fit for undertaking their varied duties, what is 
called the " study" has been most liberally constructed here, and fitted 
up at great expense, being furnished with appropriate books, drawing 
instruments, chemical apparatus, &c, to which those who work in the 
nursery have free access after working hours. 

About three years ago Messrs. Knight and Perry greatly enlarged 
their outdoor space by the purchase of a large piece of land at Batter- 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — HENDERSON, CHANDLER, ETC. (537) 

sea, called the Brooklands Nursery, in which they now grow a very excel- 
lent collection of the best hardy ornamental trees and shrubs. This 
branch nursery occupies about twelve acres, and is laid out in square or 
oblong plots of a given size, so that the contents of every one of these 
plots is easily ascertained for working purposes. Two borders filled with 
beautiful specimen trees extend down the centre ; and among the plants 
grown here there will be found many very rare, curious, and handsome 
low trees, fitted for lawns or gardens. All the better sorts of plants are 
labelled. Part of this nursery is appropriated to fruit trees, and an- 
other part to an American garden ; while a place is provided for growing 
all the more pleasing hardy aquatics. Near the entrance, where a hedge 
was wanted as a screen, this has been supplied at once by using the 
black Italian poplar. 

Messrs. Henderson's nursery, at Pine Apple Place, Edgware Road, is 
one which has long been noted for the neat and careful cultivation of 
heaths and general greenhouse plants, and for supplying all kinds of 
forced and other plants infiovjer to those who, living in London, have no 
means of growing them for themselves. It was also formerly a good deal 
occupied in the rearing of vines ; but this part of the business is now, 
we believe, very little attended to. 

The nursery of Messrs. Lee, of Hammersmith, is one of the oldest in 
the neighbourhood of London, and the founder of it raised it to great- 
fame and prosperity during the latter part of the last century. From 
taking thus quite a leading position, it fell, of late years, far behind 
establishments of even inferior magnitude ; at least, so far as indoor 
plants are concerned. It is now, however, again rallying, and appears to 
be conducted with more spirit, and to embrace more of the newer and 
favourite plants. 

Messrs. Whitley and Osborn have a nursery at Fidham, which is well 
known as a repository of ornamental shrubs and trees, most of the hardy 
kinds of these being nicely grown and carefully named ; the nomenclature 
adopted being that of Loudon in his " Arboretum Britannicum." Fruit 
trees are also well cultivated, and named with equal care. 

At VauxhaR the nursery of Messrs. Chandler is celebrated for its 
Camellias, of which there is a large quantity, well grown, and of various 
heights. When in full bloom, during March and April, they create a 
superb display. They are cultivated both in houses and pits, the de- 
velopment of flowers being hastened or retarded according as the plants 
are or are not placed out of doors during the summer. When they are 
kept in the house all the season — as they were last summer — they bloom 
a fortnight or three weeks sooner, and the leaves assume a much brighter 
green tint during autumn and winter. The plants are slightly shaded 
in summer (the houses having a southerly aspect) by the inside of the 
glass being whitewashed. The stocks are raised for grafting, and the 
process of grafting is carried on, in pits and frames. A few of the com- 
mon kinds are planted out in the borders, and against a north wall ; but 
although they have stood uninjured for many years, their flowers are 
almost annually spoiled by early frosts. 

On the same wall as the Camellias are many remarkable plants of the 
Magnolia conspicua, which are exceedingly beautiful when laden with 
their large white flowers in early spring. A large Wistaria in the open 
ground is treated as a kind of low tree, and makes an interesting and 



(538) LONDON, 

showy object. Rows of climbing roses in the borders are kept cut down 
to within about 4 ft. of the ground, so as to form bushes ; and in this 
state they are very pleasing where formal plants are required, though 
not, of course, so elegant or picturesque as when treated more naturally. 
The hardy shrubs are in a healthy condition here, and well grown. 

A span-roofed and other greenhouses near the entrance are used for 
show plants when in flower, and these are filled, in autumn, with a col- 
lection of Chinese Chrysanthemums, of which Messrs. Chandler have a 
large quantity. These plants are not here cultivated to a great size, as 
they would require so much space to accomplish that ; but there is a 
great variety of them grown, and all the best known sorts are kept. In 
one of the greenhouses, too, a nice little collection of the smaller 
Cactaceous plants is preserved. 

Mr. Glendinning 's nursery, at Turnham Green, has long been in ex- 
istance as the Ckiswick Nursery, and it is said that Heaths were cultivated 
here almost earlier than in any of the metropolitan establishments of 
this kind. . Since it came into possession of the present proprietor, this 
nursery has greatly risen in character, and is still constantly improving. 
New houses have been erected, a wider range of plant-culture has been 
taken, and a considerable interest is made to attach to it on account of 
the spirit and enterprise with which new plants are procured, and the 
successful manner in which they are flowered. 

Messrs. Paul and Son, of Cheshunt, have the nearest nursery to London 
that is much celebrated for the culture of the Rose, and their garden is 
noted for its very select stock of this queen of flowers. It is situated 
about 14 miles from London, and near the Waltham Cross Station of the 
Cambridge line of the Eastern Counties' Railway, being near the middle 
of the High Street of Cheshunt. 

The nursery covers an area of about 40 acres, of which six acres are 
devoted to roses. The soil is a light, sandy, and poor loam, and the 
aspect south-west. A considerable portion of the six acres is used for 
standards, from three to HYe feet in height, and what are called dwarf 
standards. The stocks for budding are planted in the winter and spring 
months in beds, the rows in these being two feet apart, and the plants 
nine inches from each other in the rows, the tallest plants being kept in 
the centre or at the back of the beds. At the time of budding, which 
takes place the following summer, the greatest care is exercised in keep- 
ing the different sections separate, and the plants remain in the beds 
until the autumn of the ensuing year. 

The nursery of Mr. H. Waterer, at Knapp Hill, is situated in a low, 
flat district, with a soil which, in many parts, consists of pure heath- 
mould to the depth of 10 or 12 ft. It is therefore peculiarly suitable for 
Rhododendrons and the kindred genera, which flourish upon it with a 
facility and luxuriance that is most wonderful, as compared with the 
state in which they are ordinarily seen. Rhododendrons, in great 
variety, all the best Azaleas (including many seedlings), Kalmias, 
Ledums, and a multitude of pretty dwarf evergreens which are com- 
paratively little known, are here grown in large quantities, and attain a 
great size ; so that, during the time of flowering (which is about the 
beginning of June), this nursery presents one of the most gorgeous 
spectacles which it is possible to conceive. 

Messrs. Standish and Noble have a nursery near Bagshot, which is 



GARDENS, PARKS, ETC. — SMITH, GROOM, ETC. (539) 

rich both in American plants and Conifers, and lies at the distance of 6 
miles from the Farnborough Station of the South Western Railway, and. 
4 miles from the Blackwater Station of the Reading and Reigate Rail- 
way. This nursery occupies 25 acres of land, of which glass forms no 
feature, the principal aim being to grow every kind of ornamental tree 
and shrub, especially evergreens. Each new arrival is subjected to the 
ordeal of an ordinary winter ; when, if it is found wanting in hardiness 
of constitution, it is discarded as a hardy ornamental plant. 

Mr. Smith has a nursery at Norbiton, in Surrey, which has long been 
favourably known for the seedling Azaleas sent out from it, but has of 
late years come more into note in consequence of the numerous yellow 
Rhododendrons which have here been raised. The colour of these Rho- 
dodendrons, which varies very considerably, is of course obtained from 
the yellow Chinese Azalea being employed as one of the parents ; but 
although Mr. Smith has been very successful in combining the size and 
form of the flowers, and the mode of flowering in Rhododendrons with 
some of the colour of the yellow Azalea, he has not yet been able en- 
tirely to secure the excellent habit and foliage of the Rhododendron in 
any of the new varieties. Hence, the latter have, for the most part, a 
poor and straggling habit, and are only interesting when they are in 
flower. While the blossoms are expanded, however, some of the new 
kinds are particularly striking. 

At Lea Bridge, near Leytonstone, there is a very rising nursery con- 
ducted by Messrs. Frazer, who generally succeed in carrying off some 
of the highest prizes at the great metropolitan exhibitions. The grounds 
are extensive, and well filled with the best hardy shrubs ; while the 
houses and pits, which are numerous, are furnished with the most po- 
pular plants of the day. This nursery is particularly worthy of note for 
bringing forward specimen plants for the exhibitions. These large houses 
are now (in the spring of 1851) well stocked with fine large bushes of 
Azaleas, Epacrises, Ericas, and all those handsome greenhouse species 
which form the foundation of the large shows at Chiswick and Regent's 
Park. 

The environs of London abound in minor nurseries, particularly about 
Brompton, Chelsea, <fcc, some of which are good of their class ; but they 
are so exceedingly numerous that it is impossible to notice them satis- 
factorily ; and we can only pretend to describe the few which, from their 
size, or the peculiarity of their contents, appear to be the most pro- 
minent. 

The garden of Mr. Groom, at Clapham Rise, is more peculiarly a 
florist's establishment, and is very rich in all kinds of bulbous plants. 
Mr. Groom has, especially, long been celebrated as a tulip grower ; and, 
about the second week in May, the tulips are a great attraction. The 
bed under canvas is 120 ft. long, and contains 2000 bulbs. The general 
collection of tulips comprises about 250,000. 

Mr. Cattleuglis garden, at Chelsea, has been generally considered a 
first-rate place for florists' flowers. Pelargoniums, Calceolarias, and Cine- 
rarias constitute the chief features of this class ; and there are some 
large greenhouses in which they are grown. But from part of the nursery 
being required for building purposes, and from Mr. Cattleugh appearing 
to give more of his attention to general greenhouse and stove plants and 
fruit, the florists' flowers do not seem to be so much regarded, and the 



(540) LONDON. 

whole nursery looks out of order. We only saw, as worthy of remark, a 
good stock of strawberry plants prepared for forcing, and a large quantity 
of the pretty Weigela rosea. Some plants of Stephanotis floribunda, Aphe- 
landra cristata, and other stove species, were well grown and in good con- 
dition. 

Mr. BecFsj of Isleworth, is a small well-kept place, remarkable for the 
large numbers of seedling Pelargoniums that are raised in it every year, 
and from among which some of the best and most fashionable varieties 
now in cultivation have been selected. It also contains a small but ex- 
cellent selection of orchids. These are grown in the very best manner, 
under the management of Mr. Dobson, and some of the plants are large. 
Dendrobium nobile obtained the first prize as a specimen at the London 
Horticultural Society's exhibition last year. 

Of Market Gardens, in which extensive forcing is carried on, that of 
the late Mr. Wilmot, at Meworth, is one of the most extraordinary. The 
number of houses filled with Vines and Pines is truly marvellous. Pines 
are here cut every day in the year. They are almost entirely Queens, 
and are grown in houses which all greatly resemble each other, being 
slightly sunk in the ground, narrow, low, with that part of the roof which 
is over the path at the back sloping towards the back wall, and quite 
opaque, being formed of wood coated with tar. They are heated by hot 
water, and have a pit in them which is filled with fermenting bark, in 
which the pots are plunged. All the pines are grown in pots. 

The vineries are very similar in shape to the pine houses, and the vines 
were planted without any preparation of soil for them. Those for the 
later crops are placed outside the houses. Grapes are cut here all the 
year round, the Black Hamburgh constituting the staple of cultivation, 
and West's St. Peter's being grown for the later crops. Within the last 
year or two several houses have been planted with young vines of the 
Pope and Mill Hill grapes, from which Mr. Wilmot had great expecta- 
tions. Two crops of grapes are obtained out of some of the houses. 
Only the vines used for later crops appear to have been at all attacked 
by mildew. 

This garden contains about 100 acres of land ; and Mr. Wilmot was 
accustomed to say that he grew everything upon it, from a potato to a 
pine-apple. Of a very excellent French bean, called Wilmot's Early 
Forcing Bean, he grew an immense quantity. 

The garden of Messrs. Chapman, at Vauxhall, is rather celebrated for 
grape-growing, which is conducted in a great number of houses, and with 
signal success. There are other good forcing gardens at Vauxhall, in the 
neighbourhood of this. 

Our object and space do not permit us to say more of the market gar- 
dening around London, or to describe that branch of it which is carried 
on in the open air. We will only remark that it has, in the districts near 
Fulham, Battersea, Hammersmith, Deptford, and more remote parts, 
attained a perfection which renders it a beautiful as well as interesting 
sight to examine the regularity and richness of the crops, the rapid 
system of clearing and fresh-cropping, and the mode of preparing and 
packing the produce for market. Perhaps in no one department is 
English gardening arrived at more excellence, or managed with more 
method and skill, than is to be witnessed in the market gardens which 
supply the metropolis. 



505 



HALLS. 

Under this appellation places so called in which meetings are held of the several Guilds or 
City Trade Companies, referred to in article " Corporation of the City of London;" also other 
large meeting rooms for the several purposes of business, of * discussion, and instruction. 
Several of the Halls are treated of in other places. 

Apothecaries' Hall, Water Lane, Blackfriars, established in 1617 as the Hall of the Incorporated 
Company of Apothecaries. Incorporated as a distinct company from the Grocers, with whom 
formerly they were connected by James I. In the hall is a portrait of the king, and a statue 
of Gideon Delaune, apothecary to James I. 

Armourers and Braziers' Hall, Coleman Street, incorporated by Henry VI. In the hall is the 
fine picture of Richard II. 's entry into London, painted by Northcote. 

Bakers' Hall, Harp Lane, Great Tower Street. The Bakers of London were formerly divided 
into two classes, white bakers and brown bakers. 

Barber Surgeons' Hall, Monk well Street, City, built by Inigo Jones, and repaired by the 
Earl of Burlington. In this hall there is a very fine picture of Henry VIII., painted by Hol- 
bein, and some valuable plate. 

Brewers' Hall, Addle Street, Wood Street, Cheapside, incorporated by Henry VI. 

Carpenters' Hall, London Wall, contains some fine paintings and rich" plate. 

Clothworkers' Hall, Mincing Lane, Fenchurch Street, incorporated by James I. 

Coachmakers' Hall, Noble Street, Foster Lane. 

Coopers' Hall, Basinghall Street, incorporated in 1501. 

Cordwainers' Hall, Great Distaff Lane, incorporated by Henry IV., in 1410. 

Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate Street, founded originally by Sir John Crosby, in 1406. It has re- 
cently been restored with a fine open roof, in the domestic perpendicular style. Is at present 
used for meetings, concerts, and also in it a literary institution hold their meetings. 

Cutlers' Hall, Cloak Lane, College Hill, established in the reign of Henry IV. 

Commerce (Hall of), Threadneedle Street, erected by Mr. Moxhay, at a cost of 60,0007., for 
the convenience of merchants. 

Commercial Hall, Mincing Lane, an elegant building for the sale of colonial produce, and as 
an exchange market. 

Drapers' Hall, Throgmorton Street, incorporated in 1439, on the attainder of Cromwell, Earl 
of Essex, whose house and garden ground was acquired by purchase of Henry VIII. Crom- 
well's house was destroyed in the great fire of 1666; and the new hall built in 1667, from the 
designs of Jarman, architect of the second Royal Exchange. 

Drapers' Gardens are celebrated, and are treated of in another part of this work. 

Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, a public building, the rooms of which are appropriated for exhibi- 
tions. It is in the Egyptian style of construction, by Mr. Robinson, architect. 

Egyptian Hall, Mansion House, the municipal residence of the Lord Mayor of London. It is 
a spacious and elegant room, used principally for the city entertainments and banquets, also for 
public meetings connected with city and national affairs. In this hall the most noble and illus- 
trious men have been entertained, as well as having met and discussed questions for the advance- 
ment of civilization, and for the commerce and prosperity of the world. It is 90 feet in length 
by 59 in width, and is supported by Corinthian columns. 

Embroiderers' Hall, Gutter Lane, Cheapside, incorporated by Queen Elizabeth in the fourth 
year of her reign. 

Exeter Hall, Strand, is a proprietary buil ling, and much known by the importance of the 
meetings usually held in the hall, which is 131 feet in length, 76 feet wide, and 45 feet in height, 
will contain upwards of 3000 persons sitting with ease. Oratorios and concerts are performed 
here. The performances in sacred music are unequalled. Various religious societies hold their 
annual meetings in this hall, and it is much frequented and highly appreciated for its architec- 
ture, for its conveniences, and for its acoustics. There are several" offices and chambers in the 
same building. 

Fishmongers' Hall, London Bridge, chartered 37th Edward III. The present building, 1831, 
is by Mr. Henry Roberts, architect. The previous building was by Jarman, the city surveyor, 
built after the great fire of 1666. The banqueting-room of the present building is in length 
73 feet, width 38 feet, height 33 feet. 

Freemasons' Hall, in the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, is a 
most capacious chamber, in which the principal Freemasons' lodges are held. The great hall is 
an elegant and finely -proportioned room; and, both in architectural character and decoration, 
is strictly appropriate to the purposes for which it was designed ; its length is 92 feet, its breadth 
43 feet, and its height 60 feet. 

Girdlers' Hall, Basinghall Street, incorporated in 1449. 

Greenwich Hospital, Painted Hall, a splendid interior, painted and decorated by Sir James 
Thornhill, 1707; in this hall is a fine gallery of pictures of naval subjects. 

Goldsmiths' Hall, Foster Lane, General Post Office, incorporated in 1357. The present build- 
ing is a very magnificent edifice, by Mr. P. Hardwick, architect; opened in 1835. The hall and 
apartmentsare splendidly decorated and furnished. 

Grocers' Hall, in the Poultry, Cheapside, incorporated in 1345. The first hall was built in 
1427 ; the present one opened in 1802. 

Guildhali, of the city of London, the Great Hall, the fountain seat of the magistracy, the 
guilds, the courts, the common hall; first erected in 1411, subsequently rebuilt and adorned. 
The hall is most capacious for public assemblies, 153 feet in length, 48 feet in width, 55 feet in 
height; and is the site on which has been contended many a corporate and political strife. 

Haberdashers' Hall, Staining Lane, Cheapside. The hall was destroyed in the great fire, but 
rebuilt by Sir C. Wren ; incorporated 26th of Henry VI. 
Halls of Inns of Court, see article, *' Inns of Court." 



506 



LONDON. 




MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL. 

Hampton Court Hall, built in the time of Henry VIII., is a magnificent structure, and much 
adorned, is 108 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 

Hicks's Hall, the Sessions house of the county of Middlesex, in St. John's Street, Clerkenwell. 

Innholders' Hall, College Street, Dowgate. 

Ironmongers' Hall, Fenchurch Street. The present one was erected by Mr. Holden, architect, 
in 1748; incorporated in 1464. 

Joiners' Hall, Upper Thames Street, incorporated 1570. 

Lambeth Palace Hall, residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, built 1244. The hall is a 
fine interior, and now is appropriated for the library. (See also page 174.) 

Leathersellers' Hall, St. Helen's Place, incorporated 21st of Richard II. 

Mercers' Hall, Cheapside, the first of the twelve great companies of the city. 

Merchant Tailors' Hall, in Threadneedle Street, incorporated 1466. The wall was rebuilt 
after the great fire by Jarman, the city architect, and is the largest of the city halls. 

Middle Temple Hall was erected in 1572, while Plowden was the treasurer. It is a splendid 
interior, of the Renaissance and Elizabethan style, as seen above. 

Music Hall (St. Martin's), Hullah's, Long Acre, recently erected by Mr. R. Westmacott. 

Painterstainers' Hall, Little Trinity Lane. This company gave the first idea of the Royal 
Academy; its existence as a guild was known prior to 1580. 

Pewterers' Hall. Lime Street, incorporated 1474. 

Pinners' Hall, Old Broad Street, a great place for dissenting preaching in the time of Charles II. 

Plasterers' Hall, Addle Street, Wood Street. 

Plumbers' Hall, Great Bush Lane, Cannon Street, incorported by James I. 

Royal Music Hall, Adelaide Street, Strand. 

Saddlers' Hall, Cheapside, one of the most ancient of the minor companies. 

Salters' Hall, Oxford Court, St. Swithin's Lane. 

Skinners' Hall, Dowgate Hill. 

South Sea House, Threadneedle Street. The hall is appropriated for the place of business of 
the merchants trading to South America, and the South Sea generally. 

Stationers' Hall, Stationers' Court, Ludgate Hill, incorporated in 1557. 

Tallow Chandlers' Hall, Dowgate Hill, incorporated by Edward IV. 

Vintners' Hall, Upper Thames Street, a very ancient company. 

Watermen's Hall, St. Mary at Hill, Lower "Thames Street, made by Philip and Mary. 



HOSPITALS. 



.507 




WESTMINSTER HALL. 

► Weavers' Hall, Basinghall Street, incorporated in 1184. 

Wax Chandlers' Hall, Maiden Lane, Wood Street, Cheapside, incorporated in 1484. 

Westminster Hall is the most ancient and splendid of halls, and is the palace most close! v 
associated with the history of the country ; see the illustration above ; for a further description, 
see "Architecture." 

Whitehall, see also article " Architecture." 



HOSPITALS. 

Under the <reneral head of Hospitals, &c, it is found convenient 
to include all public institutions for the relief of sickness and disease, 
whether such institutions are wholly dependent upon the payment of 
those benefited, of which, however, there is no other instance than the 

z 2 



508 LONDON. 

Sanatorium initiated by Mr. Dickens, but now defunct ; or only par- 
tially so, of which there are several instances ; whether the gratuitous 
assistance given arise from royal endowment, as at St. Bartholomew's, 
St. Thomas's, Bethlehem, and others; from the munificence of indi- 
viduals, as at Guy's ; or from the voluntary gifts or annual contribu- 
tions of the public, as is the case with the greater number. So, also, 
although the word hospital, in the restricted sense in which it is more 
commonly used, denotes only such institutions as receive patients 
within their walls ; yet in this chapter are included those which 
merely afford relief to patients at their own homes or attending at 
the institution, those where advice only is given, and those which 
also supply medicines, instruments, &c. ; as well too those in 
which curable diseases only are treated, as those where arrangements 
are made for assuaging incurable disorders ; in fact, public establish- 
ments of all kinds, whether general, special, gratuitous, or the re- 
verse, which offer medical or surgical relief. It will, however, be 
convenient to divide them into four classes : — 

As 1. General Hospitals. 2. Special Hospitals. 3. General Dis- 
pensaries. 4. Miscellaneous: including dispensaries, infirmaries, me- 
dical asylums, maternity charities, &c. 

The General Hospitals are public institutions for adminis- 
tering medical and surgical relief to patients within the building (in- 
patients), or attending at specified times (out-patients), and suffering 
under any illness or disease, except such as are incurable or contagious : 
for which latter infirmaries or special hospitals are the proper places. 
They are twelve in number ; their names follow in the order of their 
localities : St. Mary-le-bone, St. George's, Westminster, Charing 
Cross, Middlesex, King's College, University College, Koyal Free, 
London, St. Bartholomew's, Guy's, St. Thomas's. 

It may be said generally of these hospitals that their incomes de- 
pend more or less (except in the case of Guy's) upon voluntary con- 
tributions ; that they are each of them, in most instances, under the 
management of a board of governors, whose qualification is a dona- 
tion or yearly subscription of a certain amount ; that the medical 
treatment is administered by a certain number of non-resident physi- 
cians and surgeons, elected by the governors and unpaid ; by one or 
more resident house-surgeons, also unpaid, and who are generally 
young men, not long out of their pupilage, and not in private practice ; 
and one or more resident and paid apothecaries. Each physician 
and surgeon has his own peculiar patients and days of attendance, 
the resident medical officers taking charge of them under his 
supervision. 

The patients are admitted through the recommendation of a gover- 
nor on stated days only, except in cases of emergency ; the Royal Free 
Hospital affording, however, an exception to this general rule, as 
sickness alone, without any recommendation, is considered to give a 
claim to admission. 



HOSPITALS. 509 

There is attached to each hospital a school for the instruction of 
medical students, either within the walls of the institution or in some 
neighbouring building, where the chief lecturers and instructors are 
generally the medical officers of the hospital, who are, in most cases, 
permitted by the governors also to take hospital pupils, the fees paid 
by whom are the only emolument which these officers receive. Of 
these general hospitals seven were in existence before the commence- 
ment of this century, containing 2000 beds; during this century 
five others have been founded, and the beds now in all twelve 
amount to 3326. There is room, however, for upwards of 4000 
beds. Their united incomes are 111,000/. from property ; 32,000/. 
from contributions. In the year 1849 there were 330,000 patients; 
of whom 33,260 were in-patients ; 296,740 out-patients. 

The Special Hospitals are some of them restricted to particular 
classes of persons: — such are the Seamen's Hospital Society; the 
Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Hospital; the German Hospital. 
Others are confined to a particular class of diseases or ailments: — 
such are the London Fever Hospital; the Consumptive Hospital; 
the Hospital for Diseases peculiar to Women ; Hospital for Children ; 
the Small-Pox Hospital; the Royal London Ophthalmic; Royal 
Eye Infirmary; Royal Westminster Ophthalmic; North London 
Ophthalmic ; Central London Ophthalmic ; the Orthopodic ; the 
Verral and Harrison's Hospitals for spinal and other deformities; 
the Fistula Infirmary; the Lock Hospital for venereal disease; 
Bethlehem, St. Luke's, and Han well, Lunatic Asylums; the Hos- 
pital for Idiots ; the Female Invalid Asylum ; the Home for 
Female Invalids; the Metropolitan Convalescent Institution; four 
Lying-in Hospitals; to which may be added, the Sea Bathing In- 
firmary. These make what may be called 30 Special Hospitals, 
having altogether 2900 beds. Twenty-one of them were founded 
during this century. In the year 1800 they furnished 1230 beds. 
They receive annually about 9100 in-patients. 

Dispensaries are by no means the least useful institutions for the 
relief of the suffering poor. There are in London and its immediate 
vicinity about 35 that may be classed under the title of General Dis- 
pensaries, their purpose being to relieve the sick, infirm, and lying-in 
at their own houses or at the institutions. Some of these are "pro- 
vident" institutions; that is to say, the relief is not wholly charitable, 
but a small weekly or periodical subscription is necessary to entitle a 
person to the benefits of attendance during sickness. 

There is a dislike among the metropolitan poor, and indeed the 
English poor generally, to entering a hospital, so that these dispen- 
saries are of very great benefit, particularly the provident institutions, 
as they have none of the humiliating effects which charitable relief 
produces on some minds, while they encourage the domestic feelings, 
and promote habits of economy and prudence. They are pretty fairly 
distributed throughout the metropolis ; 4 being in the north, 3* in the 



510 LONDON. 

south, 12 in the east, 8 in the west, and 8 central. This arrange- 
ment, according to their localities, is that adopted hy Mr. Low. from 
whose very valuable book, " The Charities of London/' has been de- 
rived the very greatest assistance in the compilation of this chapter 
on Hospitals, and particularly as regards the dispensaries and minor 
medical charities. Of these general dispensaries 13 existed in the 
year 1800. In the year 1849 they relieved 141,000 patients. Their 
incomes amount to 14,424/.; from contributions, 11, 470Z.; from pro- 
perty, 2954/. 

The Miscellaneous Medical Institutions, which are not 
included in the above classes, are some 2 1 in number. They 
are establishments of various kinds, and under various names, as 
asylums, infirmaries, dispensaries, &c, which do not receive in- 
patients : such are institutions for delivering women at their own 
homes, Truss Societies, Asthma Infirmaries, Vaccine Institutions, 
Institutions for diseases of the Skin and Ear, &c. Of these four 
existed before the year 1800. In the year 1849, 67,000 patients 
partook of their benefits. 

Institutions which are merely sanitary, that is, for preserving health, 
or merely humane, and only distantly relieving ill-health; all mere 
asylums, and houses of nightly shelter, have been excluded in the 
above enumeration. This part of the work is strictly confined to a 
description of what may be called sanatory or disease-curing institu- 
tions, in contradistinction to " sanitary," or preserving-health establish- 
ments. Of these sanatory institutions there are about 100, all of 
which, having been now classified and noticed above, will be described 
individually, more or less in detail, in the following pages, and for 
convenience they are not arranged in classes, but alphabetically. It 
will be advisable, however, to premise a few observations upon the 
general state of public medical relief in London. This is of course 
a very different subject from that of public hygiene, which has been 
treated of elsewhere. The first remark which would be made by 
a foreigner would probably be one expressive of surprise at the very 
few public hospitals which depend upon government support; whereas, 
this is far from being the case in most continental cities. In Paris, 
for instance, all places of public amusement are taxed for the sup- 
port of hospitals to a tenth part of their receipts, and there is a tax 
also on cemeteries for the same purpose. Perhaps, in the next 
place, he would be struck by the very large number which are sup- 
ported by private benevolence ; but he would soon recollect that his 
remark would equally apply to almost all our other great institutions, 
whether for purposes of education, amusement, police, roads, &c. 
The greater number of these, though not, as in the case of hospitals, 
depending upon voluntary aid, are yetgenerally independent of assistance 
from the state, in other words, they are paid for out of the self-im- 
posed taxation of the parish, borough, or county, and not from the 
Consolidated Fund of the general property of the country. Hospitals, 



HOSPITALS. 511 

however, are certainly removed from government aid to a still greater 
degree than any of the above-named institutions, and are equally 
unmodified by government control. There is in London no Bureau 
Central d' Admission to point out into which hospital the patient 
shall go j no general administration, with an administrative committee, 
and a consulting committee of advocates to regulate the affairs of 
the hospitals and asylums, as at Paris. Everything seems to go unre- 
gulated and at hap-hazard; but whatever good effect this central autho- 
ritative control may be productive of in other countries, it is very 
doubtful whether, with our habits, it would be otherwise than pre- 
judicial here. It would introduce, no doubt, a more uniform and 
systematic method of treatment, would add valuable statistical in- 
formation more readily, and would, perhaps, discover wants, and 
point out the way to supply them more quickly. But it would 
take away a great part of that incentive to popular and extended in- 
terest being felt in them, which the management and supervision of 
the outlay of our own property always generates; and which, as 
being part of a system opposed to that of centralisation, and one 
which seeks to be as free as possible from legislative restraint, is at 
least well fitted to the genius and habits of this country. 

The next thing which would strike the foreigner would probably 
be the small extent of hospital accommodation; and, indeed, of sa- 
natory institutions generally in proportion to the enormous population 
of this metropolis ; and particularly he would notice the almost entire 
absence of Maisons de Sante, that is, hospitals into which patients of 
the better classes are received at certain rates of payment. Paris, 
with less than half the population, has one-third more hospital beds 
than London. This fact, however, results rather from the domes- 
tic character of the Englishman than from any other cause. As 
for recreation and during health he prefers home, so, during sick- 
ness, he has a dislike to any other place ; among the very poor also 
it must be confessed that there is a great prejudice against hospitals, 
as they have a suspicion that they are enticed there as much for the 
purpose of experiment as from motives of humanity. Mixed with 
prejudice, however, as this feeling against going, during illness, into 
a public institution may be, it is undoubtedly, on the whole, a sound 
one, and is among us so closely connected with the feeling of inde- 
pendence of charity and domestic habits, that it is, perhaps, not to be 
desired that the proportion of deaths in hospitals to the whole 
number of deaths should increase. In Paris this proportion is 30 
per cent., in London only 5. It is also to be observed that the pro- 
vincial hospitals in France are not so numerous when compared to 
those of Paris, as are the country hospitals here when compared with 
those of London. Without, perhaps, going so far as Montes- 
quieu, there is yet a great deal of truth in his saying in the Esprit 
des Lois, " Malheur, malheur, au pays qui a beaucoup d'hopitaux ;" 
and he considers that Henry VIII. by destroying the abbeys, hos- 



512 LONDON. 

pitals, and houses of refuge, laid the foundation of the future pros- 
perity of this country, by calling forth the resources and energies of 
the poorer classes, who were no longer able to find the ready charity 
they had been accustomed to. 

The sanatory statistics of hospitals for the year 1849 are the 
following : — The total number of in-patients treated in all the hos- 
pitals was 42,360. The out-patients amounted to 535,000. 

The financial condition is as follows : — The united incomes of all 
these institutions amounted to 264,000/.; of this, 184,000/. arose 
from the interest of property; 80,000Z. from voluntary contributions. 

In respect to the progress of hospitals during this century, it has 
been seen that in the year 1800 there were 33 public sanatory 
institutions of all kinds; there are now upwards of 100. They 
furnished in that year 3230 beds; they have now 6226. The 
population of London was 900,000; it is now more 'than 2,000,000. 
So that in proportion to the population the number of beds has re- 
mained stationary, while the number of institutions receiving out- 
patients only has increased in a far greater proportion. 

The following alphabetical list of hospitals described in detail is 
arranged according to the most distinctive word in the general 
title of each institution. The Special Institutions under the word 
expressive of the special disease or class of persons for which they 
are intended ; and the General Dispensaries under the word Dis- 
pensary in alphabetical order. 

Bartholomew s (St.) Hospital, Smithfield. — The oldest hospital in 
London. Founded by Rahere, minstrel to Henry I., and first prior 
of St. Bartholomew, with which priory it was connected in 1113, 
1123, or 1133. (See also pp. 131-135.) Repaired 1423, by the 
executors of the celebrated Richard Whittington. Passed, on the 
suppression of monasteries, 1537, to Henry VIII., who, on the pe- 
tition of Sir Richard Gresham, refounded it in 1547 by royal charter. 
It has been enlarged and partly rebuilt at various times ; the Smithfield 
gate was built, 1702; the great quadrangle by Gibbs, 1730; the 
anatomical theatre in 1822 and 1835; the surgery in 1842. It con- 
tains a portrait of Henry VIII.; one of Dr. RadclhTe, by Kneller : one 
of Perceval Pott, by Reynolds ; and one of Abernethy, by Lawrence. 
The staircase is painted by Hogarth. All diseases are treated, and 
there is a large surgery, &c, with operating theatre, open at all hours. 
A Samaritan fund for relieving poor deserving patients with food, 
clothes, and money, on quitting the hospital, was founded in 1845 ; 
the funds for its support are distinct from the revenues of the hos- 
pital, and depend solely on voluntary contributions. 

The government is vested in the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, 
) 2 Common Councilmen appointed by their own body, and such 
other persons as should be chosen at the general courts. The present 
number of governors is 339, and the qualification a gift of 100/. 
The greatest benefactor was the celebrated Dr. RadclifFe, who left 



HOSPITALS. 513 

600/. a year. The Samaritan fund is administered by a special 
committee of governors. 

A medical school is attached, in which lectures on all branches of 
medicine and surgery are given ; and there are valuable museums, 
libraries, reading rooms, &c. In 1843 a collegiate establishment was 
founded for affording medical instruction with general and moral 
superintendence and residence within the building. Four scholar- 
ships, each tenable for three years, and of the annual value of 45/. 
or 50/., are obtainable. 

The medical school is said to have been in existence, and gradually 
increasing in importance, ever since 1662. The eminent names con- 
nected with it are those of the celebrated Harvey, who was physician 
from 1609 to 1643, Perceval Pott, Dr. W. Pitcairn, Dr. David Pit- 
cairn$ and Abernethy, all medical officers and lecturers. 

Patients are admitted on Thursdays at eleven ; cases of urgency 
at any time. There are 580 beds. In 1848 there were 5826 in- 
patients; 19,149 out-patients; and 46,598 casualty: in all 71,573. 

The income is about 32,000/.; 500/. of which is from voluntary 
contributions. 

The medical officers are — Dr. C. Hue, Dr. G. L. Roupell, Dr. G. 
Burrows, Dr. F Farre, Dr. H. Jeaffreson, Dr. Patrick Black ; W. 
Lawrence, Esq.; E. Stanley, Esq.; E. A. Lloyd, Esq.; F. C. Skey, 
Esq.; T. Wormald, Esq.; J. Paget, Esq. 

Bethlehem ^Hospital, Lambeth, is described elsewhere. It must, 
however, be included among the Special Hospitals, being dedicated 
to the reception and treatment of the insane. It was founded in 
1546. The present building was opened in 1815. The number of 
beds in 1800 was 270. In 1849 the number of beds was 450; 
the patients admitted amounted to 330 the average yearly number 
being 400. 

The income is 16,000/. 

Medical officers — Dr. Monro, Sir A. Morrison, and W. Lawrence, 
Esq. Clerk, B. Welton, Esq. {See " Lunatic Asylums/') 

Charing-Cross Hospital, King William Street, West Strand. One 
of the 12 General Hospitals. Founded in 1818. Present building- 
erected 1831. By this institution not only are patients treated both 
as out-patients and in-patients, but such as require it are attended at 
their own homes, particularly midwifery cases, and children suffering 
under contagious disorders. The governors are donors of 40 guineas; 
the life-supporters of 20 guineas ; an annual subscriber of 2 guineas 
may recommend an in-patient, an annual subscriber of 1 guinea, or a 
donor of 10 guineas, may recommend 3 out-patients. 

In-patients with letters admitted on Mondays at 12 ; accidents at 
all times immediately. 

There are 118 beds. During 1849, 18,500 patients were treated, 
1200 being in-patients. 

z 3 



514 LONDON. 

The annual revenue is about 2500/., almost entirely from volun- 
tary contributions. 

The chief medical officers are — Dr. Shearman, Dr. Golding, Dr. 
Chowne ; H. Hancock, Esq.; J. Avery, Esq. ; M.A.Canton. Hon. 
Secretary, J. Robertson, Esq. 

Chest, City of London Hospital for Diseases of the, 6, Liverpool Street, 
Finsbury. Established 1848. A special dispensary, open daily. Patients 
during 1849, 900; Income from contributions, 1000Z. Hon. Sec, D. H. 
Stone, Esq. 

Chest, Dispensary for Consumption, and Diseases of the, 26, Margaret 
Street, Eegent Street. Established 1847. During 1849 upwards of 5000 
patients were relieved. Hon. Sec, W. T. Hudson, Esq., 61, South Audley Street. 

Children, Royal Infirmary for, Waterloo Bridge Eoad. Instituted 1816. 
It is intended for affording prompt relief, without recommendation, to 
children under 14 years, and also to their sick mothers. In 1849, the num- 
ber of patients was about 5000. Secretary, E. Meymott, Esq. 34, Stamford 
Street. 

Children, Tower Hamlets and General Dispensary for, 50, Worship Street. 
Established 1845. During 1849 there were 325 patients. Secretary, J. 
Watson, Esq. 

Consumptive Hospital, Brompton, instituted 1841; incorporated 
1849. A hospital especially devoted to consumption and diseases of 
the chest. It was formerly in Chelsea; but, in 1 846, the patients were 
removed to the present new and handsome building, much to the ad- 
vantage of their health. The Rose charity fund is a Samaritan fund, 
similar to that at St. Bartholomew's. A donation of 30 guineas, or 
a yearly subscription of 1 guinea, constitutes a governor. Among 
the chief benefactors of this valuable institution is Mademoiselle 
Lind. Persons, with recommendation as in-patients, may attend 
daily at 2 o'clock ; out-patients daily at 1 o'clock. 

There were 282 in-patients during 1849, and 2800 out-patients. 
Income from contributions, 4000/.; from property, nil; expenditure, 
4400/. 

Medical Officers — Drs. J. Forbes, C. J. B. Williams, W. H. 
Walshe, G. H. Roe, T. Thompson, G. Cursham, R. P. Cotton, R. 
Quain, John Hutchinson, M.D. Secretary, O. P. Cross, Esq. 

Convalescents, Metropolitan Institution for. Office, 32, Sackville Street. 
Established 1843. The hospital, especially devoted to convalescents, is at 
Carshalton, Surrey. A donation of 101. 10s., or a yearly subscription of 11. Is., 
constitutes a governor. Patients admitted upon the recommendation of a 
governor, and in some cases by the payment in addition of 12s. per week, 
every Friday, at 4 o'clock. During 1849, there were admitted 568 patients. 
Medical officers — Drs. Mclntyre and Bell; W. S. Lucas, Esq.; J. T. Warre, 
Esq. ; E. Wallace, Esq. Secretary, J. Johnston, Esq. 

Dispensary (Blenheim Street Free), 1, Blenheim Street. Established 1834. 
No recommendation is necessary. During 1849, number of patients, 5000. 
Hon. Sec, N. Bennett, Esq., 7, Furnival's Inn. 

Dispensary (Bloomsbury), 62, Great Russell Street. Instituted 1801. 
Patients during 1849, 3408. Income, 700Z. ; from property, 3601. ; from sub- 
scriptions, 340Z. ; expenditure, 700Z. Secretary, Q. Stone, Esq. 



HOSPITALS. .515 

Dispensary {Chelsea, Brompton, and Belgrave), 41, Sloane Square. Esta- 
blished 1812. Patients during 1849, about 4000. Income, 3507.; from pro- 
perty, 307.; from subscriptions, 3207. Secretary, C. Wilson, Esq. 

Dispensary (Camden Town), 8, Pratt Street. Established 1848. 

Dispensary (City of London and East London), 13, Wilson Street, Finsbury 
Square. Founded 1849. It has a benevolent fund attached. Secretary, G. 
Smith, Esq. 

Dispensary {City), 76. Queen Street, Cheapside. Instituted 1789. Patients 
during 1849, 9826. Secretary, C. F. Robinson, Esq., 7, Queen Street Place. 

Dispensary {Eastern), Great Alie Street, Goodman's Fields. Instituted 
1782. There is a Samaritan fund. Patients during 1849, 3005. Income 
from property, 2407. ; from subscriptions, 2407. Secretary, G. H. Sim- 
monds, Esq., 7, Great Alie Street. 

Dispensary (Farringdon), 17, Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn. Established 
1828. Lying-in patients also attended. Patients during 1849, 4000. In- 
come during 1849, 300£. ; from property, 807.; from subscriptions, 2207. 
Hon. Sec, J. Glasworthy, Esq., 2, Charlotte Row, Mansion House. 

Dispensary {Finsbury), 16, Woodbridge Street, Clerkenwell. Established 
1780. Secretary, R. Saywell, Esq. 

Dispensary (Holloway and North Islington), Francis Place, Holloway. 
Established 1840. They have three separate dispensing establishments in 
the district. There is a convalescent fund. During 1849 there were 4261 
patients. Income 4007., chiefly from subscriptions. Hon. Sec, George 
Jeffkins, Esq. 

Dispensary (Islington), Upper Street. Instituted 1821. During 1849, there 
were 4618 patients. Secretary, Mr. Bredy. 

Dispensary (Kensington), Church Street. Established 1840. During 1849, 
there were 1749 patients. The income was 4007. Hon. Sec, E. Sheppard, Esq. 

Dispensary (London), 21, Vine Street, Spitalfields. Instituted 1777. 
Secretary, T. B. Willaume, Esq. 

Dispensary (Metropolitan), 9. Fore Street, Cripplegate. Established 1779. 
A charitable fund and a maternity charity are attached. During 1849, there 
were upwards of 10,000 patients. Income, 5007.; from property, 907.; from 
subscriptions, 4107. Hon. Sec, Benjamin Smith, Esq., London Wall. 

Dispensary (named the Metropolitan Free Hospital, although there is no 
accommodation for in-patients), 29, Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Insti- 
tuted 1836. During the year 1849 there were 10,063 patients. The income 
was 5507., arising whollv from subscriptions. Hon. Sec, E. J. Chance, Esq., 59, 
Old Broad Street, City. 

Dispensary (Northern), 9, Somers Place, West. Instituted 1810. Partly a 
charitable and partly a provident dispensary. Poor families subscribing 5s. 
annually have a right to the benefits. During 1849, there were 1269 patients. 
The income, arising whollv from contributions, 2607. Hon. Sec, J. Carley, 
Esq., 31, Guildford Street. 

Dispensary (Paddington Provident), 104, Star Street, Cambridge Terrace. 
Established 1838. Families who can afford it contribute from Id. to l^c7. 
weekly, according to the number of their members. During 1849 there were 
2250 patients. Income, 3007.; from members, 1507.; voluntary contributions, 
1507. Secretary, F. Ouwry, Esq. 

Dispensary (Public), Bishop's Court, Lincoln's Inn. Instituted 1782. Pa- 
tients needing it are attended at their own homes. In the year 1849, there 
were 6577 patients. Secretary, J. S. Phillips, Esq., 5, Bishop's Court. 

Dispensary (Queen Adelaide's), 189, Church Street, Bethnal Green. Esta- 
blished 1849. Secretary, T. S. Packston, Esq., 1, Gloster Terrace, Cambridge 
Heath. 

Dispensary (Royal General), 36, Aldersgate Street. Instituted 1770. Pa- 
tients from all parts relieved at the institution, and the sick poor within the 



516 LONDON. 

City attended at their own homes. Patients in the year 1849, 14,591. Secre- 
tary, J. Wood, Esq., 8, Falcon Square, Aldersgate Street. 

Dispensary {Royal Pimlico), Belgrave Terrace. Founded 1831. During 
1849 there were 5162 patients. Income from subscriptions, 480/. Hon. Sec, 
G. W. Forster, Esq., 12, Charlwood Place. 

Dispensary (Royal South London), St. George's Cross, opposite Bedlam. 
Established 1821. The largest number of patients in a single year, 4904. 
Income from contributions, 581/. Secretary, J. Hooker, Esq., Walcot Cottage, 
Lambeth. 

Dispensary (St. George's and St. James's General), 60, King Street, and 
3, Chapel Place North, South Audley Street. Established 1817. There is a 
Samaritan fund. During 1849, there were 3835 patients. Income 550/., from 
contributions only. Secretary, J. H. York, Esq. 

Dispensary (St. John's Wood and Portland Town), 98, St. John's Wood 
Terrace. Established 1845. A provident dispensary. Members entitled to 
the benefits of the institution pay Id. per week. Kelief given at the institu- 
tion, or at the homes of the patients. During 1849, there were 1000 patients. 
The income was 240/.; from property, 80/.; contributions, 160/.; expenditure, 
237/. Secretary, C. Coupland, Esq. 

Dispensary (St. Marylebone General), 77, Welbeck Street. Instituted 1785. 
During 1849 there were 2142 patients. Income, 500/.; from property, 50/.; 
from subscriptions, 450/. Secretary, P. Matthews, Esq., 15, High Street, 
St. Marylebone. 

Dispensary (St. Marylebone Provident), 6, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 
Established 1834. Members pay from \d. to l$d. weekly, according to their 
age and station, in order to entitle them to the benefits. During 1849, there 
were 792 members. The income was 205/.; from members, 114/.; from con- 
tributions, 91/. Hon. Sec, J. Eoberts, Esq., 23, Edward Street, Langham 
Place. 

Dispensary (St. Pancras Royal General), 26, Burton Crescent. Instituted 
1837. Patients are attended at the institution or their own homes. During 
1849, there were 2336 patients. The income was 355/.; from property, 30/.; 
from contributions, 325/. Hon. Sec, T. E. Baker, Esq., 51, Burton Crescent. 

Dispensary (Surrey), Great Dover Street, Southwark. Instituted 1777. 
During 1849 there were 5103 patients. Income, 960/.; from property, 260/.; 
from contributions, 700/. Secretary, Eobert Meggy, Esq., 33, Trinity Square. 

Dispensary (Tower Hamlets), 40, Commercial Koad East. Instituted 1792. 
The annual number of patients is about 2500. Secretary, T. Stone, Esq., 6, 
Well close Square. 

Dispensary (Western), Charles Street, Westminster. Instituted 1789. A 
general dispensary, and also for delivering lying-in women at their homes. 
During 1849 there were 7500 patients. Income, 867/.; from properly, 154/.; 
contributions, 713/. Secretary, G. Western, Esq,, 4, Great Vine Street, Eegent 
Street. 

Dispensary (Western City), 18, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Established 1830. 
Each medical officer (of whom there are seven) attends the poor only of his 
own district at their homes, and the druggists of the charity supply the 
patients with medicine at 2s. per head. In the year 1849 there were 2000 
patients. Income from contributions, 250/. Hon. Sec, J. M. Dale, Esq., 18, 
Lincoln's Inn Fields. 

Dispensary (Western General), Lisson Grove, New Koad. Instituted 1830. 
A general dispensary. In very extreme cases, sufferers from accidents are 
provided with beds. In the year 1849, there were 6000 patients. Income in 
1849, from contributions wholly, 1100/. Secretary, James Martin, Esq. 

Dispensary (Westminster General), Gerard Street, Soho. Founded in 1774. 
Lying-in women delivered at their homes. Annual number of patients about 
4000. Secretary, W. J. Wills, Esq. 



HOSPITALS. 517 

Ear (Royal Dispensary for Diseases of), 10, Dean Street, Soho. Esta- 
blished 1816. The deaf and dumb, and serious accidents, admitted without 
recommendation, and acoustic instruments supplied gratuitously. Medical 
officer, G. Tattersall, Esq. Secretary, H. S. Smith, Esq. 

Eye (Royal Infirmary for Diseases of), Cork Street, Burlington Gardens. 
Instituted 1804. Every applicant admitted as an out-patient. For those 
about to undergo the operation for cataract beds are supplied in the house. 
A donation of 211., or a yearly subscription of 11. Is., constitutes a governor. 
During 1849, there were 2671 patients; 58 were operated upon for cataract, 53 
successfully. The income is from contributions, 2001.; from property, 100/. 
Medical officers — H. Alexander, Esq.; C. R. Alexander, Esq.; E. A. Brande, 
Esq. Secretary, J. Savory, Esq., 143, New Bond Street. 

Eye and Ear (Metropolitan Infirmary), 25, Sackville Street. Established 
1838. Patients without recommendations pay for their medicines. Attend- 
ance on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 10. Patients during 1849, 800. 
Surgeon, J. Yearsley, Esq. Secretary, G. J. Soper, Esq. 

Fever Hospital (London), Liverpool Road, Islington. Instituted 
1803. Present building erected 1849. This is a hospital exclu- 
sively devoted to fever. A donation of 10/. 10s., or a yearly pay- 
ment of 1/. Is., constitutes a governor. Patients are admitted 
gratuitously, with the exception of parish paupers and servants, when 
one quarter is charged to the parish or master. There are 130 beds. 
During 1849, there were 714 in-patients. The income is 450/. from 
contribution; 450/. from property ; 1400/. from parochial payments. 
Medical officers — Drs. Tweedie, South wood Smith ; A. Crawford, 
Esq.; and W. Sankey, Esq. Secretary, C. Hyde, Esq. 

Fistula Infirmary, 38, Charter House Square. Instituted 1835. Especially 
devoted to the cure of diseases of the rectum. A donation of 101. 10s., or a 
yearly subscription of 1/. Is., constitutes a governor. During 1849, there were 
520 patients. Income from contributions, 6807.; from property, 1201. Medi- 
cal officers — Dr. J. J. Furnivall; F. Salmon, Esq.; H. E. Burton, Esq. Secre- 
tary, T. Leslie, Esq. 

Free {Royal) Hospital, Gray's-Inn Road, founded 1828, in Greville 
Street, Hatton Garden, removed, 1842, to the present building, for- 
merly the Barracks of the Light Horse Volunteers. This is one 
of the 12 general hospitals, and one of the most valuable institu- 
tions in London, as it is really a free hospital ; that is to sav, any 
sick person presenting himself at the doors is immediately, without 
any recommendation, received either as an in or out-patient, as the 
necessity of the case and the power of accommodation permit. When 
in the old house in Greville Street, in 1832, this hospital admitted, 
without hesitation, 700 cholera patients, for whom there was no 
other refuge. Again, in 1849, the pauper children of the Holborn 
Union, 154 in number, and suffering more or less from malignant 
cholera, were received from Tooting at the hospital. Owing to this 
timely relief 4 only died. In the succeeding months of cholera 
visitation, upwards of 300 sufferers from disease were treated as in or 
out-patients, without, however, diminishing the numbers relieved by 
the ordinary operations of the charity. Dr. Marsden was the founder, 



518 LONDON. 

and the late Queen Adelaide and William IV. two of the great 
benefactors. An annual subscription of 1 guinea constitutes a go- 
vernor; a donation of 10/. a life governor. The affairs are managed 
by a committee of 11 gentlemen, of whom the Reverend Edward 
Rice, D.D., is chairman. There are now 134 beds, with room for 
500. During 1849, there were 28,611 patients; of whom 667 were 
in-patients. 

As to the financial condition, the receipts during 1849 were 
5559/. 13s. 4<d., only 55L, of which was from property. The expen- 
diture for the year was 4800/. The rest of the income was employed 
in paying off arrears of expenditure in the two previous years. 
Thus the income now more than covers the expenditure, and the 
debt is less than 5000/. ; 3000/. for mortgage for the purchase of the 
premises, the rest arrears of 1848 and 1849. 

The medical officers are — W. Marsden, Esq. ; John N. Heale, 
Esq.; J. Gay, Esq.; T. Wakley, Esq.; T. W. Cooke, Esq.; the 
Rev. E. Rice, D.D., Chairman. 

Gentlewomen, Establishment for, during Illness, 76, Harley Street. 
Now forming. 

George 's (St.) Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, Grosvenor Place, was 
originally instituted by some seceding governors of Westminster Hos- 
pital, 1733, as an infirmary, in Lanesborough House, which was where 
the present building stands, and then contained only 60 beds. The 
present institution was incorporated 1824, and the present edifice 
built by Wilkins in 1829. In this hospital every disease that is not 
incurable or^jontagious, with the exception of venereal disorders, is 
treated ; and there is a Samaritan fund, called St. George's Charity, 
for convalescents. Among the chief benefactors is the late Sir 
Thomas Ap Reece. There is also a medical school. The celebrated 
names connected with this institution are those of Dr. Baily, Dr. 
W. Hunter, John Hunter, who died here suddenly, having been 
violently excited by a quarrel in the board-room, while suffering under 
disease of the heart, Mr. Wilson, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Sir Everard 
Home ; all medical officers of the hospital, and teachers at the 
school. 

The governors are donors of 50/., or annual subscribers of 5 guineas, 
each of whom may have 1 in-patient and 2 out-patients always on 
the books. Governors of the St. George's Charity give 10 guineas, 
or subscribe 1 guinea annually. 

Patients admitted by governor's letter on Wednesday, at half-past 
11 ; accidents, &c, freely admitted at all times. There are 350 beds. 
The number of patients treated during 1849 was 11,586, of whom 
3643 were in-patients; of these 250 died. 

The income is under 7500/., only 3000/. of which arises from 
property. The medical officers are — Dr. Wilson ; Dr. Nairne; Dr. 
Page; Dr. Bence Jones; Dr. Pitman; Dr. Fuller; Robert Keate, Esq.; 



HOSPITALS. 519 

Caesar Hawkins, Esq.; Edward Cutler, Esq. ; Thomas Taturn, Esq.; 
H. C. Johnson, Esq. ; Prescott Hewett, Esq. Secretary, J. 
Gunning, Esq. 

German Hospital, Dalston. Opened 1845. A special hospital 
for all who speak the German language. The hospital for in-patients 
is at Dalston ; out-patients attend at the dispensaries in London ; 
Office, 17, Broad Street Buildings. Though not exclusively for 
Protestant patients, the chaplain is a Protestant, and the establish- 
ment itself has a Protestant character. There is a convalescent 
fund ; and a Sanatorium for convalescents, where private rooms are 
afforded to the middle classes, upon payment of a weekly sum, vary- 
ing from 1 to 2 guineas. A donation of 30 guineas, or a yearly 
payment of 3 guineas, constitutes a governor. Applicants examined 
every day at 2 o'clock. During 1849, there were 419 in-patients, 
and 1728 out-patients. Medical officers — Dr. Sutro ; Dr. Swain e ; 
Dr. Straube ; Dr. Beneke. Assistant-Secretary, G. H. Lillie, Esq. 

Glandular Institution, 20, Clifford Street, Bond Street. Established 1820, 
for the treatment of cancer, scrofula, &c. Attendance daily at the institution, 
or at the homes of the patients. Honorary Secretary, F, K. Jones, Esq., 10, 
Brunswick Square. 

Guys Hospital, Southwark. Founded and endowed at the sole 
expense of Thomas Guy*, a bookseller, in Lombard Street, who, 
though 76 years old when the building was begun, lived to see it com- 
pleted in 1724, when he was 80 years of age. The building cost 
18,793/., and the endowment amounted to 219,499/. Another gen- 
tleman, Mr. Hunt, of Petersham, followed Mr. Guy's example, and, 
at his death in 1829, left 200,000/. to the hospital, stipulating for 
accommodation being afforded to 100 patients. There is a bronze 
statue of the founder in the front-court, and a marble one in the 
chapel. There is a lunatic house attached, with gardens, &c, for 
the reception of 30 patients, and a medical school, with museums, 
libraries, &c. &c. The government of the hospital is vested in 60 self- 
elected governors, no contribution being necessary ; there is no pub- 
lished list of them. Among the many eminent names connected with 
the hospital is that of Sir Astley Cooper, who was both surgeon 
and lecturer there ; he is buried within the chapel. 

Patients suffering under any curable disorder admitted without 
any recommendation, on Wednesdays at 10 o'clock, accidents at 
any time. There are 580 beds. The income is between 25,000/. 
and 30,000/. 

The medical officers are — Dr. Richard Bright; Dr. T. Addison; 
Dr. B. G. Babington; Dr. G. H. Barlow; Dr. Henry M. Hughes; 
Dr. G. O. Rees; Dr. Golding Bird; Bransby B. Cooper, Esq.; Edward 

* Guy's fortune, though ostensibly made by the sale of bibles, more probably resulted from 
successful speculations m South-sea stock. The Hospital is indebted for his munificence to a 
curious circumstance. It seems he had agreed to marry a female servant, who offended him by 
having some pavement repaired contrary to his orders ; he therefore renounced his engagement, 
and devoted his fortune to founding this hospital. He had before been a large benefactor to St. 
Thomas's. 



520 LONDON. 

Cock, Esq.; J. Hilton, Esq.; John Birkett, Esq.; and Alfred Poland, 
Esq. Clerk Reg., Mr. John S. Taylor. 

Hanwell, Lunatic Asylum for the County of Middlesex. One of the four me- 
tropolitan lunatic asylums. (See " Lunatic Asylums.") Queen Adelaide's fund is 
for the relief of the destitute on their discharge. There are 994 beds. The 
income arises from county and parish rates. The amount of Queen Adelaide's 
fund is now about 13,000Z. Medical officers — Dr. Con oily, Dr. Begley, and Dr. 
Hitchman. Clerks, J. Morrison, Esq., and Charles Wright, Esq. 

Homoeopathic Institutions. — There are four establishments founded upon the 
Homoeopathic system of treatment : one at 17, Hanover Square; one at 2, 
London Street, Fitzroy Square : one at 63, Edgeware Road ; and one at 22, 
Davies Mews, Lower Brook Street. 

Idiots, Asylum for. It is one of the four asylums for mental diseases, and is 
more fully described under " Lunatic Asylums." It was instituted 1847. 
The office is at 29, Poultry, and the asylum at Park House, Highgate. There 
are 60 beds. Medical officers — Dr. Conolly, Dr. Little, and Dr. Foreman. 
Acting Secretary, W. Nicholas, Esq., 29, Poultry. 

Invalids, Confirmed Female, Home Jor, Bird-cage Fields, Stamford Hill. 
Office, 64, Old Broad Street. Established 1842. Most of the patients are able 
to contribute 6s. or 8s. a week, and are not admitted without a subscriber's 
testimony to good character, and an undertaking to remove when required, or in 
case of death. The management is in the hands of a committee of ladies. A 
donation of 101., or an annual subscription of 11., entitles to recommend cases. 
Secretary, John Foster, Esq. 

Invalids, Asylum for respectable Females, High Street, Stoke Newington. 
Established 1825. For shop-women, servants, and others in dependent situa- 
tions, whom illness has compelled to leave their places. A recommendatory 
letter from a subscriber, and a certificate of good conduct from a subscriber, or 
two housekeepers, and 11. Is. entrance fee are necessary to procure admission. 
This, however, only lasts for one month. A donation of 101. 10s., or a yearly 
subscription of 11. Is., constitutes a governor. Medical officers — Drs. Cobb, 
Cohen, and Dewsbury ; W. Kingdom, J. Reynolds, and F. Tomlinson, Esqrs. 
Secretaries, Mrs. Reynolds and Miss L. Bradshaw. 

Kings College Hospital, Portugal Street, Lincolns-Inn Fields, is 
one of the 12 general hospitals, and in connection with the medical 
school of King's College. Founded in 1839. By this institution 
relief is given in the hospital, and to out-patients attending at the 
hospital ; patients who need it, and lying-in women, are attended at 
their own homes. It is situated in a very poor and populous neigh- 
bourhood ; of whom it is said it annually relieves one-twentieth. A 
donation of 30 guineas, or an annual subscription of 3 guineas, con- 
stitutes a governor ; an annual subscriber of I guinea, or a donor of 
10 guineas, is entitled to recommend 1 in-patient and 2 out-patients 
yearly. 

Admission by governor's letter ; but a great number of cases are 
admitted without recommendation. There are 120 beds. During 
the year 1849, there were 1253 in-patients, and 19,383 out-patients. 
The income is about 4000/., only 200/. of which arises from pro- 
perty. The medical officers are — Drs. T. Watson, R. Ferguson, G. 
Budd, R. B. Todd, Arthur Farre, W. A. Guy, Geo. Johnson; and 
W. Fergusson, R. Partridge, W. Bowman, and Henry Lee, Esqs. 
Secretary, John Lyon, Esq. 



HOSPITALS. 521 

Loch Hospital and Asylum^ Westbourne Green, Harrow Road. A 
special hospital for the treatment of patients suffering under the 
venereal disease ; and an asylum for the reception of penitent females 
cured therein. The former was instituted in 1746, and was situated 
in Grosvenor Place ; the latter was founded by the Rev. Thomas 
Scott, the commentator, and was next door to the hospital. In 1842 
both institutions were removed to the present building. The name 
is derived from loques or locks of hair, lint, or rags applied to sores, 
and a Joke or lock formerly signified a lazar-house or hospital for 
lepers, of which there were formerly several in London. This is the 
only institution in London which professedly admits patients affected 
with this disorder, affording medical treatment and a penitentiary re- 
fuge at the same time. The chapel is a source of revenue to the 
hospital, and the chaplain is generally a noted preacher. Pupils are 
admitted. 501. donation, or 5l. 5s. yearly, constitutes a governor, who 
may always have one patient in the house. An annual subscriber of 
2/. 2^., or a "donor of 20/., may recommend one in and three out- 
patients yearly. All patients admitted freely on their first applica- 
tion ; none a second time. The number of beds is 60 in the hospital, 
and 100 in the asylum. In 1849 there were treated 382 in-patients, 
and 443 out-patients. The receipts are about 2200/.; 200Z. from 
the chapel, the rest from voluntary contribution. The medical 
officers are — Dr. Augustin Sayer; E. Cutler, Esq.; S. Lane, Esq.; and 
H. Lee, Esq. Chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Gamier. Secretary, W. 
Irving Hare, Esq. 

London Hospital, Whitechapel Road. Instituted 1740; incor- 
porated 1759. A general hospital for the relief, both as in and out- 
patients, of the sick poor who are properly recommended, except 
parish poor or soldiers, who cannot be admitted unless the person 
recommending them agrees to contribute 9d. a da}\ There is a 
Samaritan fund for assisting poor patients who have been cured, and 
for sending convalescent patients to the Sea-bathing Infirmary. 
There is a medical school. 

Governors are donors of 30 guineas, or subscribers of 5 guineas 
yearly ; and they are each entitled to have 1 in-patient and 4 out- 
patients always on the books. Subscribers of 1 guinea annually may 
recommend out-patients. A donation of 5 guineas, or an annual 
subscription of 1 guinea, constitutes a member of the Samaritan 
fund. Admission by governor's letter ; urgent cases at all times ; out- 
patients attended to every day. 

There are 330 beds. 33,000 patients were treated last year; of 
whom 4185 were in-patients. The income is about 13,000/.; 
11,000/. arising from property. The expenditure has, for the last 
10 years, exceeded the receipts; in 1849 it was 1980/. in excess. 
The medical officers are — Drs. F. Cobb, A. Frampton, W. J. Little, 
J. Pereira, P. Fraser, Herbert Davies; J. Luke, John Adams, T. B. 
Curling, George Critchett, N. Ward, J. C. Wordsworth, Esqs. 
Secretary, Wm. J. Nixon, Esq. 



522 LONDON. 

Luke's, St., Hospital for Lunatics, Old Street Road. Instituted 1751. It 
is one of the four public metropolitan lunatic asylums, and is fully described 
under " Lunatic Asylums." Pauper lunatics are admitted upon payment of U. 
each, and some incurable patients at 7s. per week. A donation of 31?. 105., or 
a yearly subscription of 71. 7s., constitutes a governor. There are 260 beds. 
The income is S5001. from subscribers, and 5000?. from property. Medical 
officers — Dr. A. R. Sutherland, Dr. A. J. Sutherland, Dr. F. R. Phelp j and 
J. Luke, Esq. Secretary, G. Mence, Esq., 5, Billiter Street. 

Lungs, Royal Infirmary for Diseases of, City Road. Established 1814. A 
special dispensary for the relief of the above diseases. Secretary, S. Amory, 
Esq., 25, Throgmorton Street. 

Lying-in Hospital, the British, Endell Street, Long Acre. Instituted 1749. 
It was formerly in Brownlow Street, and removed to the present new building 
in 1849. It is the oldest lying-in hospital in London. It is solely for married 
women, who are either admitted into the hospital as in-patients, or are attended 
at their own homes. A donation of 10Z. 10s., or an annual subscription of 11. Is., 
constitutes a governor. There are 40 beds. The income is now below the 
expenditure, owing to the outlay of 60001. on the new building. Medical 
officers — Drs. Henry Davis and R. Lee ; B. Brookes, Esq.; and J. Clarke, 
Esq., Secretary, R. Davies, Esq. 

Lying-in Hospital, City of London, Old Street, City Road. Instituted 1750 
in Aldersgate Street ; removed to the present building in 1773. A special 
hospital for lying-in women, married, or recently widows. Patients stopping 
in the hospital for more than 48 hours before their delivery, pay Is. 6d. per 
day. A donation of 21Z. constitutes a governor ; every donation of 41. is., or 
yearly subscription of 11. Is., confers the right of recommending one patient. 
The number of beds is 40; the number of patients admitted annually, 500 ; 
Medical officers — Dr. Conquest; W. Coulson, Esq.; and H. James, Esq. Secre- 
tary, J. Clift, Esq., 30, Bloomsbury Square. 

Lying-in Hospital, General, York Road, Lambeth. Instituted 1765. Incor- 
porated 1830. Women are admitted into the hospital, or attended at their own 
homes. Single women admitted once. A donation of Zll.lOs., or an annual 
subscription of Si. 3s., constitutes a governor, who has the privilege of recom- 
mending three in and three out-patients yearly. Medical officers — Dr. Locock ; 
Dr. Cape ; Dr. Reid ; and J. South, Esq. Secretary, W. W. Hastings, Esq. 

Lying-in Hospital, Queen Charlotte's, Lisson Green. Instituted 1752. 
Lying-in women admitted as in-patients or attended at their own homes. 
Unmarried women admitted once. In 1849, the number of beds was 20. 
In-patients admitted, 240 ; out-patients, 400. Medical officers — Dr. Roget ; Dr. 
Moore ; Dr. Brown; G. Gream, Esq.; J. Cholmondeley, Esq. Secretary, A. II. 
Thistleton, Esq. 

Lying-in Hospital, Queen Adelaide's, Queen Street, Golden Square. Esta- 
blished 1824. This institution is chiefly for affording medical attendance to 
lying-in women at their own homes, but a few are received as in-patients. 
In 1849, the number of patients was 1000. The medical officers are — Dr. 
J. A. Wilson; Dr. H. Davies; S.Lane, Esq.; W. H. Yell, Esq.; T. Stillman, 
Esq. ; and W. Rochfort, Esq. Hon. Secretary, T. Stillman, Esq. 

Lying-in Institution, 90, Newman Street. Established 1787. A special in- 
stitution for delivery of married women at their own homes. The number of 
women attended in the year 1800 was 200 ; the number last year, 300. Secre- 
tary, W. Woolmer, Esq. 

Lying-in Institution, Queen Adelaide and British Ladies', 13, Chapel Street, 
Cavendish Square. Established 1829. This is an institution for delivering 
married women, who reside within the western districts of London at their 
own homes, and for supplying them with medicines and linen during their 
confinement. An annual subscription of 11. Is. entitles the subscriber to re- 
commend two cases for medical attendance, and four for the loan of linen. 
Secretary, B. G. Beale,Esq. 



HOSPITALS. 523 

Lying-in and Sick Dispensary, Charlotte Street, 10, Russell Place, Kathbone 
Place. Instituted 1778. For the delivery of married women, and also for the 
relief generally of the sick poor at their own habitations, in London and 
Westminster. Patients with recommendations received between 9 and 11 
o'clock every morning (Sundays excepted). The annual average number of 
patients is 600. One guinea annual, or 10 guineas donation, entitles to recom- 
mend 2 patients. Secretary, John Robinson Wells, Esq., Wimpole Street. 

Marylebone Hospital, Cambridge Place, Paddington. One of the 12 gene- 
ral hospitals. It is only lately opened. There are at present 150 beds, but it 
is proposed to have 400. The amount raised by subscription for founding 
this hospital, which is much needed in this thickly-peopled locality, is 30,000Z. 
A donation of 312. 10s., or an annual subscription of 2>l. 2>s., constitutes a 
governor. Hon. Secretary, W. Tatham, Esq., 61, Oxford Terrace. 

Maternity Charity, The Royal, Office, 17, Little Knight Rider Street. Insti- 
tuted 1757. This institution is for the delivery of married women at their own 
homes, and its benefits are extended to any place within three miles of St. 
Paul's. A donor of 101. 10s., or an annual subscriber of 11. Is., may recommend 
8 patients yearly. The average annual number of cases is 3500. The income 
is about 18302. Secretary, Dr. Raymer. 

Middlesex Hospital, Charles Street, opposite Berners Street, is one 
of the 12 general hospitals. Established in 1745, when it contained 
only 18 beds, which were increased to 70 in 1800; to 179 in 1815; 
and now, the hospital having been assisted by various bequests, the 
building has been recently enlarged, and has 285 beds. All curable 
disorders are treated ; and there is a special ward for cancer, endowed 
by Samuel Whitbread, Esq. There is a Samaritan fund for assisting 
the poor who have been cured, or sending convalescents to the Invalid 
Asylum at Carshalton. Sir Jobn Murray left 10,000/. in 1848. 
There is a medical school attached. 

The governors are donors of 30 guineas, or annual subscribers of 
3 guineas. For every 2 guineas of yearly subscription, 1 in-patient 
and 3 out-patients may be recommended. The regular day for 
admission by subscribers' order is Tuesday. Cases of emergency are 
freely admitted at any time. The annual average number of in- 
patients is 2206, and 9316 out-patients. The annual income is about 
9500/., 6500/. arising from property. 

The medical officers are — Dr. F. Hawkins ; Dr. M. Crawford ; Dr. 
Seth Thompson ; and Dr. A. P. Stewart. Surgeons. — C. De Morgan, 
Esq.; C. H. Moore, Esq.; Alexander Shaw, Esq.; M. Henry, Esq. 
Secretary, Alexander Shedden, Esq. 

Nurses, Establishments for the Training of. — There are two institutions of 
this kind in the metropolis ; although they hardly come under the title of 
" Hospitals, &c," yet they are of a nature sufficiently connected with sanatory 
establishments to justify their mention at least in this place. Their names 
indicate the purpose for which they are founded. One is called " The Institu- 
tion of Nursing Sisters/' and is at 16, Broad Street Buildings ; 28 nurses are 
employed, and those who are in need of their attendance may be supplied with 
them upon application to the Secretary, Mrs. Gurney. The other establish- 
ment is called the u Training Institution for Nurses for Hospitals, Families, 
and the Poor." It is at St. John's House, 34, Fitzroy Square. The Director 
is the Eev. F. W. Twist. 

Rupture Society, 22, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Instituted 1804. Patients of 



524 LONDON. 

both sexes suffering under rupture are supplied with advice, and the neces- 
sary trusses and instruments, upon applying with a letter of recommendation, 
at 26, Grosvenor Street, before 9 in the morning. A donor of 10?. 10s., or a 
yearly subscriber of 1?. Is., is entitled to recommend patients. In 1849, the 
number of patients relieved was 1047. The income from contributions is 
about 3500?. Secretary, John Porter, Esq. 

Sanatorium in the Island of Madeira, Office, 4, St. Martin's Place. This is 
an institution only projected in 1849, and intended to supply persons of 
narrow means, who are labouring under pulmonary complaints, with a passage 
to Madeira, and a residence there, with good medical advice, if after proper 
examination it seems probable that by such means they will be permanently 
benefited. The expenses are to be partly defrayed by the patients themselves. 
A donor of 101. 10s., or a yearly subscriber of 11. Is., is to have the privilege of 
placing one person on the list to be submitted to the medical opinion of the 
officers of the institution. Hon. Secretary, W. Haly, Esq. 

Sea-Bathing, Royal Infirmary, Office, 35, Cannon Street. Instituted 1796. 
This institution has been usually ranked among the metropolitan hospitals, as 
its office and governing body are in London ; the infirmary itself, however, is 
situated at Westbrook, near Margate. It is intended to afford sea-bathing and 
general medical attendance to scrofulous patients, and has been very benefi- 
cial in its effects. The recommendation of a governor is necessary to candi- 
dates, who must be also approved of by the medical officers as proper objects 
for admission. Patients under 10 years of age pay is. per week for board; 
those above that age, pay 5s. A donation of 101. 10s., or a yearly subscription 
of 11. Is., constitutes a governor. There are 230 beds. The annual average 
number of patients is 700. Secretaries, — in London, J. Paul, Esq.; at Kamsgate, 
W. A. Hunt, Esq. 

Seamen's Hospital Society, Office, 74, King William Street, City. Esta- 
blished 1821. The hospital is the "Dreadnought" line-of-battle ship, off Green- 
wich, and is for the reception of the sick seamen of all nations in the port of 
London. Besides medical relief, clothes and other necessary articles are given 
to those who stand in need of them when quitting the hospital. A donation 
of 101. 10s., or a yearly subscription of 11. Is., constitutes a governor. There 
are 200 beds. In 1850, the number of in-patients was 2274, out-patients, 1528. 
The income is about 8146?., of which 2755?. arises from property, 1150?. is 
received from the Board of Trade, under the Mercantile Marine Bill, and the 
rest from voluntary contributions. Her Majesty, the Emperor of Russia, the 
Queen of Spain, and the King of Hanover, are subscribers to this valuable 
institution; and among the vice-presidents is his Excellency Keying, Imperial 
High Commissioner to the Emperor of China. The expenditure at present 
exceeds the income by 400?. Medical officers — Dr. Seymour; Dr. G. L. 
Roupell; Dr. G. Budd; Dr. Black ; Dr. Black all; Dr. Rooke; George Busk, 
Esq. ; and Mr. Lakin. Secretary, S. K. Cooke, Esq. 

Skin, Hospital for Diseases of the, 25, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, founded 
1841, for the reception of poor persons suffering under cutaneous complaints, 
to whom it is open free daily for out-patients, who are supplied with advice, 
medicines, and appropriate medical baths, of which this institution possesses 
a more extended suite than any other public charity. In-patients are admitted 
by the committee only. The annual attendance is upwards of 7000. Physi- 
cians, Dr. Southwood Smith and Dr. Hodgkin ; Surgeon and Founder, James 
Startin, Esq. ; Assistant Surgeon, A. M'Whinnie. 

Small- Pox and Vaccination Hospital, Upper Hollo way, Highgate Hill. In- 
stituted 1746. A hospital specially devoted to the objects indicated by its 
title. Any person suffering under small-pox is instantly admitted upon a 
governor's recommendation. The parents or nurses of children under five 
years of age are admitted upon the payment of Is. 6d. a day for their 
board. A donation of 10?. 10s., or a yearly subscription of 1?. Is., consti- 



HOSPITALS. 525 

tutes a governor. There are 70 beds. In 1849, the number of patients ad- 
mitted was 490, of whom 90 died. Medical officers — Dr. Gregory and J. 
Marson, Esq. .Secretary, S. Clift, Esq. 

Spanish and Portuguese J exes' Hospital, Mile-end Eoad. Established 1747. 
This institution is in the widest sense a general hospital, as it affords relief to 
in-patients and out-patients of all kinds, receives lying-in women, and supplies 
an asylum to the aged and infirm. A donation of 10Z. 10s., or a yearly sub- 
scription of 11. Is., constitutes a governor. The income from voluntary con- 
tributions is 700?. ; from property, 300?. Secretary, Solomon Almomino, Esq. 

Ophthalmic Hospital, Central London, 1, Calthorpe Street, Gray's Inn Eoad. 
Established 1843. The only in-patients admitted are those requiring opera- 
tion ; a governor's recommendation is in such cases necessary, and usually the 
payment of the patient's board. The annual average number of patients 
is 2000. Secretary, E. J. Child, Esq., 25, Blandford Street. 

Ophthalmic Institution, North London, 31, Charlotte Street, Portland Place. 
Instituted 1841. For the treatment of diseases of the eye. Urgent cases are 
admitted into the house. The number of patients in 1849 was 1134. The 
income is 130?., derived solely from contributions. 

Ophthalmic Hospital, Royal London, Moorfields. Established 1804. A 
special hospital for diseases of the eye. In 1849 there were 8000 out-patients, 
and 200 in-patients. Income from contributions, 400?. ; from property, 400?. 
Secretary, F. A. Curling, Esq. 

Ophthalmic Hospital, Royal Westminster, Chandos Street, Charing Cross. 
Instituted 1816. All patients suffering under diseases of the eye relieved with- 
out recommendation. Cases requiring operation are admitted as in-patients. 
During 1849, the number of in-patients was 187; out-patients, 4205. The 
income from contributions is 450?. ; from propertv, 150?. Secretary, T. E. 
Fowler, RN. 

Orthopodic Royal Hospital, 6, Bloomsbury Square. Founded 1840. A 
special hospital for the treatment of club-foot, curvature of the spine, and 
other deformities. A peculiarity of this institution is that, by paying 10?., 
a patient may be at once admitted and accommodated with an extra bed if the 
ordinary number is already occupied. There are 36 beds. The number of 
patients in 1849 was 1200. The income from contributions is about 1500?. 
Secretary, B. Maskell, Esq. 

Thomas s (St.) Hospital, High Street, South wark. — One of the 5 
Royal foundations. Founded 1213, by Richard, Prior of Bermond- 
sey, as an alms-house. Refounded 1215, by Peter de Rupibus, 
Bishop of Winchester. On the dissolution of monasteries, it passed 
into the possession of the Corporation of London, by whom it was 
opened as a general hospital, 1552. Rebuilt, at a great expense, by 
public contribution, 1706. Thomas Frederic Ever and Thomas Guy 
(the founder of Guy's Hospital) being two of the greatest benefac- 
tors. Two wings were built at the same time as the approaches to 
New London Bridge. There is a bronze statue of Edward VI., by 
Scheemakers, and one of Sir Robert Clayton. The governors are 
donors of 50/. ; special governors are elected retired officers and the 
executors of benefactors. 

There is a medical school attached. 

Patients suffering under any curable disease admitted on Tuesdays 
at 10 o'clock, upon presenting a petition (which may be received at 
the office), signed by a housekeeper, who engages to remove on dis- 



526 LONDON. 

charge, or death, or pay 1/. Is. for the funeral. Urgent cases admitted 
at all times. Some patients are assisted with clothes, &c, at their 
departure. There are 428 beds. During 1849, the number of 
patients under treatment was 59,710; of these, 5013 were in- 
patients; 270 died. The income averages 25,000/. ; arising almost 
wholly from property. 

The medical officers are — Dr. T. A. Barker, Dr. H. B. Lecson, Dr. 
J. R. Bennett, Dr. R. H. Goolden, Dr. W. Cohen, Dr. T. B. Peacock, 
Joseph H. Green, John F. South, G. W. Mackmurdo, Esqs.; S. Sollv, 
J. Dixon, F. Le Gros Clark, G. R. Whitfield, Esqs. Clerk, Robert 
A. Wainewright, Esq. 

Truss Society, National, 74, King William Street, City. Instituted 1786. 
An institution for the treatment of rupture generally in both sexes, and for 
supplying trusses and other instruments. Secretary, H. Swift, Esq. 

Truss Society, City of London, 76, Queen Street, Cheapside. Instituted 
1807. For the medical treatment of rupture, and the supply of the necessary 
trusses and instruments. The number of patients relieved annually is about 
5000. Secretary, T. Eglinton, Esq. 

University College Hospital, Upper Gower Street. — One of the 12 
general hospitals, in connection with University College, founded in 
1833. North wing built in 1846. It was established, among other 
reasons, for affording means of instruction to the medical students of 
the college. The governors are a committee of the Council of the 
College. Besides relief to in-patients and out-patients, this insti- 
tution furnishes attendance to midwifery cases out of the hospital. 
Mr. Liston, the eminent surgeon, was attached to this hospital and 
school. Yearly subscribers of 1 guinea, or donors of 10 guineas, 
may recommend 4 out-patients ; annual subscribers of 3, or donors 
of 30 guineas, may recommend 3 in, and 6 out-patients yearly. 
Patients with letters admitted daily at 11 o'clock ; cases of emergency 
at all hours. The number of beds is 120. During 1849, there were 
admitted 1634 in-patients; 1940 out-patients. 

The income is 3500/. from voluntary contributions; 1500/. from 
property. 

The medical officers are — Dr. W. H. Walshe, Dr. E. A. Parkes, 
Dr. A. B.Garrod, Dr. Jenner, Dr. Hare, Dr. E. W. Murphy. Sur- 
geons, R. Quain, Esq.; E. J. Erichsen, Esq.; John Marshall, Esq.; 
Will. Cadge, Esq. Clerk to the Committee, J. VV. Goodiff, Esq. 

Vaccine Establishment, National, 8, Eussell Place, Fitzroy Square. Esta- 
blished 1809. This is a government establishment ; and, although not a 
hospital, in any sense of the word, it has been classed among them, as affording 
means of preventing, if not of curing disease. It is for the distribution of 
vaccine lymph to medical men, who are bound to report the numbers vac- 
cinated by the supplies they receive. During 1849, 11,790 children were 
vaccinated through its means. 

Vaccine Institution, Royal Jennerian, 18, Providence Row, Finsbury 
Square Established 1806. It is for the same purpose as the preceding insti- 
tution. There are different vaccinating stations in connection with it. The 



HOSPITALS. 527 

number of children vaccinated by its means in 1849 was 7051. Income from 
contributions entirely, 300Z. Secretary, C. Chantry, Esq. 

V err alls Charitable Society for the Treatment of Distortions, Diseases of the 
Spine, <fec, d-c, 84, Norton Street. Established 1836. Patients are received 
into the house, but they have to pay a small fixed weekly sum for their board ; 
and there is also an asylum at Eastbourne for those requiring sea-air. 
Secretary, C. Yerrall, Esq. 

■■ Spinal Institution, Harrison's, 2, Middlesex Place, Paddington. There 
are six beds. Secretary, Charles Musgrave, Esq. 

Westminster Hospital^ Broad Sanctuary, opposite Westminster 
Abbey. Instituted 1719. It was the first hospital which depended on 
voluntary contributions. Present building erected 1832. Incorporated 
1 836. It is a general hospital, for the treatment of all curable disorders. 
There is a lithotriptic fund of 1319/.; and a ward for the recep- 
tion of patients suffering under stone. There is also an " incurable 
patients'" fund, producing 503/. per annum, for the maintenance, 
clothing, and nursing of 7 incurables. 

JThere is a medical school attached. 

The governors are annual subscribers of 3 guineas, and donors of 
30/. Every guinea yearly subscription, or 10/. donation, entitles to 
recommend 1 in-patient and 2 out-patients annually. 

Patients admitted by letter of recommendation on Tuesdays, at 
1 o'clock; urgent cases at once. The number of beds is 174; but 
there are 3 wards unoccupied, with room for 50 additional beds, 
which, however, caunot be supplied through deficiency of funds. 

During the year ] 849, there were admitted 2000 in-patients 
and 13,000 out-patients. The annual average is 16,000 of all kinds. 

The income is about 4000/., half of which arises solely from volun- 
tary contributions. For 1500/. a year additional the unoccupied 
wards might be put into a state of efficiency; and this is much to be 
desired, as this neighbourhood is greatly in need of hospital accom- 
modation, as is evidenced by the number of cases which are neces- 
sarilv refused admission from want of room. The medical officers 
are- Dr. John Bright, Dr. G. H. Roe, Dr. P. N. Kingston, Dr. W. 
R. Basham, Dr. J. W. Woodfalh G. J. Guthrie, Esq., W. B. Lynn, 
Esq., F, Ha'e Thomson, Esq., B. Phillips, Esq., Barnard W. Holt, 
Esq. Secretary, F. J. Wilson, Esq. 

Women, Hospital for, Red Lion Square. Instituted 1843. This hospital 
is solely for the treatment of diseases peculiar to woruen. In 1849 the num- 
ber of in-patients admitted was 53. The income is 1000£. from contributions. 
Hon. Sec, E. Futvoye, Esq. 

Women and Children, Free Hospital, 7, North Audley Street. Founded 
1847. AVomen suffering under diseases peculiar to the sex receive advice and 
attendance as out-patients. It is also a Samaritan institution, or maternity 
charitv. During 1849 there were 6000 patients. Secretary, A. H. Moore, 
Esq. 

Women and Children, Paddington Free Dispensary for, 8, Market Street, 
Edgeware Road. Established 1848. There are no paid officers; and no re- 
commendation is required from applicants for medical relief. There are 300 
patients. A donation of 1 guineas, or a yearly subscription of one guinea, 
constitutes a governor. Secretary, W, Dickinson, Esq. 



528 LONDON. 

INNS OF COURT 
(Anciently the Aula Regia, or Court of the King's Palace) are the 
venerable seats of learning, of our customs and our domestic his- 
tory, and, from time immemorial, the residence of legal subtilty. 
Four of these Inns of Court claim the highest distinction. The 
Inner and Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, hold 
in conference the privilege of electing or rejecting students who 
are proposed to them as barristers-at-law, which is done by the 
student furnishing a statement in writing, describing his age, re- 
sidence, and condition in life, and accompanied by a certificate of his 
fitness, signed by himself and a bencher of the society, to whom his 
application is addressed, or two barristers. The intended student is 
expected to be a gentleman, to be educated a degree in advance of 
those of ordinary men. In entering either of the four Inns of Court 
he must pay fees which usually amount to more than 100/., attend 
the term dinners a prescribed number of times, to be qualified for 
election ; and if received, he is then, as is usually said, " called to 
the bar," and so declared. To be successful as a barrister he must be 
studious in reading, diligent in his attentions to the proceedings in 
the courts of law, and watch the progress and termination of cases 
therein determined ; he should be courteously becoming to his supe- 
riors, urgent in his application, and forcible in argument for his client. 
Success and the highest honours then will await him in his profession. 
The names of "Inns" are as follows: — Barnard's Inn, in Holborn, 
near Fetter Lane ; Clement's Inn, near St. Clement's Church, Strand; 
Clifford's Inn, Fleet Street, near Temple Bar; Furnival's Inn, Holborn, 
opposite to Barnard's Inn ; Gray's Inn, High Holborn ; Lincoln's Inn, 
Old Square; Lincoln's Inn, New Square; Lincoln's Inn, Stone Build- 
ings ; Lyon's Inn, Newcastle Street, Strand ; New Inn, adjacent to 
Clifford's Inn ; Staple Inn, Holborn Bars; Serjeants' Inn, Chancery 
Lane; Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street; Symond's Inn, Chancery Lane; 
Temple, Inner; Temple, Middle; Thavies Inn, Holborn, near St. 
Andrew's Church. 

The Inner Temple Inn has three inns attached — Clifford's Inn, Clement's 
Inn, and Lyon's Inn. The entrance is by an ancient gateway opposite Chan- 
cery Lane. The ancient buildings of the Temple were destroyed in the great 
fire of London, but the Kound Church was saved. It was previously divided 
into the Inner, Middle, and Outer Temples. These institutions have great 
antiquity, having been the principal establishment in England of the Knights 
Templars ; some of the most eminent and learned men in legal and constitu- 
tional history have had chambers and residences here. There is a dining-hall 
and a library for the benchers. The hall has interesting portraits of King 
William and Queen Mary, and the Judges Coke and Littleton, and ornamented 
with paintings by Sir James Thornhill. The church is one of the four round 
churches in England; for its description see pages 135 and 140, and "Illus- 
trations of the Architecture of the Temple Church," 4to, 1845. There are very 
pleasant gardens on the banks of the Thames, south of the immense range 
of buildings forming the Inner and Middle Temple. These gardens are 
exceedingly pleasant, both for their open space and the view therefrom. 



INNS OF COURT. 529 

The benchers kindly permit strangers to promenade. Middle Temple 
Inn had attached two inns of court — New Inn and Strand Inn. The latter, 
pulled down by the Protector Somerset, was partly the site of Somerset 
House ; the former is still retained. The entrance of Middle Temple 
Lane, Fleet Street, is attached and embodied with the Inner Temple Inn. 
The great hall of the society, known as Middle Temple Hall, was built in 
1572, while Plowden, the well-known jurist, was treasurer of the inn. The 
roof is a splendid example of the time of Queen Elizabeth, and so is the 
screen. This hall is of remarkable beauty, and may easily be viewed. On 
the stained glass windows, and in the panels, may be observed names of re- 
markable men in our history — Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Thomas Overbury, Sir 
John Davys, Lord Chancellor Clarendon, Bulstrode Whitelock, Ireton, son-in- 
law to Oliver Cromwell, Evelyn, Lord-Keeper Guildford, Lord Chancellor 
Somers, the dramatists Wycherley, Ford, Shadwell, Congreve, &c. (see p. 506). 
Lincoln's Inn has two Inns of Chancery attached, Furnival's Inn and Thavies 
Inn. Took its name from Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, 1312, whose Inn oc- 
cupied the greater portion of the site of the present Inn, divided as it now is into 
Old Square, New Square, and Stone Buildings. The entrance from Chancery 
Lane into Old Square is by the curious brick gatehouse, built, in 1518, by Sir 
Thomas Lovell. The two squares (old and new), have numerous chambers, 
which were the residences of some of our eminent men, Judge Fortescue, 
Sir Thomas More, Lord Keeper Egerton, Oliver Cromwell, Attorney-General 
Noy, Dr. Donne, Pynne, Sir Henry Spelman, Sir Matthew Hale, Sir John 
Durham, Rushworth, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Mansfield, Lord Erskine. The 
great secretary, Thurlow, resided here from 1645 to 1659 ; after his .death, the 
Thurlow Papers were accidentally discovered. There are the Lord Chancellor's 
and Vice-Chancellor's Courts. In the former, the Old Hall, the Lord Chancellor 
holds his sittings, after term. It is a spacious room, 62 ft. by 32 ft., and is the 
room in which formerly the dinners were held. The sitting courts of the Vice- 
Chancellors are modern and meagre buildings. But one of the finest of its 
kind is the range of buildings in Lincoln's Inn Gardens — the " Hall," finished 
in October, 1845, occupying the ground of nearly the whole eastern side of 
the square of Lincoln's-inn-Fields, being the court, hall, and library, of the 
benchers of Lincoln's Inn, recently built by Mr. Philip Hardwick, architect, 
of red brick with stone dressings, in the Tudor style of the time of Henry 
VIII. The hall is 120 ft. long, 45 ft. wide, and 62 ft. in height. The roof is 
of carved oak. The library is 180 ft. long, 40 ft. in width ; the cost, upwards 
of 60,000/. The library contains a large assemblage of books, several of which are 
valuable, surrounded by a gallery with shelves filled with books ; in the hall 
is Hogarth's picture of Paul before Felix — a statue of Lord Erskine, by Sir R. 
Westmacott. The western side of this building is very attractive from the square, 
and our cut represents a north-western view of the same (see p. 530). 

Lincoln's Inn Chapel, the chapel belonging to the benchers of Lincoln's Inns 
of Court, was built by Inigo Jones, in a style intended to represent the per- 
pendicular style of Gothic architecture, consecrated in the time of James I., 
1623. The body of the chapel is elevated about 10 ft., on six groined arches 
or vaulting, open to the square space without ; and the entrance to the chapel is 
up a flight of stone stairs, and adjacently to chambers on the head of the stairs, 
and in a cluster of buildings, forming an adjoining portion of the Old Hall 
or the High Court of Chancery. The interior of the chapel is a capacious 
room, very elevated, and sufficiently large to hold conveniently as many 
persons as there are members of the House of Commons. The form is effi- 
cient for hearing in any part, by the simplicity and plainness of its adornment, 
not an inappropriate example for the legislative house. The ceiling is slightly 
vaulted, and is represented in the engraving, page 176. 

The windows represent the twelve apostles, and the coats-of-arms of the mem- 
bers, painted on glass by Bernard Van Linge ; on the north side are Moses 

A A 



530 



LONDON. 




LINCOLN'S INN HALL. 



and the Prophets, St. John the Baptist and St. Paul ; on the latter is recorded 
that it was executed at the expense of William Noy, attorney-general of 
Charles I. On the large east window, are the numerous coats-of-arms, well 
executed, of the past treasurers of the society, from the earliest period of the 
opening of the chapel to the present time ; among them are the names of 
many renowned for learning. As preachers in this chapel are the great eccle- 
siastics, Drs. Donne, Usher, Tillotson, Warburton, Langhorne, Heber, Lonsdale, 
and the present Mr. Anderson. The service is well performed, assisted by 
choir-singers. 

Gray's Inn, an Inn of Court, the fourth in importance, is attached to Staple 
and Barnard's Inns, both situated in Holborn, in the city, and south side of the 
street; its origin, 1505, from the Lords Gray, of Wilton, whose residence was 
on the site ; it passed into the hands of Hugh Denny, and then into the pos- 
session of the prior and convent of East Sheen, in Surrey, by whom it was 
leased to certain of the law ; at the time of Henry YIIL, it became the pro- 
perty of the crown. The hall was built in 1560, and the gardens first planted 



JEWS— SYNAGOGUES AND SCHOOLS. .531 

in 1600, when Francis Bacon, afterwards Lord Bacon, was treasurer, and the 
Inn divided into four courts, South Square, Field Court, Chapel Court, and 
Gray's Inn Square, the hall and chapel separating the latter from South Square ; 
and recently, a row of houses for chambers are attached, called Verulam 
Buildings. This Inn of Court, like the others, can boast of very eminent men, 
among whom are Lord Bacon, Lord Burleigh, &c. Romilly was a member of 
Gray's Inn, and it is now a court of considerable influence in the promotion of 
students to the bar. The chambers are principally occupied by barristers and 
students, and solicitors of good and respectable practice. 

Of the general denomination, the Inns of Chancery, are those of Thavies 
Inn, principally occupied by private individuals ; Clement's Inn, Clifford's Inn, 
Staple Inn, Lyons' Inn, Furnival's Inn, principally occupied by professional men, 
Barnard's Inn, also Symond's Inn, and other Inns. That of Serjeants' Inn, Fleet 
Street, inhabited by private and professional, persons, and of Serjeants' Inn, 
Chancery Lane, by serjeants-at-law, barristers, and the chambers of the Judges. 



JEWS-SYNAGOGUES AND SCHOOLS. 

Settlement of the Jews in England. — There appears to have been two dis- 
tinct divisions of these people in this country ; the history of the one ter- 
minating with their banishment by Edward I., and that of the second com- 
mencing with the visit of Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel to England in a.d. 
1655. We have evidence of their residing in England in 750, from the 
canons of Ecbright, Archbishop of York, issued in that year, which con- 
tain an injunction that "no one should judaize or eat with a Jew," and 
also from the History of Croyland Abbey. 

Under Edward the Confessor they were regarded as subjects to the 
immediate authority, and claimants upon the special protection, of the 
King. 

William the Conqueror, encouraged them to come and settle in the 
land of his conquest, and it is generally supposed, some town was al- 
lotted to them for residence, the name of which has been lost in the lapse 
of time. 

Numbers of Jews resided at Oxford a.d. 1076 {vide Wood's "History 
of Oxford") ; shortly afterwards they possessed most of the houses in 
St. Edward's and Aldgate parishes ; which from this circumstance 
were called "great and little Jewries." Some of their houses at Oxford 
were also called " Halls," on account of scholars resorting thither for 
instruction, and were known by the name of Mosey 's Hall, Jacob's Hall, 
and Lumbard's Hall. 

Here was the first Synagogue upon record, but there was in London 
very shortly after this date, the Jewries extending along both sides 
of what is now called Gresham Street to Basinghall Street, and Old 
Jewry on the east. The Synagogue is said to have stood at the north- 
west corner of Old Jewry. 

They enjoyed considerable favour under the first three Norman Kings, 
during which period, doubtless, they laid the foundation of their subse- 
quent wealth. 

The only place appointed to them in England to bury their dead was 
in Red Cross Street. This remained to them till the year 1177, the 24th 
of Henry II. The present Jewin Street, Aldersgate Street, was also 
allowed to them for the same purpose. 

During the former part of the reign of King John, they seem to have 
gained the favour of that monarch, and obtained permission to appoint a 

A A 2 



532 LONDON. 

High Priest of England, which appointment was confirmed by Royal 
Charter. 

But subsequently they suffered much persecution, and were even- 
tually banished from this country in 1291. They continued in exile for 
357 years, after which Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel, a Jewish Rabbi of 
great learning in Amsterdam, addressed a petition to the Protector 
Cromwell on behalf of his brethren, and offered, in return for the 
privileges, 50,000£., provided the Bodleian Library, at Oxford, was 
made over to them, and they were permitted to take possession of St. 
Paul's Cathedral as a Synagogue. Parliament, however, demanded 
80,000£, and the negotiations were broken off. During the interval Jews 
lived secretly in England, but did not possess any " Jewries " or publicly 
organized congregation. Ultimately they obtained permission to return : 
though the Commonwealth refused to give any formal sanction to their 
return, they tacitly assented ; and most of the settlers being Portuguese 
Jews, the first Synagogue was erected by the Portuguese Jews in King 
Street, Duke's Place, in 1656 ; a school was founded by them also in 1664 
called " the Tree of Life." 

The first German Synagogue, also in Duke's Place, was built in 1691, 
and occupied until 1790, when the present edifice was erected. 

The Distinctive Ceremonies of the Portuguese and German Jews, — The 
Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of Jews, who are also called 
Sephardim (from the word Sepharad, which signifies Spain in Hebrew) 
are distinct from the German and Polish Jews in their ritual service. 
The prayers both daily and for the Sabbath materially differ from each 
other, and the Festival prayers differ still more. Hence the Portuguese 
Jews have a distinct Prayer Book, and the German Jews likewise. The 
fundamental laws are equally observed by both sects, but in the cere- 
monial worship there exists numerous differences. The Portuguese Jews 
eat some food during the Passover, which the German Jews are pro- 
hibited by some Rabbies, whose authority is not acknowledged by the 
Portuguese Rabbies. Nor are the present ecclesiastical authorities in 
London of the two sects the same. The Portuguese Jews have their 
own Rabbies, and the German have their own. The chief Rabbi of the 
German Jews, which are much more numerous than the Portuguese, is 
the Rev. Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler, late chief Rabbi of Hanover, who 
wears no beard, and dresses in the German costume. The presiding 
Rabbi of the Portuguese Jews is the Rev. David Meldola, a native of 
Leghorn ; his father filled the same office in London. Each chief Rabbi 
is supported by three other Rabbies, called Dayamin, which signifies in 
Hebrew " Judges." Every Monday and Thursday the chief Rabbi of the 
German Jews, Dr. Adler, supported by his three colleagues, sits for two 
hours in the Rabbinical College (Beth Hamedrash), Smith's Buildings, 
Leadenhall Street, to attend to all applications from the German Jews, 
which may be brought before him, and they decide according to the 
Jewish law. Many disputes between Jews in religious matters are settled 
in this manner ; and if the Lord Mayor or any other magistrate is told that 
the matter has already been decided by the Jewish Rabbi, he seldom in- 
terferes. This applies only to civil, but not to criminal cases. The Portu- 
guese Jews have their own hospital, and their own schools {vide under the 
head of "Hospitals" and "Schools" respectively). Both congregations have , 
their representatives in the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which 
board is acknowledged by Government, and its triennial. Sir Moses 



JEWS — SYNAGOGUES AND SCHOOLS. 533 

Montefiore, a Jew of great wealth, and who distinguished himself by his 
mission to Damascus, during the persecution of the Jews in that place, 
and also by his mission to Russia, some years ago, is the President of the 
Board. All political matters calling for communications with Govern- 
ment, are within the province of that useful board. 

Their Wealth and Population. — Although the Rev. Dr. Adler did a few 
years ago, issue a circular inviting statistical communications, the 
amount of the Jewish population in England, or in London, could not be 
ascertained with any degree of certainty. It is calculated that the 
number of Jews in England, foreigners included (the number of whom 
increases greatly every year), is about 35,000, and the number of Jews in 
London about 18,000. Within late years a large number of foreign Jews 
who hawked about in the country, and who are known by the name of 
" travellers," have emigrated to America. Many wealthy foreigners have 
lately gone to California. The greatest number of the Jews in London 
live in the city. It is calculated that no less than 12,000 Jews reside in 
the city. The wealthy Jews, as well as Christians, who have their 
counting-houses, warehouses, and offices in the city, have all removed their 
private residences to the West End of the town within late years. The 
mansions of the Rothschild family, and of Sir Isaac Goldsmid, are con- 
sidered most noble and elegant. That of Sir Moses Montefiore, at 
Ramsgate, is a magnificent seat, and the grounds are very extensive. 
The present Queen, when Princess Victoria, used frequently to borrow 
the keys from her neighbour, Sir Moses Montefiore, to take a walk 
with the Duchess of Kent, round the beautiful space of ground attached 
to Sir Moses's mansion, called East-Cliff Lodge. Sir Isaac Goldsmid's 
town residence, called St. John's Lodge, Regent's Park, is also a mag- 
nificent mansion ; and Gunnersbury Park, the seat of Baron Lionel de 
Rothschild, M.P., is also celebrated for its splendour. Sir M. Montefiore 
also built and supports a beautiful synagogue at his seat in Ramsgate. 

The wealth of the Jews in England, and particularly in London, is very- 
great. At the Stock Exchange the Jews exercise an overwhelming in- 
fluence ; and hence the slackness of business at that Exchange on Sab- 
bath and Festivals, when the Jews do not, or very few of them, attend. 
One of the richest individuals after the Rothschilds, is Sir Isaac Goldsmid, 
who has had also the title of Baron de Goldsmid and da Palmeira conferred 
upon him by the Queen of Portugal. His property in that country is 
considered to yield about 35,000£. a year. There is also S. M. Samuel, 
Denis M. Samuel, Benjamen Cohen, Alderman Salomons, P. J. Salomons, 
Moses Mocatta, &c, all possessed of immense wealth. Two brothers, named 
Lewis and Nathaniel Levy, the contractors for the turnpikes in England, 
are also very wealthy. The greatest shipping houses are the Salomons"', 
in Old Change, Cheapside, Messrs. Moses, Son, and Davis, Aldgate, and 
the Moses', Tower Hill. The great Clothing Establishments of Moses and 
Son, Minories and Aldgate, and that lately established in New Oxford 
Street, as well as those of the Messrs. Hyams, in Gracechurch Street, and 
Oxford Street, are most elegant and superb establishments. The amount 
of property turned round every year in those establishments is calculated 
at many millions sterling. 

Some idea of the immense extent of Messrs. Moses and Son's premises 
may be formed, when we state the fact that the city establishment con- 
sists of no less than seven large houses, (independent of the waiting 
hall), each house being divided into various classified compartments, as 
required in the different branches of the business. 



534 LONDON. 

The Branch Establishment at the West End consist of six houses of an 
equally magnificent description ; and both at the city and at the Oxford 
Street establishments there are communications from one shop to another 
as well as from one show-room to another, which arrangement renders 
each warehouse one vast undivided establishment. 

With reference to the capital here employed we are not in a position to 
furnish anything like an accurate statistic,but no mean amount could suffice 
to keep in operation so gigantic an undertaking. It would be interesting 
to know how many operatives, in various branches of trades, form the 
work-people of the Messrs. Moses and Son's establishments, apart from the 
other several branch houses in Bradford and Sheffield ; thousands are, 
however, employed by these gentlemen. 

The extent of the business carried on may be judged of from an inspec- 
tion of the immense stock of wholesale and retail goods, clothing, hats, 
boots and shoes, outfits, hosiery, furs, and other articles. The extent and 
elegance of the warehouses, externally and internally, are, perhaps with- 
out equal in the world. 

The Messrs. Hyam have two large clothing establishments in London, 
besides others in all the large provincial towns. 

Their houses in Gracechurch Street and Oxford Street are fitted up 
in a splendid style, and are very extensive, embracing all the varied 
departments of gentlemen's wearing apparel. 

Their business is conducted on a liberal scale, and great credit is due 
to them for the improvements they were the first to originate in the 
ready-made clothing trade. Their purchases, as may be supposed, are 
very extensive, and buying (as we are informed they do) for cash, the 
amount of capital they turn in the course of a year must be enormous. 

Some of the highest families in the kingdom are supplied by the 
Messrs, Hyam's establishment. 

The number of hands employed by this enterprising firm amounts to 
upwards of 6000, and the yearly average sum paid for wages exceeds 
■ 200,000*. 

Both the Messrs. Moses and Hyam shut up their establishments on Fri- 
day evenings at dusk, and the whole of Saturday, as well as during 13 
Festival days of the year, viz. — Four days of Passover ; four days of 
Tabernacles ; two days of New Year ; two days of Pentecost ; one day 
of Atonement ; which is no mean sacrifice for the cause of religion. 

The Messrs. Rothschild have seven houses in Europe, viz. — In London, 
Frankfort, Vienna, Naples, Paris, Amsterdam, and Madrid. 

The amount of capital possessed by these firms is supposed to be up- 
wards of twenty-five millions sterling ; the richest of the family is the 
Baron Anselm de Rothschild, of Frankfort, who alone possesses seven 
millions sterling. 

Another remarkable establishment is that of Mr. Nathan Befries, the 
eminent gas-fitter. Mr. Defries has invented the dry gas-metre, by which 
gas is measured without the agent of water. This invention has proved 
eminently successful. Since the invention, he has sold nearly 40,000 of 
the dry gas-metres, among which is the enormous metre intended for the 
New Houses of Parliament, calculated to pass 10,000 feet of gas per 
hour, and pronounced by most of the scientific men of the day, as also 
by the press, to be the most complete measuring machine ever con- 
structed. Mr. Defries has since invented several modes of cooking 
and heating, also for warming and ventilating buildings by gas. 
He has also constructed a bath, by which forty-five gallons of from 50 



JEWS — SYNAGOGUES AND SCHOOLS. 



535 



to 95 degrees can be heated by the aid of gas in four minutes at 
the cost of 2d. ; and he is now employed in very important experiments 
relative to heat and light which will be of great benefit to the public. 

Mr. Nathan Defries has three establishments ; one in St. Martin's 
Lane, one in Regent Street, and another in the Hampstead Road. 

There is, however, a great deal of poverty among the Jews in the city, 
as in Middlesex Street, commonly called Petticoat Lane, and in White- 
chapel, although the charity distributed annually is very great, and it is 
calculated that the Rothschild family alone distribute annually near 
10,000/. in charitable gifts. 

Their Synagogues. There are several Synagogues in the city belonging 
to the German and to the Portuguese Jews. 

The Great Synagogue, Duke's Place, St. James's, Aldgate, is the largest. 

The New Synagogue, Great St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, a very elegant and 
ornamental structure, as seen below, erected from the designs of Mr. John 
Davies, of Great St. Helens. The lower order, as will be seen, is of the • 
Doric, in pilasters, painted in imitation of verde antique, on a porphyry 
ground ; the upper, Corinthian, in pillars and pilasters, in imitation of 
Sienna marble, with three windows in the inter-columns, of a rich arabesque 
pattern, in stained glass. The ceiling is semi-dome, with octagonal coffers 
containing gilded flowers on an azure ground ; and the pavement, which 
is of polished marble, forms an entire circle, &c. 

The Hambro' Synagogue, Fenchurch Street, small and neat. 




THE NEW SYNAGOGUE, GREAT ST. HELEN 



536 LONDON. 

The Portuguese Synagogue, Bevis Marks, St. Mary Axe. 

There are two minor Synagogues in Gun Yard, and Cutler Street, 
Houndsditch, called the Polish Synagogues. 

There are three synagogues at the west end of London. 

The Western Synagogue, St. Alban's Place, Haymarket, is the largest. 

The Maiden Lane Synagogue, Covent Garden. 

The West Londoii Synagogue of British Jews, or Reform Synagogue, 
Margaret Street, Cavendish Square. To this Synagogue belong Portu- 
guese and German Jews, and is the wealthiest of all. It has only been 
established 8 years. They have curtailed the service, abridged the 
ritual, and observe only one day of the Festival, whilst the orthodox 
Jews observe two. The members of that Synagogue are excommuni- 
cated by a declaration of the late chief Rabbi ; but this is only a matter of 
form, as they have lately partaken of every rite to which the orthodox 
Jews are entitled. 

Their Schools. — There are four Jewish schools in the city and three at 
the West End. In the city are — 

1. The Jews' Free School, Bell Lane, Spitalfields, about 1200 boys and 
girls. 

2. The Infant School, Houndsditch, about 400 infants. 

3. Orphan Asylum School, Tenter Ground, Goodman's Fields. 

4. The schools attached to the Sephardim Synagogue, Bevis Marks. 
At the West End— 

The Western Jewish School for boys, 59 A, Greek Street, Soho. 

Ditto for girls, 20, Dean Street, Soho. 

West Metropolitan Jewish School for girls, Little Queen Street, and for 
boys, in High Holborn. 

All these schools are supported by voluntary contributions. 

Sir Anthony de Rothschild, Bart., is the president of the Jews' Free 
School, Bell Lane ; and the late Baroness de Rothschild provided annually 
clothing for all the 1200 children. 

Public Institutions. — The Jews' and General Literary and Scientific 
Institution, Sussex Hall, Leadenhall Street, chiefly supported by Jews ; 
where concerts and lectures take place, contains also a circulating labrary 
and large reading rooms. 

The Rabbinical College, or Beth Hamedrash, Smith Buildings, Leaden- 
hall Street, contains one of the most splendid Jewish Libraries in Europe, 
collected by three generations previous to the life of the late Dr. Hers- 
chell, Chief Rabbi of England, and is open to the public by tickets, to be 
had of the Rev. Dr. Adler, the Chief Rabbi, Crosby Square, Great St. 
Helens. 

Lectures are delivered gratuitously to the public every Friday even- 
ing by some of the most learned Jews in the Kingdom, among whom is 
Mr. M. H. Bresslau, of 18, Mansell Street, Professor of Languages, Mr. 
J. L. Levison, of Brighton, &c. 

The Jews' Hospital, Mile End, a large building in which decayed old 
men as well as children of both sexes find an asylum. Many boys are 
taught a trade, such as shoemakers, carpenters, turners, <fec. Supported 
by voluntary contributions. 

The Hand in Hand Asylum for decayed age, Duke's Place, St. James, 
Aldgate. 

The Widows' Home, for poor widows, Duke Street, Aldgate. 

Alms Houses erected by Sir Moses Montefiore, Jewry Street, Aldgate. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, MUSEUMS, AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES. 537 

Almshouses erected by A. L. Moses, Esq., situated at Mile-end. 

Almshouses, erected by Joel Emanuel, Esq., situate at Wellclose 
Square, East Smithfield. 

The Orphan Asylum, Tenter Ground, Goodman's Fields, with a school 
attached. It was built by A. L. Moses, Esq., and is supported by volun- 
tary contributions. It contains 22 inmates, 14 girls and 8 boys. 

Jews are now admissible to all public offices and dignities, except to a 
seat in Parliament. It is anticipated, however, in this enlightened age, 
that a people so loyal and so industrious will, before another session 
passes over, sit by the side of the Christian in the legislative councils of 
the nation. 

In London, Sir Moses Montefiore and Mr. David Salomons have filled 
the office of high sheriff. Baron Meyer Rothschild and Sir Isaac Lyon 
Goldsmid have also filled the same office. Sir Moses Montefiore, Benja- 
min Cohen, Esq., and others, have also filled the office of magistrate. 
Benjamin S. Phillips is now common councilman, and Mr. David Salo- 
mons alderman, in the city of London. Mr. David Barnett has filled the 
office of town councillor in Birmingham, Mr. Emanuel in Portsmouth 
and Mr. Alexander the same office in Bristol for many years. Mr. 
Alexander is now alderman in Bristol ; and there are several Jewish poor- 
law guardians. Indeed, the feeling of Christians towards Jews has in late 
years become very liberal in this country. Christians subscribe to Jewish 
charities, and Jews are very munificent supporters of all Christian cha- 
rities. 



THE LEARNED SOCIETIES, MUSEUMS, AND PUBLIC 
LIBRARIES. 



I. CHARTERED SOCIETIES, INCLUDING MUSEUMS ESTABLISHED 
BY ACTS OF PARLIAMENT. 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, SOMERSET HOUSE. 
Date of Charter, 1662. 

The learned societies of London are numerous and important, and 
their influence is diffused imperceptibly, yet certainly throughout the 
land. There is no portion of the empire which can be properly said 
to be unconcerned in the proceedings of bodies of men, who, in their 
constant search after truth, and diligent investigation of the laws of 
nature, are continually advancing our knowledge and our resources, 
and contributing to our comfort and welfare, in the numberless de- 
tails of e very-day life. A higher office is also theirs, namely, that of 
dissipating prejudice and ignorance, and opposing a mass of sound 
knowledge, and of careful theory, to the erroneous and rashly-formed 
opinions of the vulgar. The association of learned men for such ob- 
jects was begun in other countries before it reached our own ; and 
some of the rules which regulated the ancient Academia dei Lyncei 
at Rome, of which Galileo was a member, are still the guiding rules 
of all similar associations. The members of that eminent society 

A A 3 



538 LONDON. 

were exhorted to pas9 over in silence all political controversies, and 
quarrels of every kind, and wordy disputes, which give occasion to 
deceit, unfriendliness, and hatred, and to seek after peace, and free- 
dom from molestation in their studies. They were required to be 
eager in their pursuit of real knowledge, in their study of nature 
and mathematics, and at the same time not to neglect " the ornaments 
of elegant literature and philosophy, which, like a graceful garment, 
adorn the whole body of science/' They were exhorted " in the 
pious love of wisdom, and the praise of the most good and most 
high God," to give their minds first to observation and reflection, and 
afterwards to writing and publishing. Their meetings were not to be 
for recitation and declamation, but for transacting necessary business; 
and they were especially warned to " let the first fruits of wisdom be 
love," and to be so united to each other by strict ties that no inter- 
ruption should occur in this sincere bond of faith and love, emanating 
from the source of virtue and philosophy. The spirit which regulated 
this academy, during its brief existence of 23 years, is that which 
forms the strength of our own learned societies, and without which 
none can long or honourably pursue its course. This Italian Academy, 
which was only one out of many in that country, was founded by 
the Marchese Frederico Cesi in 1609, and expired at the death of its 
founder in 1632. The French established, in 1635, the Academie 
Franqaise, chiefly for the improvement of the national language ; 
but to England belongs the honour of being the first, next to Italy, 
to establish a society for the prosecution of experimental philosophy. 
This took place about the year 1645, when several learned men in 
London, taking no part in the political agitations of the time, agreed 
to meet together once a week to discourse on mathematical and phi- 
losophical subjects. A few years later, when two or three of these 
individuals were appointed to offices in the University of Oxford, they 
gathered around them a similar party in that city. Thus in two places 
there arose the germs of that noble and valuable institution, the Royal 
Society. 

" The men that formed the Royal Society," says Bishop Burnet, 
" were Sir Robert Moray, Lord Brouncker, a profound mathematician, 
and Dr. Ward. Ward was a man of deep search, went deep into 
mathematical studies, and was a very dexterous man, if not too dex- 
terous, for his sincerity was much questioned. Many physicians and 
other ingenious men went into the society for natural philosophy. 
But he who laboured most, at the greatest charge, and with the most 
success at experiments, was the Hon. Robert Boyle. He was a very 
devout Christian, humble, and modest almost to a fault, of a most 
spotless and exemplary life in all respects." 

It was not till after the Restoration in 1660 that the members ot 
this body formed themselves into a regular society, and framed a set 
of rules for their mutual guidance. These were confirmed by Royal 
Charter in 1662, and the infant society was looked upon with in- 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 539 

terest and favour by the king, as well as cordially welcomed by the 
scientific world in general. The meetings were at this time held at 
Gresham College, in Bishopsgate Street, and continued to be carried 
on there with great success, until the plague broke out and dispersed 
the assembly; and subsequently, the great fire destroyed so much 
of the city that the authorities were obliged to take possession of 
the rooms the society had hitherto occupied. Apartments were then 
offered for their temporary use in Arundel House, and these were 
gladly accepted and entered upon. At the same time Mr. Howard 
presented them with a valuable library, consisting of several thousand 
printed volumes, and numerous manuscripts which had been purchased 
by his grandfather, Thomas, Earl of Arundel, during his embassy at 
Vienna. 

At this time (1667) the number of members amounted to 200, 
and their rate of subscription was Is. per week each. But many of 
them were unable to pay even this small sum, so that frequent meet- 
ings and deliberations were held as to the state of the society's funds. 
It is painful to read that among the members excused from payment, 
on account of the state of their finances, was Mr. Isaac Newton, 
whose investigations had already began to enlighten the world, 
through the medium of this society. " The generosity of the 
council," says Mr. Weld (the present assistant secretary and his- 
torian to the society), " was not without its reward, as ' the poor 
Cambridge student/ grateful for the consideration shown him, was, 
probably, incited to labour more zealously for science, and for the 
Royal Society, to whom he communicated all his noble discoveries. 
The great philosopher, praying to be excused from the payment 
of Is. per week, contrasts curiously with his subsequent wealth. "* 
Newton had been proposed for election as a Fellow of the Royal 
Society, on Dec. 21, 1671, by the Bishop of Sarum (Seth Ward), 
on which occasion he modestly wrote, " I am very sensible of the 
honour done to me, by the Bishop of Sarum, in proposing me a candi- 
date, and which I hope will be further conferred upon me by my elec- 
tion into the society ; and if so, I shall endeavour to testify my grati- 
tude by communicating what my poor and solitary endeavours can 
effect towards the promoting their philosophical designs." He was 
elected on the 11th of January following, when he was 29 years 
of age. The existence of the Philosophical Transactions , in which 
the proceedings and discoveries of the society are registered, dates 
from March 6, 1664-5. 

Various efforts were made by the society to found a college of 
their own, in furtherance of which their benefactor, Mr. Howard, 
gave them a piece of ground near Arundel House, and a design for 
the building. Sir Christopher Wren and Mr. Hooke also sent plans. 
The latter was curator of the institution, with a salary of 80/. per 

* Flam steed, in his private journal, states that " Newton was obliged to read [*. e. teach] 
mathematics for a salary at Cambridge." 



540 LONDON. 

annum. But neither of the designs was acted upon, nor was ad- 
vantage taken of another scheme, that of obtaining the grant of 
Chelsea College for the purposes of the society. In the first case 
the want of funds appears to have been the obstacle ; in the second, 
the inconvenient distance from town, and the dilapidated state 
of the building. Under these circumstances the proposals of the 
Mercers' Company that the society should return to Gresham College, 
called also the Royal Exchange, was willingly acceded to. The 
grant of Chelsea College was, however, the means of improving the 
society's funds ; for, when found to be unfit for their purpose, it was 
purchased back for the kings use for 1300/., which sum, together 
with pecuniary help from other quarters, enabled the council to 
purchase an annual income, and to establish their affairs on a more 
secure basis. 

From this time their progress was rapid and successful, the different 
committees working in their several departments. Their activity had 
been shown several years before by the division of labour agreed upon 
between them, which was as follows: — 1. Mechanical, to consider 
and improve all mechanical inventions. 2. Astronomical and optical. 
3. Anatomical. 4. Chemical. 5. Georgical. 6. For histories of trade. 
7. For collecting all the phenomena of nature hitherto observed, and 
all experiments made and recorded. 8. For correspondence. 

It was naturally to be expected that in the infancy of experimental 
science, much that was trivial as well as much that was important, 
should be brought before the society. The members were not yet in 
a condition to estimate rightly either the one or the other. On the 
one hand, being fearful of rejecting what might lead to some discovery, 
they countenanced investigations and witnessed experiments which, in 
the broader light of science, appear perfectly ridiculous ; on the other 
hand, being doubtful as to the most important theories and discoveries, 
they were not fully alive to the grand advances they were making by 
means of the indefatigable Newton, though they always upheld and 
honoured him to the best of their power. The first communication of 
his appeared in the 80th number of the Philosophical Trayisactions, 
containing his discoveries on the nature of light, refractions, and colours. 
These were assailed by various individuals, but were incapable of being 
shaken. The experiments had all been made in 1666, when he was 
only 23 years of age, and were now first brought to light in 1672. 

The real advance of the society was not so apparent to the 
world in general as the weaker points to which we have alluded. 
These were readily seized, and converted into weapons of attack. 
A Warwick physician (Stubbe) and a Somersetshire clergyman 
(Crosse) had fiercely accused the society of an attempt to under- 
mine the universities, to bring in popery, and to introduce absurd 
novelties; and at a later period Sir John Hill actually devoted a 
quarto volume to the attempt to pour contempt and ridicule on this 
illustrious body. Attacks of this nature, together with straitened 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 541 

means, were some impediment, but no real evil, to the society, for 
they induced greater care as to what was submitted to the public 
eye. 

It was on April 28, 1686, that the manuscript of Newton's Prin- 
cipia was placed in the hands of the society, being dedicated to that 
body. Halley, the astronomer, was at that time clerk or amanuensis 
to the society, and thus acknowledged their feelings on the matter: — 
" Sir, — Your incomparable treatise, intituled Philosophies Naturalis 
Principia Mathematical was, by Dr. Vincent, presented to the Royal 
Society on the 28th instant ; and they were so very sensible of the 
great honour you have done them by your dedication, that they 
immediately ordered you their most hearty thanks, and that the 
council should be summoned to consider about printing thereof. 
But by reason of the president's attendance upon the king, and the 
absence of our vice-president, whom the good weather hath drawn 
out of town, there has not since been any authentic council to re- 
solve what to do in the matter; so that on Wednesday last the 
society, in their meeting, judging that so excellent a work ought 
not to have its publication longer delayed, resolved to print it at 
their own charge, in a large quarto, of a fair letter, and that this 
their resolution should be signified to you, and your opinion 
thereon be desired, so that it might be gone about with all speed." 
Notwithstanding this generous intention, the society appears to have 
been too much embarassed at the time to print the book, and the 
disinterested Halley took it upon himself. Thus the council sub- 
sequently ordered that " Mr. Newton's book be printed, and that 
Mr. Halley undertake the business of looking after it, and printing it 
at his own charge, which he has engaged to do." The Principia was 
published about the middle of 1687, with some Latin hexameters 
prefixed in praise of the illustrious author, from the pen of his noble- 
minded friend, Halley. The price of a copy of the first edition did 
not exceed 125. The manuscript of this immortal work, entirely in 
Newton's own hand, is considered the greatest treasure of the Royal 
Society. Newton's reputation was fully established by the publication 
of this volume, and from that time honours and riches began to pour 
in upon him. In the following year he was returned to Parliament 
as one of the representatives of his university. In 1695 he was ap- 
pointed Warden, and in 1699 Master of the Mint, and in the latter 
year he was also elected a foreign member of the French Academy. 
In 1703 he became President of the Royal Society, and was annually 
re-elected during the remaining 25 years of his life. 

In 1705 he was knighted by Queen Anne, who always treated him 
with marked esteem, and on the accession of George I. he was still 
honoured and respected at court, and admitted to the personal friend- 
ship of the Princess of Wales, who was also a correspondent of 
Leibnitz. From the period of his being elected president, up to a 
few weeks before his death, he presided at almost every meeting of 



542 



LONDON. 




SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 



the fellows of the Royal Society. 
In the year of his election he pre- 
sented his treatise on Optics to the 
society; this was first published in 
English, and then so ably translated 
into Latin by Dr. Clarke, that New- 
ton presented him with 500/. on the 
occasion. In the following year oc- 
curred his unhappy quarrel with 
Flamsteed, the astronomer-royal, 
who had been established at the 
Observatory at Greenwich ever since 
the erection of that building in 1675, 
and was about to publish his ob- 
servations, being encouraged thereto 
by Prince George of Denmark, a 
fellow of the Royal Society. These 
observations were submitted to a committee of the Royal Society, and 
warmly approved; but their publication was long delayed by the mis- 
understanding between their author and the president, and when they 
did at length appear, they were published in a form so little to Flam- 
steed's taste that he collected all the copies he could and burnt them, 
printing, at his own cost, another and more correct transcript of his 
observations. This quarrel is spoken of by Weld as " a melancholy 
instance that even giants in intellect are not free from the failings of 
their less gifted brethren." In the same year the society opened a 
communication with a small philosophical association at Edinburgh, 
as it had previously done with one in Dublin. In 1709 the society 
lost one of its oldest fellows, Sir Godfrey Copley, whose name is 
generally known by the Copley medal, awarded to the authors of 
brilliant discoveries, and originating in a bequest of 100/., for the 
advancement of natural science. 

The society had received various intimations from the Mercers' 
Company that they were not long to remain in possession of Gresbam 
College, and it was under the presidency of Sir Isaac Newton that a 
change was effected, and that they became at last located in a house 
of their own. This was not done without opposition in some quar- 
ters, and the failure of repeated attempts to obtain from the queen a 
grant of ground at Westminster, or from the trustees of the Cotton 
Library leave to meet in their apartments ; Burnet relates that " Lord 
Halifax moved the House of Lords to petition the queen that the 
Cotton Library and the Queen's Library should be joined, and that 
the Royal Society, who had a very good library at Gresham College, 
would remove and hold their meetings there as soon as it was made 
convenient for them." But upon the failure of all these attempts 
the society at length purchased a house in Crane Court, which, as 
their president informed them, was to be sold, " and being in the 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. — THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 543 

middle of the town, and out of noise, might be a proper place to be 
purchased by the society for their meetings." Here they held their 
first meeting on the 8th of November, 1710, and soon after their 
library and museum were established there likewise. For a period 
of seventy-two years they occupied this house, gathering fresh 
renown, and widely extending their reputation. In the month 
following their removal to Crane Court, the society gained fresh 
importance by being appointed by the Queen visitors and directors of 
the Observatory at Greenwich; but this appointment caused Flam- 
steed the keenest vexation. His dislike to Newton had increased 
with his infirmities, so that he wrote with great bitterness and injus- 
tice — " Sir Isaac Newton still continues his designs upon me, under 
pretence of taking care of the Observatory, and hinders me all he 
can ; but, I thank God for it, hitherto without success/' 

By favour of Queen Anne, who greatly countenanced and encou- 
raged the society, instructions were prepared for ministers and 
governors going abroad, who were enjoined to promote the interests 
of the society in foreign lands; and on the decease of one of the 
fellows, Robert Keck, Esq., in 1719, a bequest of 5001. was expressly 
assigned for the purpose of carrying on foreign correspondence by 
means of a paid officer. Other bequests about this time increased 
the property of the society, which was now so considerable, that the 
council, in 1724, memorialized George I. for a licence to purchase 
and hold lands, &c, in mortmain. The king referred the matter to 
the solicitor general, whose opinion being favourable, the licence was 
granted. In the year following the society, at their own expense, 
sent barometers and thermometers, to the number of eighteen, to 
several of their correspondents abroad, who were willing to assist 
them by making observations. In this way a great impulse was given 
to the study of meteorology. 

But the society was now called to bear -the loss of its brightest 
ornament. On the 20th of March, 1726-7, Sir Isaac Newton died, 
at the advanced age of eighty-five. According to Hearne, he had 
promised to be a benefactor to the Royal Society, and he had ample 
means of doing so, for his personal estate was worth 32,000/., but 
he left no other legacy to the society than his own fame, which far 
surpasses all pecuniary wealth. Among the relics of this great 
philosopher, still in the keeping of the Royal Society, are the first 
perfect reflecting telescope ever invented, which bears on its stand 
the following inscription, The first Reflecting Tellescope in- 
vented bi S R Isaac Newton, and made with his own hands 
in the year 1671. Also, one of the solar dials made by him when 
a boy. This dial was taken down from the south wall of the Manor 
House at Woolsthorpe in 1844, and presented to the society by the 
Rev. Charles Turnor, F.R.S. The name of Newton, with the ex- 
ception of the first two letters, which have been obliterated by time, 
appears to have been inscribed upon the dial in rude capital letters. 



544 



LONDON. 




NEWTON S REFLECTING TELESCOPE. 



The gnomon of this dial 
has been lost. The dial 
is preserved in a strong 
oaken box, with a plate- 
glass cover, and on the 
under surface of the lid 
is a sketch of the house, 
showing the position of 
the dial*. The society 
is also in possession of 
three portraits of Newton 
in oil, one painted by 
Jervas, another by Mar- 
chand, and the third by 
Vanderbank. Likewise 
the original mask of Sir 
Isaac's face, from the cast 
taken after death, which 
belonged to Roubilliac. 
Also a lock of silver-white hair of the philosopher, which is now 
inclosed in a small mahogany box with a glass cover. 

The Royal Society is 
in possession of a most 
interesting volume, in 
which the autographs 
of Newton, and all the 
other presidents, are en- 
tered. This is the char- 
ter book, richly bound 
in crimson velvet, with 
gold clasps and corners, 
having on one side a 
gold plate bearing the 
shield of the society, on 
the other a correspond- 
ing plate, showing the 
crest. The leaves of 
this book are of the 
finest vellum, and the 
first two pages are 
adorned with the arms 
of England, and those 
of the society, superbly 
emblazoned. Then follow the second and third charters and the 
statutes, extending over sixty -six pages. Eleven blank leaves 

* The accompanying engravings of these two interesting relics were made from sketches taken 
from the objects themselves, by permission of the council of the Royal Society. 




NEWTON'S SOLAR DIAL. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 545 

then intervene, after which the autograph portion commences 
with the signatures, Charles B., Founder; James, Fellow; and 
George Rupert, Fellow, inclosed within an ornamented scroll border, 
with the royal shield. The next page contains the signatures of 
various foreign ambassadors, and the succeeding ones those of the 
fellows, among which the eye is arrested by names glorious to our 
country, and illustrious throughout the world. This charter book is 
of continually-increasing value; for here are entered, as years pass 
on, the names of all the distinguished persons of our own, and many 
of foreign countries. The autographs of the kings and queens of 
England, as well as those of many other nations, have here been 
duly entered, and our present Queen has signed her name on a richly- 
illuminated page, which also contains the signatures of Prince Albert, 
and the Kings of Prussia and Saxony. 

Sir Isaac Newton was succeeded by Sir Hans Sloane, a physician, 
and a most diligent naturalist, whose splendid collections afterwards 
formed the nucleus of the British Museum. Sir Hans Sloane ob- 
tained the favourable regard of the King (George II.), and of his 
Queen, to the society : he was also the means of introducing the 
practice of inoculation, the Queen taking courage from his opinion to 
try it on her own children. By order of government the society took 
the oversight of new inventions, which were exhibited before them 
and registered previous to being patented. The society was now 
continually receiving specimens or valuable information from various 
other bodies with whom it held friendly correspondence. It had 
been the desire of Sir Isaac Newton to encourage the formation of 
scientific societies in the provinces. His successor trod in his steps, 
and we find that archaeology, as well as science, was warmly encou- 
raged. In 1734 valuable collections of plants, animals, and minerals 
were received from America, while the Apothecaries' Company at 
Chelsea sent annual contributions of dried plants. 

With all these attractions the meetings were well attended ; but 
the members were again sadly in arrear with their subscriptions, no 
less a sum than 1844/. 16s. being due. Great exertions were made 
by the council, and at last they succeeded in restoring the society to 
a state of prosperity. In 1741 Sir Hans Sloane resigned his office 
on account of ill health, and was succeeded by Martin Folkes. But 
it is not our purpose to give a list of the presidents generally. Great 
improvement was effected in chronometers under the encouragement 
of this society ; the subject of ventilation, especially in prisons, began 
to attract their enlightened study, while, at the same time, Bradley, 
who had succeeded Halley and Flamsteed at the Royal Observatory, 
was making important additions to astronomical science, in acknow- 
ledgment of which the Copley medal was awarded to him. In 1757 
it was awarded to Lord Charles Cavendish for an improved form of 
thermometer, and in 1758 to Dolland, the discoverer of achromatic 
lenses. The transit of Venus, which Halley had foretold for 1761, 



54>G LONDON. 

caused the society to take active measures in sending out observers 
to St. Helena and the Cape of Good Hope, and during these in- 
teresting proceedings George III. ascended the throne. The observa- 
tions were not, however, satisfactory, and astronomers looked with 
anxiety for the next occasion, in 1769, for taking them with greater 
accuracy. The King entered warmly into the subject, and ordered 
4000/. to be placed at their disposal. Lieutenant Cook and Mr. 
Green were sent to the Pacific, Messrs. Dymond and Wales to Hud^- 
son's Bay, and Mr. Call to Madras. Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) 
Banks, a gentleman of large fortune, asked leave to accompany Cook, 
and took with him Dr. Solan der, a Swedish botanist, two draughtsmen, 
and four servants. The observations on this occasion were much more 
successful than in 1761. Soon afterwards the society took up the 
subject of Arctic voyages of discovery, which were also warmly en* 
couraged by the King. 

Amidst all this activity, there was also unfortunately a subject of 
discord. It will scarcely be believed that this respected the relative 
properties of knobbed and pointed lightning-conductors. An appli- 
cation was made on the part of government for information from the 
Royal Society, as to the best form of lightning-conductor for the pro- 
tection of a powder-magazine at Purfleet. A committee was ap- 
pointed to consider the matter, consisting of Cavendish, Watson, 
Franklin, Robertson, and Wilson. The first four recommended 
pointed conductors ; the last-named persisted in recommending the 
blunt form of conductor. This apparently trivial circumstance after- 
wards led to a serious quarrel in the society, which lasted three years; 
for, unfortunately, after tbe pointed conductors were erected, the 
Purfleet magazine received some slight damage from lightning. A 
second government application now led to a second meeting of 
the most eminent electricians, who a second time decided against 
Mr. Wilson. His theory had in the meantime become mixed up 
with party politics, so that the populace, and even a portion of the 
upper classes, took up his quarrel, and considered that those who 
opposed him were biassed by Franklin, the inventor of pointed con- 
ductors, a name now obnoxious, as everything connected with Ame- 
rica was sure to be, when England was in the height of her quarrel 
with her American dependents. These contentions disturbed the 
peace of the society, and some affirm that they led to the resignation 
of the president, Sir John Pringle, in 1777. He was succeeded in 
the presidency by Sir Joseph Banks (already named as having accom- 
panied Cook to the Pacific), who occupied that honourable position 
for the long period of 41 years, during which the society enjoyed a 
large amount of fame and prosperity. Science progressed in a re- 
markable degree, as may be gathered from the eloquent language of 
Cuvier, who thus speaks of the period in question : — " During this 
epoch, so memorable in the history of the human mind, the scientific 
men of England occupy a glorious position in the intellectual pur- 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 547 

suits common to all civilized people. They have confronted the 
ice of either pole ; they have not left a spot of land in the 
whole ocean un visited ; they have increased tenfold the catalogue 
of the kingdoms of nature ; they have peopled the heavens with 
planets and satellites hefore unknown ; they have counted, as it 
were, the stars of the milky way ; and if chemistry has in modern 
times assumed altogether a new aspect, the facts which they have 
furnished have essentially contributed to the change : hydrogen, 
oxygen, and carbonic acid have been discovered by them ; to 
them, also, do we owe the decomposition of water ; new and sin- 
gular metals, in great number, have resulted from their analysis ; the 
nature of the fixed alkalies was unknown until demonstrated by 
them. At their bidding the steam-engine and the science of me- 
chanics have wrought miracles, and have placed their country above 
all others in almost every kind of manufacture ; and if, as no reasons- 
able man can doubt, such success is due much more to the general 
spirit of activity which pervades the nation, than to the influence of 
any individual, whatever his position, or however exalted his merits, 
it must nevertheless be admitted that Sir Joseph Banks never abused 
his trust, or exerted his influence but for the good of mankind." 

But this good and great man was not without enemies. There 
were many who misunderstood and envied him, and who pretended 
to think the Royal Society degraded by the election of " a mere 
amateur," as they were pleased to call him, to the chair which New- 
ton had filled. Sir Joseph Banks was not a mathematician, but he 
was a clever and assiduous naturalist, and it was but just that natural 
history should be honoured in his person, as mathematics had been 
in that of the immortal Newton. Stormy meetings on the subject 
ended on the 8th of January, 1784, in the passing of a resolution 
that " this Society do approve of Sir Joseph Banks as their Presi- 
dent, and will support him." A few dissentient members resigned, 
and from that period to the end of his life Sir Joseph Banks appears 
to have enjoyed the full confidence of the society, although he could 
not always preserve general peace and unanimity. 

A further proof of the royal favour was now afforded in the offer 
of apartments in Somerset House, and although these were in some 
respects less convenient than those of their own humble dwelling in 
Crane Court, and although, in order to occupy them, it became ne- 
cessary to part with the museum, which could not be accommodated 
within the allotted space, yet so highly was the offer esteemed, that 
the council decided on embracing the proposal, and rejoiced in the 
more dignified position thus given to their society. Whether the 
accession of honour was really so great as to deserve the sacrifice of 
the museum (which, when close at hand, must have been of great 
service to the members in their studies) is a question we are not 
called upon to decide ; but the whole of the collections were actually 
bestowed on the British Museum, where, among the thousands 



54fS LONDON. 

of objects of interest, they have no longer an individual existence, 
and no one can say, " this or that is due to the labours of the Royal 
Society." At the instigation of the Royal Society, and at the ex- 
pense of its members, a medal was struck in memory of the la- 
mented Captain Cook, whose massacre in 1779 caused deep regret 
throughout the country. In 1781 the society acquired new renown 
by Sir W. Herschel's discovery of a new planet which he named 
Georgium Sidus, that all might know it was first observed in the 
reign of George III., a sovereign to whom science was so much in- 
debted, but which name was afterwards changed, at the proposal of 
Bode, to Uranus. The Copley medal was awarded to Sir William 
at the anniversary of 1781. Two years later, dissension again arose 
in the society, the President giving great offence by endeavouring to 
check the too easy admission of Fellows. He laid down two princi- 
ples : first, that any person who had successfully cultivated science, 
especially by original investigations, should be admitted, whatever 
might be his rank or fortune ; secondly, that men of wealth or sta- 
tion, disposed to promote, adorn, and patronize science, should, with 
due caution and deliberation, be allowed to enter. When candidates 
were proposed who could not be placed in either of these classes, 
the influence of the President was exerted to prevent their election. 
Great discontent often arose on these occasions, but it was not openly 
displayed till 1783, when it burst forth with great vehemence. Dr. 
Hutton, Professor of Mathematics at Woolwich, was also foreign 
secretary of the society, but in the opinion of the President and 
others, his duties at Woolwich interfered with his duty to them, so 
that at last they passed a resolution that the foreign secretary be 
required to live in London. Dr. Hutton immediately resigned, and 
his party took violent umbrage. The bitterness which resulted from 
this quarrel was fostered by the angry debates of Dr. Horsley and 
others, who wished to take this opportunity of overthrowing the Pre- 
sident. This intemperate partisan threatened the secession of the 
mathematical party if his measures were not carried, exclaiming, 
" The President will then be left with his train of feeble amateurs, 
and that bauble* (the mace) upon the table, the ghost of that society 
in which philosophy once reigned, and Newton presided as her 
minister." But it began to be suspected that Dr. Horsley himself 
was aiming at the President's chair, and this was so little desired, 
even by his own party, that it did more than anything else to restore 
order. The year 1784 was a memorable one for the society, on 
account of the discovery (made simultaneously, as it would appear, 

* The mace of the Royal Society was presented by Charles II. in 1663. It is of silver, richly 

§ilt, and weighs 190 oz. avoirdupois. Embossed figures adorn it of a rose, harp, thistle, and 
eur de lys, emblematic of England, Ireland, Scotland, and France. Great celebrity has been 
attached to this mace, under the idea that it is the identical " bauble" turned out of the House 
of Commons when Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Long Parliament. But not only is there no 
historical ground for this belief, but by diligent search Mr. Weld has discovered the original 
warrant, ordering a mace to be made for the Royal Society. This fact destroys an illusion which 
has given an almost sacred character to the society's mace. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



549 



by Cavendish and 
Watt) of the com- 
position of water. 
In the following 
year Sir W. Her- 
schel began to con- 
struct his 40-ft. 
telescope, the cost 
of which, amount- 
ing to 4000/., was 
generously borne by 
the King. In 1788 
the first instance of 
the subdivision of 
scientific labour in 
the metropolis oc- 
curred in the esta- 
blishment of the 
Linnsean Society. 
An Italian profes- 
sor, named Volta, 
began, in 1793, to 
communicate to the 




world, through the 
medium of the 
Royal Society, his 
discoveries in elec- 
tricity, and won at 
their hands the Cop- 
ley medal. Soon 
after the society re- 
ceived a valuable 
present of oriental 
manuscripts from 
Sir William Jones, 
and also a gift of 
1000Z. from Count 
Rumford, for the bi- 
ennial bestowment 
of a gold and silver 
medal on the author 
of the best discovery 
or improvement on 
the subject of light 
or heat. The first 
medals were given 



HENRY CAVENDISH. 



to the Count himself, as no other discoveries had been made of equal 
importance with his own. In 1800 the Royal Institution in Albemarle 
Street originated with the Fellows of the Royal Society, and in 1807 
the Geological Society. The subject of standard weights and measures 
occupied the attention of the Royal Society for a long period. A 
"Pendulum Committee" was likewise appointed, and proper persons 
were sent out with the north-west and the Polar expeditions to make 
scientific observations. 

In 1801 the discoveries of Sir Humphry Davy began to draw at- 
tention to that distinguished philosopher; and from that period to 
1829 there is scarcely a volume of the Transactions that is not en- 
riched by a communication from him. In 1806 his paper on chemi- 
cal agencies attracted the admiration of all Europe, won Napoleons 



550 LONDON. 

prize of 3000 fr., and was crowned by the Institute of France, though 
we were at open war with that country. In 1816 the safety lamp 
was presented and explained to the society. The coal-owners ac- 
knowledged this invention by subscribing 25 00Z. for a service of plate, 
which they presented to Davy. 

At the death of George III., in 1820, the society lost a valuable 
friend. The same year also took from them their respected President, 
Sir Joseph Banks, whose death was generally and sincerely regretted. 
Dr. Wollaston took his office for a few months, but could only be pre- 
vailed on to sustain it until the anniversary meeting, when it was 
bestowed on Sir Humphry Davy. The brilliant career of this distin- 
guished man was nearly over when he was chosen to this highly 
honourable post; the following are a few of the principal events 
which occurred under his presidency : — geological discoveries by Dr. 
Buckland ; philosophical communications by Sir John Herschel, and 
researches during the Arctic Expedition by Captain (now Colonel) 
Sabine, won for each the award of the Copley medal ; trigonometrical 
operations were carried on for connecting the meridians of Paris and 
Greenwich ; a plan for calculating and printing mathematical tables 
by machinery was submitted by Mr. Babbage, but, after years of 
labour and cost, was suspended by the withdrawal of government 
aid ; a valuable invention for the protection of ships from lightning 
was made by Mr. (now Sir William) Snow Harris, and warmly ap- 
proved by Sir Humphry Davy and the council, who urged its im- 
mediate adoption. Two gold medals of the value of 50 guineas each 
were awarded by George IV., as honorary premiums for important 
discoveries (they are continued by her present Majesty). 

In 1827 Sir Humphry Davy, on account of declining health, re- 
signed the Presidency, and was succeeded by Mr. Davies Gilbert. 

The year previous to this event the society obtained increased 
accommodation at Somerset House by the grant of rooms formerly 
used for the business of the Lottery Office, which was still further 
extended some years later by the addition of the rooms of the 
Privy Seal Office. In 1828 Dr. Wollaston established the Dona- 
tion Fund, vesting 2000/., the dividends from which, at his decease, 
were to be liberally expended in promoting experimental research. 
Other benefactors soon followed his example, raising the fund to 
3410/. In 1829 the Earl of Bridgewater left 8000/., in order that a 
person or persons selected by the President, might write, print, and 
publish 1000 copies of a work on the power, wisdom, and good- 
ness of God as manifested in creation. The President, with the 
advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London, ap- 
pointed eight gentlemen to write separate treatises. Thus arose the 
celebrated Bridgewater Treatises, which, with their authors, are very 
generally known. The science of meteorology was at this time 
earnestly studied, and a water barometer, contrived by the late Pro- 
fessor Daniel, was placed in the hall of the society's apartments. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC, — THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 551 

That eminent man died suddenly in 1845, in the presence of the 
council at their meeting. In 1830 William IV., on ascending the 
throne, was addressed in the customary manner, and became patron 
of the society, declaring that " he would be proud to take every op- 
portunity of promoting the interests of an institution whose great 
object is the cultivation of science, and the discovery of truth." 
During this year the President resigned his chair, and was succeeded 
bv the Duke of Sussex. The opening address of his Royal Highness 
was one of much beauty and interest, and he thus defined the duties 
of the President : — " The ostensible duties, in fact, of your President 
are chiefly ministerial : he is your organ to ask and receive your deci- 
sions upon the various questions which are submitted to you ; and he 
is your public voice to announce them. Though he presides at the 
meetings of your Council, he possesses but one voice among manv ; 
incurring an equal responsibility in common with every one of its 
members. He is your official representative in the administration of 
the affairs of the British Museum ; he presides in your name, by 
virtue of your election of him at the board of visitors of the Roval 
Observatory as appointed by his Maje.-ty's warrant ; he is your me- 
dium of communication with public bodies, and with the members of 
the government upon the various subjects important to the interests of 
science, which are either submitted to your consideration or which 
are recommended by you through your Council for the consideration 
of others. For many of these functions," adds his Royal Highness, 
" I feel myself to be somewhat prepared by my habits of life, as well 
as by my public occupations; and for some of them, if I mav be 
permitted to say so, by that very rank in which Providence has 
placed me as a member of the Royal Family of this country; for 
though it would be most repugnant to my principles and wishes, that 
the weight of my station should in any way influence the success of 
an application which it was either improper to ask or inexpedient to 
grant, I should feel it to be equally due to the dignity of this societv 
and to my own, that the expression of your opinions and of your 
wishes should experience both the respect and the prompt attention 
to which it is so justly entitled." The Duke of Sussex held office as 
President until 1838, when he tendered his resignation, having been 
prevented for some time previously, by the state of his eyesight, 
from fulfilling all the duties of the office. The Marquis of North- 
ampton was then elected in his room, and continued to occupy the 
chair of the Royal Society until the year 1849, when the present 
president, the Earl of Rosse, was elected. 

The Council of the Royal Society consists of 21 members, in- 
cluding the President, of whom 10 must retire annually. There are 
several vice-presidents, one of whom acts as treasurer ; and 3 sect- 
aries, one of whom is foreign secretary. In addition to the Council, 
there are 7 scientific committees, each having its own chairman and 
secretary, and each labouring in its own department. Thus, there 



552 



LONDON. 




LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC.— SOCIETY OF AN'J IQUAMES. 553 

are the committees of Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, 
Zoology, Botany, and Mineralogy. The library amounts to about 
42,000 volumes, and is kept at the society's apartments in Somerset 
House. The meetings are held every Thursday, at half-past 8, p.m., 
from the third Thursday in November to the third Thursday in June, 
with the exception of a short interval at Christmas, Easter, and Whit- 
suntide, on Ascension Day, on the week of the anniversary meet- 
ing, and that for the election of fellows. The meeting for the elec- 
tion of the officers of this society takes place on St. Andrew's Day, 
November 30. Every Fellow is known by the initials F.R.S. 

The subscription to the Royal Society is 4/. annually, with an ad- 
mission fee of 10/. The animal subscription can be compounded for 
by the payment of C01. A candidate for a fellowship must have his cer- 
tificate signed by 6 fellows, 3 of whom must be personally acquainted 
with him. His name will be announced on the 1st of March, and his 
certificate suspended in the meeting-room until the first Thursday in 
June, when the election usually takes place. Of the total number 
of applicants for this honour, 15 are selected by the Council, and re- 
commended for election ; but every Fellow may use his own discre- 
tion in the matter, and may bestow his vote on some other applicant, 
so that the total number he votes for does not exceed 15. A ma- 
jority of two-thirds is necessary in every case, and the election goes 
for nothing if the new Fellow omits to present himself for formal 
admission on or before the fourth Monday afterwards. 

The accompanying engraving of the meeting-room (see the opposite 
page) has been made by the permission of the council. This room 
contains a series of highly-interesting portraits of some of the most 
distinguished members of the society. There are also a few busts, 
including that of the founder, Charles II. 

THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, SOMERSET HOUSE. 

Date of Charter, 1751. 

The Society of Antiquaries was founded by Archbishop Parker, in 

1572, with the object of preserving such ancient historical and other 

documents as by the recent dissolution of religious houses, and the 

devastations committed at the period, were placed in jeopardv. A 

second object w r as to keep alive a taste for subjects of antiquarian 

interest, by the reading of papers and dissertations at their ordinary 

meetings. Their most active member at this period was Arthur 

Agard, several of whose papers w^ere afterwards published. It was 

the intention of the society to apply to Queen Elizabeth for a charter 

of incorporation as " An Academy for the Studye of Antiquity and 

History, under a President, two Librarians, and a number of Fellows, 

with a body of statutes ; the Library to be called c The Library of 

I Queen Elizabeth,' and to be well furnished with scarce books, 

I original charters, muniments, and other MSS.; the members to take 

1 the oath of supremacy, and another to preserve the Library; the 

B B 



554 LONDON. 

Archbishop and the great officers of state for the time being, to visit 
the Society every five years; the place of meeting to be in the Savoy, 
or the dissolved priory of St. John of Jerusalem, or elsewhere/' It 
does not appear that this charter was ever granted ; but the eminent 
men who composed the society continued to meet weekly at the 
apartments of Sir W. Dethike, in the Heralds' Office, until early in 
the following reign, when James I. thought fit to dissolve it. This 
happened about the year 1604, and the society was not re-established 
until February, 1717, when the present Society of Antiquaries was 
founded, and eventually chartered in 1751. 

There seems little reason to doubt that the dissolution of the first 
society arose from the jealousy of the government of King James, 
lest points should be handled which it was thought inexpedient to 
allow in a body of men who were in no way linked with the state, 
except by the common bond of allegiance. But it is also proved by 
the discovery of a carious manuscript (announced by the Rev. Joseph 
Hunter a few T years ago) that King James had no unreasonable pre- 
judices against societies of this nature, provided he was allowed to 
have his own share in planning and arranging them. On the con- 
trary, he gave the greatest encouragement to a scheme proposed to 
him by the learned antiquary, Edmund Bolton, which, from its vast- 
ness and magnificence, shows an elevated notion of the dignity of the 
literary character. This was nothing less than to convert the Castle 
Royal of Windsor (as being from its elevated site the fittest place), 
or, if not Windsor, what other place his Majesty shall be pleased to 
appoint, into an English Olympus, and here to assemble a company 
ef select persons with particular privileges, fees, and ornaments, in- 
corporated under the title of a brotherhood or fraternity, associated 
for matters of honour and antiquity, and under a certain canon of 
government. This fraternity was to consist of three classes of per- 
sons, who were to be called Tutelaries, Auxiliaries, and Essentials. 
The Tutelaries were to be Knights of the Garter, with the Lord 
Chancellor, and the Chancellors of the two Universities; the Auxilia- 
ries were to be selected from the flower of the nobility ; and the Es- 
sentials, or working men, were to be culled from the ablest and most 
famous lay- gentlemen of England. ' Speaking of their proposed duties, 
Bolton says, " When among the many public services of the main 
body of the academy, consisting only of Essentials, the superin- 
tending of the review, or the review itself, of all English translations 
of secular learning (one of which, being of an author of high ac- 
count and sovereign use, his Majesty named with much dislike), that 
good books might be sincerely turned out of foreign tongues into ours, 
w r as propounded, his Majesty did assent thereunto, gladly acknow- 
ledging that false weights and measures in words were as diligently to 
be .discovered, and as equally to be detected, as in wares, and rather 
by so much more as things intellectual are more excellent than things 
palpable or corporeal ; and did also add of his own accord, that it 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES. 555 

should be theirs to authorize all books and writings which were to go 
forth in print which did not ex professo handle theological arguments; 
and to give to the vulgar people indexes expurgatory and expunctory 
upon all books of secular learning printed in English never other- 
wise to be public again." 

According to Bolton, the King grew more and more in favour with 
the scheme, confirming with his royal assent, and " granting many 
gracious and illustrious favours, privileges as well to the thing as to 
the persons." The society was to be called the Academy Royal of 
King James, and was to be a corporation with a royal charter, to 
have a mortmain of 200/. a year and a common seal. The device for 
the seal was submitted to the King, and all seemed on the point of 
completion. One great meeting was to be held on St. James's Day, 
in honour of the King, and afterwards the annual meetings were to 
be held on St. George's Day. While everything seemed thus to pro- 
mise a great and important society, and before the necessary steps 
had been gone through for the establishment of a new chartered com- 
munity, the King died, and this event was fatal to the whole scheme. 
His successor was less favourably disposed, and too much occupied 
to carry it out. In fact, the whole plan was too ambitious, and on 
too gigantic a scale to be fully embraced by less sanguine minds than 
Bolton's. Charles I. is reported to have said that it was " too good 
for the times." 

From this period, until the establishment of the present Society 
of Antiquaries in 1717, the public has to thank a few learned and 
zealous individuals for having preserved, by their separate labours, 
a knowledge of many interesting antiquities, and a large amount of 
valuable records of the past. The first president of the revived 
society was Peter le Neve, Esq , an eminent preserver of antiquities. 
He had at first joined a weekly meeting of persons favourable to 
this study at the Bear Tavern in the Strand, then at a tavern in 
Fleet Street, called the Young Devil, and, finally, at the Fountain 
Tavern, opposite Chancery Lane, where these private meetings seem 
to have been held for several years before the public step was taken 
of giving the society a regular form, and taking minutes of its pro- 
ceedings. The number of members was at first limited to 100, 
and no honorary ones were allowed. They removed to apartments in 
Gray's Inn, afterwards to the Temple, and then to Chancery Lane. 
Some attempts were made to connect them with the Royal Society ; 
but no other accommodation was agreed upon than that of holding 
their meetings on Thursday evenings after the Royal Society's meet- 
ing had broken up. In 1751 the society obtained a royal charter, 
being incorporated under the title of the President, Council, and 
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and empowered to 
have a body of statutes and a common seal, and to hold in perpetuity 
lands, &c, to the yearly value of 1000/. The admission fee to this 
society is fixed at 8 guineas, and the annual payment at 4 guineas. 

b b 2 



O^h LONDON. 

The society is now established in apartments at Somerset House. 
Their Transactions, called the Archseologia, contain a fund of curious 
and interesting matter. They commenced in 1770. The days of 
meeting are every Thursday from November to June, and the an- 
nual meeting is held on the 23rd of April. The usual forms of re- 
commendation, as in the case of other societies, are necessary to 
admission to membership. 

BRITISH MUSEUM, GREAT RUSSELL STREET. 

The British Museum originated with a bequest from Sir Hans 
Slcane, a most industrious naturalist, of whose history the following 
sketch may not be unacceptable to our readers. Born in the north of 
Ireland, but of Scottish family, young Sloane showed an early love of 
natural history and medicine, and was carefully educated accordingly. 
At 16 years of age he was attached by spitting of blood, which 
dangerous symptom caused him permanently to adopt a strict regi- 
men, and to abstain from the use of all stimulating liquors. Con- 
tinuing this course ever afterwards, he not only enjoyed a fair propor- 
tion of health, but lived to an unusual age. After many years of 
diligent study he settled in London as a physician, and became a 
Fellow of the Royal Society ; but in three years we find him em- 
barking for Jamaica as physician to the Duke of Albemarle, governor 
of that island. Owing to the death of the Duke, he was only fifteen 
months in Jamaica, but he managed to accumulate a vast number of 
specimens in natural history, which afterwards formed the nucleus of 
his museum, on which he spent large sums of money, enriching it in 
every possible way. He was appointed physician to Christ's Hos- 
pital, but never retained his salary, always devoting it to charity. In 
1716 he was created a Baronet by George I., and in 1727 he became 
physician in ordinary to George II. In the same year he attained 
the highest honour a scientific man could receive in being appointed 
to succeed ihe great Newton in the chair of the .Royal Society. He 
exercised the duties of this office with the greatest zeal until he 
arrived at the age of fourscore, when he resigned it, and retired 
altogether from public life. At his own manor-house at Chelsea he 
lived on to the great age of 93, when a brief illness terminated his 
life in the year 1753. He bequeathed his museum to the public on 
condition that 20,000/. should be paid to his family, the first cost of 
the whole having amounted to at least 50,000/. His books and 
manuscripts were included in this bequest, the former consisting of 
50,000 volumes. The conditions offered by Sir Hans Sloane were 
responded to by Parliament, and his museum became the property 
of the nation. At the same time the Harleian Manuscripts were 
purchased by government, and the whole, with the Cottonian Library, 
which had been given for public use in the reign of . William III., 
was formed into one general collection. A mansion in Great Russell 
Street, called Montagu House, was purchased of the Earl of Halifax, 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC.— BRITTsft MUSEUM. 55? 

for 10,250/.; and between the years 1755 and 1759 the different 
collections were removed into it, the new institution being thence- 
forth called the British Museum, As the contents of the Museum 
became more multiplied, new steps were taken, as thus detailed in 
the Synopsis sanctioned by the trustees : — " Till the arrival of the 
Egyptian Antiquities from Alexandria in 1801, Montagu House was 
competent to the reception of all its acquisitions. The Egyptian 
monuments, most of them of too massive a character for tbe floors 
of a private dwelling, first suggested the necessity of an additional 
building, rendered still more indispensable by the purchase of the 
Tow r nley Marbles in 1805. A gallery adequate to the reception of 
both was completed in 1807, after which, although the trustees 
meditated, and had plans drawn for new buildings, none were under- 
taken till 1823, when, upon the donation from his Majesty King 
George IV. of the library collected by King George III., the govern- 
ment ordered drawings to be prepared for the erection of an entire 
new Museum, a portion of one wing of which was to be occupied 
by the recently-acquired library. This wing, on the eastern side of 
the then Museum garden, was finished in 1828 ; and the northern 
and a part of the western compartment of a projected square have 
been since completed. The principal floor of the northern portion 
is devoted to the general library, removed from the former house ; 
that of the western, both below and above, to ancient sculpture and 
antiquities generally. A part of the lower floor of the eastern wing is 
devoted to the library of MSS. The upper floors, both of the eastern 
and northern sides of the square, contain the collections of Natural 
History. The new southern front of the Museum is at present in 
progress. The last remains of the original building was removed in 
1845." The new buildings were designed by Sir Robert Smirk e, and 
are entered by a massive portico, which was not completed till 1847. 
Among all the antiquities for which trie British Museum is famous, 
the most celebrated are the Elgin marbles, a collection of exquisite 
specimens of Grecian art, which have been the wonder and admira- 
tion of sculptors, and of all who have taste to appreciate their beaut v, 
since the Earl of Elgin brought them to this country in 1801. These 
marbles adorned the Parthenon at Athens, a model of which building 
assists the visitor to understand the position once occupied by statues 
and bas-reliefs, now arranged in their mutilated state around the walls 
and on raised stages in what is called the Elgin Saloon, Marbles 
contemporary with these, found in the ruins of the Temple of Apollo 
Epicurius, near the ancient city of Phigalia, are arranged in the Phiga- 
lian Saloon. The Temple of Apollo was built by Ictinus, an architect of 
the time of Pericles, who also built the Parthenon. A series of tombs, 
bas-reliefs, and statues, of an earlier date than the Parthenon, were 
discovered in the ruined city of Xanthus, and brought to England by 
Sir Charles Fellowes. These are called the Xanthian or Lycian 
Marbles. A series of very ancient and interesting marbles brought 
from the supposed site of Nineveh, on the left bank of the Tigris, have 



.558 



LONDON. 




BRITfSH MUSEUM. 



recently been added to the Museum through the zeal and laborious 
researches of Dr. Layard. A grand central saloon and several other 
rooms are devoted to remains of Greek and Roman art. Among 
these are forms of exquisite beauty, grace, and truth, which afford to 
modern sculptors and artists most valuable subjects for study. But 
perhaps the most popular part of the gallery of antiquities, to the great 
masses of visitors who crowd the Museum on holiday occasions, is 
that which contains the colossal sculptures of Egypt. These huge 
relics of an extraordinary people cannot fail to impress the beholder 
with wonder and curiosity. He longs to see the body to which that 
huge fist belonged, or the Sphinx which bore that immense but finely- 
wrought ram's head. The swarthy heroes of the Nile seem to look 
down on him with a calm sense of superiority; and as he view r s their 
colossal proportions, and looks around on ancient stone coffins, also of 
colossal size, he can hardly persuade himself but that there were 
giants in those days, and that these were the works of their hands. 
He might even go on to fancy that the insect world of Egypt pre- 
sented the same exaggerated proportions, for here we find a beetle in 
dark granite of such a size that a man cannot sit comfortably astride 
upon its back. This represents the sacred Scarabaeus of Egypt. An- 
other interesting and important object is the Rosetta stone, which first 
suggested to Dr. Thomas Young a mode of deciphering the myste- 
rious inscriptions on Egyptian monuments. This stone bears the 
same inscription in three different characters, one in hieroglyphics, one 
in a written character called enchorial, and the third in Greek. Thus 
by means of the Greek inscription the hieroglyphics were for the first 
time rendered intelligible. 

Besides the Egyptian Saloon, there is another collection of antiqui- 
ties from Egypt in an upper room called the Egyptian Room. These 
consist of figures of various deities in silver, bronze, porcelain, wax, 
steatite, wood, &c; various articles of household furniture; a col- 
lection of objects for dress and the toilet; a great number of vases, 
lamps, and miscellaneous articles ; but above all in real interest, a 
large collection of human mummies, male and female, and also mum- 
mies of numerous animals, as the cat, dog, dog-headed baboon, bull, 
ram, sheep, lamb, ibis, crocodile, snake, &c. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. — BRITISH MUSEUM, 



.559 



3IKRMNOH n 




GROUND PLAN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The above is the plan, with the addition of Mr.Fergusson's proposed 
suggestions for additional accommodation. 

Next the Egyptian Room is the Bronze Room, containing valuable 
Greek and Roman bronze figures, a collection of vases, terra cottas, 
&c. The celebrated Etruscan vases are in a separate room. 

The Medal Room contains a large collection of coins and medals, 
of which Sir Hans Sloane's and Sir Robert Cotton's collections were 
the basis. Great additions have been made through the munificence 
of King George IV., and also by the bequests of the Rev. C. M. 
Cracherode and R. P. Knight, Esq., and the gifts of Lady Banks and 
W. Marsden, Esq. It comprehends — 1, Ancient Coins ; 2, Modern 
Coins ; 3, Medals. " The Greek coins are arranged in geographical 
order, and include all those struck with Greek characters, in Greece or 
elsewhere, by kings, states, or cities, which were independent of the 
Romans. With these are also placed the coins of free states and 
cities which made use of the Etruscan, Roman, Punic, Spanish, or 



560 LONDON. 

other character. The Roman coins are placed, as far as it can be 
ascertained, in chronological order." The modern coins consist of 
Anglo-Saxon, English, Anglo-Gallic, Scotch and Irish coins, and like- 
wise the coins of foreign nations. The coins of each country are 
kept separate. 

The Zoological collection of the Briti>h Museum is a very fine one, 
and is contained in five rooms. The first room contains skulls of the 
larger mammalia, tubes of annulose animals, &c. The second room 
contains a collection of reptiles, &c, preserved dry and in spirits; a 
portion of the radiated animals, a variety of lizards, snakes, serpents, 
tortoises, crocodiles, batrachian animals, and star-fish. The third room 
displays apes and monkeys in great variety, rats, beavers, squirrels, 
porcupines, rabbits, &c, while the tables are covered with beautiful 
specimens of coral. The fourth room contains fish, insects, and 
crustaceous animals. The fifth, various forms of sponge and mollus- 
cous and radiated animals in spirits. 

The mineralogical collection is very extensive and valuable, and 
affords admirable opportunities of study to the student of this branch 
of science. It is arranged in sixty cases, contained in four rooms in 
the North Gallery. The system followed is, with slight deviations, that 
of Berzelius, founded upon the electro-chemical theory of definite 
proportions, as developed by him in a memoir read before the Royal 
Academy of Science at Stockholm. 

The collection of organic remains is not yet perfectly arranged. 
It commences with fossil vegetables. Then come the osseous remains 
of large reptiles, with some of the gigantic extinct species ; then va- 
rious mammalian remains. A complete skeleton of the large extinct 
elk of the Irish bogs, of the American mastodon, and other fossil 
w r onders, occupy the filth and sixth rooms of this collection, and at 
the west end of the latter is the fossil human skeleton, embedded 
in limestone, brought from Guadaloupe by the Hon. Sir A. Cochrane. 

The Library of the British Museum contains about 500,000 vo- 
lumes, and is visited by about 70,000 readers during each year. 
There are two spacious reading-rooms for their use (which are en- 
tered from Montague Street, Russell Square), where every accom- 
modation is afforded in the pursuit of their studies. The access to 
these rooms, however, is to be sought by an application to the chief 
librarian, backed by a proper recommendation*; and the ticket of 
admission has to be renewed half-yearly. No books are allowed to 
be taken aw 7 ay for perusal, and while the individual is using them in 
the library, he is responsible for their safety. This library ranks in 
importance with the best continental libraries, but the number of 
separate works is greater in Munich and Paris. 

* This is so very indefinite as to require, in behalf of the public, some revision on the part of 
the trustees. It is left too much to the will of the librarian, as to whom he may in his temper 
think a proper person to recommend. My own case may not be singular ; I have contributed 
in the course of my career, as publisher, books to something not far from a thousand pounds in 
value, yet this Public Servant negatived my recommendation of Mr. Robert Armstrong, engineer, 
who, as a scientific man, was desirous of a reading ticket, — remarking to that gentleman, " Weale, 
publisher ! who is he? WE don't like the recommendations of Booksellers." — Ed. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. — ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS. 561 

Our library is especially rich in manuscripts. The Print Room in 
connection with it contains valuable engravings, etchings, and draw- 
ings, but this, as well as the Medal Room, already noticed, can only 
be seen by very few persons at a time and by special permission. 

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, LINCOLN^ INN FIELDS. 

The Royal College of Surgeons, situated on the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, was esta- 
blished in its present form in 1800; and in the same year the museum of comparative anatomy 
of the celebrated John Hunter was presented by government to the institution, en the condition 
that twenty-foui* lectures should be delivered annually, and that the museum should be optn 
to the public. The Royal College of Surgeons was founded upon an ancient company of 
Barber Surgeons, which "was chartered in the reign of Edward IV., at which period the healing 
art, when not practised by the clergy, fell very much into the hands of barbers, who were 
attendants on the bath, a'pplied ointments, &c. In the reign of George II. an act was passed 
dissolving the connection between barbers and surgeons, and raising the latter into a distinct 
company as practitioners of a scientific art. In the 40th year of the reign of George III. this 
company was confirmed in its privileges by royal charter, and a new title and improved con- 
stitution granted. Its affairs are governed by a council chosen for life from those members 
whose practice is confined to surgery. The examiners are chosen in order of seniority from the 
members of council, and admit qualified persons as members, granting them a diploma which 
confers upon them the right of practising surgery in any part of the British dominions. 

The Hunterian collection, which forms the basis, and'still a large proportion, of the contents 
of the present museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, was originally arranged 
in a building which its founder, John Hunter, erected for it in 1785, behind his house in Leices- 
ter Square. The museum was opened for inspection during the month of October to the medi- 
cal profession, and in May to non-professional persons. John Hunter died October 16th, 1793, 
aged 65. By his will he directed his museum to be offered, in the first instance to the British 
government, on such terms as might be considered reasonable, and in case of refusal to be sold, 
in one lot, either to some foreign state, or as his executors might think proper. Accordingly 
Parliament voted the sum of 15, (MM. for the museum, and an offer of it was made to the Cor- 
poration of Surgeons, and accepted on the terms proposed by government, which were as 
follows : — 

1st. The collection shall be open four hours in the forenoon of two days every week for in- 
spection and consultation of the fellows of the College of Physicians, the members of the 
Company of Surgeons, and persons properly introduced by them; a catalogue of the prepar- 
ations, and a proper person to explain it, being at those times always in the room. 

2nd. That one course of lectures, not less than twenty-four in number, on comparative 
anatomy and other subjects, illustrated by the preparations", shall be given every year, by some 
member of the company. 

3rd. That the preparations shall be kept in a state of preservation, and the collection in as 
perfect a state as possible, at the expense of the Corporation of Surgeons, subject to the annual 
inspection and superintendence of the trustees. 

4th. That there shall be a board of trustees, to consist of sixteen members, by virtue of their 
public offices, and of fourteen others, to be appointed in the first instance by the Lords of the 
Treasury, and afterwards to be elected, as vacancies may happen, by a majority of the remain- 
ing trustees. 

5th. That the museum shall always be open for the inspection of all or any of the said trus- 
tees, who are to take care that the Corporation of Surgeons perform their engagements respect- 
ing the said collection. That a day be appointed for the annual inspection of the museum, by 
the trustees acting collectively as a board; and that they are also to have quarterly meetings 
for the transacting of any business relative to the museum, and for the filling up of such vacan- 
cies as may happen in the number of the trustees; and that the Corporation of Surge ns shall 
engage some person to officiate as secretary to the board, upon such occasions, and to issue pre- 
vious notices to the members, in which he is to state particularly whether any vacancies are to 
be filled up by new elections. 

In 1806 the sum of 15,000/. was voted by Parliament in aid of the erection of an edifice for the 
display and arrangement of the Hunterian collection; a second grant of 12,50»'/. was subse- 
quently voted, and sums of equal amount having been supplied from the funds of the college, 
the building was completed in Lincoln's Inn Fields, in which the museum was opened for the 
inspection of visitors in the year 1813. From the number of the additions, the museum, com- 
pleted in 1813, became too small for their adequate display and arrangement ; and more space 
being at the same time required for the rapidly increasing library, the present building was 
erected, wholly at the expense of the college, in 1K35, at a cost of about 4<»,00o/., and the Hun- 
terian and collegiate collections were re-arranged in the present museums, which were opened 
for the inspection of visitors in 1836. 

The superintendence of the museum is confided by the council of the college to a committee 
of its members, who, as opportunities offer, recommend the purchase of specimens desirable 
for the collection; and in this manner upwards of 40,000/. has been expended. A valuable por- 
tion of the additions has been by liberal donations from Sir Everard Home, Sir William Blizard, 
Mr. Cline, Mr. Swan, and other members of the college; other valuable donations have been 
received from distinguished cultivators of natural science, not members of the medical profes- 
sion. The largest amount of additions recently made to the collection has been to its Osteolo- 
gical and Pathological departments. The catalogue of the pathological specimens, with illus- 
trative drawings and explanatory histories, is in progress, and will shortly be completed. 

B B 3 



562 LONDON. 



ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, TRAFALGAR SQUARE. 

This important medical body received a royal charter in 1518, in the reign 
of Henry VIII., " that they, and all men of the same faculty, of and in the City 
of London, should be in fact and name one body, and perpetual community or 
college." The first meetings of the body were held at No. 5, Knight-Eider 
Street, which house still belongs to them ; but, on the accession of Charles I., 
they removed to a house at Amen Corner. The great fire consumed this 
house, and nearly the whole of the library, after which a new college was built 
in Warwick Lane. Here the Fellows held their meetings until 1825, when 
the present new college, at the north-west corner of Trafalgar Square, was 
opened, and an elegant Latin oration delivered by the president, Sir Henry 
Halford. 

Candidates for diplomas undergo three examinations at this college, at three 
separate meetings of the censors' board, the viva voce part of each being carried 
on in Latin. These examinations are strict, and afford good security to the pub- 
lic that none but those who have had a liberal and learned education can hope 
for success, and that the order of English physicians shall always consist of men 
who will do honour to their profession, by their general abilities and high 
qualifications. (See " Colleges.") 

ROYAL INSTITUTION,' ALBEMARLE STREET. 

The Royal Institution of Great Britain was incorporated in the year 
1800. It owes its origin to the Fellows of the Royal Society, who 
purchased a spacious and commodious house in Albemarle Street, with 
the intention of further " diffusing the knowledge and facilitating the 
general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improve- 
ments ; and for teaching, by courses of philosophical lectures and 
experiments, the application of science to the common purposes of 
life/' It was part of their plan to receive for public exhibition in 
these rooms, " all such new mechanical inventions and improvements 
as shall be thought worthy of public notice, and more especially of all 
such contrivances as tend to increase the conveniences and comforts 
of life, to promote domestic economy, to improve taste, or to advance 
useful industry." At this time, the managers of the new institution 
had no idea of the research and the brilJiant discoveries which were 
to be carried On and accomplished by its means. On the first found- 
ing of this institution, some fears were expressed that it would inter- 
fere with the interests of the Royal Society, but this is so far from 
being the case that it has ever been found a most valuable friend and 
ally. It has indeed been not unaptly called " the workshop of the 
Royal Society ," for here the ideas and inventions of the most eminent 
members of that society have been successfully worked out. Seven- 
teen years after its foundation, its successful career was thus alluded 
to by one of its members: — " The history of chemical science must 
for ever date one of its principal epochs from the foundation of the 

laboratory of the Royal Institution A new power 

of nature was developed by the experiments of Galvani, and a new 
and powerful instrument of research combined by the genius of 
Volta. The experimentalists of our school were not behind others 
in their investigations of the laws of galvanism : and various were 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. ROYAL INSTITUTION. 563 

their improvements in the voltaic apparatus, till its splendid powers 
were first, fully displayed in giant greatness in the battery of the insti- 
tution. The impulse which was given to science by these striking 
discoveries vibrated to every part of the civilised world, and the 
crowded lectures, in which such wonderful novelties were displayed 
with all the powers of eloquence, and all the aids of a splendid 
apparatus, contributed not a little in this country to the rapid diffu- 
sion of a taste for philosophic inquiry." 

" In the laboratory of this institution," says Mr. Weld, " the illus- 
trious Davy carried on those elaborate investigations, and made those 
brilliant discoveries, which were communicated to the scientific world 
through the medium of the Transactions of the Royal Society; and 
within the same walls has Dr. Faraday followed his great predecessor, 
laying open the secrets in nature's laboratory, and, like him, making 
discoveries which will cause his name to be held in admiration and 
esteem by future generations." 

The nature of this institution, as it now exists, will be best under- 
stood by the following extracts from the authorised prospectus. The 
patron and vice-patron are Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen 
Victoria, and His Royal Highness Prince Albert. 

The chief objects of the Royal Institution are: — 

1. To further scientific research. 

2. To teach the principles of inductive and experimental science. 

3. To exhibit the application of these principles to the various arts of life. 
The Royal Institution comprises: — 

I. A Theatre for Purlic Lectures. — These lectures are intended to supply that which 
books or private instruction can rarely afford — experimental exhibition, highly illustrated de- 
lineation, or detailed descriptions of matters connected with science or art. 

II. A Laboratory for the promotion and advancement of chemical and electrical science, 
by experiments and original investigations, and by courses of systematic lectures. In this 
laboratory the researches of Professor Davy, and afterwards of Professor Faraday, extending 
over a period of nearly half a century, havebeen conducted. The laws of electro-chemical de- 
composition — the decomposition of the fixed alkalies — the establishment of the nature of chlo- 
rine — the philosophy of flame — the condensibility of many gases — the science of magneto-elec- 
tricity — the two-fold magnetism of matter, comprehending all known substances — the magnetism 
of gases — are the results of investigations carried on in the laboratory of the Royal Institution 
during the last forty-eight years. The cost of these researches has been defrayed by the willing 
contributions of the members without any aid from the government of the country. 

III. Laboratory Lectures. — These are delivered at four o'clock, p.m., from the end of 
January to the end of April. They are designed for the further instruction of persons already 
acquainted with the principles of chemistry. 

IV. A Library of above 22,000 volumes, including the best authors in the Latin and Greek 
Languages— the writings of the ancient Fathers of the Church — English County Histories — 
Works of Science and Literature, of Art and Antiquarian Research. Of this library a classed 
Catalogue has been made, which may be purchased by the members of the Institution. 

V. A Museum containing mineral specimens, many of which are named, and also other 
collections. The chief object of this museum is to furnish illustrations for the lectures and 
the Friday evening discourses. 

VI. A Reading Room, in which the principal newspapers and journals in the English, 
French, and German Languages are regularly taken in. 

VII. Weekly Meetings of the Members of the Institution. — Theseare held on every 
Friday evening during the session, and the members have the privilege of introducing two 
friends to them by tickets. The object of these meetings is to bring together men of literature 
and science, and to afford opportunities of communicating, by discourses in the Theatre, either 
new views or new applications of known truths, and of demonstrating by experiment, and fa- 
miliarizing by description, new results which have recently been recorded in the Scientific Me- 
moirs of Philosophical Societies. 

Terms of Admission.— Members are balloted for on the first Monday of every month, and 
pay an admission fee of six guineas, and an annual payment of five guineas, the first year being 
paid in advance at the time of admission, or sixty guineas, in lieu of all payments. Members are 
admitted to ail lectures delivered in the Institution, to the museum, and to the weekly evening 
meetings, and have the privilege of introducing by tickets, two friends to each of the weekly 
evening meetings, and the right of voting at the monthly meetings. 

And for every additional subscription of twenty guineas at one time, or three guineas per 
annum, each member is entitled to introduce, personally, or by a written order, one visitor to 
each of the public lectures. 



. r i6'4 LONDON. 

The sons and daughters of the members of the Royal Institution, under the age of twenty- 
one, are admitted to all the publfe lectures and to the museum, on the annual payment of one 
guinea each. 

Annual subscriber pay five guineas, and one guinea to the Library Fund on admission. They 
are admitted to> all the public lectures delivered in the Theatre of the Institution, to the libra- 
ries and to newspaper rooms, but have not the privilege of attending the evening meetings. 

Subscribers to the general lectures only, pay two guineas for the season, or one guinea for 
each course of public'lectures delivered in the Theatre of the Institution. 

Subscribers to the laboratory lectures only, pay two guineas for that course j but if they 
also subscribe to the general lectures, the payment will be one guinea, making- three guineas 
for all the courses. 

LINNjEAN SOCIETY, 32, SOHO SQUARE. 
Date of Charter, 1802. 

The Lmnaean Society, for the promotion of zoology and botany, was founded 
in 1788, by Dr. (afterwards Sir James Edward) Smith, and received a royal 
charter in 1802. Its intention and objects are best explained in the founder's 
introductory discourse. " It is altogether incompatible with the plan of the 
Royal Society, engaged as it is in all the branches of philosophy, to enter into 
the minutiae of natural history : such an institution, therefore, as ours is ab- 
solutely necessary to prevent all the pains and expense of collectors, all the 
experience of cultivators, all the remarks of real observers, from being lost to 

the world We have yet much to learn concerning many plants, 

which authors copy from one another as the produce of Great Britain, but 
which few have seen ; and our animal productions are still less understood. 
Whatever relates to the history of these, their economy in the- general plan of 
nature, or their use to man. in particular, is a proper object for our inquiries. 

A kind of knowledge which naturalists have a right to expect from 

us in a superior degree, is the accurate determination of the species described 
by Linnaeus ; and, indeed, those of many other authors. Our access to several 
original collections — to the immense herbarium of Sir Joseph Banks, which 
contains the entire collections of several celebrated botanists, but more espe- 
cially to the very herbarium and museum of Linnaeus himself — must give us & 
means of knowledge not to be had elsewhere. A train of events which I can- 
not help calling most fortunate, having brought into my hands everything 
which Linnaeus possessed relating to natural history or medicine, his entire 
library, manuscripts, and the correspondence of his whole life, as well as all the 
acquisitions made by the younger Linnaeus in his tour through Europe, will be 
a never-failing resource to us in every difficulty, as well as a fund of information, 
not easily to be exhausted." 

The fortunate circumstances here alluded to, were as follows r — While Smith 
was yet a young student, he happened to be breakfasting with Sir Joseph 
Banks, who informed him that the collections of Linnaeus had been offered 
to him (Sir Joseph) for 1000 guineas, but that he had no intention of becoming 
the purchaser. Upon this young Smith became exceedingly anxious to possess 
them, and persuaded his father, though with difficulty, to consent to the pur- 
chase. It may appear strange that Sweden should consent to part with the 
treasures of her far-famed naturalist ; and indeed the King, Gustavus IIL, who 
had been absent in France, was much displeased, on his return, at hearing 
that a vessel had just sailed for England with these collections. He imme- 
diately dispatched a vessel to the Sound to intercept it, but was too late. The 
herbarium, books, MSS., &c, arrived safely in London, in 1784, packed in 
twenty-six cases, and cost their purchaser 1088£. 5s. In 1785 Smith was 
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and devoted himself more to botanical 
studies than to his profession as a physician; in 1792 he had the honour of 
being engaged to teach botany to Queen Charlotte and the Princesses ; and 
he was knighted by the Prince Regent in 1814. At his death, in 1828, the 
celebrated collection, with Sir J. E. Smith's additions, was purchased by the 
Lmnaean Society, and still remains in their possession. 

The Linnaean Society occupies the front part of the house in Soho Square 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC.- HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 565 

where Sir Joseph Banks resided ; the rooms in which Sir Joseph received the 
Fellows of the Royal Society are occupied by Robert Brown, Esq., F.R.S., to 
whom Sir Joseph bequeathed the life-use of his library, collections, &c, and an 
annuity of 200/. 

The museum of the Linnsean Society is very rich in the botanical de- 
partment, containing the herbaria of Linnaeus, Smith, Pulteney, Woodward, 
Winch, &c, with a valuable herbarium presented by the East India Company, 
in 1833. The entomological collections are also very extensive : the zoology 
relates chiefly to Australian marsupials, birds, and reptiles, and there is a fine 
collection of shells. The library is well stored with botanical works in parti- 
cular. The Linneean Society, like the Royal Society, publishes its Transactions, 
and these contain a variety of valuable papers. 

Candidates for admission to the Linnaean Society, must be proposed by three 
or more Fellows. The admission fee is six pounds, and the annual subscription 
three pounds ; or, in lieu of future payments, a composition of thirty pounds 
oan at once be paid. This latter method is imperative on ail members not 
usually resident in Britain. The Fellows are entitled to receive, gratis, all 
the Transactions published by the society, after their election, and they may 
be supplied with the previous volumes, at a reduction of twenty-five per cent, 
under the common selling prices. 

The library is open to all members of the society, between the hours of twelve 
and four, on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday ; and the museum on Wednes- 
day and Friday ; and Fellows may introduce their friends in person, but not 
otherwise. Members may obtain the loan of books ; but no more than two 
books can be borrowed at one time, nor is any book to be kept longer than six 
weeks. 

The ordinary meetings are held on the third Tuesday in January, the first 
and third Tuesdays in February, March, and April, the first Tuesday in May, 
and the first and third Tuesdays in June, November, and December, at eight 
o'clock in the evening ; and every member may introduce a friend. 

The anniversary meeting, for the election of council and officers, is held on 
the 24th of May, or on the following day if the 24th should happen on a 
Sunday. 

Fellows of this society are known by the initials F.L.S. 

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 21, REGENT STREET. 

Date of Charter, 1809. 

The Horticultural Society of London was established in 1804, and incorporated by royal 
charter in 1809; its object being the improvement of horticulture in all its branches, or- 
namental as well as useful. The business of the society is directed and executed by a 
council, president, treasurer, auditors, and secretary. These officers, and three new mem- 
bers of the council, are elected on the first of May yearly, which day is observed as the anni- 
versary of the society. 

The general meetings of the Fellows are held at the house of the society in Regent Street, on 
such days of such months as the council may determine from time to time. At these meetings, 
communications on new or important subjects in horticulture, are read ; fruits, vegetables, 
and flowers, are shown ; and seeds, cuttings, grafts, and plants are occasionally distributed to 
the Fellows present. Visitors introduced by the personal or written authority of a Fellow, or 
the wives of Fellows without an introduction, are admitted. In addition to the business above 
mentioned, candidates to become Fellows and Members of the society are balloted for, and 
medals are awarded to meritorious exhibitors. 

Every candidate for admission into the society as a Fellow, is to be proposed by three or 
more Fellows, one of whom must be personally acquainted with him. He will then be balloted 
for after the certificate has been read at two general meetings of the society; unless the candi- 
date is a peer or peeress, or the certifica r e has been signed by the chairman of the council, 
on the part of the council, in which cases the candidate may be balloted for at the same 
meeting at which the certificate is first read. The fee to be paid on the election and ad- 
mission of a new Fellow is two guineas, and the contribution to the society in each year 
four guineas, which charge is payable on the 1st of May, for the year preceding, but may 
be compounded for by the payment of forty guineas at any one time, before the contribu- 
tion of the current year becomes due. Persons whose business or profession is horticulture, 
and who have gained a medal, or contributed a paper to the Journal of the society, are 
admitted on payment of one guinea admission, and one guinea annual subscription. 

A selection from the papers read to the society, accompanied with figures, is published under 



5G6 LONDON. 

the direction of the council, in quarterly parts, forming portions of an octavo Journal, and is 
distributed gratuitously to all Fellows of the society. 

The society has an extensive garden at Chiswick, five miles from London, laid out tastefully, 
and filled with rare and interesting plants. It is open from nine o'clock every day, except Sun- 
day, or other days specially excepted, for the inspection of Fellows of the society or their 
wives or sisters, without orders, and for visitors introduced by the Fellows, either personally 
or by order. From this garden, seeds, plants, and cuttings, of species not commonly to be had 
in the nurseries, are supplied gratuitously to the Fellows of the society, under the authority of 
the Garden Committee. 

Three exhibitions are annually held at the garden of the society, at which medals are 
awarded to the best exhibitors. On these occasions Fellows only are admitted without 
tickets ; and, for the admission of their friends, are entitled to purchase tickets, part of 
which are issued to them at a lower price than to the public. 

The library of this society consists principally of books on subjects relating to horticul- 
ture; it has been formed by purchases and presents, and contains now the most consider- 
able collection of horticultural works in the kingdom. There is also a collection of draw- 
ings of fruits and ornamental plants kept for the inspection of the Fellows. 

Fellows of this society use the initials F.H.S. after their names. 

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, SOMERSET HOUSE. 
Date of Charter, 1826. 

The Geological Society of London was instituted in 1807, but did not 
receive its charter till 1826. Its origin and progress, as traced by the 
historian of the Royal Society, are as follows : — Dr. Babington, senior 
physician to Guy's Hospital, learned in chemistry and mineralogy, was 
anxious to publish an elaborate monograph by Count Bournon, on 
carbonate of lime. He therefore invited a number of mineralogists 
to his house, and opened a subscription for the purpose. When this 
primary object was accomplished, the same gentlemen continued 
to meet for friendly intercourse and mutual instruction, and thus 
formed the commencement of the Geological Society. Their zeal 
must have been very great to enable them to accommodate themselves 
to Dr. Babington's hours, the only time which he could spare from 
professional duties being seven in the morning ! But, as it has been 
well remarked, " the spirit which prevailed in the infancy of this 
society, and to which the society owes its vigorous growth, was one 
which did not shrink from difficulties and sacrifices." One of the 
founders of the society was Sir Abraham Hume, who was particularly 
conversant with natural history and mineralogy. He was always 
ready with his purse and his exertions to aid the society, and he dili- 
gently performed the duties of vice-president from 1809 to 1813. 
The fame of his mineralogical collections also promoted a taste for 
such studies. The early purposes of the society w r ere " to multiply 
and record observations, and patiently to await the results at some 
future period ; and it was their favourite maxim that the time was not 
yet come for a general system of geology; but that all must be con- 
tent for many years to be exclusively engaged in furnishing materials 
for future generalizations. By acting up to these principles with con- 
sistency, they in a few years disarmed all prejudice, and rescued the 
science from the imputation of being a dangerous, or at best but a 
visionary pursuit." 

In 1809 a plan, supported by Banks, Davy, and others, was pro- 
posed by the Right Hon. Charles Greville, for making the new 
society an assistant association to the Royal Society. A special 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE. 567 

meeting was held at the Freemasons' Tavern, to take this proposal into 
consideration, when it was decided that any proposal tending to ren- 
der the Geological Society dependent upon or subservient to any other 
society, was not in accordance with the original principles on which 
it was founded, and that, consequently, the propositions communicated 
by the Right Hon. C. Greville were inadmissible ; while at the same 
time it was declared that the members of the Geological Society 
would never be called to any duties inconsistent with the obligations 
of those among them who were Fellows of the Royal Society, to- 
wards which elder institution the Geological Society took this opportu- 
nity of expressing its high respect and deference, and its earnest wish 
to contribute in any degree, and in proportion to its ability, to its 
welfare. " The scientific world," says Mr. Weld, " can have no 
reason to regret that the geologists preferred pursuing their course 
independently, for there is probably no society of this century that 
has done so much to advance its particular science as the Geological 
Society of London." To use the language of Herschel, " The spirit 
with which geology has been prosecuted for many years in our own 
country, has been rewarded with so rich a harvest of surprising and 
unexpected discoveries, and has carried the investigation of our island 
into such detail, as to have excited a corresponding spirit among our 
continental neighbours; while the same zeal which animates our coun- 
trymen on their native shore, accompanies them in their sojourns 
abroad, and has already begun to supply a fund of information 
respecting the geology of our Indian possessions, as well as of every 
other point where English intellect and research can penetrate." 
This society first held its meetings in a back room of Freemasons' 
Tavern, afterwards in rooms hired in the Temple, but it is now in 
possession of apartments in Somerset House. The annual subscrip- 
tion is three guineas, with an admission fee of six guineas; but a 
Fellow may compound for future annual contributions, that of the 
current year inclusive, by payment of 31/. 10s. The number of 
Fellows is about 875, and the time of meeting half-past eight, p.m., 
on alternate Wednesdays, from November to June. The affairs of 
the society are managed by a president, vice-presidents, and council ; 
the provident at this time is the distinguished seolosist. Sir Charles 
Lyell, F.R.S. and L.S. 

ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE, 
4, ST. MARTIN^ PLACE, TRAFALGAR SQUARE. 

Date of Charter, 1826. 

The Royal Society of Literature originated in an accidental conversation between the 
late Bishop of St. David's (Dr. Burgess, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury) and an eminent per- 
son of the Royal Household, in October, 1820, respecting the various institutions which 
adorn the British name and nation. It was agreed that a society seemed to be wanting for 
the encouragement and promotion of general literature; and that if a society somewhat 
resembling the French Academy of Belles Let'res could be established, it might" be produc- 
tive of great advantage to the cause of knowledge. This suggestion was communicated to 
Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, and by him was mentioned to the King; and his Majesty having 
expressed his approbation, a general outline of the institution was bv command submitted 
to the royal perusal. In November the Bishop of St. David's was summoned to Carlton House 
for the purpose of devising the best mode of giving effect to the undertaking, and was entrusted 



gU; 
fer 



568 LONDON. 

with a full commission to arrange the plan of the society* He accordingly invited a few of his 
personal friends to assist him, and for some time they held frequent conferences on the subject. 
Their first meeting took place on the 30th of that month, and the title proposed for the society 
was, " Royal Society of Literature for the Encouragement of Indigent Merit, and the Promo*- 
tion of General Literature ;" but at a subsequent meeting the objectionable words in this title 
were expunged, and the title then stood, «« Royal Society for the Encouragement of Literature/' 
In order to give signs of public life in the society, a part of the proposed plan was imme- 
diately acted on, namely, the offer of prizes for the following subjects : — **$■*-.* 

1. For the King's Premium, one hundred guineas: "On the age, writings, and genius of 
Homer ; and on the state of religion, society, learning, and the arts during that period. Collected 
from the writings of Homer." 

2. For the Society's Premium, fifty guineas : " Dartmoor; a poem." 

3. For the Society's Premium, twenty-five guineas : "On the History of the' Greek Lan- 
,iage, and the present language of Greece, especially in the Ionian Isles; and on the dif- 
ference between the ancient and modern Greek." 

We may interrupt the thread of this sketch, to state that five candidates appeared within 
the specified time for the second premium. Two others were too late. Their productions 
were referred to a sub-committee of seven, and the prize was adjudged to the motto, Come, 
bright Improvement ; and the poem, of which 200 copies were printed at the expense of the so- 
ciety, was found to be written by Felicia Hemans. The other premiums were renewed, the 
third being increased to fifty guineas, and another of the like sum was proposed for the 
best poem on " The Fall of Constantinople in the Fifteenth Century." By March, 1822, 
six essays were received for the Homeric premium, and ten poems on the Fall of Con- 
stantinople ; but only one on the Greek Language. - «*% i 

Among the first members of the society were the King, two of the Royal Dukes, several of 
the Bishops, and many other distinguished persons. About Easter, 1821 , it was deemed expe- 
dient to appoint a provisional committee, authorised to act until the society should consist of 
200 members. This was accordingly done, and the sittings were continued until the 26th July. 
From November to April, 1822, the council continued to attend regularly to the business of the 
society, and enjoyed the accession of Dr. Richards, who has since bequeathed a legacy of 5000J. 
to promote the objects of the society, and other useful working members. But its proceedings 
were greatly paralyzed by a sinister' report that his Majesty was no longer well disposed towards 
the society in consequence of certain written representations from Sir Walter Scott. This 
report might have proved a death-blow to the society, had not some of the members of the 
council adopted the straightforward course of ascertaining what really were his Majesty's sen- 
timents, when the satisfactory answer was returned, that " the question had been asked of the 
King himself, and that his'Majesty had expressly declared that no change had taken place in 
his sentiments of regard for the society, nor had the least unfavourable impression been made 
in his mind respecting it." But the season was too far advanced for much action, and the 
adjournment till winter took place on the 11th July. Thus the second year of the society's ex- 
istence did not produce much result, and several months of the third year were equally unpro- 
ductive. The opposition from some quarters was curious. «« The Royal Society of London ob- 
jected to the title, and its President, Sir Humphry Davy, must be met, argued with, and pro- 
pitiated. Had that of the ' Royal Academy of Literature' been assumed, as was advised, the 
same sort of negotiation would have been necessary with Sir Thomas Lawrence! Separate 
plans of a constitution and regulations were propounded by Messrs. Hoare, Baber, Nares, 
Croly, &c, and each demanded its due share of attention; fortunately, the better parts of each 
were selected and condensed into one paper by Mr. Impey; but then that paper had as much 
revision bestowed upon it, to fit it for its desired and final purpose, as any other of the endless 
schemes which every new week produced. Many of the evils experienced were attributable 
to the irregular attendance of members of the committee and council ; some being thus only 
partially informed of what had been agreed to in their absence. Thus, what was done at one 
meeting was frequently undone at the next. Now appeared a person of authority, and sug- 
gested some new feature, which, being adopted and incorporated with the results of preceding 
deliberations, was found on leisurely consideration to be at issue with a previous rule, or in 
direct contradiction to the spirit of the whole."* At length, however, the Bishop of St. David's 
went to work in earnest : the constitution and regulations were completed and submitted to the 
King on the 29th May, and on the 2nd June, 1823, were finally approved of under the sign 
manual. Permanence and importance were given to the society by a royal charter granted in 
the sixth year of George IV. in these terms: — " To our right trusty and well-beloved Thomas, 
by divine permission Lord Bishop of Salisburyf, and other* of our loving subjects who have, 
under our royal patronage, formed themselves into a society for the advancement of literature, 
by the publication of inedited remains of ancient literature, and of such works as may be of 
great intrinsic value, but not of that popular character which usually claims the attention of 
publishers; by the promotion of discoveries in literature; by endeavouring to fix the stan- 
dard, as far as practicable, and to preserve the purity of the English language by the cri- 
tical improvement of English lexicography; by the reading at public meetings of interesting 
papers on history, philosophy, poetry, philology, and the arts, and the publication of such 
of those papers as shall be approved of; by the assigning of honorary rewards to works of 
great literary merit, and to important discoveries in literature; and by establishing a cor- 
respondence with learned men in foreign countries, for the purpose of literary inquiry and 1 
information." 

Most of the important and comprehensive objects here indicated have been attempted with 
greater or less success, as means and opportunities have permitted. In 1828 the society 
adopted the publications of the Egyptian Society, and has since contributed some important 
researches on the antiquities of Egypt. For rewarding literary men, the royal founder 
enabled the society to act with princely liberality by placing at its disposal 1100 guineas 

* Edinburgh Review, October, 1843. 

t He had recently been translated to this see from St. David's. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 56'J) 

a year*; to be be-towed on ten associates for life, to be elected by the officers and 
council, each to receive 100 guineas per annum; and the remaining KM) guineas to be 
expended on two gold medals, to be bestowed annually upon individuate, whose lite- 
rary merits entitled them to the honour. In 1JJ24 they were adjudged to Mitford, the his- 
torian of Greece, and to Angelo Mai, the archeologist ; in 1825 to Dr. J. Rennell and Charles 
Wiikins; in 1826 to Professor John Schweighaeuser, of Strasburg, and to Dugald Stewart; 
in 1827 to Scott and Southey ; in 1828 to Crabbe and Archdeacon Coxe; in 1821) to Roscoe 
and Baron Sylvester de Sacy : in 1830 to Hallam and Washington Irving, who were thus 
presented with the last of the fourteen ; for in 1831 George IV. died, and his successors have net 
continued this gratifying bequest. 

The ten royal and pensioned associates were Coleridge the poet ; the Rev. J. Davies, author 
of" Celtic Antiquities;" Dr. Jameson, the Scottish lexicographer; T. J. Mathias, author of the 
■* Pursuits of Literature ;" the Rev. J. R. Malthus, author of the celebrated work on " Popula- 
tion;" Mr. Millingen ; Sir William Ouseley, the Persian Traveler; Mr. Roscoe; the Rev. H. 
J. Todd, editor and enlarger of Johnson's Dictionary ; and Sharon Turner. It is much to the 
honour of Lord Melbourne's government, that after the death of George IV. the survivors in 
this list were placed on the usual pension list to the extent of their snnual loss. It should also 
be stated, that in 182b' George IV. made a grant to the society of the crown land opposite St. 
Martin's Church, and that the leading and official members voluntarily subscribed 4300/. as a 
building fund with which they erected their present place of meeting. On the death of the 
Bishop of Salisbury, the Earl' of Ripon was chosen president. A valuable library has been 
formed, and greatly enriched by the lexicographical and antiquarian publications presented by 
Mr. Todd ; and by papers read at meetings and furnished by many of the most eminent writers 
of the age, three quarto volumes of which have been issued. The expense of many biographical 
works has also been supplied by the generous subscription of noblemen and gentlemen in minis- 
terial situations, and other long-tried friends of the society. 

The admission is obtained by a certificate signed by three members, and an election by ballot. 
Ordinary members pay three guineas on admission, and two guineas annually, or compound by 
a payment of twenty guineas. They are known by the initials M.R.S.L. There are also 
honorary associates elected by the council. These use the initial letters H.A.R.S.L. The 
president of this society is Sir Henry Hallam. 

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, 25, GREAT GEORGE STREET, 
WESTMINSTER. 

Established, 1818. Incorporated by Charter, 1828. 

The same want of a means of intercommunion among themselves of the en- 
gineering profession as had induced the formation of the " Smeatonian Society," 
(see page 581,) directed to the subject the attention of some of the rising men, 
who were not sufficiently known to be admitted to the Club, and who at 
the same time felt that dining together was " not all " that was requisite for 
their advancement. It was moreover admitted that the Smeatonian Society 
was, from its constitution, of too exclusive a character to meet the wants of so 
large and mixed a body as had become engaged in engineering, and hence arose 
a general feeling that an institution on a larger scale, having for its object the 
furtherance of professional knowledge, might be eminently useful. Accordingly, 
towards the end of the year 1817, "a few gentlemen then beginning life, im- 
pressed, by what they themselves felt, with the difficulties young men had to 
contend with in gaining the knowledge requisite for the diversified practice of 
engineering, resolved to form themselves into a society for promoting a regular 
intercourse between persons engaged in its various branches, and thereby mu- 
tually benefiting by the interchange of individual observation and experience." 
The first meeting was held at the King's Head Tavern, in Cheapside, on the 
2nd of January, 1818, when it was agreed to form a society under the title of 
the Institution of Civil Engineers. 

The society thus constituted continued to assemble for two years, when, on 
the 23rd of January, 1820, it was resolved to elect as president a civil 
engineer of high standing in the profession, and Mr. Telford was requested to 
assume that position. He accepted the proffered chair without hesitation, and 
was formally installed on the 21st of March following. The influence of that 

* Dr. Harford, in his life of Dr. Burgess, Bishop of Salisbury (London, 1840), relates the 
following anecdote : — " It is a curious fact, which his Majesty, George the Fourth, himself men- 
tioned with a smile to the present Dean of Salisbury, that the Bishop, from a misconception 
of his meaning at their first interview, committed the King, as an annual subscriber of 
1000/., a sum which he had intended only as a donation to the society at its outset, while 
his annual subscription was to have been limited to 10W. As, however, his Lordship, in 
his zeal, had immediately proclaimed the King's munificence, and fame, through the medium 
of the pre^s, had almost as quickly trumpeted it with her hundred tongues throughout the 
country, there was no retreat, and the King not only cheerfully acquiesced, but amused 
himself with the incident." 



570 LONDON. 

great man's name and example was most favourable to the society, and on the 
•3rd of June, 1828, in a great degree through the instrumentality of the late 
Sir Robert Peel, it received a charter of incorporation under the great seal, by 
the title of the " Institution of Civil Engineers." The President of this rising 
society devoted to it much of his time and more of his thoughts ; its collections 
were enriched by his bounty, and when, full of years and honours, he felt the 
close of life approaching, he endowed the institution with a munificent bequest. 
This legacy consisted of a large portion of his library, his professional papers and 
drawings, and the sum of 2000£., which, by a subsequent addition from the resi- 
duary estate, has been recently raised to nearly 5000?., the interest of which is 
to be expended in annual premiums, &c., under the direction of the council. 

The profession of the civil engineer is admirably defined in the Charter of 
Incorporation as " the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for 
the use and convenience of man, as the means of production and of traffic in 
states both for external and internal trade, as applied in the construction of 
roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, river navigation, and docks, for internal in- 
tercourse and exchange, and in the construction of ports, harbours, moles, 
breakwaters, and lighthouses, and in the art of navigation by artificial power 
for the purposes of commerce, and in the construction and adaptation of ma- 
chinery, and in the drainage of cities and towns." 

The institution consists of four classes, viz., members, associates, graduates, 
and honorary members. Members are civil engineers by profession, or me- 
chanical engineers of very high standing. Associates are not necessarily civil 
engineers by profession, but their pursuits must in some way be connected 
with civil engineering. Graduates are elected from the pupils of civil 
and mechanical engineers. Honorary members are distinguished individuals, 
who are enabled to assist in the prosecution of public works, or who are 
eminent for scientific acquirements. 

The relative rates of contributions to the funds are — 
£ s. 

Members, Resident 4 4 

Associates, ditto 3 3 

Graduates, ditto 2 12 

The management of the institution is vested in the council, consisting of a 
president, four vice-presidents, two members, and two associates, who are all 
elected annually. The responsible officer is the secretary, who is also the resi- 
dent librarian and curator, and the editor of the publications of the society. 

The publication of the volumes of the Society's Transactions originated 
with Mr. Weale ; vols. 1 and 2 were printed and published at his entire ex- 
pense ; in addition, he presented, free of expense to the Institution, 250 
copies of volume 1, and 300 of volume 2. The Minutes of Proceedings, 8vo, 
are published by the Institution. 

The ordinary business of the meetings, which are held every Tuesday evening 
from the commencement of November to the end of May, consists in the 
reading of papers descriptive of executed works, and of essays on scientific 
subjects. The distinctive feature of the proceedings is the animated discussion 
of the papers by the members, and by the strangers who are invited to attend. 

This society, which now consists of nearly 700 members of all classes, has 
been extremely useful, and has given rise to several similar establishments, 
both in the United Kingdom and in foreign countries. 

The President is William Cubitt, Esq., F.R.S.; and the Secretary, Charles 
Manby, Esq., F.G.S., &c. 

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, SOMERSET HOUSE. 

Date of Charter, 1831. 

The Astronomical Society of London was established February 8, 1820, for 
collecting, preserving, and publishing useful observations and tables, for pro- 



d. 




£ s. 


d. 





Members, ISTon-resident . . 


. 3 3 








Associates, ditto 


. 2 12 


6 


6 


Graduates, ditto 


. 2 2 






LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY. 571 

moting a more attentive and minute examination of the heavens, for forming 
a complete catalogue of the stars and other bodies on a much more extensive 
scale than had ever yet been attempted, and for diffusing as widely as possible a 
spirit of inquiry in practical astronomy, by establishing communications with 
foreign observers, by circulating notices of all remarkable phenomena, and of 
discoveries as they arise, by comparing the merits of different artists, eminent 
in the construction of astronomical instruments, by proposing prizes for the 
improvement of particular departments, and bestowing medals or rewards on 
successful research in all, and, finally, by acting as far as possible in concert 
with every institution, both in England and abroad, whose objects have any- 
thing in common with their own ; but avoiding all interference with the ob- 
jects and interests of established scientific bodies. 

The officers of the society consist of a president, four vice-presidents, one 
treasurer, and three secretaries, who, with eight other members, constitute a 
council for the management and direction of affairs. Candidates are to be 
recommended by three or more members, and balloted for. The annual gene- 
ral meeting takes place the second Friday in February. The annual subscrip- 
tion to this society is 21. 2s., and the entrance-money is also 21. 2s. The society 
has apartments in Somerset House. Each member is styled a Fellow, and is 
known by the initial letters F.R.A.S. The president is Sir John F. W, 
Herschel, Bart. 

INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY, CHANCERY LANE*. 
Date of Charter, 1831 — renewed, 1845. 

This Society was formed in the year ir,23, for the purpose of providing a hall for the daily 
resort of the profession — a library, and lecture-room— fire-proof rooms for depositing deeds 
and papers— an office for concentrating information as to the proceedings of the different 
courts and .other matters connected with the profession, theretofore dispersed in, and to be 
collected from, various offices and places— rooms for meetings of arbitrators, and other pro- 
fessional purposes — a club room for refreshments — and for such other objects and purposes 
as, in the progress of the society, might be considered desirable for the convenience and ad- 
vantage of the profession. 

It is a remarkable fact, that whilst the barristers had their halls and libraries, the writers to 
the signet in Scotland and the attorneys in Dublin their libraries and lecture rooms ; and whilst 
the commercial and trading classes of the community also possessed places of general resort 
for more conveniently transacting their business; the" attorneys in England, with such exam- 
ples before them, should remain stationary, and be without an establishment calculated to afford 
such of those advantages as were suitable to their own profession. 

To supply these important desiderata, the promoters issued a prospectus to their brethren, 
and having obtained a considerable number of subscribers, a general meeting was held on the 
2nd June, 1825, when the plan was approved, and a Committee of Management appointed for 
carrying it into effect. It was deemed necessary to raise 50,000?. in shares of 25/. each, with 
power to increase the capital to 75,000/. 

In 1827, a large proportion of the fund having been collected, and a deed of settlement signed 
by the members, the committee obtained an eligible site, contiguous to the inns of court and 
law-offices, and the present building was erected thereon. 

A Royal Charter of Incorporation was granted on the 22nd December, 1831, and the institu- 
tion was opened for the use of the members on the 4th July, 1832. 

In the progress of the several useful purposes contemplated by deed of settlement and original 
charter, the committee of management experienced considerable disadvantages occasioned by 
the joint-stock character of their undertaking. To obviate this objection, the committee, with 
the sanction of the then proprietary body, were authorised to apply for a new- charter, of a 
general and collegiate nature, and to surrender the existing charter; in the prosecution of 
which objects, the committee were gratified by a liberal renunciation, on the part of a large ma- 
jority of the proprietors, of their individual and transferable shares in the property and effects 
of the institution. 

A new charter was accordingly granted bv her present Majesty, on the 26th February, 1845, 
by the tenor of which, the constitution of the society has been so modified that the indi- 
vidual rights and responsibilities of the membeis, as proprierors of the former institution, 
have become merged in the corporation, and the whole capital and possessions, rents and 
income, are rendered applicable to the general purposes of the societv " in promoting profes- 
sional improvement, and facilitating the acquisition of legal knowledge." 

By the 6 & 7 Vict. c. 73, the society is appointed registrar of attorneys and solicitors, and 
the Commissioners of Stamps are directed not to grant anv certificate until the registrar has cer- 
tified that the person applying is entitled thereto. Under this act, an alphabetical book is kept 
by the society of all attorneys and solicitors on the rolls of the several courts of law and equity. 
An annual book is also kept'of all applications for the registrar's certificate, with the name of 

* This account is taken from a statement published by the society, entitled ''Origin and 
Objects of the Society," prefixed to the Annual Report. 



572 LONDON. 

the court in which each attorney was admitted, and the date of admission ; which book is open 
for inspection without fee. 

The judges of the common-law courts, under the general rules and orders of court, an- 
nually appoint sixteen members of the council, with the masters of the several courts of law, as 
examiners of all persons applying to be admitted on the roll of attorneys; and the Master of 
the Rolls also appoints annually twelve members of the council for the like purpose in regard to 
solicitors. 

The society has for upwards of seventeen years pursued a course of progressive usefulness, 
productive of essential and increasing advantage to the profession, resulting from the exertions 
of a recognised body of practitioners, anxious to co operate in promoting every measure calcu- 
lated to afford facilities for professional practice, to remedy abuses, and to sustain the just claim 
of their branch of the profession to the respect of the community at large. In furtherance of 
these desirable objects, the council and their different committees hold regular meetings for 
conducting the general business of the society. They cause lists of persons applying to be ad- 
mitted and^e-admitted attorneys and solicitors, with applications for taking out or renewing 
certificates, to be printed and distributed among the members and in the several law offices, 
and transmitted to the Provincial Law Societies, in order that improper persons may be opposed. 
Where there is sufficient ground for opposition, the council undertake it on behalf of the so- 
ciety, and they also apply to the courts to have persons struck off the rolls who misconduct 
themselves as attorneys. 

They cause to be printed and distributed amongst the members all new rules of court, and 
other important professional information. 

On their opinion being required as to any doubtful or disputed professional usage, they care- 
fully consider the matter, and register their decisions in a book kept for that purpose, which is 
accessible to the members of the society. 

They examine all bills brought into parliament which relate to the law, and state in the 
proper quarter such objections as occur to them, and also suggest such additions and alterations 
as appear to them necessary for improving and perfecting the proposed enactments ; and ifi 
these and the like instances they take all such measures as seem best calculated to promote the 
general interests and respectability of the profession. 

Any gentleman duly qualified according to the charter may be admitted a member, on being 
proposed by two members of the society, and approved by the council, and paying, if a town 
member, an admission fee of 15/., and an annual subscription of 21., or if a country member, 10/. 
on admission, and 1/. annually *. 

Every member immediately on his admission becomes entitled to the benefits resulting from 
the institution, which comprises the following departments : — 

The Hall, open daily, from 9 o'clock in the morning till 10 at night, furnished with suitable 
accommodations for transacting business, with the votes and proceedings of both Houses of 
Parliament, the London Gazette, morning and evening newspapers, reviews, and other useful 
periodical publications. 

Here also members of the profession are enabled to meet one another by appointment from 
distant parts of the town or country for all purposes of business, and to employ the intervals of 
engagements profitably as well as agreeably. 

An Ante-Room and Registry Offtce, for the use of members and their clerks, open daily 
from 9 o'clock in the morning until 8 at night. 

In the Registry Office are kept an account of appeals in the House of Lords, the general 
and daily cause papers, seal papers, lists of petitions in causes in the courts of equity, and 
in lunacy and bankruptcy, the sittings papers, peremptory papers, special papers, and papers 
of new trials in the courts of law ; with a statement of the business intended to be pro- 
ceeded in on the following day, as far as practicable ; and the earliest information of the 
arrangements made by the judges for the dispatch of business. 

Boxes with locks are provided in the ante-room for members, in which they may deposit 
their papers; thus saving the trouble and expense of carrying them to and from the courts 
and offices. Books are also kept for entering particulars of property to be sold or purchased ; 
of money to be lent, or wanted to be borrowed on mortgage or otherwise; of applications for 
partners, and for articled, managing, and other clerks. 

A Suite of Rooms, for meetings of arbitrators, or on any other professional matter. 

Experience has proved this part of the institution to be a great convenience to the profession. 
In these rooms, also, business which cannot be conveniently done in the hall may be transacted, 
and appointments made with clients and others. 

Fire-proof Rooms and Closets, for thedeposit of deeds, &c, in separate boxes, or to be let 
to members of the profession, either for temporary or permanent purposes ; each renter having 
a private key of his own room or closet,, to which no other person has access ; while all the rooms 
are secured by a principal outer door, of which the Secretary alone has the key. 

A Library, which is open dally, from 9 o'clock in the morning until 10 at night, except on 
Saturdays, when it is closed at 4. It comprises a large collection of books relating to the law, 
and to those branches of science or literature which may be considered as more particularly 
connected with the profession ; such as reports of proceedings in the several courts of law 
and equity, local and private acts, journals, and other proceedings of Parliament; county, 
local, and general histories; with heraldic publications, and other matters of antiquarian re- 
search, &c. Upwards of 9400 volumes have been already collected, including the statutes at 
large, most of the text-books, a complete set of all the reports both in law and equity, a great 
body of county history, and of topographical and antiquarian works, all the volumes printed 
by the commissioners on the public records of the kingdom, and the London Gazette from its 
commencement. 

In case any scarce book in the library should be wanted for production in any of the courts 
of London or Westminster, the librarian, or a messenger, will attend with it, under the autho- 
rity of the president or vice-president, or two members of the council. 

* A proportion of the annual subscription is required according to the time of admission. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. — INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS. 573 

To enable clerks the better to qualify themselves for examination previously to admission, 
the articled clerks of members are admitted to the library on payment of an annual sub- 
scription of 1/. 

The advantages of such a library may be appreciated on considering the great expense at- 
tending the purchase of such books as are absolutely necessary to an attorney or solicitor for 
constant use ; whilst the possession of a comprehensive law library, particularly if it include 
parliamentary publications, county histories, antiquities. &c, is scarcely within the compass of 
any individual, not only on account of the expense, but also of the want of room. 

Lectures on the different branches of the law are regularly delivered in the hall, and are 
numerously attended by the articled clerks of members, and other students ; and members 
themselves have found them particularly useful, in consequence of the various and extensive 
alterations which have already taken place, and are still in progress, as well in principle as in 
practice, both in law and equity. 

The members of the society are entitled to attend these lectures gratis ; while to others the 
♦xpense is very moderate, being 1/. for each set of lectures, or 21. for the whole course to persons 
*snder articles of clerkship to members, or persons who have served such clerkship, while they 
Continue clerks to members, and are not practising on their own account. The articled clerks 
or gentlemen not members pay 11. 10s for each set, or 31. for the whole; and other students 
are admitted on paying 21. for each set of lectures, or 4/. for the whole course. The lectures are 
delivered at 8 o'clock in the evening, so as to interfere as little as possible with the business of 
the day. 

Club Room. — There is a club, consisting only of members of the society who have paid en- 
trance fees and annual subscriptions; and any other members of the society may become 
members on being proposed, balloted for, and elected, and on payment of the entrance fee of 
five guineas, and an annual subscription of five guineas for town members, and three guineas 
for country members *. 

The members of the club, besides other advantages, are supplied wHh dinners and refresh- 
ments on the plan of the University, Athenaeum, United Service, and similar clubs. 

MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY, 53, BERNERS STREET, OXFORD 

STREET. 

Date of Charter, 1834. 

The Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society was instituted in 1805, and incorporated in 1834, 
for the cultivation and promotion of medicine and surgery, and of the branches of science con- 
nected therewith. The members are styled Fellows, and are resident, non-resident, honorary, 
and foreign honorary. The meetings are held at the society's apartments, 53, Berners Street, 
Oxford Street, where there is a good library of about 20, Qui) volumes, the use of which is re- 

, stricted to resident fellows. Candidates are recommended by three members, and elected by a 
majority of four-fifths. The fees are six guineas entrance, and three guineas annually from all 

J who are resident, or within seven miles of the General Post Office. 

ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS, 16, GROSVENOR STREET, 
BOND STREET. 

Date of Charter, 1837. 

The Royal Institute of British Architects was founded in 1835, for facili- 
tating the acquirement of architectural knowledge, for the promotion of 
the different sciences connected with it, and for establishing a uniformity and 
respectability of practice in the profession. Its members consist of, 1st, 
Fellows — architects who have been engaged as principals for at least seven suc- 
cessive years in the practice of civil architecture; 2nd, Associates — persons 
engaged in the study of civil architecture, or in practice less than seven years, 
and who have attained the age of 21 — these have no vote ; 3rd, Honorary Fel- 
lows — noblemen or gentlemen unconnected with any branch of building as a 
profession, and contributors of not less than twenty-five guineas. Eminent 
men, foreign or English, may also be elected honorary members, without con- 
tribution. The Fellows pay five guineas admission, and three guineas annually ; 
the Associates three guineas the first year, and two guineas each year after- 
wards. The chief objects of the society are the formation of a library of 
works, manuscripts, and drawings, illustrative, practically and theoretically, of 
the art, the publication of curious and interesting communications, the collec- 
tion of a museum of antiquities, models, casts, &c, with provision for per- 
forming experiments on the nature and properties of building materials. The 
usual forms are observed of recommendation by three members, and election 
i by ballot, a majority of four-fifths being required. Meetings are held at eight 

* If admitted after June, the subscription for the remainder of the year is three guineas for 
town, and two guineas for country members. 



5?4 LONDON. 

o'clock on alternate Monday evenings, from the first Monday, in November 
until the last in June ; Christmas, Passion, and Easter weeks excepted. The 
annual general meeting is held on the first Monday in May. 

SIB JOHN SOANE'S MUSEUM, 13, LINCOLN^ INN FIELDS. 

Sir John Soane presents one of those instances, so frequent in this country, of 
an individual rising by his own talent and energy from a humble position in 
society to one of considerable wealth and influence. He was the son of a 
bricklayer at Eeading, in Berkshire, but displaying an early love for architec- 
ture, he became a student of the Royal Academy, where in 1772 he won the 
silver medal, and afterwards the gold medal, for his drawings and designs. 
The academy pension of 60/. per annum was then conferred upon him, that 
he might prosecute his studies in Rome. He appears to have diligently im- 
proved this privilege, for, a few years after his return from thence, he was 
elected architect and surveyor to the Bank of England. From this time ap- 
pointments and honours came thickly upon him. He was appointed clerk of 
the works at St. James's Palace, architect to the Board for managing the 
Woods and Forests, and architect generally to the Houses of Parliament and 
public buildings. Subsequently he was elected Professor of Architecture to 
the Royal Academy, and in 1831 he received the honour of knighthood. 

Without following his career as an architect, we may notice that, a few years before his death, 
he retired from his profession, and devoted himself to the completion of his house in Lincoln's 
Inn Fields, and the arrangement of the museum, which at much cost and trouble he had col- 
lected there. He also obtained an act of parliament for settling and preserving the house 
and museum, for the benefit of the public. The act came into operation in 1837, when the de- 
cease of Sir John Soane took place (Jan. 20), and from that time the trustees appointed by the 
act proceeded to carry into effect the will of the founder. They and their successors had full 
power given them at all times to inspect and exercise due control over " the museum, library, 
books, prints, manuscripts, drawings, maps, models, plans, and works of art, and the houses 
and offices in which the same are deposited," providing for their due preservation, and for the 
free admission of visitors (among whom are particularly specified amateurs and students in 
painting, sculpture, and architecture), on at least two days in every week throughout the months 
of April, May, and June. The museum is therefore kept open to general visitors on Thursdays 
and Fridays during the three months above named, and likewise on Tuesdays, from the first in 
February to the last in August, for the accommodation of foreigners and other persons making 
a short stay in London, or who cannot, from special circumstances, avail themselves of the 
ordinary opportunities of visiting the collection. 

Cards of admission are obtained, by application, a day or two beforehand, either to a trustee, 
or by letter to the curator, or personally at the museum. In the latter case the applicant must 
leave the name and address of the party desiring admission, and the number of the persons 
proposed to be introduced, when, unless there is some reason to the contrary, the curator for- 
wards by post a card of admission for the next open day. Access to books, drawings, manu- 
scripts, and permission to copy pictures and other works of art, is also granted on special appli- 
cation to the trustees, or the curator, George Bailey, Esq., who resides at the museum. 

In entering Sir John Soane's Museum, the visitor cannot fail to be struck with the multi- 
plicity of the objects, and the ingenious contrivances by which a house of very moderate 
size has been made to contain so large an amount of curiosities and works of art, without 
altogether destroying its character as a private residence. It seems to have been the aim of the 
owner to show how much could be done within confined limits ; but although we must admire 
his skill and ingenuity, yet we should be sorry to hold up to imitation his plan of crowding 
every available space, every recess, lobby, staircase, courtyard, wall space, and ceiling, with 
paintings, busts, statues, medals, vases, fragments of sculptures, bronzes, &c; and taking the 
visitor by surprise, by a cunning arrangement of mirrors, by which a great reduplication of 
objects, and an apparent increase of space, is obtained. The entrance hall of the house is deco- 
rated with casts in plaster, after the antique, medallion reliefs, and other sculptures, and the 
door leading to the staircase has some fine specimens of ancient painted glass. The dining room 
and library, opening into each other, have their walls of deep vermilion colour, with numerous 
busts, bronzes, vases, &c, on pedestals or on the book-cases ; and over the chimney-piece, a 
fine portrait of Sir John Soane, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., almost the last picture 
painted by that distinguished artist. The library chairs are of a curious design, and richly in- 
laid with mother- of-pearl. There is also an interesting pedestal table of walnut tree, which 
formerly belonged to Sir Robert Walpole. The ceilings are painted by Howard, R.A. From 
these rooms we enter the little study, which is full of marble fragments of antiquity, and other 
curious objects, and leads to the dressing-room and recess, which gives a view from its east 
window of what Sir John called the Monk's Yard, a collection of gothic fragments arranged 
like a ruined cloister, and from its west window of the Monument Court, containing archi- 
tectural groups of various forms and nations. The room itself, and the corridor adjoining, are 
full of curiosities, but the most interesting objects are two engravings by Hogarth. From this 
corridor you enter the student's room, containing wooden models, &c. ; and the picture-room, 
lighted from the top, and having, as it were, double walls, or at least moveable planes, so that 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. — MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 575 

after you have examined, as you think, the whole contents of the room, the side wall or 
shutter is turned on its hinges, and two fresh surfaces are displayed. This room is exceed- 
ingly rich in the possession of two series of paintings, by Hogarth — the Rake's Progress and 
the Election, making in all, twelve paintings. The first series, of eight pictures, was purchased 
for 570 guineas; the last, of four pictures, for 1650 guineas. 

The lower part of the museum contains corridor, ante-room, catacombs, &c, and what is 
called the sepulchral chamber, rendered peculiarly interesting by containing the beautiful ala- 
baster sarcophagus brought from Egypt by Belzoni. The breakfast-room, on the ground floor, 
has some interesting pictures and busts, especially a portrait of Napoleon, in his 28ih year, 
painted for Josephine, afterwards Empress, by Goma, a Venetian artist, and valued by her as 
an excellent likeness. Passing up the staircase, which is elaborately adorned, you enter the 
drawing-rooms, which are cheerful, well lighted, and elegant rooms', with good paintings and 
models, an ivory table, and chairs, from Tippoo Saib's palace, and ether interesting objects. 
We cannot particularly describe the upper floor, but a good guide to the whole is sold at the 
museum, being chiefly abridged from Sir John Soane's own account of the house and museum. 



MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY, JERMYN STREET, ST. JAMESES*. 

This national establishment has arisen from suggestions made by Sir 
Henry De la Beche, C.B., to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 
1835, that advantage might be taken of the opportunities constantly 
afforded in the progress of the geological survey of the United King- 
dom, under his direction, of collecting geological and mineralogical 
specimens, in illustration of the practical applications of geology, 
and exemplification of the mineral productions of this country. 

The design was approved of, and it has, since 1837, been exten- 
sively carried out. The collections, until very lately, were placed in 
a house in Craig's Court ; but in number and importance they out- 
grew the accommodation there afforded, and the present elegant and 




MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 

* This notice has been contributed by Robert Hunt, Esq., keeper of Mining Records in the 
museum. 



576 



LONDON. 




HALL OF THE MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL. GEOLOGY. 

commodious building has been erected to receive them. One front of 
this museum (shown in the previous page) is in Piccadilly, the 
apartments at this end of the building being occupied by the library, 
palseontological office, model-room, laboratory, and the offices of the 
director and secretary ; the other front, which is the chief entrance 
to the museum, is in Jermyn Street. 

The objects of this establishment are to exhibit all the practical 
applications, in the most extended sense, which have been made of the 
geological and mineralogical formations of the United Kingdom. The 
manner in which this has been accomplished will be understood from 
the following summary of the arrangements. 

On entering from Jermyn Street, we find a very spacious hall (see 
above), which is devoted to the exhibition of all the building and orna- 
mental stones of these islands. In the cases around the hall will be found 
specimens, in six-inch cubes, of most of the sandstones, oolites, lime- 
stones, granites, and porphyries, which this country produces. With a 
view of showing in the best form the various ornamental stones, they 
have to some extent been employed in the decorations of the hall. The 
entrance is lined with the alabaster of Derbyshire. There are pi- 
lasters around the hall, of granite from Scotland, serpentine from Ire- 
land, and beautiful limestones from Devonshire, Derbyshire, and other 
districts. On one side will be found a very elaborate screen, the 
pilasters and cornice of the Cornish serpentine, and the panels of 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 577 



the Irish serpentine, framed 
with the productions of Der- 
byshire, which are themselves 
very fine specimens of inlay- 
ing. There is also in this 
hall a very large copy of an 
Etruscan vase, cut in the 
Aberdeen granite. In the 
centre is a tessellated pave- 
ment, formed from the Corn- 
ish China clay by Prosser's 
process of compression, and 
manufactured by Messrs. 
Minton, and around this will 
be found a paving of encaustic 
tiles. Numerous pedestals in 
different stones stand around 
the hall, showing in them- 
selves the variety of marbles 
which Great Britain and Ire- 
land produce, which support 
specimens of marble vases, 
statuettes in artificial stone, 
cement, &c. 

Ascending by a handsome 
staircase, at the sides of which 
specimens of British industrial 
art are placed, the principal 
floor of the museum is reached 
(see plan). This apartment 
is of the following dimen- 
sions : — 95 ft. long, 55 ft. 
wide, 32 ft. high to the 
springing of the roof, and 
42 ft. 9 in. in the centre. 

The roof of this is of iron, and the arrangements for the admission 
of light are exceedingly good. It is glazed with rough plate glass, 
the panes being each 10 ft. by 3 ft. 4 in., and f in. thick. Around this 
room run two light galleries, so that there are three tiers of glass 
cases, and upon the balustrade of the galleries are horizontal glass 
cases, which are devoted to the exhibition of British fossils. In these 
cases will be found specimens of the earliest forms of organization which 
have yet been discovered in this country, and the series is continued in 
regular order up to the most recent fossils of the tertiary formations. 

In this museum will be found an interesting and complete series of 
the earthenware and porcelain of Staffordshire, from the first esta- 
blishment of any works in the potteries. The fictile wares of Derby, 

c c 




GROUND PLAN OF MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 



578 LONDON. 

of Worcester, of Swansea, of Chelsea, of Bow, and other districts, 
are also illustrated. In addition to this series, representing an import- 
ant British manufacture, will be found specimens of the earthenware 
of the ancients, the keramic manufactures of Italy, Germany, France, 
and of the Orientals, for the purpose of showing to what extent 
our potters have been indebted to the works of other times and 
nations for their success. Connected with this series, the various 
china clays, china stone, and the other raw materials employed in 
making earthenware and porcelain, are exhibited. In the same man- 
ner, all the native materials which are employed in the formation of 
glass, — an historical series, consisting of beads, bottles, jugs, and other 
articles, together with specimens of modern European manufacture, 
have here a place. The specimens of old Venetian glass are exceed- 
ingly curious and instructive. In connection with glass, several cases 
are devoted to the processes of enamelling, in which silica and the 
metallic oxides are alone employed. Many of the enamels are of 
high antiquity : several fine specimens of the Limoge enamel, and 
some very excellent modern works in this style of art, together, for 
comparison, with many specimens of Chinese enamels, will be found 
well worthy of attention. 

The mineral collection is extensive, and contains specimens of every 
variety of ore which is of use in the arts or manufactures. In this 
important department, the following admirable method has been 
adopted : — All the minerals are, in the first place, arranged in sys- 
tematic order, the locality in which each specimen is found being 
given. Masses of the lode, and portions of the rock, of sufficient 
size to show the mode of occurrence in nature, accompany the selected 
specimens. Then follows the mode of dressing the ores for the 
market ; then illustrations of the smelting processes in all their details, 
and samples of the varieties of metals produced. Manufactured 
articles succeed these, so as to show whether they are employed for 
useful purposes, or purely for ornamental ends, the character of the 
pure metal, and its alloys. Thus statuettes of copper, tin, zinc, lead, 
iron, brass, bronze, and other metals, will be found ; and in this de- 
partment the electrotype deposits have a place, and electro-plating 
and gilding are fully illustrated. 

An adjoining room and a portion of the gallery are devoted to 
models of mining machinery, of mines, and collections of miners' 
tools. Complete models of the Cornish pumping engine (Taylors 
engine at the United Mines), of the water-pressure engine at Alston 
Moor, of the turbine and other wheels, and a beautiful set of all the 
varieties of valves used in those hydraulic engines, will be found in 
this department. Here is also a sectional model of Dolcoath Mine, 
a model of the coal districts of South Wales, of Dean Forest, and 
of the lead district of Nentsbury — all of them capable of dissection, 
so that the geological character may be fully exemplified, and the 
modes of working shown. A model of the machine employed in 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. — MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 5? 9 

Cornwall for raising and lowering the miners, models of stamping 
and crushing engines, and a set to illustrate the processes of iron- 
smelting by the hot and cold blast, well deserve attention. The tools 
of the Cornish, the German, the Russian, and the Mexican miners, are 
here. Every variety of the safety-lamp, chains, wire-ropes, and all the 
material used in mining operations, are exhibited, so that this depart- 
ment furnishes the means of education which is so much required in 
a great mining country like Great Britain. 

Among the illustrations, few will be found to the practical inquirer 
more instructive than the iron series. The ore from the mine in all 
its varieties, the results of each stage of the processes of smelting, and 
the slags obtained in these processes, pig and bar iron, illustrations of 
fibrous and crystalline varieties of iron, and of the ductility, tenacity, 
and strength of specimens, the manufacture of steel, the production 
of cutlery in sword-blades and knives, and of the steel dies for striking 
coins and medals, together with the mixtures of iron and steel as seen in 
the turned gun-barrels; and the ornamental castings in iron of Colebrook 
Dale and other places, are severally found in systematic arrangement. 

Our limited space prevents our detailing more completely the various 
points of high interest and of practical importance which belong to 
this museum. We must, however, notice, that the history of the 
metals is told, in collections of bronzes and brasses, and gold and silver 
ornaments. This portion is necessarily imperfect at present, but it 
even now furnishes a valuable lesson, and we doubt not but important 
additions will be rapidly made to its stores. 

Connected with this museum is the Mining Records Office, esta- 
blished in 1839, in which are preserved the plans and sections of the 
mines of the United Kingdom. The importance of collecting these 
documents was strongly impressed upon the Treasury by a committee 
of the British Association. Although there is no compulsory regula- 
tion to secure copies of the mining plans and sections, but the whole 
is left to the will of the mine proprietor, a very extensive series of 
drawings has been collected together, and much important statistical 
information accumulated. A w r ell-fitted laboratory for carrying out 
chemical investigations on all matters which are in any way connected 
with the objects of the institution, and a commodious theatre, in 
which lectures on the practical application of science will be delivered, 
are the only other features we can notice. 

The following officers are connected with this establishment : — 

Sir Henry De la Beche, C.B., Director General. 

Professor Ramsay, F.R.S., Local Director of the Geological Survey. 

Richard Phillips, Esq., F.R.S., Curator and Chemist. 

Dr. Lyon Playfair, F.R.S., Chemist. 

Professor Edward Forbes, F.R.S., Palaeontologist. 

Warington W. Smith, Esq., M.A., Mining Geologist. 

Trenham Reeks, Esq., Secretary and Librarian. 

Robert Hunt, Esq., Keeper of Mining Records. 

c c 2 



580 LONDON. 

ROYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY, REGENT'S PARK. 
Date of Charter, 1839. 
The Royal Botanic Society, whose gardens occupy the inner circle, Regent's Park, was 
founded and incorporated in 1839, for the promotion of botany in all its branches. The gardens 
of this society are well laid out, and rendered exceedingly attractive by the exhibitions and 
promenades held therein. In May, June, and July, there are splendid floral exhibitions, when 
nearly three hundred medals are distributed, bearing value from fifteen shillings up to twenty 
pounds. The society's beautiful gardens occupy about eighteen acres of ground, and contain a 
spacious and elegant conservatory, capable of accommodating two thousand visitors. The annual 
subscription to this society is two guineas, the entrance fee five guineas. The subscription may 
be compounded for by the payment of twenty guineas. Every candidate for admission as a 
fellow or member, must be proposed by three members, and admitted by ballot. The annual 
general meeting is on the 10th of August ; the ordinary meetings are held on the second and fourth 
Saturdays of each month, at a quarter before four o'clock. About one thousand pounds is an- 
nually spent by the society in the encouragement and growth of plants. The president of this 
society is the Duke of Norfolk ; the secretary is J. De Carle Sowerby, Esq., whose residence is 
on the society's grounds; and the treasurer, Edward Majoribanks, Esq. 

PHARMACEUTICAL SOCIETY, 17, BLOOMSBURY SQUARE. 
Date of Charter, 1843. 

The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain was instituted " for the purpose of uniting 
the chemists and druggists into one ostensible, recognised, and independent body for pro- 
tecting their general interests, and for the advancement of pharmacy, by furnishing such an 
uniform system of education as shall secure to the profession and to the public the safest and most 
efficient administration of medicine." A royal charter of incorporation was granted in 1843, in 
which, in addition to the above, the objects of the society were declared to include the providing 
a fund for the relief of distressed members and associates, and of their widows and orphans. 

This society has established a board of examiners, whose duty it is to see that persons de- 
sirous of becoming members are possessed of the necessary qualifications. Each person ap- 
proved by them, pays an admission fee of two guineas, with an annual subscription of a guinea 
and a half. Foreigners, or our own colonists, are admitted as life members, on the payment of 
ten guineas. Associates, registered apprentices, and students, being assistants to chemists and 
druggists, are admitted, after due examination, by paying an annual subscription of ten shillings 
and sixpence. 

The society has a library, an excellent museum, and a laboratory, for the superintendence 
and preservation of which a separate committee of four or more members of council is ap- 
pointed. Lectures are delivered, and meetings are held at the society's house, in Bloomsbury 
Square, the second and fourth Wednesdays in each month. The annualgeneral meeting is on the 
third Tuesday in May. Members sometimes use initial letters, in which case they are M.P.S., 
A.P.S., and R.A.P.S. The Pharmaceutical Journal is published in monthly shilling numbers. 

SOCIETY OF ARTS, JOHN STREET, ADELPHI. 

Date of Charter, 1847. 

The Society of Arts has for its object the encouragement of the arts, manu- 
factures, and commerce of this country, by means of exhibitions and meetings, 
and by bestowing honorary rewards for works of merit, inventions, discoveries, 
and improvements. This society was founded in 1753, but it is only during 
the last seven years that it has attained to the prosperity which its efforts 
deserve. A great impulse has been given to its proceedings by the patronage 
of His Koyal Highness Prince Albert, and by the bestowal of a royal charter of 
incorporation in 1847, in which the Prince Consort was declared the first 
president. Within the last seven years the income of the society has increased 
from 800?. to 1600?., the whole of which is expended in the promotion of arts, 
manufactures, and commerce. To effect this object committees are appointed 
to consider the various communications received, and to recommend their 
adoption or rejection by the council. This society not only holds out rewards 
for the encouragement of fine arts and manufactures, but for improvements in 
agriculture, chemistry, mechanics, &c; and we are assured that, in carrying 
out its various objects, the society has expended a sum of not less than 100,000?., 
raised by the subscriptions of members, and by donations and legacies. 

Members are elected by ballot in the usual way, but pay no admission fee. 
The annual subscription is two guineas, or a composition of twenty. The 
meetings are held at the society's house, John Street, Adelphi, on Wednesday 
evenings, during November, December, February, March, May, and June. In 
the last-named month the anniversary is held, and rewards are distributed by 
the president. The published Transactions of the society form an old and new 
series, amounting to 55 or 56 volumes. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. SMEATONIAN SOC. OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. 581 

SOCIETIES WITHOUT CHAKTEES, 

In the order of the Dates of their Foundation. 

SMEATONIAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, FREEMASONS* TAVERN, 
GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN^ INN FIELDS. 

The profession of the Civil Engineer is of comparatively modern origin ; for 
it is only among a people very considerably advanced in civilization and 
wealth that works can be prosecuted on an extensive scale with success. The 
formation of the factory system by Arkwright, of inland navigation by Brind- 
ley, of lighthouses and harbours by Smeaton, and the undertaking of great 
works at the public expense, gradually raised into importance " a self-created 
set of men, whose profession owes its origin, not to power or influence, but to 
the best of all protection, the encouragement of a great and powerful nation ■ 
a nation become so from the industry and steadiness of its manufacturing 
workmen, and their superior knowledge in practical chemistry, mechanics, 
natural philosophy, and other useful accomplishments." The first society of 
civil engineers was established under the auspices of the illustrious Smeaton, 
in 1771. Before that period men engaged in public works " often met acci- 
dentally in the Houses of Parliament, and in courts of justice, each maintain- 
ing the propriety of his own designs, without knowing much of each other. 
It was, however, proposed by one gentleman to Mr. Smeaton, that such a state 
of the profession, then crude and in its infancy, was improper ; and that it 
would be well if some sort of occasional meeting in a friendly way was to be 
held, where they might shake hands together and be personally known to 
each other ; that thus the sharp edges of their minds might be rubbed off as 
it were by a closer communication of ideas, no ways naturally hostile ; might 
promote the true end of the public business upon which they should happen 
to meet in the course of their employment, without jostling one another with 
rudeness, too common in the unworthy part of the advocates of the law, 
whose interest it might be to push them on perhaps too far in discussing points 
in contest." It appears that Smeaton acted at once on this idea. In March, 
1771, a small meeting was first established on Friday evenings, at the Queen's 
Head Tavern, Holborn. The members at first were few, but in the course of 20 
years they amounted to upwards of 65; but of these there were only 15 who 
were real engineers. " Conversation, argument, and a social communication 
of ideas and knowledge in the particular walks of each member, were at the 
same time the amusement and the business of the meetings." This society, or 
rather club, continued its meetings until May, 1792, when, in consequence 
of some misunderstanding among its members, it was dissolved by consent. 
Steps were then taken to reorganise the society, and Smeaton consented to 
become a member ; but he died before the first meeting, which was held at the 
Crown and Anchor in the Strand, on the loth April, 1793, under the title of 
* The Society of Civil Engineers." The constitution agreed on was that there 
should be three classes of members : — the first to consist of real engineers ; the 
second class, men of science and gentlemen who had studied civil engineering ; 
and the third class, artists and others connected with the profession. The 
members were to dine together every other Friday during the session of par- 
liament. It is stated as a mark of the society's regard, " that a tribute was 
always paid after dinner to the memory of their late worthy brother, John 
Smeaton." 

The society having been informed that Sir Joseph Banks had purchased all 
the manuscripts, designs, &c, of Smeaton from his representatives, proposed 
to publish such of them as consisted of reports on public works. This was 
acceded to, and in February, 1795, a special committee was formed, with Sir 
Joseph Banks at its head, to superintend the publication. The first volume 



582 LONDON. 

was published in 1812, from the preface to which the above particulars are de- 
rived. Three other volumes were subsequently published. 

The society thus established continues to exist under the name of the 
" Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers." It meets, for the purpose of dining, 
monthly during the session of parliament, at the Freemasons' Tavern, and in- 
cludes some of the most eminent men in the profession. 

MEDICAL SOCIETY, BOLT COURT, FLEET STREET. 

The Medical Society of London was instituted in 1773, and holds its meetings at a house in 
Bolt Court, Fleet Street, which was bequeathed to it, together with a considerable library, by 
Dr. Lettsom, a celebrated physician of former days. Three medals are awarded annually for 
the promotion of medical science — a gold one, called the Fothergillian, and two silver ones. The 
meetings are held every Monday evening at eight o'clock, from September to May, with the 
exception of two or three weeks at Christmas. The Transactions of the society have been pub- 
lished at irregular intervals. Fellows are elected by ballot. They pay one guinea entrance, and 
one guinea annual subscription. 

LONDON INSTITUTION. 

The London Institution originated in the praiseworthy and energetic efforts of several of 
the principal bankers and merchants in the city. The first public meeting was held. May 23, 
1805; Sir Francis Baring, Bart., M.P., in the chair. It was then resolved on to establish an in- 
stitution upon an extensive and liberal scale, in some central part of the city, the object of 
which shall be to provide — 

1. A library, to contain works of intrinsic value. 

2. Lectures for the diffusion of useful knowledge. 

3. Reading rooms for the daily papers, periodicals, pamphlets, and foreign publications. 
The subscriptions for this purpose proceeded with unexampled rapidity, so that in the short 

space of one week they reached nearly sixty thousand pounds. It was not till the beginning of 
the following year that the business of the institution actually commenced in a temporary esta- 
blishment in the Old Jewry. A library of 10,000 volumes was here arranged in five spacious 
apartments, but the intended scientific lectures were deferred until preparations could be fully 
entered into for making them at once respectable and useful. The society removed, in 1812, to 
other premises in King's Arms Yard, Coleman Street ; but it was not till 1815 that they were 
able to carry out their original intention of purchasing a site, and commencing a building of 
their own. In 1815 the present house of the institution, which is a handsome building, in the 
centre of the north side of Finsbury Circus, was commenced, and in 1819 it was opened to the 
members. The first course of scientific lectures was now delivered, by Professor Brande, secre- 
tary to the Royal Society, and these were followed in succeeding seasons by regular courses on 
the various branches of science and the useful arts, on music, the fine arts, and literature. 

The library of this institution has been collected at vast expense and with great care. It con- 
sists of upwards of 60,000 volumes, and is very rich in topographical works. Professor Porson, 
the first librarian, died in the rooms of the institution, in 1808. The library is open from 
10 a.m. to 11 p.m., every day except Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday it closes at 3. The 
soirees or evening conversazioni of the institution are held during the spring season. On these 
occasions the library is copiously furnished with models and specimens of new inventions, for the 
amusement of visitors, and a lecture is also delivered in the theatre. 

The institution consists of a limited number of proprietors, and of life and annual subscribers. 

The affairs are managed by a president, four vice-presidents, and twenty managers. There is 
also a board of visitors, and there are five auditors of accounts. 

ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 5, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 

The Roval Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded in 1823, for the 
investigation and encouragement of arts, science, and literature, in relation to Asia. The 
meetings are held at 5, New Burlington Street, where there is a library and museum, the latter 
containing a collection of oriental arms and armour, and other objects of interest. The museum 
is open daily for the admission of the public (except on Saturdays, and the usual holidays), be- 
tween the hours of eleven and four, at the recommendation of members, who are furnished 
with tickets for distribution. The meetings of the society are held the first and third Saturdays 
of every month, from November to June. The publications of this society are its " Trans- 
actions "and "Journal," the former in quarto, the latter in octavo volumes. These contain 
important researches and information on Eastern literature and science. The library of this 
society is rich in oriental manuscripts and Chinese books. The principal members are noble- 
men and gentlemen who have some especial interest in or connection with our Eastern posses- 
sions, or who take an interest in the wide field of inquiry opened to us by recent events with 
relation to China. 

The members of this society are resident, non-resident, honorary, foreign, and correspond- 
ing. All resident members (namely, such as usually reside in Great Britain and Ireland), pay an 
admission fee of five guineas, and an annual subscription of three guineas. Non-resident mem- 
bers do not pay the annual subscription. The mode of admission is by the recommendation of 
from three to five members, and three-fourths of the votes are necessary. 

The following societies are branch societies of the Royal Asiatic Society, and their members, 
when in England, have free admission to its meetings :— the Literary Society of Bombay; the 
Literarv Society of Madras; the Asiatic Society of Ceylon; the Asiatic Society of China, at 
Hong Kong. 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION. 583 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 11, HANOVER SQUARE. 

The Zoological Society of London was instituted in 1826, under the auspices of Sir Hum- 
phry Davy, Sir Stamford Raffles, and other eminent individuals, for the advancement of 
zoology, and the introduction and exhibition of subjects of the animal kingdom, alive or in a 
state of preservation. 

The affairs of the society are managed by a president, vice-presidents, and council. 

The presidents of the Royal Society, of the Linnean, Geological, and Horticultural Societies, 
of the Royal Institution, and of the "Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons, and the 
chairman of the Hudson's Bay Company, for the time being, are ex officio honorary members of 
the society. 

Fellows of this society pay an admission fee of five pounds, and an annual contribution of 
three pounds, or a composition of thirty pounds in lieu thereof. Annual subscribers pay a con- 
tribution of three pounds on the 1st of "January in every year. Honorary, foreign, and corre- 
sponding members pay no contribution. 

Fellows have personal admission to the gardens and museum with two companions daily. 
They receive also twenty tickets annually for the admission of friends at any time, and on Sa- 
turdays and Sundays they have the power of admitting" two friends, by written order, instead 
of by "their personal introduction. Annual subscribers have similar privileges, but can only 
admit one companion, or on Saturday and Sunday one friend by written order. The wives of 
fellows and members exercise the same privilege in the absence of their husbands. 

Honorary, foreign, and corresponding members have personal admission to the gardens and 
museum on all occasions when they are open to the fellows and annual subscribers. Fellows, 
annual subscribers, honorary, foreign, and corresponding members, are entitled to one copy of 
the scientific proceedings of the society on application at the office, and are entitled to purchase 
the Transactions and other publications of the society at 25 per cent, less than the price charged 
to the public. They may obtain, on the payment of one guinea annually, an ivory ticket, which 
will admit a named person of their immediate family to the gardens and museum with one 
companion daily. The public are admitted to the gardens on payment of one shilling for each 
person. This charge is reduced to sixpence on Mondays. 

The gardens are open from nine o'clock a.m. till sunset. The museum, from ten till six ; and 
the office, from ten till five. 

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, 3, WATERLOO PLACE. 

The Royal Geographical Society of London was established in 1830, for the improvement 
and diffusion of geographical knowledge. Its offices are at 3, Waterloo Place, where there 
is a small but good geographical library, and a collection of maps, charts, and instruments con- 
nected with geographical science, to which all the members have access. 

The mode of admission to this society is by the recommendation of two or more members, 
after which the decision is made by ballot. Every ordinary member is required to pay 37. as his 
admission fee, and 21. annual subscription, or he may compound for both bv one payment 
of 28/. 

The meetings are of three kinds, anniversary, special, and ordinary. The anniversary meet- 
ing is held on the fourth Monday in May, when two gold medals, the gift of the Queen, are 
presented to the two most distinguished promoters of geographical discovery. The ordinary 
meetings are held on the second and fourth Monday of every month, or oftener, if judged ex- 
pedient by the council. Visitors, if introduced by members, are allowed to be present. The 
members or fellows are known respectively by the" initial letters, M.R.G.S., or F.R.G.S. 

GAELIC SOCIETY, BRITISH COFFEE HOUSE, COCKSPUR STREET. 

The Gaelic Society was 'instituted in 1830, the principal objects being to accustom the 
members to the language, poetry, music, and dress of the Gael. The fundamental rules are 
that no man shall be deemed eligible as an associate who cannot speak the Gaelic language, in 
which the affairs of the society are to be conducted; that in the event of a dissolution of the 
society, its property be given to " The Society for Supporting Gaelic Schools in the Highlands 
and Islands of Scotland." The meetings are held on the second Monday of each month, at the 
British Coffee House, Cockspur Street. The anniversary is on the 17th'of August. 

In the catalogue of books, &c, published by the society, Mr. James Logan, the secretary, has 
introduced a sketch of the origin and progress of Scottish Societies in London, and elsewhere, 
instituted for the purposes of philanthropy and the preservation of national usages. Referring 
to the present society, he says — " It has frequently been observed that the Highlanders are be- 
hind in the advance of intellectual knowledge, especially as relates to their own particular litera- 
ture. There are certainly no very encouraging circumstances to induce them to devote time 
and means to objects, the'pursuit'of which is reckoned by the unthinking in this utilitarian and 
cosmopolitic age, unprofitable and indicative of narrow ideas ; but as amor pat/ia is a feeling 
implanted in the very nature of man, which impels him to take more interest in his own rela- 
tions — in his own friends— in his own countrymen, and all that pertains to his common race and 
fatherland, than to those which are foreign to him ; it has led to the most brilliant deeds in arms 
and discoveries in art throughout the world, and the study of national literature will assuredly 
enlarge the mind, and render individuals more useful in their sphere, and better members of 
general society." 

UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTION, SCOTLAND YARD. 

The United Service Institution was founded in 1830 by members of the naval and military 
profession, as a repository for various objects of scientific and general interest, as a means of 
communication among the numerous officers who are able and willing to contribute to the 



584, LONDON. 

promotion of science and art, and as a place where lectures might be held, and documents re- 
ceived on subjects of common interest to naval and military men. No sooner was the plan of 
this institution arranged, than collections and specimens in natural history were freely contri- 
buted for the foundation of the museum, which is now sufficiently extensive to occupy four or 
five rooms, and to constitute one of the sights worth seeing in the metropolis. The model room 
contains models, in great variety, of ships, gun-carriages, &c, and specimens of different forms 
of life-buoy, models of military waggons, gun-boats, canoes, &c. The armoury contains 
weapons of various countries, African swords and daggers, Chinese and Indian weapons, clubs, 
spears, fighting-dresses, with a large assortment of English swords, spears, cross-bows of olden 
times, and distinct stands of arms used in the military and naval service in particular reigns. 
Two other rooms are devoted chiefly to collections in natural history, stuffed animals, and 
birds, cases of minerals, reptiles preserved in spirits, insects, &c. Very little arrangement has 
hitherto been attempted in this museum, which lessens the interest in examining it ; but there 
are numerous objects of popular interest in these rooms as well as in the armoury. Here, for 
instance, is the skeleton of Marengo, the barb charger which Napoleon Bonaparte rode at the 
battle of Waterloo ; while in the armoury there is the crimson sash by which Sir John Moore 
was lowered to his grave, a piece of the gold lace from Nelson's coat worn at Teneriffe, the 
swords of Oliver Cromwell and General Wolfe, &c. 

The fifth room of the museum contains objects of the most miscellaneous description, a 
principal part being dresses and ornaments of rude nations. The contents of this, and indeed 
of all the other rooms, stand greatly in need of the classification and arrangement which we 
believe they are ere long destined to receive. The mode of admission to this museum is by a 
member's order, which is very easily procurable. The members are above 4000 in number. 
Each pays an entrance fee of 11., and an annual subscription of 10-s. The hours of admission 
are from eleven till five daily, from April to September, and from eleven till four during the 
winter months. 

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 17, OLD BOND STREET. 

The Entomological Society of London was organized in 1833, for the improvement and 
diffusion of entomological science, and the first general meeting of the society was held in May, 
1834, with the Rev. W. Kirby, the father of British entomology, as its president. Manyof the 
most able and active cultivators of entomology were desirous of establishing a more familiar 
intercourse between their fellow labourers than had hitherto subsisted in this country, hoping 
thus to accelerate the progress of the science, and to promote its utility. They therefore held 
periodical meetings, at which memoirs were received and read, experiments for the destruction 
of noxious insects suggested, communications made, and objects exhibited. They also began to 
form a collection of insects, and a library of reference. Since that time the society has an- 
nually published many valuable papers, of great practical importance to the agriculturist, espe- 
cially those illustrating the history and habits of injurious insects, and the means of arresting 
their ravages. The valuable collections of Mr. Kirby were generously presented to this society 
at its commencement, and the gift is thus alluded to in their first report. " Few but entomo- 
logists can appreciate the value of this remarkable gift. We are now possessed of the very spe- 
cimens from which the first of monographs ever published was formed. We have under our 
eyes the materials from which Messrs. Kirby and Spence derived their well-known ' Introduc- 
tion to Entomology,' a work which has well stood the test of time; and although science has 
greatly progressed since its publication, it requires little to be blotted from its pages. When it 
appeared, it put to flight many of the errors of centuries : it checked the superstition of the 
nursery, assisted to remove the ignorance of the drawing-room, and the misconceptions of our 
rural population ; and although some prejudices still prevail respecting insects, such as ' blight 
in the air,' and the ominous * death-watch,' yet we can now only regard them as the lingering 
mists of ignorance, about to disappear before the daily increasing light of knowledge." 

This society is managed by the usual list of officers. The annual contribution is 11. Is., or a 
composition of 101. 10s. The admission fee is 21. 2s. 

The important ends to be answered by the study of insect life are well alluded to in the fol- 
lowing extract from the president's address at the anniversary meeting of 1844 : — 

" The great object of all scientific research is the welfare and improvement of mankind. All 
inquiries that tend to this object, however remotely connected with it, deserve the attention 
of the philosopher and the philanthropist. Observations on the habits and economy of insects, 
independently of their immediate connection with the cultivation of the soil, are of high 
importance with reference to our arts and manufactures ; and are valuable, not merely to indi- 
vidual enterprise, but to the commerce of the whole world. The dye, the wax, the silk, con- 
tribute to the riches and comfort of thousands, and even supply means of existence to tens of 
thousands ; yet the value and most successful cultivation of these can only be improved by at- 
tention to the habits of the diminutive creatures by which they are produced. In like manner, 
attention to the habits, and experiments on the functions, of these « miniatures of creation,' 
become of immense importance when the knowledge of the entomologist is combined on the 
one hand with the skill of the analytic chemist, in watching the processes, or in testing the 
products, of their little vital laboratories; or, on the other hand, is employed in assisting to 
guide the diminutive scalpel, or the eye of the comparative anatomist and physiologist, in hi* 
microscopic investigations of structure or function. Entomological knowledge unapplied and 
alone, like that of many other pursuits, may perhaps be of little absolute value; but when 
combined with that of the chemist, the physiologist, or the anatomist, it leads to a result of the 
highest possible importance to mankind — the right understanding of the great laws of life n 
health and disease, which alone enables the physician to apply his experience with success in 
restoring to us that which is more valuable than all the comfort that riches or luxury can con- 
tribute." 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, .ETC.— NUMISMATIC SOCIETY. 585 

STATISTICAL SOCIETY, 12, ST. JAMEs's SQUARE. 

The Statistical Society of London was founded in 1834, for the purpose of improving 
statistical knowledge. It had been projected at Cambridge, during the meeting of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science. In the introduction to the journal of this society, 
dated May, 1838, it is stated that only within a few years has the science of statistics been ac- 
tively pursued in this country. u The word statistics is of German origin, and is derived from 
the word stoat, signifying the same as our English word state, or a body of men existing in a 
social union. Statistics, therefore, may be said to be the ascertaining and bringing together of 
those facts which are calculated to illustrate the condition and prospects of society ; and the ob- 
ject of statistical science is to consider the results which they produce, with the view to deter- 
mine those principles upon which the well-being of society depends. Statistics differs from 
political economy, because, although it has the same end in view, it does not discuss causes, nor 
reason upon probable effects ; it seeks only to collect, arrange, and compare that class of facts 
which alone can form the basis of correct conclusions with respect to social and political go- 
vernment." 

In 1832, Lord Auckland and Mr. Poulett Thomson, who then presided over the Board of Trade, 
established a statistical office in that department, for the purpose of collecting, arranging, and 
publishing statements relating to the condition, and bearing upon the various interests of the 
British Empire. Volumes prepared by this office are annually printed and laid before Parlia- 
ment. In 1833 the statistical section was formed in the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, and before the close of that year the Manchester Statistical Society was established. 
Societies for prosecuting statistical inquiries have sprung up throughout the kingdom. 

The society divides the scope and system of its labours into the following important heads : — 

1. The statistics of physical geography, division, and appropriation ; or geographical and 
proprietary statistics. 

2. The statistics of production ; or agricultural, mining, fishery, manufacturing, and com- 
mercial statistics. 

3. The statistics of instruction ; or ecclesiastical, scientific, literary, university, and school 
statistics. 

4. The statistics of protection ; or constitutional, military and naval, judicial, criminal, and 
police statistics. 

5. The statistics of life, of consumption, and of enjoyment; or of population, health, the 
distribution and consumption of the commodities of life, and public and private charity. 

The number of fellows of this society is unlimited. Admission is obtained by a recommenda- 
tion from two fellows, and by ballot; and a yearly subscription of 21. 2s. is paid in advance, or 
is compounded for by one payment of 20 guineas. Foreign members to the number of fifty, 
and corresponding members to an unlimited extent, are admitted free of payment. The busi- 
ness of the society is transacted by a council of thirty-one members, including the president, 
vice-president, &c. The ordinary meetings of the society are held monthly during the session, 
which lasts from 1st of November to 1st of July. The anniversary meeting takes place on the 
loth of March, or on the following day if the loth fall on a Sunday. The result of this society's 
labours may be gathered from a publis'hed journal of its proceedings, of which there are several 
volumes. The office of the society is at 12, St. James's Square. There is no difference made in 
this society as to resident and non-resident fellows. Members adopt the initials F.S.S. 

BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 20, BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 

The Botanical Society of London was instituted November 29, 1836, for the promotion 
and diffusion of botanical knowledge, for the formation of British and general herbaria, for the 
exchange of specimens with other societies, for the establishment of a library for reference^ and 
circulation, and for holding evening meetings, receiving communications, and publishing im- 
portant facts and views. Its offices are at 20, Bedford Street, Covent Garden, where an exten- 
sive herbarium is open for inspection of members and other botanists, every Friday evening 
from seven to ten o'clock. The library is open on the same day. The meetings of the society 
are held on the first Friday of every month, at eight o'clock p.m., except in December. The 
anniversary meeting is held on the 29th November, being the birthday of Ray, the botanist. 
The annual subscription for resident members is 1/. Is., and the entrance fee is the same. Non- 
resident members pay \0s. Gd. The members are known respectively by the initial letters 
M.B.S.L. 

The great advantage connected with membership in this society is the extent of knowledge 
gained through the exchange of British and foreign specimens, and the facilities afforded for 
forming complete and valuable herbaria. The herbarian committee justly state that neither 
private correspondence nor membership of any other association has ever given British botanists 
those advantages in forming their herbaria, which are realized by the members of the Botanical 
Society of London. 

NUMISMATIC SOCIETY, 41, TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 

This society was instituted on the 22nd December, 1836, chiefly through the exertions of John 
Lee, Esq., LL.D., and a few other gentlemen; and its first ordinary meeting was held 26th 
January, 1837. Its object is the encouragement and promotion of numismatic science in all its 
branches. The admission fee is U. Is., and the annual subscription \l. 10*. This entitles the 
members to the numbers of the " Numismatic Chronicle," published quarterly, and edited by 
J. Y. Akerman, Esq. The ordinary meetings occur on the last Thursday in each month from 
November till May, inclusive, at 7 o'clock. The members are known respectively by the 
initial letters M.N.S. 

c c 3 



586 LONDON. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

This society was established in 1837, for the purpose of breeding and forming collections of 
water-fowl; first, to supply the royal parks; and, secondly, to distribute duplicates, gratui- 
tously, among such members as may be desirous of acquiring a collection of aquatic birds. The 
society endeavours to maintain a complete collection of water- fowl— swimmers, divers, and 
wader's. The birds are kept as nearly as possible in a natural state, in St. James's Park, where 
the lake forms as it were a great natural cage. The birds are very tame, and being placed under 
the protection of the public, are great favourites, a large portion of their food being supplied by 
visitors. The president of this society is the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry. 

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 12, HANOVER SQUARE. 

The Royal Agricultural Society of England was established in 1838, with the view of 
improving the general system of agriculture in this country, and of engaging talented men in 
the investigation of such subjects as are of deep practical importance to the British farmer. 
The labours of this society have been of immense advantage to the agricultural interest, and 
its published journal is one of the most useful and interesting periodicals which a farmer can 
study. This society holds an annual meeting in London, and also an annual country meeting, 
the latter including a cattle-show, an exhibition of agricultural implements and inventions, and 
the awarding of prizes in either department. The first country meeting was held in Oxford, in 
the summer of 1839, when an immense multitude of persons assembled, among whom were two 
or three thousand eminent cultivators of the soil, breeders of stock, &c. The meeting was held 
next at Cambridge, and then at other important towns, in succession. In 1840 the society was 
incorporated by royal charter, and its objects were distinctly assigned to be : first, to embody 
such information contained in agricultural publications and in other scientific works as has 
been proved by practical experience to be useful to cultivators of the soil; second, to 
correspond with agricultural, horticultural, and other scientific societies, both at home and 
abroad, and to select from such correspondence all information which, according to the opinion 
of the society, may be likely to lead to practical benefit in the cultivation of the soil; third, 
to pay to any occupier of land, or other person who shall undertake at the request of the society 
to ascertain by experiment how far such information leads to useful results in practice, a re- 
muneration for any loss that he may incur by so doing; fourth, to encourage men of science 
in their attention to the improvement of agricultural implements, the construction of farm- 
buildings and cottages, the application of chemistry to the general purposes of agriculture, the 
destruction of insects injurious to vegetable life, and the eradication of weeds; fifth, to pro- 
mote the discovery of new varieties of grain and other vegetables useful to man, or for the food 
of domestic animals ; sixth, to collect information with regard to the management of woods, 
plantations, and fences, and on every other subject connected with rural improvement ; Seventh, 
to take measures for the improvement of the education of those who depend upon the cultiva- 
tion of the soil for their support; eighth, to take measures for improving the veterinary art, 
as applied to cattle, sheep, and pigs ; ninth, at the meetings of the society in the country, by 
the distribution of prizes, and by other means, to encourage the best mode of farm cultivation, 
and the breed of live stock; tenth, to promote the welfare and comfort of labourers, and to 
encourage the improved management of their cottages and gardens. 

The society consists of a president, trustees, vice-presidents, governors, and members. The 
governors pay 51. annually, the members 1/., or they can compound for life by paying ten an- 
nual subscriptions. Numerous and liberal prizes are awarded by this society, not only for cattle 
and implements of a superior kind, but for essays on modes of farming, &c. A notice of the 
prizes held out in 1846, which we take at random from the journal of the society, will show the 
nature and amount of these rewards. Fifty sovereigns, or a piece of plate of that value, for 
the best report on the farming of North Wales. The same for the West Riding of Yorkshire, 
and for the farming of Cambridgeshire. Fifty sovereigns, or plate, for the best report on the 
advantages and disadvantages of breaking up grass land. Thirty sovereigns for the best essay 
on the improvement of the condition of the agricultural labourer. Ten sovereigns for the best 
essay on the keeping of farm accounts. Twenty sovereigns for the best account of task-work. 
Twenty sovereigns for an essay on peat charcoal as a manure for turnips, &c. Ten sovereigns for 
the best account of the use of acid with bones. Ten sovereigns for an account of the cultiva- 
tion of white mustard ; and ten sovereigns for the best account of the draining of running sands. 

The rooms of the Royal Agricultural Society are at 12, Hanover Square, London. The pre- 
sident is the Right Hon. Lord Portman. 

MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY, 21, REGENT STREET. 

The Microscopical Society was established in 1839, for the improvement of microscopic 
science, and of the instruments by which its investigations are carried on, and for the forma- 
tion of a library of standard microscopical works. The meetings of this society are held at 
the rooms of the Horticultural Society, 21, Regent Street. The members pay 11. Is. annual 
subscription, and 1/. Is. entrance ; the former may be compounded for in the usual way. A can- 
didate must be recommended by three members, and balloted for. A majority of two-thirds is 
necessary to secure his admission. The society publishes its Transactions. 

Weekly meetings take place at seven o'clock on Wednesday, from October till June. The 
chair is vacated at nine, and the meeting assumes the form of a conversazione. 

The Microscopical Society owes its existence to the exertions of a few gentlemen engaged m 
scientific pursuits, who aimed at affording assistance and encouragement to microscopical inves- 
tigations, «« by promoting that ready intercourse between those engaged in such pursuits, by 
which not only are great advantages mutually gained, but also information of the most valu- 
able kind disseminated and perpetuated. Another important consequence resulting from the 
establishment of this society, and the increasing interest in microscopical pursuits excited by it, 



LEARNED SOCIETIES, ETC. ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 587 

is the encouragement and stimulus given to the scientific makers of the microscope, by which 
that valuable instrument is now rapidly advancing to the highest degree of perfection." * 

CHEMICAL SOCIETY, (pro tem.) JOHN STREET, ADELPHI. 

The Chemical Society of London was established in 1841 , for the promotion of chemistry, 
by communications and discussions, and by collecting a library, museum, and standard instru- * 
ments. But there are vestiges of a much older society, established for the same ends. This 
was set on foot in 1780, at which time chemistry began to be very much cultivated. Professoi 
Playfair described a Chemical Society, in 1781, as meeting at the Chapter Coffee House. 
" Here I met," he says, " a venerable old man, Mr. Whitehurst, author of ' An Inquiry into 
the Formation of the Earth,' Dr. Keir, Dr. Crauford, and several others. The conversation 
was purely chemical, and turned on Bergmann's experiments on iron." This society appears to 
be alluded to by Franklin, in a letter to Mr. Passy, in 1781, in which he says, " Present my 
affectionate respects to that honest, sensible, and intelligent society, who did me the honour of 
admitting me to share in their instructive conversations. I never think of the hours I so hap- 
pily spent in that company without regretting that they are never to be repeated, for I see no 
prospect of an end of this unhappy war in my time. Dr. Priestley, you tell me, continues his 
experiments with great success." 

The present society consists of ordinary and foreign members, and of associates. A candidate 
must be recommended by three members, and his certificate suspended in the room during 
three ordinary meetings. He is elected by having three-fourths of the votes in his favour. The 
subscription is 21. annually for resident members, (namely, all within 20 miles of London,) and 
11. by non-resident members. The meetings are held, at present, in the rooms of the Society of 
Arts, John Street, Adelphi, on the first and third Mondays of every month, from November to 
June, at eight o'clock. The anniversary is held on the 30th of March, at the same hour. Sub- 
scriptions are reckoned from the Lady Day or Michaelmas preceding the election of the candi- 
date. The president of this society is W. T. Brande, Esq., whose valuable works on chemistry 
are in the hands of most students of that science. 

PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY, LONDON LIBRARY, ST. JAMES'S SQUARE. 

This society was formed on the 18th May, 1842, for the purpose of investigating the structure, 
affinities, and history of languages, and for the philological illustration of the classical writers 
of Greece and Rome. The members are elected by ballot, and the payments are 11. Is. on ad- 
mission, and 1/. Is. annually, due on the 1st January. The life composition is 10/. 10s. The 
meetings are held on the second and fourth Fridays in every month, from November to June, 
inclusive, except during the Christmas and Easter holidays, at eight o'clock. The anniversary 
is on the fourth Friday in May. The members use the initial letters M.P.S., or F.P.S. A 
journal of proceedings is published. The president is the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of St. 
David's. The secretary is E. Guest, Esq., and the assistant-secretary, Mr. J. G. Cochrane. 

ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 27, SACKVILLE STREET. 

The Ethnological Society of London was founded by Dr. King, in 1843, for the purpose 
of inquiring into the distinguishing characteristics, physical and moral, of the varieties of man- 
kind which' inhabit or have inhabited the earth, and toascertain the causes of such character- 
istics. Fellows are admitted by ballot. The annual subscription is 2/., and the life composition 
121. A journal is published by the society. The meetings are held monthly, from November to 
June, inclusive, and the anniversary is held in May. The president is Dr. J. C. Prichard, and 
the secretary, Dr. King. 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, 32, SACKVILLE STREET. 
Office at Mr. Bonn's, York Street, Covent Garden. 

The British Archaeological Association was established in 1843, for the encouragement 
and prosecution of researches into the arts and monuments of the middle ages, particularly in 
England. 

The association comprises associates and correspondents, the first consisting of annual sub- 
scribers of 11. U. and upwards, or of life subscribers of 10/. 10s. These are entitled to receive 
the Quarterly Journal of the society, and to attend the meetings held in London twice a month. 
A general meeting or congress is held once in the year in one of the towns of England, lasting 
for a week, and a volume is published recording the proceedings during this period. Public 
meetings are held in London at half-past eight p.m., on days previously notified to the sub- 
scribers. 

Associates are elected by the council. Correspondents are elected on the recommendation of 
the president, of two members of council, or of four associates. Distinguished foreigners are 
admitted as honorary members. 

The president for 1851 is J. Hey wood, Esq., M.P. The secretaries are R. J. Planch e and 
C. Bailey, Esqs. There is also a secretary for foreign correspondence, and a hydrographical 
secretary. 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, 12, HAYMARKET. 

The Archseological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland was established in December, 
1843, under the title of the British Archceological Association. Its objects are to investigate, 
preserve, and illustrate all ancient monuments of history, customs, arts, &c, relating to the 
United Kingdom. 

* Preface to Vol. I. of the Society's Transactions, 1844, 



588 LONDON. 

The annual payment is It or upwards. The life composition is 10/. The society includes 
subscribing members, honorary members, and corresponding members. 

The books, drawings, and general collection of this society are kept at No. 12, Haymarket, 
where business is transacted ; but the monthly meetings of the members, for the purposes of 
discussion, are held in the theatre of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 25, Great George Street, 
Westminster. These meetings are held on the first Friday in each month, from November to 
June, inclusive, at 4 o'clock. The annual meeting is held in one of the cathedral towns or 
great cities of the kingdom, and lasts a week. A volume of proceedings is published every 
year. 

The president elected for 1851 was the late much-lamented Marquess of Northampton. The 
honorary secretaries are Charles Tucker, Esq., and Albert Way, Esq. The secretary is George 
Vulliamy, Esq. 

SYRO-EGYPTIAN SOCIETY, 71, MORTIMER STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE. 

This society was established in December, 1844, to encourage and advance literature, science, 
and the arts in Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia 
Minor; to collect interesting, instructive, and authentic information respecting those lands ; to 
cultivate the study of hieroglyphics and oriental languages; to preserve copies of ancient in- 
scriptions ; to watch over, explore, and protect the relics of antiquity ; and to direct the at- 
tention of travellers to those subjects that are most worthy of investigation. 

The annual subscription is 1/. 1*. for resident members ; non-resident members pay nothing. 
The annual meeting is on the 23rd April. The ordinary meetings are on the first Tuesday in 
each month, from November to June, at 8 o'clock. 

ROYAL COLLEGE OF CHEMISTRY, 16, HANOVER SQUARE. 

This college was founded in July, 1845, for the purpose of affording opportunities for instruc- 
tion in practical chemistry, at a moderate cost, and for promoting the general advancement of 
chemical science, and its applications to agriculture, manufactures, and the useful arts. The 
annual subscription is 21. 2s. The anniversary is on the first Monday in June. H.R.H. Prince 
Albert is president. 

PATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 21, REGENT STREET. 

This society was instituted for the exhibition and examination of specimens, drawings, micro- 
scopic preparations, casts or models of morbid parts, with accompanying written or oral de- 
scriptions, illustrative of pathological science. 

Resident members, or those residing within ten miles of the General Post Office, pay 11. Is; 
on admission, and U. Is. annually. Non-resident members pay a life subscription of 21. 2s. The 
meetings are held twice in the month, on Tuesday evenings, from October to June, inclusive. 



PUBLISHING SOCIETIES. 

THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND. 

In the year 1828 some members of the Royal Asiatic Society instituted a fund for the publica- 
tion of translations from Eastern MSS. into the languages of Europe. A committee was ap- 
pointed to superintend the publications, which already amount to sixty-two distinct works, in 
about seventy-two volumes. The annual subscription is 107. 10*. for large paper copies; and 
U. 5s. for small paper copies. 

THE CAMDEN SOCIETY, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET. 

This society was established in 1838, for the publication of historical documents, letters, ancient 
poems, and other materials which are but little known, for the purpose of illustrating the civil, 
ecclesiastical, or literary history of the United Kingdom. The society takes its name from 
Camden, the author of " Britannia," and the historian of Queen Elizabeth. Members pay 11. 
per annum, or a composition of 101. The publication of the works of the society is superin- 
tended by a council of fifteen ; but each editor corrects the proofs of the work which he has un- 
dertaken to superintend. Provincial local secretaries transmit the books to country members. 
The Right Hon. Lord Braybrooke is the president. 

THE PARKER SOCIETY, 33, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND. 

This society takes its name from Martin Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, "a great collector 
of ancient and modern writings, who took especial care of the safe preservation of them for all 
succeeding times ; as foreseeing, undoubtedly, what use might be made of them by posterity : 
that by having recourse to such originals and precedents, the true knowledge of things might 
the better appear." 

The society was instituted in 1840, for the purpose — first, of reprinting without abridgment, 
alteration, or omission, the best works of the fathers and early writers of the Reformed English 
Church, published in the period between the accession of Edward VI. and Elizabeth ; secondy, 
for the purpose of printing such other writers of the sixteenth century as may appear desirable 
(including under both periods some of the early English translations of the foreign reformers) ; 
and, thirdly, for printing some MSS. of the same authors, hitherto unpublished. 

The annual subscription is 1/. The council consists of a president, treasurer, honorary libra- 
rian, and twenty-four members of the Established Church, of whom sixteen at least must be 
clergymen. The president is the Right Hon. Lord Ashley, M.P. 



PUBLISHING SOCIETIES. 589 



THE PERCY SOCIETY, 100, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. 

The object of this society (founded in 1840, and named after Dr. Percy, editor of " Reliques of 
Ancient English Poetry ") is to bring to light important but obscure specimens of Ballad 
Poetry, or works illustrative of that department of literature. The number of members is 
limited to 500, and the annual subscription is 17. The publications of the society are numerous. 
Lord Braybrooke is the president. 

THE SHAKSPEARE SOCIETY, 9, GREAT NEWPORT STREET, LEICESTER 

SQUARE. 

The Shakspeare Society was founded in 1840, for the purpose of printing and distributing 
to its subscribers books illustrative of our great dramatic poet, and the literature of his time. 
Any respectable person is admitted to the society on application to the secretary, and on pay- 
ment of an annual subscription of 1/. The Earl of Ellesmere is the president. The council, 
which is composed of the president, six vice-presidents, and twenty-one members, meet on the 
second Tuesday in every month, at the rooms of the Royal Society of Literature, 4, St. Martin's 
Place, Trafalgar Square, to select and superintend the works printed by the society. The annual 
meeting is on the 20th April. The editors and the council render their services to the society 
gratuitously ; and means are adopted to expend as nearly as possible the whole amount of the sub- 
scriptions in producing books. 

SOCIETY FOR THE PUBLICATION OF ORIENTAL TEXTS. 

Royal Asiatic Society. 

This society was founded in 1841, for the purpose of enabling learned orientalists to print 
standard works in the Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Sanscrit, Chinese, and other languages 
of the East, by defraying either wholly or in part the cost of such printing and publication. 
The annual subscription is 21. 2s., which entitles each member to a large paper copy of every 
work published by the aid of the fund. The president is Dr. Horace Hayman Wilson, Boden 
Professor of Sanscrit in the University of Oxford. 

THE iELFRIC SOCIETY, 177, PICCADILLY. 

This society, founded in 1842, takes its name from Aelfric, or Alfric, Archbishop of Canterbury 
(ob. 100G), whose collection of Homilies has preserved his name to our own times. The object 
of the society is the publication of Anglo-Saxon and other literary monuments, civil and eccle- 
siastical, which tend to illustrate the early state of England, preference being given to such 
works as have not yet been printed. The Anglo-Saxon originals are accompanied with a trans- 
lation. The number of members is limited to 500, each paying I/, on admission, and If. an- 
nually, or a composition of 12/. There are seventeen members of council,' including a director, 
a treasurer, and secretary. There are also six local secretaries. The Earl of Ellesmere is 
president. 

THE SYDENHAM SOCIETY, 45, FRITH STREET, SOHO. 

This society, instituted in 1843, takes its name from the celebrated physician, Dr. Sydenham, 
and its object is to publish works connected with medical literature, consisting of — 1. Reprints 
of standard English works which are rare and expensive. 2. Miscellaneous selections from the 
ancient and earlier modern authors, reprinted or translated. 3. Digests of the works of old 
and voluminous authors, British and foreign, with occasional biographical and bibliographical 
notices. 4. Translations of the Greek and Latin medical authors, and of works in the Arabic 
and other Eastern tongues, accompanied, if desirable, by the original text. 5. Translations of 
recent foreign works of merit. 6. Original works of merit which might prove useful as books 
of reference, such as bibliographies, alphabetical and digested indexes to voluminous periodical 
publications, &c 

The number of members is unlimited, and the number of copies of any work published by 
this society corresponds to that of the existing members. The annual" subscription is 1/. 1*. 
Dr. Paris is the president, Dr. Bennett, secretary, and there are upwards of 100 local secre- 
taries. 

THE RAY SOCIETY, 22, OLD BURLINGTON STREET. 

This society, founded in 1844, takes its title from John Ray, the celebrated naturalist (ob. 1704), 
and its object" is the promotion of natural history, by the printing of original works in zoology 
and botany, of new editions of works of established merit, of rare tracts and MSS., and of 
translations and reprints of foreign works. The society does not print anything which appears 
suitable to the Transactions of established societies, nor any work which a respectable publisher 
would undertake to publish without charge to the author. The number of members is un- 
limited, and the number of copies of each work is regulated by that of the members. The an- 
nual subscription is 11. Is. 

The council consists of 21 members, of whom at least a third reside in London. The local 
secretaries are numerous. The anniversary is held at the time and place of the meeting of 
the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The president is Professor Bell, 
F.R.S.,F.L.S. 



590 LONDON. 



THE WERNERIAN CLUB, 219, REGENT STREET. 

This club, established in 1844, and named after Werner, has for its object the republication of 
— 1. Modern editions of standard scientific authors of old date, with additions and notes in con- 
formity with the views of modern science. 2. Works by modern authors, presented to and 
approved by the club. 3. Miscellaneous essays. The ordinary members are limited to 25, the 
associates (not resident within 30 miles of London) to 50, and the honorary members to six. 
Members pay 11. Is. each annually, and associates 10*. 6d. Every member receives three copies 
of each publication, and every associate one copy. Subscribing members may also receive the 
publications of the society on payment of the annual sum of 10s. 6d. The president is Dr. 
Aldis. 

THE CAVENDISH SOCIETY, 19, MONTAGUE STREET, RUSSELL SQUARE. 

This society, which is named after the Hon. Henry Cavendish, was established in 1846, for the 
promotion of chemistry and its allied sciences, by the diffusion of the literature of these subjects. 
The society effects its objects by the translation of recent works and papers of merit; by the 
publication of valuable original works which would not otherwise be printed, from the 
slender chance of their meeting with a remunerative sale; and by the occasional republication 
or translation of such ancient or earlier modern works as may be considered interesting or use- 
ful to the members of the society. 

Members, who are admitted on application to the general or local secretaries, pay an annual 
subscription of 1/. Is., and are entitled to a copy of every work published by the society for the 
period during which their membership continues. The number of works thus published will 
necessarily depend on the number of annual subscribers ; but it is anticipated that, when the 
advantages afforded by the society become generally known, the number of subscribers will be 
adequate to the expense of publishing three octavo volumes each year. Professor Graham is 
the president. 

The society is about to publish a life of Cavendish, with a portrait of that illustrious philo- 
sopher, from a sketch which has just been discovered in the print room of the British Museum. 
The engraving at page 549 is taken from that sketch, and is peculiarly interesting from the cir- 
cumstance that Cavendish never sat for his portrait, and that this is the only one known. 

THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY, 100, ST. MARTIN^ LANE. 

This society, formed in 1846, and named after Richard Hakluyt (ob. 1616), a zealous collector 
of British voyages and travels, has for its object the printing of rare or unpublished voyages 
and travels, and by this means aims at opening an easier access to the sources of a branch of 
knowledge, which yields to none in importance, and is superior to most in agreeable variety. 
" The narratives of travellers and navigators make us acquainted with the earth, its inhabitants 
and productions ; they exhibit the growth of intercourse among mankind, with its effects on 
civilization, and, while instructing, they at the same time awaken attention, by recounting the 
toils and adventures of those who first explored unknown and distant regions." 

The annual subscription is 1/. Is. The president is Sir R. J. Murchison. 



MECHANICS' INSTITUTIONS, AND LITERAKY AND SCIENTIFIC 
INSTITUTIONS. 

It is not improbable that some of the members of the learned societies, to which this portion of 
our book is chiefly devoted, would object to any notice of mechanics' and similar institutions as 
an appendix to their own more efficient and commanding corporations ; but as the writer of this 
notice is too deeply interested in the cause of popular education to estimate lightly the advantages 
of institutions which enable men who have passed their days in labour, to assemble in the evening 
for the purposes of being instructed, and of instructing each other, it is proposed to give a brief 
account of Mechanics' and Literary and Scientific Institutions, which, if they do not rank 
among learned societies, may at least find a place among useful ones; for it cannot be denied 
that an intelligent population is safer than an ignorant one; and it is the object of these 
societies to diffuse intelligence among the masses whose means do not permit them to seek light 
from a more elevated source. 

The instruction of the people by means of Mechanics' Institutions is due to a good and ac- 
complished man, the late Dr. Birkbeck, who, from his position as professor in the Anderson 
College of the large manufacturing town of Glasgow, had frequent opportunities of witnessing 
the intelligence and aptitude for being taught of mechanics and working men. So long since as 
the year 1800, he announced a course of lectures on natural philosophy, and its application to 
the arts, for the instruction of mechanics. At first only a few availed themselves of the rare 
privilege of attending these lectures ; but the extraordinary perspicuity of the teacher's method, 
the judicious selection of experiments, and the natural attractions of the subject, soon appealed 
successfully to men whose lives were passed in directing or witnessing operations, the principles 
of which were now for the first time unfolded to them. Shortly before Dr. Birkbeck left Glas- 
gow (two or three years afterwards) , his lectures were attended by upwards of 700 earnest and 
constant listeners. 

The institution thus auspiciously begun, continued to flourish under the able guidance of 
Dr. Birkbeck's successors. It is remarkable, however, that nearly twenty years elapsed before 
a similar institution was founded; but we may find a solution to the difficulty in the distresses 
of the times, in political agitations, and a determined opposition among the upper classes to the 



mechanics', and literary and scientific institutions. 591 

scientific education of working men *. In 1821 a similar institution was established in Edin- 
burgh, and met with complete success. 

As the knowledge of the steps by which the Edinburgh Institution was so successfully founded 
may be of use elsewhere, it may be desirable to give a short statement of them. 

The promoters of the plan began by drawing up a short sketch of the proposed institution, 
and causing it to be circulated among "the principal master mechanics, with a request that they 
would read it in their workshops, and take down the names of such of the men as were desirous 
of being taught the principles of those sciences most useful to artisans. In the course of ten 
days, between 70 and 80 names were entered ; and a private meeting was held of a few gen- 
tlemen who were disposed to encourage the experiment. They resolved to commence a sub- 
scription for the purpose. In April, 1821, they issued a prospectus among the artisans, an- 
nouncing the commencement of a course of lectures on mechanics, and another on chemistry, 
in October following, as also the opening of a library of books on the same subjects, for perusal 
at home as well as in the reading-room ; the hour of lecture to be from 8 to 9, p.m., twice a 
week for six months, and the terms of admission to the whole, 15s. a year. A statement was 
also circulated, announcing the establishment of a "School of Arts," with the particulars of 
the plan ; and so well was it received by all classes, that in September notice was given of 220 
mechanics having entered as students, and such a sum having been subscribed as enabled the 
directors to open the establishment on the 16th October. 

The precise objects of this plan were thus stated : — 

" The great object of this institution is to supply, at such an expense as a working tradesman 
can afford, instruction in the various branches of science which are of practical application to 
mechanics in their several trades, so that they may the better comprehend the reason for each 
individual operation that passes through theif hands, and have more certain rules to follow than 
the mere imitation of what they may have seen done by another. It is not intended to teach 
the trade of the carpenter, the mason, the dyer, or any "other particular business; but there is 
no trade which does not depend more or lessupon scientific principles, and to teach what these 
are, and to point out their practical application, will form the business of this establishment. 
He who unites a thorough knowledge of the principles of his art with that dexterity which 
practice, and practice only, can give, will be the most complete, and probably the most success- 
ful, tradesman. 

" As there is a great deal to be taught, and it is not the purpose of the school of arts to give 
a mere smattering of knowledge as the amusement of a vacant hour, but to afford solid in- 
struction to those who will take it, it is not possible during the first year to do more in the space 
of time which tradesmen can reasonably spare, than to teach the more general principles of che- 
mistry and mechanical philosophy, together with a brief notice of their practical application in 
some of the principal arts. A more minute and detailed instruction, upon particular branches 
of art, will form the subject of subsequent courses of lectures, after the students have had an 
opportunity of acquiring an elementary education from the first course of lectures, and from 
the books they will be supplied with from the library, and of thus becoming better prepared for 
understanding them." 

When the lectures commenced 272 students had purchased tickets, and the institution was 
opened in the presence of the magistrates of the city, and some of the most distinguished of its 
patrons, by an excellent address from the secretary, Mr. L. Horner, on the part of the directors. 
During the six months in which the lectures were given, 452 persons had entered. The library 
was increased by liberal donations, and it was placed under the management of twelve students, 
chosen by the directors, and attending four by rotation each night, for the purpose of taking in 
and giving out books, that is, twice a fortnight. The average number of books taken out each 
night was 210, and the eagerness to have them may be seen from this, that a fine of 6d. a fort- 
night being imposed, though not a volume was lost, nearly 200 fines were paid. 

The mechanical lectures had hardly begun, when some of the students, finding the want of 
mathematical knowledge, proposed to the directors to form themselves into a class, under one of 
their own number, a joiner, who had agreed to teach them gratuitously the elements of geo- 
metry, and the higher branches of arithmetic. The plan was adopted with distinguished suc- 
cess. The number was limited to thirty, and was arranged in five divisions, each under the 
best scholar, as a monitor, going over on" one night the lessens of the night before. Those who 
were excluded from this class formed another on the same plan, under a cabinet maker, also a 
student of the School of Arts. A class was also opened r'or architectural and mechanical draw- 
ing, consisting of two courses, of two months each, for twenty students ; the sum paid being 
5s., and each pupil finding his own drawing materials. Of this they eagerly availed themselves, 
and each class received twenty-five lessons, of two hours. 

The Institution was managed by fifteen directors and a president, chosen annually by the 
subscribers, and provision was made that master ^jaechanics should have a share in the di- 
rection. 

We next proceed to notice the formation of the London Mechanics' Institution. 

Dr. Birkbeck, on his arrival in London, had to work his way as a physician, and he had 
probably little or no leisure to bestow on such an institution ; but the success of the Edinburgh 
scheme may have stimulated him to a similar attempt in London. Accordingly, in November, 
1823, he and a few friends invited general attention to the subject, and the proposal met with 
all the encouragement that might have been expected both from master mechanics, the work- 

* It is fortunately unnecessary at the present day to meet objections against the education of 
the people, for the necessity has long since been admitted, and is now being acted on. But if an 
answer were necessary, no better could be given than that which is furnished by the reply of 
Dr. Johnson to a remark that " a general diffusion of knowiedge would make the vulgar rise 
above their sphere." " Sir," said this illustrious man, " while knowledge is a distinction, those 
who are possessed of it will naturally rise above those who are not. Merely to read and write 
was a distinction at first; but we' see when reading and writing have become general, the 
common people keep their stations. And so, were higher attainments to become general, the 
effect would be the same." 



592 LONDON. 

men, and the friends of knowledge 'and improvement. A meeting was at once held, a sub- 
scription commenced, rules for the association were prepared, and a Mechanics' Institution was 
founded so promptly, that in the month of January the lectures were opened upon Mechanics, 
by Professor Millington, of the London Institution, and upon Chemistry, by Mr. Phillips. 
Nearly 1300 workmen speedily entered, paying 1/. each; and crowding from great distances, 
and in all states of the weather, after their daily toils were over, to gratify that taste for know- 
ledge which is certainly a most cheering and characteristic feature of our age and country. Dr. 
Birkbeck opened the institution by an able address; and Professor Millington, in offering his 
services, declared with honest pride, at the close of his introductory lecture, that he had origi- 
nally belonged to the same class as his audience. Temporary accommodation for the infant 
institution was procured in Monkwell Street, while more commodious premises were being 
prepared in a central situation, namely, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, consisting of 
a spacious theatre, a lecture room, rooms for the library and apparatus, and class and reading 
rooms. The foundation of the theatre was laid about Christmas, 1824, and on the 8th July, 
in the following year, it was completed, and opened by Dr. Birkbeck, supported by his Royal 
Highness the Duke of Sussex, the Marquess of Lansdowne, Sir R. Wilson, Mr., (now Lord) 
Brougham, Messrs. Wood, Hume, Martin, and other friends of popular education. It should 
be stated that several thousand pounds were advanced by Dr. Birkbeck for the purchase of the 
house and the erection of the theatre. Sir Francis Burdett made a donation of 1000/., Mr. 
Hobhouse of 100/., and many other sums were also subscribed. Similar institutions were es- 
tablished in most of our great towns, and still continue to exert their beneficial influence on 
the children of those who were among the first members. 

One of the useful consequences of this diffusion of institutions for mechanics was the adop- 
tion of a similar plan by persons engaged, like mechanics, in the pursuits of active life, but in 
a higher station and in easier circumstances. Early in 1825, some young men engaged in com- 
mercial pursuits formed themselves into an association for the purposes of obtaining those ad- 
vantages of education from which the habits of a busy life often exclude persons engaged in 
trade and commerce. The numbers that immediately joined them, at once proved the demand 
for the new institution; 400 members were at once enrolled; the subscription was limited to 
21. 2s., and with the assistance of the President, Mr. John Smith, and of Messrs. John Abel 
Smith and George Grote, they obtained spacious premises in Aldersgate Street, and built a lec- 
ture room adjoining them. This was opened on the 24th April, 1828, with a discourse by Mr. 
(now Lord) Denman, at that time Common Serjeant of London. 

Our limited space will not allow us to quote more than one or two brief passages from this 
admirable address. Speaking of the advantages of combining a literary taste with commercial 
pursuits, the learned speaker said : — " The very least advantage that can arise is the acquisition 
by great numbers of a taste for English literature. Let us pause for a moment to consider the 
extent and value of this alone. Ask yourselves, if any prospect of emolument would tempt 
you to forego it; and in observing others, contrast the man of active habits, who can devote 
his hours of leisure to this intellectual gratification, with him who is destitute of such are- 
source. Most of us have observed, in various departments of life, strong natural talents, act- 
ing with marvellous precision in some narrow round of daily employment, but from the want 
of general cultivation incompetent to any other effort. How lamentable a waste of time would 
have been reclaimed in such cases, had all the faculties been taught activity ! How many starts 
of unseemly irritation — how many tedious hours of languor would have been avoided! How 
many low-thoughted cares of sordid gain — how much degrading sensual indulgence would have 
been changed for the purest enjoyments, at once independent and social in their nature, de- 
lighting the mind in its intervals of idleness, and bracing it for the more cheerful and effective 
discharge of duty ! 

"The character here alluded to is fast disappearing from among us, and will shortly exist in 
tradition only. The same degree of ignorance and intellectual apathy is from henceforth ren- 
dered impossible by the all-pervading activity of the periodical press. But we are become so 
familiar with the means by which the mighty machine carries on its civilising process as to be 
in some danger of undervaluing, if not forgetting, the service performed. Even while that 
great object, the extinction of unlettered barbarism, is in a rapid course of accomplishment, we 
are often invidiously told of what is of necessity left undone, and reminded of the poet's 
disparaging sarcasm against 'a little learning.' Assuredly, an ample supply is much to be 
desired ; but a beginning must be made. The progress of accumulation is by nature slow and 
gradual ; and the smallest portion of learning is better than none at all, partly for its own 
intrinsic value, and still more as the indispensable forerunner of further acquisitions." 

This institution soon became a model for institutions of a similar kind in various parts of 
London and its suburbs, and in the provinces; and they may be said to a great extent to have 
taken the place of Mechanics' Institutions properly so called. 

The Aldkrsgate Institution, from rfs foundation, conferred two kinds of benefits on its 
members — the library and the lectures. The advantages of a library of reference are, of course, 
only limited; to make books really useful, they must be read at home. Accordingly, each 
member was allowed two volumes at a time. The lectures were delivered once, and sometimes 
twice in every week. They treated of most branches of science and literature. Classes were 
also formed for teaching Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and German. The first report states 
" that as often as any number of persons may happen to concur in attachment to any particular 
science, it has been the duty as well as the pleasure of the Committee to afford them the 
amplest facilities for studying it." Acting on the spirit of this remark, classes were formed 
for the study of experimental science, the use of the globes, shorthand, &c. One night in each 
week was also set apart for discussing historical, moral, and political questions; avoiding all 
subjects of a party or purely controversial nature. " The subjects considered," says the first 
Report, '« though usually solid and scientific, have been so handled as constantly to keep alive 
ana captivate the attention of the class. The number of members engaged in it has been 
unusually great; and the Committee have remarked with pleasure, how much it has instigated 
the members to seek the requisite previous instruction by private reading in the library. Ac- 
ceptable and interesting as this class has proved, it is still more valuable from the habits which 



mechanics', and literary and scientific institutions. 593 

it tends to form among the members, of investigating and explaining the reasons for their 
opinions, and of hearing and canvassing the arguments urged by opponents." 

It is not necessary to particularise the various other institutions which have been established 
in and about the metropolis on the model of the Aldersgate Institution. The subjoined will 
serve as a specimen of one of the suburban institutions. 

Islington. — " The prosperity attendant upon the rapid extension of trade and commerce 
which followed the close of the last war, is nowhere rendered more manifest than in the 
altered character which Islington, in common with most of the suburban villages which begirt 
the metropolis, has assumed. Its elevated site, and reputation for salubrity, had previously 
caused it to be one of the most favoured retreats of the peaceful citizen from the turmoil of the 
great seat of business, into which it is now almost absorbed. Its single church, and chapel 
of ease, with three dissenting chapels, are now extended to about thirty places of worship 
of all denominations. Its numerous squares and terraces have an aspect of great elegance. It 
is connected by admirably constructed railways with all parts of the country, and it is 
expected that it will soon have the addition of "a public park, for the formation of which a 
portion of its site offers peculiar advantages. 

" Nor have the ends of benevolence, nor the gratification and advantages of literature and 
science been neglected. Islington is the seat of a number of charitable institutions, of elementary 
and classical schools upon the most liberally-extended scale ; of a literary and scientific institu- 
tion, which holds a high rank among establishments of a similar class ; of an Athenaeum where 
the same objects are pursued at a more moderate scale of expense ; and of various reading rooms, 
and institutes for the operative classes. 

" The Literary and Scientific Society has for its objects the imparting sound instruction 
blended with rational entertainment. It may suffice to state, that weekly public lectures during 
the season, from October to May, the more retired instruction of classes for the study and 
practice of literary composition, elocution, and science in its various departments, a museum 
for the reception and preservation of specimens of natural history and mineralogy, and works of 
art, apparatus for philosophical experiments, an accumulating library of reference and circu- 
lation, now consisting of nearly ten thousand volumes, and monthly meetings of the members, 
at which written papers are read and discussed, are the chief means adopted by the Society to 
carry out their plans. At these meetings the introduction of politics and theology is forbidden 
by the rules. 

" The affairs are regulated by a president, three vice-presidents, a committee of management, 
treasurer, two honorary secretaries, a librarian, &c. 

" The Society consists of proprietary, annual, honorary, and corresponding members. 

M Persons purchasing a 10?. share, and paying an annual subscription of 1?. 11*. 6c?., become 
joint proprietors of the Society's stock, and are all entitled to the advantages offered by the 
Institution. They are also qualified to vote at general meetings, are eligible to all offices, and 
may introduce members of their families on payment of a second subscription of 11. lis. 6d. 
per annum. They have also a second ticket of admission to the lectures, which is transfer- 
able. 

" Annual members, on payment of a subscription of 21. 2s. per annum, are entitled to 
personal admission to the reading rooms, library, museum, and lecture room, and to the 
use of the books and apparatus. They have also the privilege of introducing one lady, a 
resident member of their families, to all the personal advantages of the Institution, upon 
payment of a further subscription of 1/. Is. per annum. 

" Subscribers of 25?. and upwards, are admitted to all the privileges of annual members, 
without further payment, and have one transferable ticket of admission to the lectures. 
Honorary and corresponding members are admitted for life to all the privileges enjoyed by 
annual members. According to the last report, the aggregate number of members amounts to 
486. 

" The building, designed by Messrs. Gough and Roumieu, is situate in Wellington Street. 
It is in the Grascb-Italian style, and occupies a frontage of 51 feet, by a depth of 78 feet. It is 
of a substantial character, faced throughout with cement. The principal front consists of a 
projecting centre, with wings, to which latter are attached entrance porches, and corridors of 
access to the several parts of the structure. The internal arrangements comprise a reading 
room, library, conversation room, museum, committee, and class rooms, laboratory, and appa- 
ratus rooms; with apartments in the basement for the housekeeper. The theatre occupies the 
whole of the building in the rear. The reading room comprises the front on the ground floor ; 
its ceiling is panelled in compartments, deeply sunk and enriched, and the entablature is sus- 
tained by Ionic columns and pilasters, in imitation of Sienna marble, with white capitals and 
bases. The tables of this room are constantly furnished with the morning and evening papers, 
and the leading periodicals. It is plentifully supplied with maps and works of reference, 
arranged in recesses. Access to this room is obtained by means of folding doors, in the corridors 
at each end. Similar doors in a recess on the south side open into the conversation room, from 
which through spacious panels of plate glass, a view is afforded of the interior of the theatre. 
East of this is the librarian's office, and on the west the principal staircase. This staircase is 
lighted by three ground glass windows, with stained glass margins, and consists of a double 
flight of stone steps, leading to a lobby on the upper floor. Its ceiling is segmented, and pa- 
nelled in compartments. This upper lobby, which is adorned with busts and vases, commu- 
nicates with the committee room, and by a small flight of additional steps with a saloon, 
which occupies the entire front over the reading room, and is fitted up as a museum. The 
ceiling is divided into three large compartments, enriched with much elegance. Its entablature 
is supported by plain white double pilasters, between which are disposed cases of specimens 
of fossils, minerals, with zoological and other preserved objects, classed and arranged. The 
walls are adorned with paintings, by Pickersgill, Clint, and others ; on the tables are disposed 
folios of prints and drawings, with other works of art. 

"The theatre, the south end of which forms a semicircle, is 50 feet in diameter, and con- 
tains a continuous range of ascending seats, with backs and cushions, capable of accommodating 
five hundred persons. It is lighted by a raised lantern in the centre of the roof. Its ceiling is 



594 LONDON. 

panelled, and its entablature supported by a range of pilasters, partly encased by a surbase. 
The front of the theatre, which forms it into an exact semicircle, and by which it is connected 
with the rest of the structure, is adorned in the centre with a facade of alternate Ionic 
columns and vases, between which are the plate-glass panels which give light to the conversa- 
tion room. By sliding down these panels into grooves, this latter is converted into a gallery, 
forming an appendage to the theatre, on occasions of extraordinary attraction, such as concerts 
and other musical entertainments, with which the winter season is occasionally enlivened. 
Access to the theatre is obtained from the west corridor of the main building. The lower 
part of the theatre communicates with the philosophical class room, laboratory, and appa- 
ratus rooms. A central lobby and back stairs, with housekeeper's rooms, cellars, &c, 
occupy the remainder of the basement. 

** The Athenaeum constitutes the upper portion of a spacious building in the Upper Street, 
nearly opposite the church. It furnishes its privileges for a subscription of 15s. per annum, and 
is freely open to all who may be desirous of availing themselves of its advantages. It has a good 
supply of newspapers and other periodicals, and a library, which is in course of accumulation 
from the presents of its supporters ; but the smallness of the subscription does not allow of any 
appropriation of the funds for this purpose. The members have also weekly lectures in an ex- 
tremely commodious and lofty room, lighted by semicircularly arched windows, and well 
fitted up for the purpose. These lectures have gained a deservedly high reputation, and are for 
the most part gratuitously contributed by the friends of the Institution, comprising names of 
eminence in science and literature." 



PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF LONDON. 

British Museum Library, Montague Place, Russell Square. 
Library of Sion College, London Wall. 
Library founded by Dr. Williams, Bed Cross Street, City. 
Archbishop Tenison's Library, St. Martin's Place. 

With respect to public libraries, the British 'metropolis] is yet far behind 
the chief continental towns. While Paris possesses seven public libraries, 
accessible in every way to persons of all classes ; while Dresden has four, and 
Florence six ; while Copenhagen and Vienna have each three ; and Brussels, 
Berlin, Milan, and Munich, each two; our own gigantic metropolis possesses 
only one important library (the British Museum), and that — to the disgrace 
of the nation— not freely open to the public. There are indeed three local 
libraries of some extent and value, namely, one in London Wall, City, founded 
by Dr. White in 1685, and called the Library of Sion College, containing 
nearly 40,000 volumes ; one in Red Cross Street, City, founded by Dr. Wil- 
liams in 1716, containing 20,000 volumes; and one in Westminster, founded 
by Archbishop Tenison in 1685, containing 4000 volumes. The first of these 
was founded .expressly for the city clergy, and has only of late years been 
made accessible to the public on the same terms as the British Museum Li- 
brary ; the second requires the order of one of the trustees for admission ; 
the third is a small and neglected library, whose reading room has been con- 
verted into a club-room. Thus there is actually no public library in the me- 
tropolis which a stranger may enter without formality in order to pursue his 
studies. 

That the people of London are not indifferent to the advantages afforded 
by such institutions, is abundantly proved by their own independent efforts 
to supply the deficiency. The various literary and mechanics' institutions 
which have sprung up of late years have generally collected libraries of 
greater or less extent as the very groundwork of their prosperity. And even 
in coffee-houses, to which large numbers of the temperate working classes 
resort, it has been found necessary to supply the frequenters with a collection 
of books, in addition to the usual periodicals and newspapers. More re- 
markable than all is the fact, that libraries are used and valued in connection 
with Ragged Schools, and that the almost mendicant class of readers resort- 
ing to them, though violent and ill-conducted at first, soon acquire some 
habits of order, and learn to take pleasure in reading ; and not only so, but they 
even take pleasure in the better class of books, and seem to lose their relish 
for the pestilent writings of the low shops, when they have once had a taste 
of better things. 

This desire after knowledge, so extensively manifested among the people, 



PUBLIC LIBRARIES. 595 

taken in connection with the general tendency among publishers to increase 
the number of popular works, cheap in price, condensed in form, and valuable 
in substance, seems at once to point to the present period as that in which 
our country might most properly and easily accomplish the formation of 
Public Libraries. In the opinion of competent judges, the establishment of 
such depositories of standard literature would lessen, or perhaps entirely 
destroy, the influence of frivolous, unsound, and dangerous works. And in 
order to the establishment of such libraries, the great desideratum is, not so 
much the objects to be deposited, as the depository itself; for it is highly 
probable that, if buildings devoted to the purposes of a library or museum 
existed, and if the institutions for which they were erected were fully secured 
in some corporate body, and exempted from burthens in the way of taxation, 
then the furnishing such buildings with books would very easily and in many 
cases gratuitously be supplied. Bequests of books would be oftener made, 
and the overflowings of many a private library would be given, if there were 
only suitable depositories, accessible to the public, in which such gifts might 
be made available to the general good. Many a private collector of books, 
tempted by fine editions of standard works, is apt to load his shelves with 
duplicates, and even triplicates of the same work. In such cases he would often 
be glad to benefit his neighbours and the public by transferring his super- 
fluous copies to the nearest public lib ran*. Indeed, in the British Museum 
itself the number of duplicate and triplicate copies is stated to amount to 
52,000. What better use could be made of these than to furnish other libra- 
ries, or, at the least, to form the commencement of a lending library — which is 
much wanted to make the British Museum Library complete ] In the report 
of the select committee of the House of Commons, published in 1849, it is 
strongly recommended that the public libraries of the metropolis should not 
only be increased in number, but should include lending libraries, and should 
be also made more valuable to the working classes by being open in the 
evening. M. Guizot testifies to the success which has attended this experi- 
ment as tried at Paris, Eouen, and Orleans. And the committee justly ob- 
serve, " Libraries are uoty closed during the very hours when the suspension 
of bodily labour and of business leaves leisure for the cultivation of the mind. 
It has indeed been objected that gas-lighting is indispensable, and that gas-' 
lighting will spoil the books. Your committee are of opinion not only that 
a powerful light, and a light not requiring to be moved- about, is the fittest and 
the safest light for a public library, but that it is possible to obviate or pre- 
vent the noxious effects of gas upon the books. Mr. Imry, a gentleman gene- 
rally conversant with this subject (and especially conversant with the mode of 
lighting the House of Commons), is decidedly of this opinion. It appears 
that libraries in the L^nited States (where they are always open in the evening) 
are lighted with gas without damage to the books. Precautions should be 
taken to secure every library against fire. It is not, however, from the books 
(as is generally supposed) that the principal danger arises. Books, as they 
stand in a library, are not easily burnt. Any one who attempted to burn an 
unopened book would find that he had undertaken no easy task. The prin- 
cipal danger of fire arises from the fittings and the furniture being of wood. 
Isot only, therefore, should the building, if possible, be fire-proof, but the 
shelves and the furniture should be of iron. Whatever excess this might 
cause in the outlay, will be repaid in the safety of the books, and the dura- 
bility of the materials." 

In the same admirable report the subject of catalogues for libraries is also 
dwelt on, and the inadequate supply of printed catalogues in this country is 
noticed. It is maintained, that not only should catalogues be printed and 
published, but all new works should be rapidly entered-up in them. " It would 
appear that this has not been done with requisite celerity at the British Mu- 
seum. The consequence is, that a book which has been published three years 



596 LONDON. 

may not be procurable, because it has not yet been entered in the catalogue." 
The committee recommend as the best form of catalogue one that is classified 
as to subjects, with an alphabetical list of authors. " It is evident that, till 
good printed catalogues exist, much time will be lost in the wearisome search 
for books in every library*. Until a nation possesses a good system of cata- 
logues, it cannot know the extent of the literary wealth which it possesses. 
In all the great libraries of deposit there should not only be a collection of all 
the catalogues of libraries existing in the country, but so far as possible a col- 
lection of the catalogues of all the libraries in the world. A great library 
should, in fact, contain within it a library of catalogues. On a subject of so 
much importance as the intellectual treasures of different countries, constant 
literary intercourse should be maintained ; and there should be an interna- 
tional exchange of catalogues." 

The inquiries of this committee will, it is hoped, draw general attention to 
the state of literary darkness prevailing over a large portion of the metropolis, 
especially over the newer portions. The vast populations of Pimlico, Maryle- 
bone, Finsbury, and Southwark have no public library. The city, and the neigh- 
bourhood of the British Museum, are the parts of London best supplied. To 
advert more particularly to the four existing libraries already referred to : — 

The British Museum Library contains 500,000 volumes, and is privileged 
to claim a copy of every new work published in Great Britain. The mode of 
entrance is by a recommendation from some person of known standing, 
vouching for the respectability of the applicant. The origin and regulations 
of this library are described elsewhere. (See " British Museum.") 

The Library of Sion College was, in the first place, founded as a row of 
almshouses by the rector of St. Dunstan's in the West, Dr. White ; but a few 
years later, Mr. Simpson, another rector in the City of London, built a library 
over it, in which he put his own books, and which was afterwards enriched by 
many donations. The library was at first intended for the sole use of the 
city clergy, but it is now easily accessible by the public, for every incumbent 
in the city, or in a parish whose mother church is in the city, has a right 
to introduce by note any reader for a twelvemonth. A discretionary power is 
also given to the librarian to allow any qualified person to consult the library. 

This library had originally a grant of books under the copyright act, and 
therefore received books from authors on their publication ; but this privi- 
lege was exchanged for a grant under the Compensation Copyright Act of 
1837. The public money received in consequence of that compensation is 
3621. 15s. 2d. per annum, which is spent in purchasing books. The library 
consists of a large proportion of theological books, but is rich also in histo- 
rical works, and in books of ancient science ; it has also some valuable early 
printed books. A great advantage of this library is that it is a lending library. 
About 5000 or 6000 volumes are taken from the library and returned in the 
course of the year. They are lent out on the responsibility of Fellows, and at 
their order. The readers at this library at any one time seldom exceed six or 
seven, while there is a space in the reading-room to accommodate 200. The 
funds of this establishment, arising from lands in Essex and Hertfordshire, 
and a few houses in London, are in such an unsatisfactory condition that the 
small salary allotted to the sole librarian and secretary, the Eeverend Henry 
Christmas, M.A., F.R.S., &c, is not any longer guaranteed by the council. 

Dr. Williams's Library in Red Cross Street, City, is very little used, except 
by dissenting ministers. Not more than fifty or sixty readers in the whole 
course of a year are found in its reading-room, which could accommodate that 
number at one sitting. It is essentially a theological library, and the booKs 
are lent out by an order from a trustee, who is then responsible for their safety . 

* If the Government were to publicly advertise for tenders for the making of a finding and 
classified catalogue, practical men would, come forward, and one would be made within a period 
satisfactory to the public requirements ; and this would be done while others are brooding over 
the Jesuitism of their position. — Ed. 



PUBLIC LIBRARIES. 597 

Very small funds are at the disposal of the managers, therefore very few ad- 
ditions are made to its contents. Dr. Williams was a non-conformist divine 
of the Presbyterian denomination ; and a part of his library consists of in- 
teresting manuscripts connected with the early history of the Keformation. 
There are also curious old black-letter theological works, and scarce puritanical 
tracts. The librarian has a discretionary power to allow any person freely to 
consult the works in this library, without an order from the trustees, which was 
formerly necessary, and which is still required if the book is to be lent. 

Archbishop Tenison's Library was founded by Dr. Thomas Tenison, some 
time Vicar of St. Martin's, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. It was 
designed for the public, but especially for the clergy of the City of Westmin- 
ster and other studious persons. This library is not by any means confined 
to theological subjects, but comprises works of general literature. The whole 
ought to be made available to the public, according to the intention of the 
founder. But this privilege having been at one time withheld, the interest of 
the parishioners and others in this library gradually decreased, and it is now 
scarcely at all frequented on its own account, although the trustees have per- 
mitted a subscription society to hold its meetings, to play at chess, and read 
newspapers in the reading-room, and thus have ensured guests, but not of the 
sort, or for the purposes intended by the founder. Thus a sort of Mechanics' 
Institution or Club holds its meetings in Archbishop Tenison's Library, and 
a list of lectures is posted outside the door. A portion even of the shelves of 
the old library has been appropriated to the books of this new society ; and if 
clergy and " studious persons," more especially intended by the founder, were 
to resort to Tenison's library for purposes of study, they would soon give up 
the attempt in despair. A memorial on the subject of this grievance has in- 
deed been signed by several of the clergy and studious persons within the 
district, and will doubtless receive from the trustees the attention which it 
deserves. A late eminent bookseller gave the following testimony as to the 
state of the original library. " The books and manuscripts in the library are 
many of them of great curiosity, rarity, and value, but have suffered injury 
from dust and neglect ; were they properly cleaned and repaired, and the 
room made comfortable to readers, it would, in my opinion, be much fre- 
quented, and accessions be made to the library in the way of books pre- 
sented." 

LIBRARY AND MUSEUM OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY, EAST INDIA 
HOUSE, LEADENHALL STREET. 

The Library and Museum of the East India Company occupy the 
north-east wing of the India House. The former is contained in 
apartments on the upper and middle stories, and comprises two 
divisions, one consisting of Manuscripts, one of Printed Books. The 
latter collection is not very extensive, being restricted to publications 
relating to the history and geography of the Eastern hemisphere, to 
works treating of the history and commerce of the East India Com- 
pany, and their administration of the government of India, and to 
books in the oriental languages or on the subject of Asiatic literature, 
printed either in Europe or in India. Although not complete, yet the 
collections in these departments are interesting and unique, and con- 
tain a number of works that will be looked for in vain in any other 
public library. There is an extensive collection of tracts relating to 
the Company, and a valuable assemblage of books, drawings, and 
prints, illustrative of the people, scenery, and antiquities of various 



598 LONDON. 

Asiatic countries. The manuscript department of the library is 
unrivalled in several important branches. The Sanscrit manuscripts, 
consisting of collections made in India by Colebrooke, Taylor, Leyden, 
Mackenzie, Wilkins, and other eminent scholars, extend to more 
than 3000 bound volumes, besides a considerable number written on 
palm leaves. Of the latter description there are also a number in 
Burmese and other languages of the Archipelago. There is likewise 
a collection of Chinese printed works, and a copy of the great cyclo- 
pedic aggregate of Tibetan literature, contained in upwards of 300 
large oblong volumes, printed with wooden blocks on the paper of the 
country. There is but one other set of this work in Europe — in the 
National Library of France, both having been procured by Mr. 
Hodgson when political resident at Nepal, and presented by him to 
the libraries where they are deposited. Another principal division of 
the manuscript library consists of Arabic and Persian manuscripts. It 
is equally extensive with the Sanscrit, including many rare and curious, 
and some handsomely illustrated volumes, especially of the Koran and 
of the Shah Nama, or Book of Kings, of Firdusi. Amongst the cu- 
riosities are miniature copies of the Koran, one of which is the auto- 
graph of Shah Alem, King of Dehli. Another copy of the Koran, 
which is written in old Kufic characters, is said to be one of the seven 
original copies which were compiled and written out by the Khalif 
Othman, who died a.d. 655. It is of undoubted antiquity. These 
volumes were collected in India by distinguished servants of the 
Company, and many belonged to the library of Tipu Sultan, having 
been presented to the Company's library by the captors of Seringapatam. 
Museum. — In the same apartments with the books and manu- 
scripts are various objects of literary, artistic, or ethnographic interest. 
One of these is a marble slab, containing one of the most perfect 
specimens of cuneiform inscriptions yet found. It was procured by 
Sir Hartford Jones, at Bagdad, and presented to Sir Hugh Inglis, by 
whom it was placed in the museum. It has not been deciphered. 
In the room with the printed books are copies of the paintings on the 
roofs and walls of the excavated temples of the Ajunta Pass — works 
not later than the beginning of the Christian aera, and probably a 
century earlier — affording interesting illustrations of the manners and 
costume of the period, and of the prevalence of Buddhism. They are 
also remarkable as works of art at so remote a date. There is also a 
collection of Hindu and other idols, of oriental arms and ornaments, 
and of the reliques and curiosities found in the Topes of Afghanistan. 
There are some handsome models of the Chinese beau ideal of 
country villas, and the piece of mechanism known as " Tipu's tiger," 
a wooden figure of a tiger tearing to pieces a man in the uniform of 
an English Sipahi, and so contrived as to imitate the cries of the man 
and grunt of the tiger. It was found in the palace of Seringapatam, 
and was a toy constructed to gratify the hatred which Tipu enter- 
tained for his English enemies. 



TUBLIC LIBRARIES. 599 

In adjacent passages and apartments are models of boats and in- 
struments of various kinds, of the city of Lahore, and figures illus- 
trating the manners and usages of the people of India and other 
Asiatic regions. Also dresses, arms, and ornaments, some of Indian, 
some of Malay or Javanese, and some of Abyssinian origin. 

Beyond these passages an apartment is appropriated to subjects of 
natural history, containing stuffed specimens of the animals and birds 
of India and the Archipelago, with a few remarkable specimens from 
Abyssinia. The ornithological collection is very extensive and com- 
plete. There is also an entomological collection of very great extent 
and interest, based upon a collection formed originally in Java, by Dr. 
Horsfield, and since enlarged by contributions from other oriental 
sources. The collection, considered with respect to its topographical 
limits, is unrivalled. The museum has latterly been made to include 
also a spacious apartment on the basement story, in which a more 
miscellaneous variety of objects is assembled, comprising Hindu 
images and specimens of sculpture, a state palankeen and elephant 
seat and trappings captured at Bburtpore, Chinese lanterns, a model 
of the car of Jagannath, and of one of the bhaulis or large wells of 
Hindustan, and a w r ell-preserved series of the cases enshrining an 
Egyptian mummy. The main feature, however, of this room is a 
large collection of extraordinary fossil remains, disinterred from the 
Sewali hills, or the first ranges of the Himalaya, by the labours 
of Colonel Cautley and Major Baker, and described chiefly by 
Dr. Falconer. They were brought home by these officers, and pre- 
sented partly to the British Museum, and partly to the museum of the 
Company. They comprise a variety of animals, principally of the genera 
Elephas and Mastodon, presenting the skulls, teeth, and other bones 
of many species now extinct — either the original specimens, or casts 
from those in the British Museum. There are also the bones and 
casts of the head and limbs of the Sivatherium, an entirely new fossil 
genus, discovered by Messrs Cautley and Falconer, and the skull of an 
extinct species of rhinoceros, the most perfect that is known. But, the 
most striking object is a cast of the restored shell, upper and lower, 
of the gigantic tortoise, made up from the fossil bones actually found 
and divided between the Company's and the British Museum. A 
variety of other articles of a similar description, a collection of 
eastern mammalia, and one of Indian fishes, are also contained in 
this apartment. 

The library and museum are under the control of Professor H. H. 
Wilson, the librarian ; but the latter has also its especial curator, Dr. 
Horsfield. The library and museum are open to students every week- 
day from 10 to 4, upon permission from the librarian or curator, or 
under the authority of any member of the Court of Directors. They 
are open on Mondays and Thursdays, between the same hours, to 
visitors who are provided with tickets of admission from the members 
of the Court or other authorities. On every Saturday persons are 



600 



LONDON. 



admitted without tickets, on giving their name and address to the 
clerk. The library and museum are closed to visitors during the 
month of September. 

The following is a list of Libraries in the metropolis and its immediate suburbs ; but it is 
necessary for a person, in order to read the books, either to be specially recommended by some 
well-known responsible person, or, as happens in the majority of cases, to become a member of 
the institution to which the particular library belongs: — 



Antiquarian Society, Somerset House. 
Beaumont Philosophical Institution, 32 to 37, 

Beaumont Square. 
Botanical Society of London, 20, Bedford Street, 

Coven t Garden. 
B»tish Museum, entrance in Montague Place, 

Russell Square. 
British and Foreign Bible Society, 10, Earl 

Street, Blackfriars. 
Charter House, Charter House Square. 
Chelsea Hospital. 
Church Missionary College, 12, Barnsbiiry 

Place, Islington. 
City Library, Guildhall. 

City of London Literary and Scientific Institu- 
tion, 165, Aldersgate Street. 
Clockmakers' Company, King's Head, Poultry. 
College of Advocates, Doctors' Commons. 
College of Surgeons, 40 to 42, Lincoln's Inn 

Fields (medical). 
Congregational Library, 4, Blomfield Street, 

Finsbury. 
Crosby Hall Literary and Scientific Institution, 

32, Bishopsgate Within. 
Dr. Williams's Library, 49, Redcross Street, 

Cripplegate. 
Dutch Church, Austin Friars. (MSS.) 
Eastern Literary and Scientific Institution, 

Commercial Road East. 
East India House, Leadenhall Street. 
Geological Society, Somerset House. 
Gray's Inn, South Square, Gray's Inn. 
Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich. 
Greenwich Institution, Greenwich. 
Guy's Hospital, St. Thomas's Street, Borough 

(medical). 
Hammersmith Institution, Hammersmith. 
Hebrew, Duke's Place, Aldgate. 
Heralds', Bennet's Hill, Doctors' Commons. 
House of Commons, Westminster. 
House of Lords, Westminster. 
Incorporated Law Society, 106, Chancery Lane. 
Inner Temple, 3, Tanfield Court, Temple. 
Institution of Civil Engineers, 25, Great George 

Street, Westminster. 
Islington Literary and Scientific Institution, 

Wellington Street, Upper Street. 
King's College, 160, Strand. 
Lambeth Palace, Lambeth. 
Lincoln's Inn New Hall, Lincoln's Inn. 
Linnaean Society, 32, Soho Square. 
London Library, 12, St James's Square. 
London Institution, 1 1 and 12, Finsbury Circus. 
London Mechanics' Institution, 29, Southamp- 
ton Buildings. 



Marylebone Institution, 17, Edward Street, 

Portman Square. 
Medical Society, 3, Bolt Court, Fleet Street. 
Merchant Tailors' School, 6, Suffolk Lane, 

-Cannon Street. 
Middle Temple, Garden Court, Temple. 
New College, North of Regent's Park ; uniting 

the Colleges of Coward, Highbury, and Ho- 

merton. 
Poplar Institution, East India Road. 
Royal Academy of Arts, Trafalgar Square. 
Royal Agricultural Society, 12, Hanover 

Square. 
Royal Asiatic Society, 14, Grafton Street. 
Royal Astronomical Society, Somerset House. 
RoyalCollege of Physicians, 13, Pall Mall East. 
Royal Geographical Society, 3, Waterloo Place. 
Royal Institute of British Architects, 16, Gros- 

venor Street. 
Royal Institution, 21, Albemarle Street. 
Royal Kensington Literary and Scientific In- 
stitution, Kensington. 
Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, 53, 

Berners Street. 
Royal Observatory, Greenwich. 
Royal Polytechnic Association, 5, Cavendish 

Square. 
Royal Society, Somerset House. 
Royal Society of Literature, 4, St. Martin's 

Place. 
Russell Institution, 55, Great Coram Street. 
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Smithfield (me- 
dical) . 
St. Martin's (Archbishop Tenison's) Public 

Library, 42, Castle Street, Leicester Square. 
St. Paul's, St. Paul's Cathedral. 
Sion College, London Wall. 
Soane Museum, 13, Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
Society of Arts, John Street, Adelphi. 
Southwark Literary Institution, 8, Portland 

Place, Borough Road. 
Statistical Society, 12, St. James's Square. 
Stepney College, Stepney. 
Sussex Hall, Leadenhall Street. 
United Service Institution, Whitehall Yard. 
University College, Gower Street. 
Veterinary College, Great College Street, 

Camden Town. 
Welsh School, Calthorpe Place. (MSS.) 
Westminster, Dean's Yard, Westminster. 
Westminster Literary and Scientific Institution, 

6 and 7. Great Smith Street. 
Woolwich Institution, Woolwich. 
Zoological Society, Regent's Park. 



LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 

London has but two public asylums for the insane, namely, St. Luke's, 
situated in Old Street, near the City Road, on the north side of the metro- 
polis, and Bethlem, situated in the Lambeth Road, on the south side. 

St. Luke's Hospital was instituted in 1751, to receive poor insane persons, 
being paupers or others, and is adapted to contain about 300 patients. A sys- 
tem of non-restraint upon the unfortunate inmates is professed, but not pro- 
perly observed, and the details of the management do not appear to be recom- 



LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 601 

mended to our notice by any distinguishing feature of improvement or 
success. 

Bethlem Hospital was founded in 1547, and the early treatment of the 
miserable creatures committed to its brutal rulers, appears to have been cha- 
racterised by utter indifference to the feelings and comforts of the patients, 
and a studied aggravation of their miseries. Indeed, to our shame be it 
recorded, these miseries were made the materials for actual profit to the hos- 
pital ; a sum of about 40 0£. being annually collected by exhibiting the poor 
maniacs, chiefly naked, and uniformly chained to the walls of their dungeons, 
and by exciting them to the most violent manifestations of their maladies, 
This practice of showing the patients, like wild beasts, was abolished in 1770, 
but the abolition was unaccompanied by any other improvement in their treat- 
ment. Eecently, however, the unfortunate lunatics have been more humanely 
treated, as will be seen in the following pages, 

The Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum. — This institution is distant from 
London about 8^ miles, is situate at Hanwell, and owes its origin to the 
act of the 48th George III., cap. 96, and was completed under the act of 
the 9th George IV., cap. 40. This act was passed to enable the justices 
of the several counties to erect asylums for the reception and maintenance 
of the insane and lunatic poor, and to improve and ameliorate the condi- 
tion of lunatics. Although these acts were not compulsory, the magistrates 
of Middlesex lost no time in taking the necessary steps to secure to this 
bereaved portion of the inhabitants of the county the full benefit of their 
benevolent provisions; and immediately appointed a committee to take 
all necessary preliminary measures with respect to the site and building, 
with a view to rescuing them as speedily as possible from the neglect and 
inattention of the workhouse, or the cupidity, ignorance, and cruelty, too 
often practised by those who farmed them in private asylums. 

The site is bounded on the north by the high road leading to Uxbridge, 
and on the south by the Grand Junction Canal ; and has the advantages of a 
dry gravelly soil, a pure atmosphere, and a plentiful supply of water. Archi- 
tecturally, the building presents nothing more than simple plainness; but 
the large front airing-grounds, to which the patients have access daily, the 
shrubberies, gravel-walks, sun-shades, fountain and bowling-green, and other 
requisites, are all indicative of comfort and order within. 

The asylum was erected in the years 1829 and 1830, and opened for the 
reception of patients on May 16, 1831. Owing, however, to the imperfect 
lunatic returns at that period, the committee considered accommodation for 
300 patients would be sufficient for the county ; and after making choice of 
the best of three plans, for which they had offered premiums, they accordingly 
contracted with Mr. William Cubitt for a building and offices to that extent, 
for 63,000£. This limited accommodation was soon found totally inadequate 
to accomplish the end in view; and the asylum has been consequently en- 
larged from time to time, and now contains 965 patients, and 97 resident 
officers and servants. The cost of 84 acres of land for the purposes of the 
asvlum has been 19,267£. 6s. 4(7., and that of the building and offices about 
16*0,7767. 145. 5d., making a total of 180,044?. 9d. 

Nothing can more strongly mark the progress which society has made 
within the last fifty or sixty years, than the different aspect under which the 
insane have been viewed, and the different way in which they have been 
treated. Formerly there was but little difference in the treatment of the 
criminal and the insane. What advantage there was, was on the side of the 
criminal. He was punished for a crime, and under the authority of the law; 
the other was visited with a lengthened punishment for no crime, and sub- 
jected to the control of one whose brutal will, perhaps, was his only law. 
The law afforded no adequate protection to those who, by the loss of reason, 
were unable to protect themselves. Their very misfortune seemed to shut 

D D 



602 



LONDON. 



them out from all sympathy with those who possessed the light of reason. 
Who ever thought of applying himself to better the condition of the insane 1 
There was one man, however, Pinel, an intelligent and noble-hearted French- 
man, who in 1792, in the midst of surrounding horrors, brought commiseration 
and kindness within the walls of a lunatic asylum. We owe to his courage 
and humanity the many beneficial changes which have been brought about in 
this country in the treatment of the insane ; he has the distinguished honour 
of having instructed the nations of Europe practically in the Christian duty 
of dealing dut to the insane the same measure of mercy which we ourselves 
should desire were we to be similarly afflicted. 




HANWELL LUNATIC ASYLUM. 



In this country, long after the example which Pinel had set, though there 
were isolated attempts to introduce a humane system of management into 
asylums, they were the exceptions only. Cruelties of the most revolting kind 
continued to be practised by sordid unprincipled men. The law threw not 
its protection round the insane; their sufferings, when known, were un- 
heeded, because they were supposed to be for the most part unavoidable, 
It was believed that the insane could only be ruled by brute force; and 
therefore brute force continued to be the rule, and enlightened humanity 
the exception. 

But this scandal to a Christian country was gradually to be removed, as the 
spirit of inquiry was awakened and sounder principles prevailed. 

Almost the first and certainly the greatest benefit conferred upon the insane 
pauper, was the act of the 9th George IV., cap. 40, which was intended to 
facilitate the erection of county lunatic asylums for the poor, and to improve 
the condition of lunatics. Thenceforth, in those counties that wisely took 
advantage of the act, the friends of the insane pauper could be assured of 
that which the laws of society are bound to afford, protection against cruelty, 
and security against neglect. 

On the completion of the asylum, the committee appointed Dr. and Mrs. 
Ellis to be the superintendent and matron. Dr. Ellis was a man who from 
his experience of some years as the physician of the Wakefield Asylum, 
in the county of York, and from his active habits of life, was well qualified 
to put the machine in working order, and to see that it worked well ; and 
Mrs. Ellis, the matron, brought to the office talents of a superior order ; and 
from both the institution derived great benefit during the time of their 
remaining there. 

Among the useful suggestions for which the asylum was indebted to Dr. 
and Mrs. Ellis, was the extensive employment of the patients. In his very 
first report, he mentions that considerable amelioration had taken place in 
the condition of the insane poor of the county, and adds, " but with even the 
greatest solicitude for their comfort, the want of sufficient air and exercise, 
which can only be obtained in a large building with ample grounds, presents 
the most formidable obstacle to their cure;" and in December 1832, says 
that the system for employing them has been pursued most perseveringly in 



LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 003 

every variety of work adapted to their respective qualifications. Then, as if 
anxious to relieve the public rnind from all ungrounded fears, and to accustom 
it to more humane and rational sentiments, he concludes by saying that not 
a single accident had occurred from the patients having been trusted with the 
tools used in their different occupations. These, among other less formidable 
weapons, were spades, bill-hooks, and scythes. The right spirit which Dr. 
Ellis displayed in these and similar remarks seems to be the germ of that 
principle which, when brought practically to bear, has since ended in the 
abolition of all mechanical restraints. 

The same earnest endeavours to employ the patients in useful handicraft 
labour continued to engage his active mind during the time that he remained 
at the asylum. At the same time the non-restraint system was gradually 
making its way, by the exertions of intelligent men, in two or three other 
public establishments of the kingdom, and was to some extent adopted in a 
few amongst the best conducted private establishments. To Sir William and 
Lady Ellis the praise is certainly due of having prepared the way for the crown- 
ing, though difficult task, which was afterwards successfully undertaken by Dr. 
Conolly. By the humane and judicious conduct of Sir William Ellis, he was 
the pioneer who prepared the way for the removal of those deep-rooted pre- 
judices which had well nigh opposed a fatal barrier to much of the comfort 
and to the possible recovery of the insane. By his exertions he gave the 
establishment (to a certain extent) the appearance of a little independent 
colony, rather than that of a sick hospital, by making each one take a share in 
promoting the general welfare. These were the endeavours of Sir William Ellis; 
and though from the imperfect system and instruments he had to work with, it 
was not possible fully to carry them out, they entitle his memory to honour. 

The resignation of Sir William and Lady Ellis, in 1838, was at the time 
felt as a great loss to the asylum; for under their direction the institution had 
made considerable advance towards that point when another system, founded 
on more enlarged principles, could be successfully introduced. 

In the choice of their successors the visiting justices were not fortunate. 
The physician continued at the asylum about a year, and the matron only a 
few months. 

To the election of Dr. Conolly, the asylum is mainly indebted for the full 
establishment of the humane and eminently rational system of non-restraint ; 
but without the zealous assistance of the other officers, this could not have 
been effected. 

Dr. Conolly saw that the forcible restraint of refractory patients did, in 
fact, create many of the outrages and dangers they were designed to subdue ; 
and in his first report instanced the better practice pursued at the Lincoln 
Asylum, where for three years, and with 150 patients, there had been no 
restraint whatever. He did not presume to say that strong restraints might 
never be required, but pointed to the example of Lincoln as a successful 
attempt to do without. 

In the soundness of these views the visiting justices concurred. They were 
forcibly struck with the many considerations which would render such a 
humane system of management eminently desirable, if it were practicable. 
But at the same time that they felt the force of the reasoning, they could not 
look without deep anxiety at the progress of the experiment which had so 
many serious obstacles to contend with. 

They were, however, soon satisfied that the danger of non-restraint was not 
near so great as that which was the result of exasperating the insane by the 
application of mechanical force ; and that there was comparatively but little 
danger where gentleness, and the constant attention of ward attendants in 
sufficient numbers, were substituted instead. 

In his last report Dr. Conolly says, " The great and only real substitute for 
restraint is invariable kindness. This feeling must animate every person 

D D 2 



G04 LONDON. 

employed in every duty to be performed. Constant superintendence and 
care, constant forbearance and command of temper, and a never-failing atten- 
tion to the comfort of the patients, to their clothing, their food, their per- 
sonal cleanliness, their occupations, their recreations — these are but so many 
different ways in which such kindness shows itself; and these will be found 
to produce results beyond the general expectation of those who persevere in 
their application." 

In the same report he says, " The whole of this subject occupied so much of 
my earlier reports (1839 to 1844) that trusting such particular allusion to it 
as I have made on this occasion will be considered excusable, it is probable 
that I may seek no further opportunity of enforcing views which my expe- 
rience continually confirms. For my own part, in what has been undertaken, 
or in what has been accomplished, I trust I have never shown a desire to 
overstate it. I have always acknowledged myself indebted to Dr. Charles- 
worth, and to Mr. Hill (of Lincoln), for the original suggestion of managing 
the insane without restraint. The magistrates of Middlesex gave me, ten 
years ago, the opportunity of attempting this on the greatest scale ; and they 
have honoured me, in all those years, with their steady support. In relation 
to the great principle of non-restraint, I owe much to the assistance of many 
able officers, who have devoted themselves to overcoming many incidental 
difficulties. Above all, I have never forgotten on what higher aid the success 
of all human attempts to accomplish good depends." 

The preceding is a brief account of the more important circumstances con- 
nected with the history of the institution ; and the reader is now referred to 
the engraving, which shows the general arrangement of the interior as well as 
out-offices. 

The wards are provided with day-rooms, in which the patients take their 
meals ; these rooms have open fire-places, which adds much to the comfort of 
the unemployed, who spend the greater part of their time in the wards. The 
asylum is well furnished with baths ; and each ward has a room fitted up with 
a row of washing-basins, which are accessible to the quiet patients at all hours 
of the day. 

The wards have not less than two attendants in each, in some there are 
three ; and, on an average, about fifty convalescent patients are under the care 
of two attendants ; but in the refractory wards two attendants have the charge 
of about 25 patients. The attendants have to pay strict attention to the 
directions of the medical officers, as regards the treatment, employment, 
amusement, and exercise of the patients. They have to see that their patients 
are kept clean, and as neat as circumstances will permit, and in every instance 
are required to treat them with the greatest kindness. 

Independent of the wards of the asylum, there are kitchen, sculleries, 
larder, dairy, washhouses, and laundries. The out-offices are, bakehouse, 
brewhouse, and general store-room. The clerks' office is at the entrance of 
the asylum. There are separate workshops for the various trades, namely, 
upholsterers, printers, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, tinmen, plumbers, and 
smiths. There is also a steam-engine for raising water into the building, and 
gas-works for lighting. 

The government of the asylum is placed under the control of a committee 
of justices of the peace of the county ; they meet usually about once a fort- 
night, at the asylum. The medical and other journals are then examined, 
and signed by the chairman ; they see the patients which may have been 
admitted since their last meeting ; and all patients to be discharged as cured, 
or on trial, are brought before them ; they also hear and determine any com- 
plaint that may be made against any officer or servant ; and generally perform 
such duties as are required for carrying into effect the Act of the 8th and 9th 
Vict., cap. 126. 

There is also a sub-committee, appointed by the general committee. They 



LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 



60.5 




J^J.HQJJ 



GROUND PLAN OF HANWELL LUNATIC ASYLUM. 



References to Buildings. 



Day rooms. 
Dispensaries. 
Committee room. 
Dining room. 
Matron's apartmts. 
Surgeon's rooms 

(male side). 
Surgeon's rooms 

(female side;. 
Study. 
Kitchen. 
Water closets. 
Sink rooms. 



12. Attendants' rooms. 

13. Bath rooms. 

14. Visitors' rooms. 

15. Steward's room. 
If). Housekeeper's do. 

! 17- Do. store room. 
' 18. Scullerv. 

19. Servants' hall. 

20. Male infirmary. 

21. 24-bedded room. 

22. Foul-linen wash- 

house. 

23. Foul-linen yards. 



References to Outbuildings. 



■'1. 


Work room. 


0. 


Seed room. 


b. 


Laundry. 


P. 


Coachhouse, &c. 


Cm 


Drving room. 


?. 


Stable. 


d 


General washhouse. 


/•. 


Tinman's shop. 


e. 


Officers' do. 


s. 


Carpenter's shop. 


r. 


Officers' laundry. 


t. 


Plumber's shop. 


(f. 


Bakehouse. 


u 


Cowhouse. 


h. 


B re who use. 


V. 


Poultry house. 


i. 


General store room. 


w 


• Well house. 


h 


Tailor&shoemaker. 


X. 


Engineers store 


k. 


Printer. 




room. 


L 


Upholsterer. 


V. 


Smith's shop. 
Engine and boiler 


m 


. Dead house. 


z. 


a 


Coal shed. 




house. 



CQ6 LONDON. 

examine the weekly and other returns, inspect the food, see that the contracts 
are duly performed, and inquire into the state of particular patients and the 
general condition of the asylum. 

A list of the officers is given in Table II., and the heads of their respective 
duties are nearly as follows : — 

The visiting physician attends at the asylum and examines the patients 
three times a week, and gives such directions as he considers necessary for 
their welfare. 

The management of the patients, as regards their classification, employ- 
ment, and treatment, is under the direction of the two resident medical 
officers, one for the male, and the other for the female department. The dis- 
penser makes up the medicines, and otherwise assists the medical officers. 

The chaplain celebrates divine service twice on Sundays, and reads prayers 
every morning and evening in the week, in the chapel of the asylum, to such 
patients as are able to attend ; and performs such other clerical duties as may 
be required. 

It is the duty of the matron to superintend the domestic management of 
the asylum where females are employed ; to see that all female officers, ward 
attendants and servants are diligent in the performance of their duties ; that 
all orders as to the classification, employment, amusements, and management 
of the female patients, as well as the directions of the medical officers, be 
duly performed. The assistant-matron is under the control and direction of 
the matron, and assists her generally in the performance of her duties. 

All supplies of provisions, clothing, and stores, are received and accounted 
for by the steward, who is also the store-keeper. He superintends the brewing 
and baking department ; and, under the direction of the House Committee, 
manages the grounds, gardens, and farm. 

The clerk of the asylum keeps the cash accounts, registers, and all docu- 
ments relating to the admission and discharge of patients. 

The resident engineer superintends the repairs of the asylum, and has the 
care of the gas-works, steam-engine, warming apparatus, and other machinery. 

The superintendent of the bazaar has the care of those female patients, 
during the daytime, who are desirous of amusing themselves with fancy and 
useful needlework, reading, or music. The profit arising from the sale of their 
work to visitors is expended in little extra indulgences. 

There is a school for the male patients : among those who attend, many are 
unable to employ themselves usefully about the establishment. They have 
morning and afternoon classes daily ; the patients who are engaged in labour 
during the day have a weekly evening writing class ; there is also a singing 
class in the chapel, where both male and female patients attend in consider- 
able numbers. The schoolmaster occasionally gives a lecture in the evening 
on natural objects, such as plants, animals, and other amusing subjects. The 
lectures are sometimes illustrated by aid of a magic lantern ; and the patients 
present on these occasions take great interest in such entertainments. 

The amusements for the patients are varied. In the wards, a good supply 
of books, periodicals, bagatelle boards, draughts, dominoes, and cards, is kept 
up. A few of the patients amuse themselves with drawing and painting, and 
decorating their rooms ; in some of the wards there are also pianofortes, which 
have been presented by visitors for the use of those patients who are musically 
inclined. 

The assembling of the patients at stated times in the large front airing 
grounds, or in the wards of the asylum, for the enjoyment of music and 
dancing, and the little extra indulgences then allowed, is looked forward to 
with no small degree of pleasure. 

The asylum is supplied with water from an artesian well, which is considered 
to be the best in the kingdom. The shaft, to a depth of 31 ft., is 10 ft. in 
diameter, and thence to a further depth of 209 ft., 6 ft. in diameter, together, 



LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 607 

240 ft. ; the whole of which is constructed of brickwork in cement. The 
boring was commenced at the bottom of the shaft, with pipes of 14 in. 
internal diameter ; these are carried down about 50 ft., into a stratum of flint 
Stones overlaying the chalk formation, making the whole depth from the 
surface about 290 ft., whence the water rises into a tank, 20 ft. above the 
ground-floor of the asylum, without the aid of pumps, at the ratio of 90,000 
gallons per diem. The strata through which the well is sunk and bored are 
as follows : — vegetable soil, 1 ft. 6 in. ; gravel, 7 ft. ; sand, 2 ft. 6 in. ; gravel 
and sand. 9 ft.; brick clay, 2 ft.; blue, or London clay, 169 ft.; indurated mud, 
sand, and clay, with pieces of wood and shells imbedded, 24 ft. ; pebbles and 
shells, 3 ft.; plastic clay, 22 ft.; sand, 2 ft.; plastic clay, 14 ft.; indurated 
mud, sand, and clay, 8 ft. ; dark brown clay, 9 ft. ; green sand and clay, 7 ft. ; 
oyster bed, 2 ft. 9 in.; pebbles and yellow clay, 2 ft. 3 in.; bed of flint stones, 
into which the bore is carried, 5 ft. 

The temperature of the water, as it overflows the surface, is 55° of Fah- 
renheit. 

The analysis of the water, as made in 1845, was : — 

Grains. 

Carbonate of lime 0'27 

Chloride of sodium 1'52 

Sulphate of soda . . . 4*51 

Phosphate of lime 0'28 

Grains in an imperial pint 6*58 

The Adelaide Fund. — The interest of this fund is appropriated to the relief 
of patients who, when cured, are discharged from the asylum. 

The fund originated in 1835, with the superintendent, Sir William Ellis, 
who suggested it to Colonel Clitherow, for many years the esteemed chairman 
of the asylum. From the late Queen Adelaide he received a donation of 
100?., with a generous permission to profit by her royal patronage, and to 
distinguish the charity as " The Adelaide Fund." At that period, by kind 
assistance, a sum of 2000?., 3 per cent, consols, was obtained. The increase 
of patients rendering additional resources desirable, in 1840 efforts were made 
by Mr. Serjeant Adams and other active magistrates to extend the permanent 
resources, and among other donations was that of Her Gracious Majesty the 
Queen of 100?. On that occasion another application was made to the Queen 
Dowager, who then began an annual subscription of 251., and benevolently and 
punctually continued such assistance until her death. A fund of 5300?. 3 per 
cent, consols had been accumulated up to 1846. And now, by a legacy under 
the will of Miss Mary Phillips, deceased, and certain proceedings taken in the 
Court of Chancery, and an order made thereon, during the present year, the 
further sums of 5644?. 17s. 2d., 3 per cent, and 2136?. 5s. 2d., 3 per cent 
reduced annuities, have been added to the former amount of the fund. 

In conclusion, it may safely be said that this institution will ever stand high 
in the estimation of all those who feel for suffering humanity, on account of the 
ameliorating system pursued with regard to the treatment of its unfortunate 
inmates ; but the greater portion of the asylum having been erected upwards 
of 20 years, it may not be surprising if many defects in construction be found 
to exist, when compared with asylums of later date. On the compiler of this 
account pointing out some of these defects to Dr. Ferguson (one of the Com- 
missioners for building the lunatic asylum at Kingston, Jamaica), that gentle- 
man emphatically replied to the effect, that the asylum might have its defects ; 
he had, however, seen most of the asylums in France, Germany, and the 
United States, as well as those in England ; and he must say, with regard to 
the provisions, bedding, clothing, convenience, and comfort of the inmates, 
he had seen no other place of the kind to equal it ; and it may be added, that 
visitors generally express similar opinions. 



608 



LONDON. 



Table ISTo. I. 
Return of Patients annually admitted into the Asylum since its opening, 16th 
May, 1831, to 3\st Dec. 1849, showing also the number of discharges and 
deatJis during the same period. 













Dischargee 












































Remaining in 




Admitted. 


















Died 




Asylum 31st Dec. 










Curec 


. 


Relieved. 










1849. 








<u 






jS 






J} 






CO 






CO 




Q 

'c3 


a 

fa 


o 


34 


B 

fa 

30 


3 

64 


2 


'c3 

s 

CD 
fa 

3 


13 
O 

H 
5 


j8 
75 


a 

— 

88 


o 
H 

163 


to 
0) 

13 


13 
3 
fa 


13 
o 
H 


1831 


136 


159 


295 


25 


38 


63 


1832 


188 


234 


422 


35 


54 


89 


10 


12 


22 


112 


116 


228 


31 


52 


83 


1833 


90 


113 


203 


26 


32 


58 


4 


2 


6 


43 


55 


98 


17 


24 


41 


1834 


70 


52 


122 


17 


17 


34 


5 


3 


8 


40 


25 


65 


8 


7 


15 


1835 


78 


63 


141 


15 


20 


35 


5 


2 


7 


45 


25 


70 


13 


16 


29 


1836 


67 


46 


113 


19 


15 


34 


2 




2 


31 


14 


45 


15 


17 


32 


183/ 


36 


27 


63 


9 


6 


15 


6 




6 


15 


11 


26 


6 


10 


16 


1338 


139 


186 


325 


37 


33 


70 


8 


5 


13 


56 


60 


116 


58 


83 


126 


1839 


123 


95 


218 


39 


24 


63 


4 


5 


9 


58 


31 


89 


22 


35 


57 


1840 


100 


51 


151 


24 


13 


37 


7 




7 


49 


19 


68 


20 


19 


39 


1841 


102 


122 


224 


26 


33 


59 


5 


"l 


12 


47 


34 


81 


24 


48 


72 


1842 


92 


91 


183 


25 


24 


49 


5 


6 


11 


39 


26 


65 


23 


35 


58 


1843 


74 


86 


160 


22 


23 


45 


12 


8 


20 


22 


24 


46 


18 


31 


49 


,1844 


61 


57 


118 


9 


13 


22 


6 


6 


12 


21 


14 


35 


25 


24 


49 


1845 


56 


48 


104 


10 


12 


22 


2 


7 


9 


26 


9 


35 


18 


20 


38 


1846 


59 


36 


95 


15 


14 


29 


4 


3 


7 


27 


5 


32 


13 


14 


27 


1847 


56 


44 


100 


13 


18 


31 


6 




6 


22 


4 


26 


15 


22 


37 


1848 


64 


41 


105 


15 


13 


28 


7 


i 


8 


12 


7 


19 


30 


20 


50 


1849 


67 


46 


113 


10 

400 


7 
401 


17 
801 


l 
101 


"to" 


1 
171 


8 
748 


5 
572 


13 
1320 


48 


34 


82 




1658 


1597 


3255 

1 


409 


554 


963 



The number of patients daily employed is about 190 males, and 310 
females. 

Table II. — The Establishment, Decembee, 1850. 

Officers. — 1 Yisiting physician ; 1 resident medical officer (males) ; 1 re- 
sident medical officer (females) ; 1 dispenser ; 1 chaplain ; 1 clerk to com- 
mittee of visitors ; 1 clerk of the asylum ; 2 assistant clerks ; 1 store-keeper ; 
1 assistant store-keeper ; 1 engineer ; 1 schoolmaster ; 1 matron ; 1 assistant 
matron; 1 housekeeper; 1 superintendent of bazaar; 1 superintendent of 
workroom ; 1 superintendent of laundry. 

Servants, Males. — 26 attendants ; 2 garden attendants ; 2 tailors ; 2 uphol- 
sterers ; 2 shoemakers ; 1 tinman ; 1 brewer ; 4 stokers ; 1 gas-maker and 
chimney sweeper; 1 gardener; 1 cowman and pigman; 1 assistant to cowman 
and pigman; 1 carter; 3 farm and garden labourers; 1 porter at lodge; 1 
house porter ; 1 house labourer ; 2 foul-linen washers. 

Servants, Females. — 1 head attendant; 37 attendants; 4 housemaids; 1 
bakeress ; 5 laundry maids ; 2 laundry maids (foul linen) ; 2 cooks ; 2 kitchen 
maids ; 1 dairy maid. 

The expenditure of the asylum for the year 1849 was 22,061?. 2s. 4d. for 
the maintenance, &c, of the patients; and 1808?. lis. id. for the repairs and 
improvements of the asylum, making together a total of 23,869?. 13s. 8c?. 

For the information of those persons desirous of visiting the asylum, it may 
here be mentioned that orders for admission can be obtained of any member 
of the Committee of Visitors. 

In order to conform to the Act of Parliament already cited (8 & 9 Vict, 
c. 126), it became necessary, in 1847, to provide an additional pauper lunatic 



LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 009 

asylum for the county of Middlesex. Architects were invited to compete for 
the design of the building. Thirty-nine competitors sent in plans accord- 
ingly, and from these the county magistrates selected three as deserving of 
reward. The architects thus signalized, were, for the first prize, of 300/., Mr. 
Daukes ; for the second prize, of 200£., Messrs. Harris and Godwin ; and for 
the third, of 100/., Messrs. Allom and Crosse. The design submitted by Mr. 
Daukes has been accordingly adopted, and the building, of which the erection 
was commenced in the spring of 1849, is now completed. Before describing- 
it, however, it will be interesting to notice the instructions issued by the ma- 
gistrates upon the occasion of inviting the preparation of designs. 

The land for the building is situate at Bet's Stile, near Colney Hatch, be- 
tween Finchley Common and Southgate, and consists of 119 acres, lying on 
both sides of the Great Northern Eailway, and having a gradual and general 
slope towards the south-east. The accommodation to be provided is for 1000 
patients, of both sexes, in separate departments for the several classes of 
patients, and in separate buildings for the two sexes, either wholly unattached, 
or connected only by the chapel and offices common to both. The accommoda- 
tion for the female patients to be one-third greater than for males. Besides 
the asylum, airing-grounds, &c., the following buildings and offices to be 
provided. A chapel for 400 persons ; apartments for two resident medical 
officers, one for each sex ; apartments for a resident superintendent, and for a 
resident matron ; a committee-room, and rooms for the reception and exami- 
nation of patients of each sex on admission, and for visitors to patients of 
each sex ; a surgery and infirmaries, baths, and all domestic offices, as store- 
houses, brewhouse, bakehouse, laundries, workshops, and farm buildings ; also, 
at the entrance, a porter's lodge, with accommodation for a man and his wife, 
on one side, and clerks' offices on the other side of the gateway. Provision 
to be also made for manufacturing gas within the premises, and for employing 
it in the general lighting of the establishment. Suggestions were also officially 
made upon the following several points : — 

Form and Site for the Building. — The form to be such as to afford an uninterrupted view of the 
country, and the free access of air and sun. The several galleries and wards to be so arranged 
that the medical officers and others may pass through all of them without retracing their steps. 
The site of the building to be selected with the inclinations of surface such that the dav rooms, 
corridors, and airing courts have a southern or south-eastern aspect. Those portions of the 
asylum to be occupied by patients, to have not more than two storeys— that is, ground and first 
floors. 

Arrangements for Classes, Attendants, separate Rooms, <jj-c. — For each class, besides the exercise 
galleries, a room should be provided with an open fire-place, easily accessible from the kitchen, 
and equal in dimensions to about ten superficial feet for each patient to be received therein. 
The attendants upon each class are also to have separate rooms placed so that they shall be in 
clo e proximity with the dormitories and the closets containing stores, &c. The separate 
sleeping-rooms" to be 9 feet by 6 feet 6 inches, and from 11 feet to 12 feet 6 inches in height ; and 
the dormitories should contain 48 feet superficial, and about 576 cubical feet for each patient. 
The several galleries, day rooms, dormitories, and cells should be distinguished by numbers, 
and the portions of the building assigned to the several classes of patients, by letters. The 
staircases should be without winders, or long straight flights, and the wells built up. Thrte 
distinct classes are to be provided for among the patients of each sex. Of the sleeping accom- 
modation, one-third should be provided in separate rooms, and the remainder in dormitories, 
each containing from three to twelve beds. The aged, dirty, infirm, and epileptic patients to 
be accommodated on the ground-floor, and the violent and noisy patiems removed as far as pos- 
sible from the other patients. The staircases to be of stone, and the building, as far as possible, 
of fire-proof construction. 

Warming, Ventilating, and Supply of Water.— Complete arrangements should be made for 
warming and ventilating the whole of the building, and for supplying hot water. Descending 
or horizontal smoke flues, if used, to be constructed entirely of brickwork, rendered or par- 
geted inside and out ; and if flues from any of the furnaces are carried up through any of the 
main walis, they should be constructed with a hollow space round them, to prevent the trans- 
mission of undue heat in warm seasons, and allow a moderation of the temperature of the 
building whenever desired. The supply of water to be equal in quantitv to 40 gallons per day 
for each patient, and should, if possible, be obtained at such a level that it may reach the 
highest parts of the building, without forcing. 

The asylum recently erected at Colney Hatch, from Mr. Daukes' design, is in the Italian style 
of architecture, with stone groins and dressings, and has an extreme length of 1881 feet 8 inches, 
and depth of 670 feet 6 inches. The total number of rooms, including the common offices, 
chapel, infirmaries, &c, is 987- The corridors, centre colonnade, &c, are paved with the patent 
metallic lava of Messrs. Orsi and Armani; and the terraces, flats, <fcc,, are roofed with the same 
material, which is said to be perfectly impervious to moisture. An Artesian well, 350 feet in 

D D 3 



610 LONDON. 

depth, has been sunk for the supply of water. Among the principal apartments is one 112 feet 
long, and 58 feet 6 inches wide, fitted with an orchestra, for balls, concerts, &c, for the amuse- 
ment of the unfortunate occupants of the asylum. The board room is 30 feet by 20 feet, and 
has the walls covered with modern Venetian stucco, coloured and polished to represent borders 
of Carrara marble, and panels of Scienna. 



MARKETS. 
The markets of the metropolis are not what a stranger would expect 
to find when he visits so large and wealthy a city. Some of them are, 
by their ill construction, ill ventilation, ill location, and total want of 
sanitary regulations, disgraceful to a civilized nation ; and there are not 
wanting persons — even in respectable positions in society — to defend 
and uphold those nuisances which have incontestably been proved 
to be injurious and demonstrably fatal to society. The corporation 
of the city of London have not shown that alacrity which might 
naturally have been expected of enlightened men. It may be well 
for those who live in suburban villas and country mansions to de- 
precate comforts and health for those who, toiling all the day, have 
been less fortunate in the commercial world than themselves; how- 
ever, the necessity of legislative interference is now insisted upon, 
that the abomination complained of should be expelled from the 
heart of this great and populous metropolis. 

Billingsgate Fish Market is in Lower Thames Street, adjoining the western side of 
the Custom House; it has its own port for the landing and sale of all kinds of fish on a most 
extensive scale. Fish from all parts of the coast and from foreign ports are here sold. 
The lobster from Norway is a most valuable article of import; a very large sum annually is 
remitted by the salesmen for this fish alone. This market is under strict, yet judicious 
management by city authority, and all tainted fish unfit for human food is destroyed, and the 
vendor fined for his attempt at imposition. This market is an exception to the foregoing 
remarks; it has lately been much improved by the city architect, Mr. Bunning, who has 
attended strictly to its ventilation, drainage, and sanitary regulation. This object is effected 
by mechanical means. Mr. Bessemer, the engineer, has constructed a centrifugal machine for 
exhausting the air : it consists of two discs of iron, each eight feet in diameter, and having a 
central opening of half that size, and placed on a shaft, 2 ft. apart from each other, and 
attached by eight radial partitions, forming a series of segmental chambers around the axis ; a 
communication is established between the central openings of this disc and the place to be ex- 
hausted, by several underground channels branching off to different points, where openings 
are formed for the inlet of the air, while the external diameter of the discs communicate with 
an air shaft leading upwards above the roof of the building, where the foul air is dispersed. 
When a rapid rotary motion is communicated to the disc the air contained in its segmental 
chambers immediately acquires centrifugal force, and escapes at the outer edge of the disc, while 
new portions of air rush to the centre of it, from all the numerous inlets before referred to, 
and thus fill up the vacuum formed by the escape of it at the periphery ; so that a continuous 
and powerful action is kept up, carrying out of the market at least 50,000 cubic feet of foul air 
per minute, the space previously occupied by which is immediately reoccupied with fresh 
air from the open front next the river. 

Upon this same centrifugal principle Mr. Bessemer has recently patented a pump of the most 
powerful description, for lifting and forcing water, which is here applied for the supply of 
water for washing the market; and filtered water for cleaning the fish, and the general use of 
the market people, is also supplied by means of this small though powerful pumping ma- 
chine. Two tens of water per minute are lifted 35 ft. high from filters in the bed of the 
Thames, and from thence delivered into a fountain in the upper market; 1| ton per minute of 
unfiltered water is lifted from the Thames, and passes in a constantly-flowing stream along a 
series of gutters formed at short intervals along the whole surface of the market, and covered 
over with gratings, so that the drainage from the numerous fish-stalls, uniting with the water 
flowing in these gutters, is immediately carried off, while 1 ton. per minute of water is in like 
manner distributed throughout the lower market, from which it is again pumped out by the 
same apparatus, and discharged into the Thames. 

The quantity of water raised, it is said, by this small pump, is 77>000 imperial gallons per 
hour; and at the price charged by the water companies, would exceed 4000J. per annum. 
Notwithstanding there are four different elevations to which the water has to be raised in 
such vast quantities, and that some part of it is filtered, some in the state of ordinary 
Thames water, and the other part consisting of the foul drainage water from the lower market, 
one apparatus deals with these different masses of water without any intermixture ; and 
the entire apparatus consists only of one single revolving piece, having no rubbing surfaces, and 
fitting closely nowhere except at its axis, and is contained in a cast-iron case, and without any 



MARKETS. 611 

reciprocating parts whatever, not even the alternating motion of a valve ; nay more, the same 
axis on which the centrifugal water discs are fixed, serves also for the axis of "the large air disc 
used for ventilation; and thus by the simple rotation of one revolving piece all the effects before 
referred to are produced, motive power being applied from a very simply-constructed oscillating 
steam engine of 16-horse power, the fly-wheel of which is made broad enough to carry a gutta- 
percha strap, passing over a drum in the centrifugal pump shaft, and thus communicating a 
sufficiently rapid motion. 

Bloomsbury Market, in Bury Place, Bloomsbury, is for the sale of provisions generally, 
but of very small extent. 

Borough Market, Southwark, is for the sale extensively of provisions generally, particu- 
larly of potatoes. The best potatoes in the south part of the island are grown in Kent, and 
have a lucrative sale in this market. 

Borough Market, Southwark, is for the sale of hops, the greatest part of which are the 
growth of the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. 

Brooke's Market, in Brooke Street, Holborn, a very small market for the sale of provi- 
sions generally. 

Covent Garden Market, opposite St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, is within an exten- 
sive square piece of ground, and of great antiquity. The eastern and northern angles of the 
margin of this market are Piazza and capacious mansions above erected by Inigo Jones, archi- 
tect to Charles I. and II. This market is the property of the Duke of Bedford, and yields a 
large annual revenue after payment of contingent expenses. The late Francis, Duke of Bedford, 
in 1830, reconstructed and built the present market from the design and under the superintend- 
ence of Mr. Wm. Fowler, architect, at a cost of 50,00W. It consists of three sides of a quad- 
rangle, with a Doric colonnade around it, supported by granite columns, and is undoubtedly a 
finely-conceived design, and a credit to the metropolis. Its arrangement is admirable, in such 
divisions as are suitable to the salesman, the purchaser, and the visitor. The productions of the 
hot-house, and of the growth of those who spare no expense in producing the finest fruit in all 
seasons of the year, and flowers, herbs, and vegetables of the best kinds, are here exhibited for 
sale. The promenade in the avenue, in which the best fruit shops are situated, is desirable and 
gratifying to the visitor ; above the entrance on the eastern extremity are galleries for the sale of 
plants and flowers of a superior description. 

Carnaby Market, near to Broad Street, Golden Square, is now but a small provision 
market. 

Corn Market, Mark Lane, is an elegant structure, the front being of the Greek style ; in the 
interior are suitable offices for business, the hall also having those divisions and stands necessary 
for the purposes of showing the different kinds of grain and seeds, and effecting the sale of the 
same. The sales of wheat in this market have a considerable influence on the prices in the pro- 
vinces, as well as regulating the demand and import of the foreign merchant. 

Clare Market, in the parish of St. Clement's Danes, approximate to the south-west 
corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields, is for the sale principally of butchers' meat, also for the sale of 
vegetables, tripe, dogs and cats' meat. Clare Market, although smaller than others, is not less 
a nuisance. There are about twenty-six butchers in and about it, who slaughter from 350 to 
400 sheep weekly in the market, or in the stalls behind, and in cellars. There is one place 
only in which bullocks are slaughtered. The number killed is from fifty to sixty weekly, but 
considerably more in winter, amounting occasionally to 200. The number of calves is uncertain. 

Cumberland Market, York, or Clarence Street, on the east side of Regent's Park, isfor 
the sale of hay, straw, and other articles. 

Farringdon Market, adjacent and on the west side of Farringdon Street, City (late the 
Fleet Market), erected on this site about thirty years since, occupies 1| acre of ground. 
The structure is indifferently applicable, although the situation is most desirable, par- 
ticularly for drainage, being on a slope. It is for the sale of vegetables, butchers' meat, fruit, 
&c. 

Finsbury Market, near Finsbury Square and City Road, is for the sale of provisions; now 
little in use. 

Fitzroy Market, a small one at the northern end of John Street, Tottenham Court R.oad, 
is for the sale of butchers' meat and vegetables. 

Greenwich Market, Greenwich, is for the sale of provisions generally. 

Honey Lane Market, on the north side of Cheapside, is for the sale of provisions; almost 
extinct, by being built upon for the purpose of founding a city school. 

Hungerford Market, in the Strand, near to Charing Cross, is for the sale of fish extensively, 
fruit, vegetables, and butchers' meat. The design and construction of this market is by Mr. 
Wm. Fowler, it is of the Italian character, and cheerful and interesting on the water-side exterior. 
Covent Garden is by the same architect. The upper part of the market consists of three 
avenues, with shops on each side ; the whole roofed in. It has now become a market in which 
much business is done, and of great convenience to the west-end residents ; it is the thorough- 
fare to the Suspension Bridge, across the Thames. 

Hoxton Market, Hoxton Town, north-east of the City of London, is for the sale of pro- 
visions generally. 

Hutchinson" Market, Houndsditch, is a market for general provisions, but in little use; 
Intended for the Jews in this quarter, 

Islington Market, was intended to be upon a most convenient and extensive scale, to 
relieve that of Smithfield, for the sale of cattle of all kinds. An immense amount of money 
has been expended by a Mr. Perkins, but his praiseworthy object was defeated by the influence 
and intrigue of the city of London, and is for the presentused as a laystall. 

Leadenhall Market, the first turning on the right, east from Cornhill, is for the sale of 
poultry, dead and alive, also for the sale of the hides and horns of cattle ; calves and pigs only 
are here slaughtered ; upon an average there are thirty-five to forty salesmen, who kill upon 
an average from 200 to 400 sheep per week, and occasionally some of them slaughter as many 
as 300 to 400 sheep each per week. 



612 LONDON. 

Leather Market, Bermondsey, on the Southwark side of the Thames, is an important 
market for the sale of leather. 

Lumber Court, Seven Dials, is for the sale principally of fish, and also for vegetables and 
butchers' meat. 

Mortimer Market, a very obscure market in Tottenham Court Road, is for the sale of pro- 
visions, and is a convenience for the neighbourhood. 

Newgate Market, abutting on the south of Newgate Street, is most extensive for the sale 
of carcase and retail butchers 'meat; adjacently is Tyler's Market, of a similar description; New 
gate Market, so important for the extent of its business, is yet*one of the nuisances in the city 
of London. The slaughterhouses for sheep are almost exclusively in cellars underneath the 
shop where the pieces or joints are sold in retail. The access to these cellars is by steps, over 
which a board is occasionally placed, to act as an inclined plane, for the animal to slide down ; 
more frequently a much more summary process is had recourse to, the animal is seized by the 
butcher, and pitched headlong into the cellar by main force, where, unable to rise from broken 
limbs, or other injuries sustained by the fall, they lie awaiting their turn to be slaughtered. In 
this market poultry is also sold. 

New Exchange, Clothes Market, in Hounsditch, is for the sale and barter of all kinds of 
goods, particularly old clothes bought by the Jew crier in his purchases made daily in the 
various streets of London. 

Newport Market, Great Newport Street, west of Long Acre, is for the sale principally of 
butchers' meat. In this market and its neighbourhood there are from forty to fifty butchers, 
together with slaughtermen and drovers. They kill upon an average from 300 to 400 bullocks 
weekly, from 500 to 700 sheep, according to circumstances, and from 50 to 100 calves ; the num- 
ber of the latter varies very much ; 1000 to 1100 sheep have been known to be killed in one 
week, and many more bullocks than at the present time. As many are killed in the country, and 
are brought in by the railways. 

Old Clothes and General Market, Houndsditch, is for the sale and barter of all kinds 
of goods, particularly old clothes. It is a Jews' market. 

Oxford Market, on the north side of Oxford Street, near John Street, Portland Street, is 
a small market for the sale of vegetables and butchers' meat. 

Orange Market, Duke's Place, Houndsditch, is an extensive market for the sale of oranges; 
large fortunes have been made in this market. 

Portman Market, Marylebone, near Paddington, is for the sale of hay and straw, also for 
butter, poultry, butchers' meat, and other provisions. 

Rag Fair, and Old and Second-hand Clothes Market, Petticoat Lane, now called Middlesex 
Street, Minories, is for the sale of the refuse of the metropolis. 

Smithfield Market, the great area, the great mart of business for its purpose, and the 
great nuisance of the metropolis. It is situated near what may be called the heart of the city 
of London; it is bounded on the north by St. John Street, on the south by Giltspur Street, on 
the east by Long Lane, and the west by Cow Lane ; these are leading streets in and out of this 
market. In this market the most lucrative and the largest business is transacted for the sale of 
all kinds of cattle, milch cows, pigs, horses, mules, asses, dogs, and goats in the world; hay and 
straw, &c., are also sold largely. 

The salesmen of Smithfield market, of whom there are about 160, may be described as com- 
mission agents, to whom the farmers and others who fatten cattle consign their stock, of which 
they now transmit some portion by railway. They receive from 2*. 6d. to 4s. per head for the 
sale of oxen and cows ; from 10*. to 15s. per score for sheep and lambs ; and Is. per head for 
calves. In Smithfield there are seven bankers, who are either salesmen or butchers, and are 
generally connected with those trades. The principal supply of live cattle for the consumption 
of the metropolis is from the northern counties. Smithfield is not only the chief market for 
the supply of the inhabitants of the metropolis, but is a market of transit for the southern 
counties— the transactions amounting to the enormous extent of 7,000,000/. sterling, annually. 
In 1846, there were sold of beasts, 226,132; sheep and lambs, 1,593,270; calves, 26,356 ; pigs, 
33,531. There are many slaughter-houses in the neighbourhood of this market, as well as in 
the surrounding neighbourhood, all of which are much complained of. 

Spitalfields Market, to the right of Bishopsgate Street and Norton Folgate, is a large 
market for vegetables, particularly for potatoes, and for poultry, butchers' meat, and fruit. 

St. George's Market, on the left of the upper end of Oxford Street, is for the sale of 
butchers' meat ; there are in its vicinity numerous stalls for vegetables. 

Shepherd's Market, May Fair, south side of Curzon Street, is for the sale of provisions ge- 
nerally, is a convenience for this genteel neighbourhood, and is not a nuisance. 

Whitechapbl Market, east of Aldgate, City, is an extensive market for the sale of butchers' 
meat, and for the sale of the Jews' killed butchers' meat ; carcase butchers deal here to some 
extent. Many slaughter-houses here and in Aldgate are at the backs of the houses, to which 
there is no access but through the front shop. The animals, however infuriated, have to be 
forced, usually by the tail-twisting process, into these huddled-up slaughter-houses. There is a 
large market carried on in the road of hay, straw, &c. 

There are many public streets, especially in crowded neighbourhoods, where open public high- 
way stalls exist, permitted by the parish authorities, and by the police, for the accommodation 
of a large and poor population, but they are under strict regulation to keep the peace, and not 
to offer obstruction to the foot passengers. 

There are also extensive markets or fairs in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, for the sale 
of all descriptions of cattle, milch cows, pigs, horses, mules, asses, dogs, goats, hay, straw, and 
grain of all kinds ; at Croydon, in Surrey ; Romford, in Essex ; and Southall and Uxbridge, in 
Middlesex, &c, &c, &c. 

Thus there are in the metropolis thirty-six markets, some of which are designed with taste, 
others more the effect of accident in their arrangement. Those for the sale and slaying of 
cattle ought, for the health and safety of the immediate residents, to be removed out of London 



MERCANTILE MARINE. G13 

MERCANTILE MARINE. 

London is one of the greatest shipping ports in the world, and to her belong 
many ships and seamen. For ship-building and steamboat-building, London, 
likewise, holds the foremost rank. The government has its yards for these 
purposes, at Woolwich and Deptford; but many of the private docks and 
ship-yards are very large. These are seated along the banks of the Lower 
Thames; but some of the most celebrated are Messrs. "Wigram's, Green's, Young's, 
near Black wall (see article "Docks"). On the Thames are built vessels from 
frigates, war-steamers, and Indiamen, down to yachts and wherry -boats. A 
considerable business is done in building ships and steamers for the home trade 
and for foreign governments, and likewise in repairing. Many large class ships 
and steamers are built. The manufacture of marine engines is carried on by 
distinct firms, who have establishments seated near the L'pper and Lower 
Thames. Iron ships are likewise built (see article "Mechanical Engineers"). 
Ship-launches are celebrated as festivals in the riverside districts, and strangers 
have very little difficulty in getting admission to the sight. On a ship being 
built it is registered in the General Registration Office at the Custom House, 
and likewise in Lloyd's Register, as already described. The former registry 
constitutes a national and legal title, the latter is the valuation on which 
it is insured against sea risks. Besides the ships registered in London, the 
London merchants are owners and sharers in ships in all parts of the 
world. Business relating to shipping is chiefly transacted at Lloyd's Rooms. 
Under the head of " statistics " the extent of the shipping of London is shown. 

The seamen are registered as well as the ships, for which purpose government 
offices are established in London. Every seaman must have a registration 
ticket, and is entitled to the protection of the authorities in consideration of 
it. Causes relating to seamen's wages are decided at the Thames Police Office, 
but criminal cases, arising on the high sea, come under the jurisdiction of the 
Central Criminal Court, as holding Admiralty Sessions. To supply masters 
of ships with seamen, offices are opened under shipping-masters, whose duty it 
is to assist in carrying out the agreements between masters and men, and with 
apprentices. On returning home the sailors can require the assistance of the 
shipping-master in receiving their wages. Sailors' homes are in progress for 
receiving seamen when in port. At present these establishments are supported 
by private subscriptions. Each seaman in employment is charged with a small 
contribution towards the Merchant Seaman's Fund of the port, for pensioning 
aged seamen and their widows. The relief given is, however, small, and the 
funds hitherto have not been well managed, Lads are taken as apprentices 
to the sea-service ; and the London merchants, under the name of the Marine 
Society, maintain, by subscription, a ship as a school on the Thames, in which 
lads are trained for the sea. 

Formerly a master or mate of a merchantman was not required to undergo 
any examination, but now the Local Marine Board, chosen partly by the ship- 
owners of London, and partly named by the Board of Trade, have power to 
appoint officers to examine all new masters and mates as to general education 
and knowledge of seamanship. The candidates are arranged in classes for 
master or mate, according to proficiency, and the certificate given may be 
forfeited for incompetency, habitual drunkenness, or tyrannical habits. 

The following are the chief points worthy of examination by a stranger — 
Greenwich Hospital ; the Dreadnought, Hospital Ship ; the Sailors' Homes ; 
the Seamen's Floating or Ship Church ; the Seamen's Land Church ; the 
Marine Society's Ship ; the Greenwich Hospital School ; Christ's Hospital 
Mathematical School ; the Royal Naval School ; the Trinity House of the 
Corporation for managing the lighthouses ; the collection of models in the 
Navy Department, Somerset House ; and the United Service Institution — the 
charts of the hydrographical department being the finest collection of surveys 



614 LONDON. 

in the world j the Royal Observatory, Greenwich ; the Nautical Almanack 
Establishment ; Woolwich and Deptford Dockyards ; and Woolwich Marine 
Engine Factory ; the private Dockyards, and Marine Engine Factories ; the 
factories for rope-making, anchor and chain-cable making, sail-making, and 
patent process for preserving canvas. The Docks belonging to the several com- 
panies. Line-of-battle ships (the Dreadnought), frigates, and war-steamers 
(Woolwich) ; Indiamen (Blackwall) ; colliers (Pool) ; lightships (Blackwall) ; 
Scotch steamers, screw-ships, Goole sloops, ballast-lighters and steam-dredgers; 
Lord Mayor's 'and city barges ; fishing-smacks (Barking) ; sea and river yachts, 
tug-boats, halfpenny steamers, canal boats, lighters, six-oared cutters, barges, 
wherries, and wager-boats (Lambeth) ; fishing-punts (Putney). Besides English 
craft, a great variety of foreign craft are to be seen. 



MILITAKY APPOINTMENTS. 

No nation in Europe has under command so small an army as the nation which 
holds sovereign power over upwards of 150 millions of subjects ; her colonies 
in every clime, still extending her territory by the introduction of arts, com- 
merce, education, and religion. It is an astounding fact, that the small but 
brave army of this nation is under such excellent management, and is charac- 
terised by such efficiency for the public service, that by its prowess it has swept 
every field where her banner has been unfurled. It is a great moral lesson to 
those nations on the continent who are fond of . showing their power, and 
spending their millions at the playing of soldiers. 

The British army, including all arms, does not exceed 100,000 men. The 
native army of India paid by the East India Company is, in round numbers, 
100,000 men, chiefly officered by Englishmen. The British army is recruited 
in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The whole army is well trained, 
and most effective, composed of the youth and sinew of the empire, ever ready, 
faithful, and true to its colours. 

Field Marshal Commander-in-Chief — The Duke of Wellington. 
Private Secretary— A. Greville, Esq. 

Military Secretary — Lieutenant-General Lord Fitzroy Somerset. 
Secretary at War — Right Honourable Fox Maule. 
Deputy do. — Laurence Sullivan, Esq. 
All military business is transacted, all appointments are made and con- 
firmed at the Horse Guards, Whitehall, excepting the Ordnance, which is con- 
ducted at the Ordnance Office, under the Marquess of Angiesea, who is at 
the head of this service. (See article " Eoyal Engineers.") 
The Adjutant-General's Office is at the Horse Guards. 
Adjutant-General — Major- General G. Brown. 
Deputy Adjutant-General — Colonel G. A. Wetherall. 
Assistant Adjutant-General — Lieutenant-Colonel William Sullivan. 
Deputy- Assistant Adjutant-General — Captain A. J. Pack. 
Recruiting Department — 16, Duke Street, Westminster. 

Military Superintendent — Colonel Sir Richard Doherty. 
Quarter-Master-General 's Office — Horse Guards. 

Q uarter-Master-General — Col on el James Freeth. 
Paymaster- General's Office — Whitehall. 
Paymaster- Gen eral — Earl Granville. 
Judge- Advocate-General 's Office — 35, Great George Street, Westminster. 

Judge-Marshal and Advocate-General — Right Hon. Sir David Dundas. 
Army Medical Board Office — St. James's Place. 
Director-General — Sir James M'Grigor. 



THE MINT. 



615 



THE MINT. 

The Royal Mint is an extensive government edifice, in which the 
coinage of the realm is managed. Here bullion is assayed, and 
manufactured into specie, or money, for interchange in commerce, 
and in all adjustments of traffic between man and man. The build- 
ing is of the united skill of Mr. Johnson and Sir Robert Smirke. 
It is a large and somewhat neat edifice, appropriately constructed, 
with suitable and extensive establishments for its purpose. It is 
arranged in three stories, having a centre, as seen in the annexed 
engraving, decorated with a pediment and columns with wings. 




THE MINT. 



The Royal Mint attained its constitution of superior officers in the eighteenth year of the 
reign of Edward II., and with very few alterations continued as then established till the year 
1815. Within these two or three years very important alterations and improvements have been 
made in its internal economy and management. 

It may not be uninteresting to know that by an abstract account of the coinage which the 
Bank of England paid for gold and silver bullion in each year, from 1697 to 1811, it appears 
that as early as 1710 they paid Al. per ounce for standard gold, and 5s. 3d. for standard silver; 
and it is probable that the same price existed at a more early date after the re-coinage, though 
the accounts state no price before 1710. This account is conceived to be of very great import- 
ance. It will satisfactorily explain why Mr. Locke's theory did not permanently produce the 
effect which the legislature expected from it. By a reference to the prices paid for gold by the 
Bank of England from 1710 to 1717« it appears that the average price per ounce was' 31. 19s. lid. 
during this period; the guinea was current for 1/. 1*. 6c?., at which rate the ounce of gold was 
coined into 31. 19s. 8§d., for if one guinea, or 5 dwts. 9 1| gr. be worth 11. Is. 6d., 480 grains, 
or an ounce, will be worth 31. 19s. 8|d. It would appear, then, that the market pries of gold was 
only 2£d. above its Mint price ; and some debasement by wear may have existed upon the gold 
currency at this period, causing such excess of the Mint price. 

While the Mint, therefore, coined gold at the rate of 31. 19s. 8f<*. per ounce, and silver at 
5s. 3d., the relative proportion was as 15*43 to 1. There is only one quotation of silver given 
for the period in question, and it is 5s. 3d. per ounce. If this average is taken for the seven 
years in question (and we may be justified in doing so by the market prices which follow in 1718 
and subsequent years, as extracted from Castaign's papers, laid before the House of Com- 
mons, and ordered to be printed, March 4, 1811), at 5s. 3d. per ounce, the average proportion of 
gold and silver in the market would be 15*22 to 1 ; but no individual would carry 15*22 ounces of 
silver to the Mint to be coined into about 31. 18-s. 7d., when these 15*22 of silver would procure 
an ounce of standard gold in the market, which would be coined into 31. 19s. 8|d., making 
thereby a profit of about 11. 7s. 6d. per cent. While this profit continued, it may reasonably be 
inferred that gold, and not silver, would be the standard of our money. 

It was in September, 1717> that Sir Isaac Newton delivered his report to the Lords of the 
Treasury, giving it as his opinion that gold was considerably overrated in the Mint, with re- 
spect to silver ; and, in consequence of this report, the guinea was, by proclamation, dated 22 
December, 1717* declared current at 11. Is. It is of importance to observe the effect produced 



616 LONDON. 

upon the price of gold by this proclamation, proving that the silver currency had not operated 
as the standard of value during the period in question. When the guinea became a legal tender, 
at 1/. Is., the price of gold then became fixed at 31. 17-?- lOirf. per ounce at the Mint. 

In March, 1815, a new constitution was introduced, founded upon a very valuable report 
drawn up and presented to this committee by the Right Hon. Wellesley Pole, who had been 
appointed Master of the Mint in the preceding year. 

It is the duty of the deputy-master and worker to receive, on account of the master and 
worker, her Majesty's own bullion of gold and silver, as well as the bullion of any oiher per- 
son, brought to the Mint for coinage; to give acknowledgment for the same, specifying the 
number of ingots, or parcels of coin, according to the purport of any invoice or bill delivered 
therewith ; to see the ingots safely deposited in the care and joint custody of himself and the 
master assay er, for the purpose of being assayed, previous to* their importation into the office 
of receipt; to cause the ingots, when duly assayed, to be brought into the office of receipt, 
without delay, there to be weighed in the presence of the importers and cheque officers ; to 
make out a Mint bill, to be delivered to the importer, testifying the weight, fineness, and value 
of the several ingots, &c, together with the day and order of the delivery into the Mint, and 
to sign a receipt annexed to the said bill, witnessed by the comptroller and Queen's clerk ; to 
give directions to the master's first clerk, for the combining or potting the ingots for the melt' 
mg, with the proper portion of the alloy ; to see that the same be duly entered by the said first 
clerk and melter, in the pot book, and the said book examined by the comptroller and Queen's 
clerk ; and to deliver out of the stronghold such ingots and bullion as are potted, and charge 
the melter therewith according to the standard weight of each pot ; to keep an account of the 
bars received from the melting-house, and delivered to the moneyers, and also of the scissel 
returned by the moneyers to the melter, for which their respective receipts will be given, and 
entered in the pot book, that they may be charged therewith; to receive the coined monies from 
the moneyers, after the same have been duly tried at the pix by the Queen's assayer, comp- 
troller, and Queen's clerk; and to deliver the same to the importer, receiving back at the same 
time the Mint bill which had been given : or if the same be not cleared off, to require that such 
portion thereof as has been delivered be indorsed on the bill by the parties, by a receipt, till 
the whole be discharged ; to seal and lock up in the usual chest, in conjunction with the King's 
assayer and comptroller, the pieces reserved for the public trial of the pix, and to make good 
to the parties the pieces so taken, by payment in their sterling value, charging the same to the 
public expense. As the first executive officer of the Mint, to watch over every branch of the 
department; to inspect and oversee, as much as lies in his power, the meltings, assayings, and 
all the different processes of the coinage, and to report to the master on the conduct of the 
officers; to draw and indite all letters, instructions, commissions, and other writings agreed 
upon and ordered by the master and worker for the service of the office, and to have the same 
recorded by the clerk of the papers ; to receive all monies issued at the Exchequer or elsewhere, 
for the service of the Mint; and to keep the public account of the master, to be laid annually 
before the auditors of public accounts, with the proper vouchers; the said account to be signed 
and attested by the master himself. There are also stringent regulations of the Queen's 
assayer and the other officials, which our space will not allow us to add to those of the deputy- 
master and worker. 

The gold is melted in pots made of black lead ; those now used in the Royal Mint are of supe- 
rior manufacture, and less liable to break in annealing than those previously used. The process 
of melting silver now practised is a recent invention, and a very great improvement. A further 
and a more excellent account of the whole process of coinage, with a perfect description of the 
machinery, will be found in the seventh ediiion of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." 

Of the machinery much may be said ; it is of curious and very ingenious invention, various 
processes being carried on by a series of machines, in the rooms called the rolling room, the 
cutting-out room, the milling room, the analyzing room, the ironing, press room, &c. 
That of the drawing bench is most ingenious, by which the metal, when tested to show that it 
contains the proper alloy, is drawn through rollers to the precise thickness required for the rim 
which is to be cut out of it. The difference of a hair's breadth of gold in any part of the plate 
or sheet of gold would alter the value of a sovereign. Among other machines, the circular disc 
may be particularized. The cutting-out machine was invented by Messrs. Boulton and Watt, 
in 1790, who prepared it at that time for working the coining or striking presses, and for im- 
proving the same by a better method of working smaller presses for cutting out the blanks. 
Other machines for casting the ingots of silver, laminating rollers, rolling wheel work, turning, 
striking press, &c, &c, &c, are the works of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, Messrs. Maudslay 
and Co., and Messrs. Sir John Rennie and George Rennie. 

Regulations for the Admission of Visitors to the Royal Mint. 

I. Applications for permission to view the Royal Mint are to be addressed to the master or 
deputy master, in writing, describing the name and abode of the applicant, and the number of 
his party, not exceeding six in all. 

II. The master or deputy master (unless he shall sign a " master's order" in favour of the 
party) will transmit the application to the moneyers, and acquaint the party, by a printed form, 
that his application has been sent to the Royal Mint for consideration. 

III. Upon the receipt of the application, the moneyers will forthwith take it into considera- 
tion, and will exercise their discretion as to the issue of an order of admission ; requiring, in 
general, either: — 1. That the applicant should be known to them personally or by character; 
or 2, that he should be recommended by some of the officers of the Mint, or by some other 
party so known to them ; or 3, that he should be recommended, if a foreigner, by the diplo- 
matic or consular agent of his nation. 

IV. Upon being thus satisfied, one of the senior moneyers will countersign and send to the 
applicant a printed form of admission bearing the heading " General Order," and stating the 
number of the party to be admitted. When the application is not granted, a printed copy of 
Rule No. III. shall be sent to the party. 

V. The " General Orders" will bear the printed signature of the master, and will be regularly 



MUSIC, ETC. — THE QUEEN'S THEATRE. 617 

numbered, and delivered by the deputy master from time to time, only to the company of 
moneyers, to be issued by them. 

VI. The master or deputy master will also, at their discretion, sign orders of admission, in- 
serting at the same time the name of the party to be admitted, on a separate form, to be entitled 
•'Master's Order," in favour of any particular person, with or without a party of any given 
number, not exceeding six; but only in favour of persons known to them, and for whom they 
will consider themselves responsible. The master will transmit every such order signed by him 
to the deputy master (in a printed envelope, marked " Admission Card "), who will forward the 
same, as well as any similar orders signed by himself, to the moneyers, for the purpose of 
having a time of admission marked thereon. The moneyers, having so completed the orders, 
will transmit them without delay to the parties. 

VII. The person presenting an order of either description, in the hall of the Mint Office, 
shall write his own name and address in a book, to be kept there for that purpose, and the 
names of all the persons accompanying him. 

VIII. The order shall next be presented at the moneyers' office, where it shall be examined, 
and the moneyers will then direct a proper person to show the party round the works. 

IX. The original order shall be returned to the Mint Office. 



MUSIC, OPERA, ORATORIA, MUSICAL SOCIETIES, ETC. 

London abounds in musical entertainments. Royalty and nobility- 
have the Queen's Theatre ; the gentry and wealthy have now the 
Royal Italian Opera ; the lovers of sacred dramatic music have 
Exeter Hall and the Cathedrals ; the more lively disposed of all 
ranks have the operatic melodrama, burlesque opera, &c. Concerts 
also are numerous and various — from the full orchestra to the quar- 
tette; from the classical to the ordinary — and at all charges, from the 
half-guinea ticket to a much lower price. To all and each of these 
the stranger will find easy admission. There are also numerous 
private societies, which admit none but the friends of members : 
some of these societies are convivial as well as musical, such as the 
Catch Club, the Glee Club, the Madrigal Societies, &c. ; some cha- 
ritable, as the Royal Society of Musicians, &c. ; some consist of 
amateurs only, or professors only; others, of professors and amateurs. 
Of the principal of all these various musical societies, to which the 
polite and musical stranger may seek admission, and of which he 
may desire to know somewhat, we purpose here to give concisely 
the most interesting particulars. 

THE QUEEN'S THEATRE, HAYMARKET. 

This theatre was built in the year 1790,, by an architect of the 
name of Novasielsky, in a very mean style. It has no proscenium, 
nor corridor. The colonnade and arcade are additional constructions, 
and were added to the original pile in the year 1818. The curtain 
of this theatre is 40 ft. wide; the depth between the curtain and 
the back of the pit is 84 ft., the greatest width of the pit being 
00 ft. ; the height from the pit floor is 51 ft. ; the stage is 35 ft. in 
depth, and 80 ft. in width. 

When it was first proposed to introduce into this country the per- 
formance of music set to a foreign language, there was considerable 
opposition to the proposition, and the idea was much ridiculed. 
In July, 1703, Italian interludes (intermezzi), consisting of music 
and dancing, were performed at York Buildings. 

It was not until the year 1710 that an entire Italian opera was 



618 LONDON. 

performed in this country. In this year the opera " Almahide" 
was brought out at this theatre, and the performers were ex- 
clusively foreigners ; the words were wholly Italian. The Italian 
opera now gained a settlement, and has ever since remained the 
peculiar enjoyment of the English aristocracy, under whose pa- 
tronage it has ever existed. In the year 1711 was performed 
Rolli's Opera of " Rinaldo" (from Tasso's " Gerusalemme Liberata"). 
Handel set the music to the words, and it was produced in the 
month of March. 

About the year 1718, the English nobility projected the con- 
version of the Italian Opera into an Academy of Music, and sub- 
scribed, for this purpose, the sum of 50,000Z.; the King (George 
the First), as patron, contributed 1000/. Handel, Bononcini, and 
Ariosti, were engaged as composers for the Academy. Handel 
was constituted manager, and engaged to write a certain number 
of operas. He went to Dresden and engaged singers, among 
whom was Senesino. The first opera produced for the Academy 
was " Radamisto," the music by Handel, and its success was 
unrivalled. But Bononcini, who had been sent for from Rome, and 
Ariosti, who came from Bologna, looked upon Handel, who was a 
Saxon, as an intruder ; and a powerful faction, consisting of nobility 
and gentry, friends and partisans of Bononcini, was raised against 
him. The rage and insolence of the party caused the satire of the 
witty Dean Swift, and was put an end to by ridicule and a trial of 
skill between the three composers. The drama chosen for this pur- 
pose was " Musio Scevola," each party composing one act of the music. 
Handel was the conqueror, and, retaining the mastery, composed fifteen 
new operas for the Academy. But such was the effect of the opposition 
by the friends of his rivals, that he was compelled to retire from the 
management with the loss of 1000/., besides having his constitution 
much impaired. Bononcini's operas, although his music was elegant 
and pleasing, are utterly forgotten; and Ariosti appears to have been 
a musician of no genius whatever. 

It is not intended to give a history of the Italian Opera in London, 
but the principal events are interesting. It was not until the year 
1817, that Mozart's grand and best work, "Don Giovanni," was 
performed in London, in a manner never surpassed, and it was so 
favorably received that it produced a net profit of 10,000/. His 
operas, " Cosi fan tutti," " II flauto magico," " Clemenza di Tito," and 
" Nozze di Figaro," were beautifully performed, and most favourably 
received, for a long time, by the frequenters of the Italian Opera, 
until at length Rossini appeared, and the patrons, being desirous of 
novelty, were captivated by his light and playful compositions. The 
works of this composer, although vastly inferior to those of Mozart 
and his disciples, held possession of the taste of the opera fashion- 
ables for a long time, and the disciples and imitators of his school 
continue to supply the music for the Queen's Theatre, 



MUSIC, ETC. THE ENGLISH OPERA. 619 

The " Calypso/' " II ratti de Proserpina," and " Zaira," the three 
great works of Winter, were performed at this theatre under the 
direction of the composer. Billington and Grassini were the prin- 
cipal performers. Paisiello wrote the opera " La Locande," for this 
theatre. Rossini made his first appearance here in the year 1824; 
the singer, Sontag, in 1828; Rubini, in 1831 ; Jenny Lind, in 1847. 
Paganini's extraordinary performances took place here, for the first 
time, on the 3rd of June, 1831. The inimitable Malibran made her 
debut here, in 1825. Catalini, in 1806. Pasta, in 1817. Lablache, 
in 1830. Persiani, in 1838. 

The Queen's Theatre holds the first rank in the British me- 
tropolis, and it is here that we have first-rate performances of music 
and dancing, as well as first-rate audiences. The new combination 
of music with pantomime was first introduced here in the Ballet 
called " Orphee," the music of which was composed by Winter. 

THE ENGLISH OPERA. 

The English Opera may be dated from the year 1673, when 
Matthew Locke set to music the " Psyche" of the poet Shadwell. 
In 1727, Gray produced his "Beggar's Opera," written by way of 
burlesque, to ridicule the Italian Opera. This work had a run of 
sixty-three successive nights, and is still a favourite with the public. 
The songs were adapted to the most popular tunes of the time ; 
the words are witty and satirical, and most of the melodies are very 
beautiful. This burlesque opera gave rise to the genuine English 
Opera, which has continued down to our own time, although in many 
instances it partakes of a mixed character, and so-called English 
Operas have little in them that is English, except the words, and 
these mere translations. 

Among the most successful of English Opera composers were 
Dr. Arne, Jackson, Linley, Dibdin, Shield, Arnold, Storace, Bishop, 
Barnett, and some others. The u Artaxerxes" of Arne was written 
in 1762, to prove that the English language was not repugnant 
to music, as many had supposed. The attempt succeeded tri- 
umphantly. In the opera called " Love in a Village " are some 
beautiful melodies, by various composers; one by Arne, " Gentle 
youth, ah ! tell me why I" is especially beautiful. 

The English Opera House is in the Strand. The former theatre 
(called the Lyceum) was destroyed by fire, in 1829. The present 
building was erected by the architect, Beazley, in 1831-4. The 
pit is 39 feet wide. The depth from the back of the pit to the 
curtain, is 50^ feet. The curtain is 32 feet wide. 

Weber's Opera, " Der Freyschutz," was produced in English, for 
the first time, in the English Opera House. It had a most successful 
career, and was performed in almost every theatre in London. Other 
German Operas were brought out at this Opera House ; Winter's 



£20 LONDON. 

" Interrupted Sacrifice," Marschner's " Der Vampyre," &c, and 
were well performed, and well received. 

COVENT GARDEN THEATRE, BOW STREET, LONG ACRE, 

This theatre was built by the architect, Sir R. Smirke, in the year 
1809; its predecessor, a much smaller theatre (in which the dra- 
matic school of acting had been raised to the highest excellence by 
Garrick, Kemble, Siddons, and others, their disciples), was destroyed 
by fire. The stage of the present theatre is 55 feet in depth, and 
86 feet in width. The curtain is 32 feet wide. The depth from 
the curtain to the back of the pit is 66 feet, the greatest breadth 
51 feet, the length of the pit floor being 54 feet. This theatre has a 
saloon, the dimensions of which are 56 feet by 19 feet. 

The decline of the public taste for the real drama has caused the 
transformation of this theatre into an Italian Opera House, and the 
performances here are scarcely rivalled at the Queens Theatre. 
The superior taste of the public has been tried and proved by the 
performances of Mozart's operas, which have been rapturously 
received by large audiences, and their immense superiority over the 
frivolous compositions of the degenerated school established by 
Rossini is proved every time the public has an opportunity of 
expressing its judgment. 

The Italian Opera was established at the Theatre Royal, Coven t 
Garden, in the year 1847, the theatre having undergone great im- 
provements, and the Company consisting of first-rate and well-ap- 
proved singers. The Orchestra, under the most celebrated man of 
the day, is also first-rate. 

Operas had been performed at different times, long before the 
introduction of the Italian Opera, at this theatre. Besides an 
English version of Mozart's operas, very many of our own "Mozart," 
Sir Henry Bishop, continued for a long time to give pleasure to the 
public. In the year 1826, Weber conducted his exquisitely beau- 
tiful opera, " Oberon," written for this theatre ; and in which 
Miss Paton, Madame Vestris, and Braham, were the principal per- 
formers. In the year 1832, Beethoven's opera of " Fidelio," and 
Mozart's " Don Juan," were performed by a company of German 
artists. Mendelsohn's "Antigone" was performed here (in English), 
in 1845. 

DRURY LANE THEATRE. 

As at the Govent Garden Theatre, so also at this operas have been 
performed, but there is no established opera. When Weber's " Der 
Freyschutz" was in vogue in London, it was nowhere better repre- 
sented than at this theatre. 

The old Drury Lane Theatre was devoted to the legitimate drama, 
but after its destruction by fire (just after the destruction of Covent 



MUSIC, ETC. ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC. 621 

Garden Theatre by the same element), and the erection of the 
present noble building, the drama declined in public taste, and the 
theatre has been devoted to a variety of purposes. 

The present building was erected in the year 1811-12, by Benjamin 
Wyatt. The stage is 48 feet wide, and 80 feet deep. The greatest 
breadth of the pit is 56 feet, the height from the floor of which is 
65 feet. There is a distance of 64 feet from the curtain to the back 
of the pit. The breadth of the curtain is 32 feet. There is a 
saloon 90 feet long and 26 feet wide* 

THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY. 

This, the most eminent musical society, is composed of forty 
members and fifty associates, all professors of music, instrumental or 
vocal ; to whom are added twenty female associates, eminent for 
their professional acquirements. Moreover, there are honorary 
members of this society, selected from among the most celebrated 
foreign musicians. 

The " Band" of the Philharmonic Society is the noblest in the 
world ; it consists of artists of first-rate talent, not one of whom but 
is capable of conducting an orchestra. 

Except oratorios, and music requiring immense masses of per- 
formers, this Society performs all the most classical music, whether 
for a full orchestra or a small one, together with solos on all kinds 
of instruments. Every foreign artist of extraordinary merit, vocalist 
and instrumentalist, is engaged for the concerts given by this 
Society. 

Mendelsohn appeared in the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society, 
in the year 1829. His lesser works of the oratorial kind have been 
performed herein, but they are more suited to such societies as the 
Sacred Harmonic than to this. 

The concerts are given in the Hanover Square Concert Rooms, 
the public at large being the subscribers and patrons. 

THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC. 

This Academy was incorporated by Royal Charter, in the year 
1830. The pupils are instructed by chosen professors, in every 
branch of musical education. Since the foundation of this Academy, 
a large number of instrumental performers, of no mean eminence, 
have gone forth into the various orchestras of London ; many of the 
pupils are leaders and conductors of concerts, and eminent solo 
performers. Several of them are distinguished also as composers. 
Concerts are given by the pupils of the Royal Academy during 
the fashionable season in London, in the Hanover Square Concert 
Rooms, to which the public are admitted. The first concert took 
place on the 8th of December, 1828, two years before the charter of 
incorporation was granted. 



622 LONDON. 

EXETER HALL, STRAND. 

This building was erected in the years 1830-31, by Gandy Deering, 
in the Greco-Corinthian style, since much improved. The Hall, originally 
intended for public meetings on religious matters, has of late years been 
much devoted to performances of various kinds of music, but espe- 
cially the sacred. The sacred music consists principally of oratorios, 
by Handel, Sphor, and Mendelsohn, and occasionally of purely church 
music, such as anthems for divine worship. In this gigantic Hall there 
is an extensive orchestra, in which, on some occasions, as many as 
700 or 750 performers, vocal and instrumental, are contained. The 
oratorio " St. Paul," was performed for the first time in London 
in this Hall, in the year 1837; and the "Elijah," and other works 
of Mendelsohn have been heard here, sometimes under the conduct 
of the composer himself. 

Oratorios are of ancient date, and were originally ecclesiastical 
representations of scriptural or legendary subjects, for the edification 
of the people. It is said, the ablest poets and composers were 
engaged to produce, and set to music, dialogues in verse, for the 
purpose of affording means of enjoying musical entertainments to 
the nobles and people, on Sundays and Festivals in the Church. 
St. Philip, of Neri, is said to be the founder of these performances. 
The subjects were — "Job and his Friends;" "The Prodigal Son;" 
" The Angel Gabriel with the Virgin ;" " The Mystery of the In- 
carnation." They were made very attractive. Some of the poems 
were printed under the title of "Laudi Spirituali" One of the most 
remarkable of these early oratorios was called " Rappresentatione di 
Anima e di Corpo," (the Representation of the Soul and Body.) It 
was performed in chant-recitative, on a stage erected in the Church 
of Santa Maria della Vallicella, at Rome, with scenes, dances, &c, 
after the style of the ancient Greek drama. 

One of the earliest writers of oratorio music, was Stradella, who 
produced his " Oratorio di S. Gio Battista," in the year 1670. Zeno 
the poet produced seventeen oratorios, called " Azioni Sacra;" most 
of these were set to music by Caldara. One of them, called " Sisera," 
was performed in -1717. Metastasio wrote seven "Azioni;" Cal- 
dara set two of them to music. One of them, " La Passione," was 
afterwards set by Iomelli. 

The oratorio was introduced into England in the year 1720, by 
Handel, in his " Esther." This was performed afterwards, in 1732, 
in the King's Theatre, by command, without any acting of the 
characters, the house being merely fitted up as a concert room for 
the occasion. 

From the year 1737, until the establishment of the oratorial per- 
formances in Exeter Hall, there was always an oratorio performed 
twice in a week during Lent, in the theatres Covent Garden, Drury 
Lane, &c. Handel, after his losses in the Academy of Music, gave 
performances during the Lent season, in imitation of the Concerto 



MUSIC, ETC. ROYAL SOCIETY OF MUSICIANS. 623 

Spiritually and called them oratorios, at Covent Garden Theatre, most 
of them were composed for the occasion. The oratorio of " Deborah," 
was first performed in 1733 ; "Israel in Egypt," in 1738; "Saul," 
iu 1740; "Messiah," in 1741; "Samson," in 1742 ; "Judas Macca- 
beus," in 1746; "Joshua," in 1747; "Solomon," in 1749; and 
• Jephtha," in 1751. 

THE SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY. 

This amateur musical Society was established in the year 1832. 
The members originally met in the small room at Exeter Hall, and 
performed oratorios, masses, and such like music, to a small number 
of friends admitted by members' tickets. But for some time past the 
performances have been given in the large Hall, the members being 
assisted by a considerable body of professional performers. The 
oratorios of Handel, Spohr, Beethoven, Mendelsohn, &c. ; anthems; 
masses by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, &c, are performed by an 
orchestra consisting of from 500 to 700 persons. This Society has 
acquired a high musical position, from the excellence of its concerts 
and its spirited conduct. 

THE LONDON SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY. 

This is an off-shoot from the " Sacred Harmonic Society," and, like 
it, holds its meetings in the large room at Exeter Hall. The per- 
formances of this Society are exactly similar to those of the parent 
Society. 

THE CECILIAN SOCIETY. 

This is the oldest Society in London, wherein the members meet 
for the practice and performance of sacred music, of the oratorio 
kind. It was established in the year 1785, and from it many of our 
most valuable chorus-singers, male and female, as well as some very 
efficient violinists, have proceeded ; at one time it was the only 
seminary for good chorus-singers. The meetings of this Society are 
held in the Albion Hall, in London Wall, twice in each month. 
Visitors are admitted by members' tickets. 

THE CHORAL SOCIETY. 

This charitable institution was established in the year 1791. Her 
Majesty the Queen, the Duchesses of Gloucester and Kent, the King 
of Hanover, and the King of the Belgians, are the patrons and 
patronesses. The Society has also the patronage of the Duke of 
St. Alban s, the Earl of Bandon, Earl of Westmorland, the Lord 
Mayor, and many others of the nobility and gentry of England. 

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MUSICIANS. 

This Society was established in the year 1738; George Frederic 
Handel being one of its earliest members, and greatest benefactor. 
It was incorporated in the year 1790, and is managed by twelve 



624 LONDON. 

governors, and a court of forty-eight assistants. There are nearly 
200 members, vocalists and instrumentalists, who contribute about 
500/. per annum to its funds. 

This Society is instituted for the relief of decayed musicians, their 
widows and orphan children. It has a large fund, consisting of 
the donations and bequests of many charitable persons. Handel 
bequeathed 1000/. at his death, and during his life devoted to the 
funds of this charity the proceeds of performances of several of his 
own compositions. Many other persons have given large sums. 
King George the Third gave 500 guineas; Signora Storace, the 
celebrated vocalist, left 1000/.; a Mr. Crossdill, also left 1000Z. ; a 
Mr. Earl, 754/.; a Miss Fenn, 1000Z. ; and various sums of 100/., 
200/., and 300/., have been at times bequeathed to this Society. 
Kings George the Fourth and William the Fourth were generous 
benefactors by their annual donations. The Queen is patroness. 
Prince Albert, the Kings of Hanover and Belgium, the Duke of 
Wellington, the Earls of Westmorland and Cawdor, and the Earl 
Howe, are patrons. The officers of the Society consist of a Chaplain, 
an honorary Council, four honorary Physicians, an Oculist, four 
honorary Surgeons, a Banker, an honorary Solicitor, a Treasurer, 
Secretary, and Collector. The meetings for business are held in the 
Society's room, in Lisle Street, Leicester Square. 

The funds of this Institution were considerably augmented by the 
receipt of 2250/., being one-fourth share of the net profits of the 
Festival which took place in Westminster Abbey, in the year 1834. 
The income of the Society is about 3000/., its expenditure about 
2500/. The proceeds from all sources, including honorary, life, and 
annual subscriptions, which amount to about 300/., interest of stock, 
&c., in the year 1848, was 2955/. 95. 2d. The total amount of 
monthly payments, temporary reliefs, funeral expenses, premiums of 
apprenticeships, benefactions to aged claimants, indigent musicians' 
widows, and others having no claim on the charity, officers' salaries, 
&c, was in the same year, 2454/. 7s. 8d. 

This Society gives an Annual Festival in the Freemasons' Hal], 
in Great Queen Street, when the public are invited to dine with the 
patrons and members. After dinner there is a performance of vocal 
and instrumental music, including a fine band of wind instruments, 
the company being entertained in the intervals between the various 
toasts and speeches, with songs, glees, madrigals, &c. During the 
evening the band performs a grand march, composed for this festival 
by the great Haydn. Ladies are admitted to witness this festival, 
refreshments being amply provided for them in an ante-room. 

THE SOCIETY OF FEMALE MUSICIANS. 

This excellent Society was established in the year 1839, "to 
provide against the miseries and deprivations attendant upon a state 
of extreme poverty, whether it arise from old age, or sudden in- 



MUSIC, ETC. THE MADRIGAL SOCIETY. 625 

firmity, and to extend to the female professors of music of the 
United Kingdom (who may become members), all the benefits and 
blessings which flow from an institution similar to tbat of the 
Royal Society of Musicians." 

The original promoters of this charitable institution were eighteen 
talented and distinguished female musicians (vocal and instrumental). 
The first concert given for the benefit of the charity took place 
in June, 1840. 

THE SOCIETY OF BRITISH MUSICIANS. 

This is a Society of young musicians, many of whom possess con- 
siderable talent. The members perform one another's compositions 
in public, for which purpose they give concerts during the fashionable 
season in London. The members direct their own compositions. 
The compositions are vocal and instrumental. 

THE MADRIGAL SOCIETY. 

This is a Society of noblemen and gentlemen amateur vocalists, 
who meet together in the Freemasons' Tavern, and, after an ex- 
cellent dinner, perform, with the assistance of the choristers of 
Westminster Abbey and the Chapel Royal, the beautiful madrigals 
composed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

The origin of this Society was humble ; its members were mostly 
engaged in business as mechanics and shopkeepers. The earliest 
date of its foundation is 1741. The subscription was three shillings 
per quarter, with an additional fee of eight shillings. In the season 
1749-50, the subscription was raised to four shillings and sixpence; 
in 1756, to six shillings and sixpence; it was again raised to ten 
shillings in 1785, the admission fee being also raised to one guinea. 
The members now regaled themselves with a supper, for which 
there was an additional subscription of two shillings each person ; 
the meetings (which hitherto were weekly,) now took place once 
in a fortnight. In 1795, the supper charge was two shillings and 
sixpence for members, four shillings for visitors ; the Society also 
received professional assistance, for whose supper there was a charge 
of three shillings. The Society did not dine together regularly, but 
had excursions into the country, or suburbs. It appears that the 
members dined together in 1798, and paid fifteen shillings each for 
their dinner ; it is evident that the members were now a superior 
class of persons, although they did not regularly hold their dinner 
meetings. The present regulations are owing to the patronage, 
support, and influence of the late president, Sir John Rogers, who 
first visited the Society in 1839, from which time it has assumed a high 
position. The president at this time (1851) is Lord Saltoun. There 
has been for many years an Anniversary Festival of the Madrigal 
Society, which takes place in January, in the Freemasons' Hall, at 
which from sixty to a hundred voices are heard singing the un- 

E E 



626 LONDON* 

rivalled madrigals, motetts, &c, of the great masters of vocal 
harmony. The ordinary meetings take place in the Freemasons* 
Tavern, on the third Thursday in the month, during the season, 
which commences in Octoher. At these meetings, as also at the 
anniversary meetings, visitors, friends of members, are admitted. 

THE WESTERN MADRIGAL SOCIETY. 

This Society was established in the year 1840, for the same pur- 
poses as the older society of the same name, viz., for the practice of 
motetts, anthems, and madrigals of the ancient masters. But it 
differs from the parent Society, inasmuch as it encourages the art 
of writing madrigals by musicians of the present day, and more than 
one prize has already been awarded. 

This Society meets in the Royal Society of Musicians' Room, in 
Lisle Street, Leicester Square, once every fortnight during the season, 
which commences in November, and continues for ten meetings. 
After the season is over, the members have an Anniversary Festival, 
to which they invite their friends and a large number of talented 
vocalists accustomed to this class of music. 

Ladies are also invited to witness the evening's performance, and 
refreshments are provided for their comfort. The members of this 
Society are highly respectable, and the music is performed in a very 
superior manner at all the meetings. Visitors, friends of the mem- 
bers, are admitted. 

THE NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN'S CATCH CLUB. 

This select and elegant Club was established in the year 1761, by 
several gentlemen and noblemen, and it has ever been distinguished 
by the high rank of its members. So fashionable has this Club been, 
that it has at all times had some of the Royal Family amongst its 
members. The King of Hanover is still an honorary member ; his 
late brothers were all of them members of this Club. The Catch 
Club holds its meetings at the Thatched House Tavern, in St. James's 
Street, on every Tuesday during the season, from March to the end 
of June. Besides the subscribing members there is a large number 
of professional gentlemen, honorary members, who are selected from 
amongst the most eminent and respectable English singers of this 
peculiar class of compositions, viz., glees, catches, &c, for the per- 
formance and enjoyment of which this Club was instituted. The 
Catch Club has awarded an immense number of prizes for com- 
positions produced by the honorary as well as subscribing mem- 
bers. Between the years 1763 and 1794, nearly 150 prizes were 
contended for; since which latter date there have been about thirty 
more awarded. Amongst the honorary members, there are several 
composers whose glees are of a very superior order, and great 
favourites with the lovers of this kind of music. The Catch Club 
has for several years closed its season with a banquet given to 
the ladies. 



MUSIC, ETC. THE MELODISTS* CLUB. 62? 

THE GLEE CLUB. 

This is a Club of gentlemen, mostly merchants, who dine together, 
and after dinner promote the practice of glee singing. This Society 
was founded in the year 1787. Before this time, a few professional 
and amateur singers used to assemble at each other's houses ; one of 
the members, a Dr. Bever, had a valuable library of old music. At 
the house of this gentleman, the party assembled used to sing 
motetts, madrigals, glees, catches, &c, and such was their mutual 
delight, and the increase of their numbers, that at length it was 
determined to form a Society. The first meeting, as such, took 
place on the 22nd of November, 1787. Its members were clergymen 
and other gentlemen amateurs of vocal music, and honorary members 
selected from the professional singers and teachers, distinguished 
for their talent and respectability. This Club now holds its meet- 
ings in the Freemasons' Tavern. Visitors, friends of the members, 
are admitted at every meeting. 

The Society consists of about thirty subscribing, and about ten 
honorary or professional members. There-is, generally, a considerable 
number of professional visitors also invited to the meetings. 

THE MELODISTS* CLUB. 

This Society was established in the year 1825, for the encourage- 
ment of the art of writing melodies; that is, compositions in the 
song and ballad style, and other kinds of solo music. 

The late royal Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge were patrons of 
this Club. The vice-presidents are the Earl of Westmorland and 
Lord Saltoun. The other members consist of highly respectable 
gentlemen. There are also honorary members, chosen from amongst 
the best English vocalists. The Club holds its meetings in the 
Freemasons' Tavern. Visitors, friends of members, are admitted. 
Nearly every eminent musician is invited to dine with the Club, on 
his arrival in London. Thalberg, Sainton, Sivori, and other artists, 
have exhibited their eminent talents at these meetings. This Club 
has given several banquets to the ladies at the close of its seasons. 

There are various minor musical clubs in London, the principal of 
which are — " The Purcell Club ;" " The Round, Catch, and Canon 
Club;" " The Abbey Glee Club;" " The Adelphi Glee Club," &c. 

The Purcell Club was established in the year 1837. Its mem- 
bers are professional vocalists, mostly belonging to the metropolitan 
choirs. The members meet annually in Westminster Abbey, and, 
with the assistance of other vocalists, their friends, perform, dur- 
ing divine service, a number of the exquisite church compositions 
of the renowned Henry Purcell, a court musician in the reign of 
Charles the Second, whose works contain all, or nearly all, the 
refinements of modern art. After service the members and their 
friends dine together, and after dinner there is a performance of the 
secular compositions of this great master. 

E E 2 



628 LONDON. 

The Round, Catch, and Canon Club was established in 1843, by 
a few members of the metropolitan choirs, patronized by several 
gentlemen amateurs of this class of music. The members and their 
friends dine together in the Freemasons' Tavern, during the months 
of November, December, January, February, and March. 

The Abbey Glee Club was established in the year 1841, by a 
number of young men who had received their musical education in 
the choir of Westminster Abbey. This Club holds its meetings 
at the Freemasons' Tavern, where the members, assisted by the 
young choristers of the Abbey, perform sundry glees, &c, in the 
evening. Several of the members have distinguished themselves as 
composers of this delightful kind of music. 

The Adelphi Glee Club takes its name from having been founded 
by two brothers. It was established in the year 1833, and holds its 
meetings in the London Coffee House, on Ludgate Hill. This Club 
meets on alternate Fridays, during the season, from the end of 
October until May. The members, assisted by a few professional 
gentlemen of superior talent, perform glees in a delightful manner. 

The Club dines together previously to the. opening of the season. 
To all its meetings visitors, friends of members, are admitted. 

THE CHORAL HARMONISTS' SOCIETY. 

This is a Society of amateurs, and was established in the year 
1834, for the performance of Mozart, Haydn, and other composers' 
masses, Handel's oratorios, serenades, &c. The orchestra, consisting 
of amateur and professional performers, is on a small scale. The 
principal vocalists are professional, the chorus chiefly amateurs. 
The very agreeable concerts given by this respectable Society com- 
mence in the month of October, and continue during the winter 
season. The subscribers have additional tickets, by which visitors 
are admitted to witness the performances. The performances take 
place in the large room at the London Tavern. 

THE AMATEUR MUSICAL SOCIETY. 

This Society is composed of noblemen and gentlemen amateur 
instrumentalists. The performances are excellent, and especially 
interesting. In this Society the double or contra-bass performers 
are the Duke of Leinster and Sir Archibald Keppel. The Earl of 
Arundel and Sir Percy Shelly perform the trumpet parts. The 
honorary secretary, Henry Leslie, Esq., is an excellent composer of 
music, and his works are frequently performed. This Society's 
meetings are held in the Hanover Square Concert Room. It was 
established in the year 1846. 

THE MUSICAL UNION. 

This is also a Society of noblemen and gentlemen amateurs, and 
was established in the year 1845. It is patronized by His Royal 
Highness the Prince Albert. The Earl of Westmorland is Vice- 



MUSIC, ETC. ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHARITY CHILDREN. 629 

President. The committee consists of a large number of noblemen 
and gentlemen. This Society differs from the " Amateur Musical 
Society" in its performances as well as in the class of performers. 
In the " Musical Union" meetings the music performed is " Cham- 
ber," that is " Dra wing-Room," music, viz., trios, quartetts, and 
other similar concerted pieces for solo performers. This Society 
gives eight concerts during the season, commencing in March and 
ending in July, in Willis's Rooms, St. James's Street. Visitors are 
admitted by tickets, and free admissions are given to ladies and 
gentlemen of artistic, literary, and scientific fame. 

THE ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL OF THE SONS OF THE CLERGY. 

This is the festival of a charitable institution, the funds of which 
are devoted to the support of decayed clergymen, their widows and 
orphans. The Society is incorporated and patronized by the highest 
personages in the kingdom. The festival takes place in St. Paul's 
Cathedral, in the Afternoon Service, about the end of the month of 
May, and consists of the performance of sundry fine anthems, as 
well as the usual services of the sterling English Church School of 
Music. At this festival there is a large attendance of the Patrons, 
the Archbishops, Bishops, and Clergy, the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, 
and Aldermen, who arrive in state. These all form a procession in 
the Cathedral previous to the commencement of divine service. There 
is an extraordinary and numerous choir of singers on this occasion, 
and the musical performance as well as the music itself, is of a 
very high order. There is, moreover, a sermon, preached by some 
very eminent clergyman, and the members of the Corporation dine 
together at the Hall of one of the City Companies, after divine 
service. There is a collection made for the benefit of the insti- 
tution, both in the Cathedral and at the Hall. 

THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE CHARITY CHILDREN. 

This is perhaps the finest spectacle which can be witnessed in 
this metropolis — the assemblage of between seven and eight thousand 
boys and girls, clothed and educated by voluntary subscriptions. The 
effect of the mass of treble produced by this multitude of youthful 
voices is beyond description, and must be witnessed by all who desire 
to hear the harmony produced by unison singing. 

There is a large and effective choir of experienced professional 
singers to assist in the complicated music of the Church. The 
meeting takes place at Morning Service. It is attended by the City 
Authorities, in state. Members of the Royal Family, and many of 
the nobility, patronize the meeting with their presence, and support 
its object. 

The meeting takes place about the beginning of June, in St. Paul's 
Cathedral, the children being elevated on galleries round the dome, 
the congregation filling the area under the dome and in the nave. 



6*30 LONDON. 

THE OBSERVATOKIES OF LONDON AND ITS VICINITY. 




ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH. 

One of the fruits of the growing intelligence of the present time is the great 
interest with which the public in general regard subjects and institutions of 
a purely scientific nature. Astronomy, in every age, has been felt to be that 
science which attracts the attention most strikingly; but in the present age 
when so great numbers of well-educated people can appreciate and under- 
stand its principles, and when the most brilliant discoveries have followed 
each other with unexampled profusion, it is natural that the public attention 
should be turned eagerly towards those institutions in England which have 
advanced the science, at the same time that their very existence and organiz- 
ation form a remarkable characteristic of the period in which we live. 

English observatories of the present day are of two classes, public and 
private. The public observatories are in general supported either by the 
Government of the country or by the universities*; the private observatories 

J 2 ne exc8 Ption to this exists in the case of the Liverpool Observatory, which was established 
S, !."PP? r t ed by the corporation of the town, its chief object being to supply accurate observ- 
raeters weffrTd d™ t ** that P ° rt ' ""* t0 ^^ thC masters of vessels to & et their chrono- 



OBSERVATORIES. GREENWICH. 6*31 

have been erected and maintained by the munificence of our gentry, clergy, and 
merchants. Some of the latter institutions have nobly repaid the expense and 
labours entailed upon their proprietors by some brilliant discovery. Thus, to 
Mr. Bishop's observatory, in the Eegent's Park, we owe not only the discovery 
of several comets, but three of the new planets, viz., Flora, Iris, and Victoria ; 
to Mr. Cooper, of Markree, in Ireland, we owe the discovery of the planet 
Metis ; and to Mr. Lassell, of Starfield, near Liverpool, we owe the discovery 
of a satellite of Saturn, besides other discoveries and very many valuable 
observations which his widely-spread reputation prevents the necessity of 
mentioning ; lastly, to Captain Smyth's labours in his observatory, formerly 
existing at Bedford, we owe a well-observed catalogue of double stars, a most 
valuable contribution to astronomical science. 

In our description of observatories we are necessarily confined to those 
which lie either in the immediate neighbourhood of London, or which are 
accessible by an easy journey. 

The chief instruments in different observatories resemble each other so 
closely that it will be sufficient to describe with any detail those of the 
National Observatory of Greenwich, the first on our list ; and as its history 
is also in some degree the history of modern astronomy, we shall scarcely 
need to apologize for entering somewhat minutely into the historical details 
which are necessary for tracing its progress from its first foundation under 
Flamsteed, to its proud position under its present eminent director, Mr. 
Airy ; from the infancy, in fact, of accurate observing and mechanical skill, to 
the perfection of both in the highest efforts of the engineer and the optician 
in the framing of admirable instruments, and in the skilful use of them by 
persons trained in all the requirements of the theoretical and the practical 
astronomer. 

Tlie Royal Observatory of Greenwich was founded in the reign of Charles II., 
in the year 1675. The direct object of its institution was the solution of that 
long-vexed and all-important problem, the discoveiy of the longitude of a 
ship at sea. It was readily understood that, for this purpose, accurate observa- 
tions of the moon were indispensable, and the formation of an accurately-observed 
catalogue of stars highly necessary. It was also equally evident to the scientific 
men of the day, that no observations existed that were at all adapted for the 
purpose. The catalogue of T} T cho Brahe gave only rough approximations to 
the places of a tolerably large number of stars, made with very rude instruments, 
and without the use of the powers of the telescope. It was, therefore, determined 
to found a national observatory, for the express purpose, as the warrant of the 
first Astronomer Royal expressed it, " to rectify the tables of the motions of 
the heavens and the places of the fixed stars ; so as to find out the so much 
desired longitude at sea, for perfecting the art of navigation." Through the 
recommendation of Sir Jonas Moore, Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, who 
had taken particular interest in the matter, Flamsteed was chosen to be the 
first Astronomer Royal, with a salary of 100?. per annum. The situation for 
the observatory was at first undecided. Several places were proposed, among 
which were Hyde Park and Chelsea College ; but, on the advice of Sir Chris- 
topher Wren, Greenwich Hill was ultimately chosen, and he was requested to 
send in a plan of the observatory. The sum of 5001. in money was allowed 
by the King ; the bricks were supplied chiefly from the ruins of Tilbury Fort, 
and other materials were taken from a gatehouse demolished in the Tower. 
The foundation of the building was laid on August 10, 1675; and the roof 
was laid, and the building covered in, by the Christmas of the same year. 
Thus economically built and endowed was the present far-famed National 
Observatory of Greenwich : but the choice of an astronomer was wisely made : 
his zeal overcame all obstacles ; and during his lifetime the observatory rose 
to that first rank which it has ever since maintained amongst similar insti- 
tutions. 



632 LONDON. 

John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, was born at Denby, near 
Derby, on August 19, 1646, and was educated at the free school of Derby. 
He did not receive much benefit from school education beyond the age of 1 4, 
through severe illness (occasioned about that period from imprudently bath- 
ing), of which he felt the effects during his whole life. From this time he 
devoted himself for several years, unassisted and self-taught, to astronomical 
and mathematical studies; and at length, about the year 1669, his talents 
attracted the attention of several fellows of the Royal Society. Among other 
scientific persons, he became familiarly acquainted with Sir Jonas Moore, who 
afterwards became his warmest friend and patron. He resided for some time 
at Sir Jonas's house in the Tower, and during this period made many astro- 
nomical observations, which still exist recorded amongst his manuscript 
papers, and are printed in the first volume of the Historia Codestis. By Sir 
Jonas's interest he soon afterwards, as has been already stated, was appointed 
Astronomer Royal. 

He was enabled to remove to the observatory on July 10, 1676 ; and it is 
interesting to be informed from his own pen of the means which were placed 
at his command for fulfilling the King's wishes. At the same time, it may be 
worth while to consider what was the state of practical astronomy at the time 
when he began his labours. With regard to the latter, neither telescopes 
nor clocks had yet been introduced into observatories ; the star catalogue of 
Tycho Brahe was derived from observations made with instruments furnished 
with plain sights ; and this, together with the Rudolphine tables of the 
sun, moon, and planets then known (which were constructed from ele- 
ments quite as rough), were the only materials existing for the use of the 
theoretical astronomer. Flamsteed, who knew what was needed, and who had 
a much better idea than any man of his time of the means necessary for 
producing comparatively good observations, set about his task with vigour. 
He was totally unprovided with instruments at the public expense, but he 
brought with him to the observatory an iron sextant of 6 ft. radius, and two 
clocks, given him by Sir Jonas Moore, together with a quadrant of 3 ft. radius, 
and two telescopes, which he had brought with him from Derby. With 
these instruments he worked till the year 1678, when he borrowed from 
the Royal Society a quadrant of 50 in., which, however, he was allowed to 
retain only a short time. It must be borne in mind that the advantages 
of the system of meridian observations were unknown, or nearly so, at 
this time. The sextant was employed to measure the distances of an 
object to be observed from some standard stars, or stars whose places 
were supposed to be better known, and a laborious calculation was ne- 
cessary to deduce the resulting place of the body in every instance. This 
gave, however, no means of fixing the place of the body with respect to the 
equinox; and Flamsteed, finding the absolute necessity for an instrument 
fixed in the plane of the meridian, applied to the Government. He was not 
denied ; but being wearied with repeated promises which were never kept, he 
at length resolved to make a mural arc at his own expense, and this instru- 
ment was finally erected, and divided with his own hands in 1683. It was, 
however, a failure ; and his observations were continued for several years 
longer with the sextant. The minor obstructions and vexations to which 
Flamsteed was subjected, we have not space to mention. It is sufficient to 
say that, during the whole time that he officiated as Astronomer Royal (nearly 
half a century from his first appointment), he was not furnished with a single 
instrument; he received a precarious salary of 100?. a year, as the sole reward 
of his labours ; and for this inadequate stipend he was charged, in addition, 
with the education of two boys from Christ Church Hospital. The only 
assistance he received was that of a labourer to assist him with the sextant, 
and other assistants and computers he provided at his own expense. 

At length, in 1688, finding himself in better circumstances on the death of 



OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 



G3S 



his father and his presentation to a living, he determined to construct a new 
mural arc, stronger than the former ; and this instrument, famous as really 
commencing a new era in observing, was constructed by Mr. Abraham Sharp, 
his friend and assistant, at an expense of 120/., no portion of which was 
reimbursed to him by the Government. All Flamsteed's former observations 
were of little value ; no fundamental point of astronomy was settled by them ; 
and they merely served for forming a preliminary or observing catalogue 
of objects to be well observed with his new instrument. From the date of 
the use of this instrument, 1689, the useful labours of Flamsteed commenced; 
every observation after this was permanently useful, and could be applied to 
determine some important point. With this instrument, after verifying 
its position and determining its adjustment, he set about the determination 
of those cardinal points in astronomy, the position of the equinox, the 
obliquity of the ecliptic, and other fundamentals, without which the cor- 
rect positions of the fixed stars and the planetary bodies could never be 
ascertained. His methods and processes are explained by himself in the 
Historia Ccdestis; they are many of them novel and ingenious, and they bear 
most honourable testimony both to his ability and zeal. Our limits prevent 
us from entering upon 
that long-vexed and fa- 
mous question of his 
quarrel with Newton 
and Halley, with respect 
to his obligations of 
printing his observa- 
tions. It is sufficient 
to say, that though the 
vexations to which he 
was subjected must have 
been most grievous, yet 
science reaped the bene- 
fit of the injustice done 
him, and his own fame 
has been put upon a 
more solid foundation, 
by the compelled publi- 
cation of his works. Hal- 
ley had published an im- 
perfect and garbled ac- 
count of his observa- 
tions, which had been 
forced from him. This 
compelled him to under- 
take the publication of 
his works, in a great 
measure at his own ex- 
pense. He lived only 
long enough to see part 
of the second volume of 
the Historia Ccdestis 




PLAN OF GREENWICH OBSERVATORY, 
FROM FLAMSTEED'S DRAWING. 



•o 



a. The room for the mural arc. 
5. The room for the sextant. 

c. A perpendicular pole for the moveable telescopes. 

d. The place for keeping the telescope-tubes. 

e. A flower-garden. 

/. The well in which observations were sometimes made. 



through the press ; and the work was finished and published six years after his 
death, or in the year 1725, by the voluntary labours of his friends, Mr. Crosthwait 
and Mr. Abraham Sharp. 

The preceding plan of the observatory, as it existed in the time of Flam- 
steed, will perhaps be interesting to the reader. The original drawing was 
made by Flamsteed himself, and still exists amongst his manuscripts at the 
Royal Observatory; it gives a very intelligible idea of the extent of the 

E E 3 



634 LONDON 

buildings and grounds at that time. The towers, which are now surmounted 
by the north-east and north-west domes, were then in existence under the 
name of summer-houses, but were then unconnected with the central building. 
The boundaries of the inclosed space, and the situations of the different 
buildings, are sufficiently explained in the drawing. 

Flamsteed was succeeded, in 1719, by Dr. Halley (then in his 64th year), 
who for nineteen years laboriously conducted the business of the observatory 
without any assistant. Though his observations were never published, yet we 
may consider that a most important advance was made in his time in the 
science of astronomy. The observatory was at this time totally unprovided 
with instruments; the executors of Flamsteed having claimed and carried 
away those that had been set up and used by him. In 1721, however, Halley 
procured a small transit-instrument, and mounted it in an apartment at the 
north-west corner of the building, on the spot afterwards appropriated to the 
large 25 ft. zenith-sector. This instrument, which is still preserved at the 
observatory, is of very objectionable construction, the telescope not being in 
the middle of the axis, and a series of bracing rods being most injudiciously 
applied to it. However, its introduction was the most important step that 
had been made. It is the most simple and effective of all astronomical 
instruments ; and up to the present time, the only changes that have been 
made in the means for observing the right ascensions of the heavenly bodies* 
are those which secure to it the utmost possible stability and accuracy of 
workmanship and adjustment. With it alone Halley continued to make 
observations of the moon till the year 1725, when an 8 ft. mural quadrant, 
made by Graham, was set up and directed to the south. This admirable 
instrument, which was afterwards used with so much effect by Bradley, was the 
best instrument of its time; and with it alone Halley continued for a long 
period to make observations of the moon in both elements, having given up 
the use of the transit-instrument. In the year 1737 he became paralytic, and 
died in 1742, being succeeded by the illustrious Dr. Bbadley. 

The discoveries of this eminent astronomer are so well known, that it will 
be needless to do more than allude to them in their connexion with and their 
effect on the fame and character of the observatory. 

Bradley was born in 1692, and, after taking his degree of B.A. at Oxford, in 
1714, he resided principally at Wanstead, in Essex, with his uncle, Mr. Pound. 
This gentleman was at that time probably the best observer in England. He 
had fitted up an observatory, furnished, amongst other instruments, with a 
transit-instrument, some time before the introduction of that instrument at 
the Royal Observatory by Halley ; and under him Bradley acquired that 
accuracy and care in observing that afterwards distinguished him. 

On the death of Dr. Keill, in 1721, Bradley had been elected Savilian Pro- 
fessor of Astronomy in Oxford, and in 1724 Mr. Pound died. These events, 
together with some observations and calculations relating to a comet discovered 
by Halley in 1723, are almost all that is known of him till the memorable 
year 1726, when he began a series of observations from which resulted two of 
the greatest discoveries of the age. 

The two great discoveries of aberration and nutation were made by a series 
of observations begun at Wanstead in 1727, and continued beyond the period 
of a revolution of the moon's node. He had begun his observations at Kew, 
in 1726, with a zenith-sector belonging to Mr. Molyneux, whose telescope was 
rather more than 24 ft. in length; but in 1727, a sector of 12 ft. radius was 
made for him by Graham, and set up at Wanstead. This famous instrument 
was afterwards removed and set up at the Royal Observatory, and on a grant 
being made in 1749 for new instruments, was purchased by the Government. 
It is at present suspended on the wall of the transit-circle room of the Royal 
Observatory ; having been recently returned from the Gape of Good Hope, 
where it was used by Mr. Maclear in his recent survey. 



OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 635 

The first discovery, viz., that of the aberration of light, was announced by 
Bradley in the year 1729, in a letter to Dr. Halley, and read before the Royal 
Society, and printed in vol. xxxv. of the Philosophical Transactions; the 
latter, of the nutation of the earth's axis, was announced in a letter to the 
Earl of Macclesfield, read before the Royal Society in 1748, and printed in 
vol. xlv. of the Transactions. 

Early in the year 1742 Halley died ; and chiefly through the patronage of 
Bradley's friend, the Earl of Macclesfield, he obtained t the appointment of 
Astronomer Royal. It is interesting to know that it was the express desire 
of Halley that Bradley should be his successor, and he even wished to resign 
in his favour, but the appointment did not take place till the month following 
his decease. At the time of Bradley's accession to the office of Astronomer 
Royal, the instruments consisted chiefly of the transit-instrument and the 
south mural quadrant, made by Graham, above mentioned ; and after bestow- 
ing very considerable care upon them, and making several alterations which 
were indispensable, Bradley began to observe at the beginning of the year 
1743. The first change in the organization of the observatory under Brad- 
ley's direction which deserves especial notice is the employment of a regular 
assistant. Immediately on his appointment, he obtained the services of his 
nephew, Mr. John Bradley, and the choice was singularly fortunate. Mr. 
Bradley was a man of talent, and of unwearied industry ; and after serving 
several years at the observatory with great efficiency, he entered the navy, 
and eventually obtained the appointment of Second Mathematical Master at 
the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth. Bradley and his nephew continued 
to observe for some years laboriously with the old instruments, but it was at 
length discovered that the time and labour had been in a great degree thrown 
away through their inefficiency. Halley had himself been conscious of this, 
and had applied to the Council of the Royal Society, in 1726, for their interest 
in procuring an additional grant of money, but their representations to the 
Master-General of the Ordnance were ineffectual. In 1748 Bradley made a 
representation of the state of the instruments to the Board of Visitors, at 
their meeting, and drew up a petition to the Lords of the Admiralty, which, 
after some alteration by the Council of the Royal Society, was forwarded to 
the Admiralty. The estimated sum of 1000L, which was required, was imme- 
diately granted by King George the Second. 

The principal additions made to the instruments of the observatory by 
means of this grant were a new quadrant and transit-instrument, both made 
by Bird ; and a considerable alteration and addition to the observing build- 
ings were now made, for the purpose of erecting the instruments with suffi- 
cient firmness and convenience. It is probable that Graham's quadrant was 
set up by Halley in a room that had not been erected for the purpose, as it 
was much too small, and the pier was very inconveniently placed with regard 
to the side walls. The want of height of the room had contributed very much 
to the damage, and consequent inefficiency, of the quadrant; and the room 
was now pulled down, and new rooms were built, in nearly contiguous posi- 
tions, for receiving the two quadrants and the transit-instrument. The new 
brass quadrant was at first set up against the western wall of the new pier 
early in 1750, and the old iron quadrant in its ordinary position on the 
eastern pier, as Bradley's chief object was now to determine the latitude of 
the observatory, and to obtain observations for the purpose of obtaining data 
for calculating a table of refractions ; and he placed more reliance on the new 
quadrant than on the old. In 1753 the positions of the quadrants were 
reversed; the new quadrant occupying the east side, and the old quadrant the 
west side of the pier, and there they have ever since remained. It has been 
mentioned that the zenith-sector, used by Bradley at Wanstead, was pur- 
chased by the Government. For this instrument two suspensions were made, 
one with its face east, in the quadrant room, and the other with its face west 



636 LONDON. 

ill the new transit room ; the object of this change of position being to 
observe with it absolute zenith distances, for correction of the errors of col- 
limation of the quadrants. The telescope of the transit-instrument, which is 
still preserved at the observatory, had an object-glass of 2*7 in. aperture, of 
which little more than half was used, and its focal length was 8 ft. The axis 
of the instrument was 4 J ft. in length ; and counterpoises were used to pre- 
vent wear of the pivots. Besides these instruments there were added a clock 
by Shelton, an equatorial sector, and some magnetic instruments; a New- 
tonian reflecting telescope also was ordered of Short, and is mentioned by 
Dr. Maskelyne as afterwards forming part of the apparatus of the observatory, 
though it was not completed for a considerable period. The observatory was 
now efficiently furnished with instruments ; and Bradley continued for nearly 
20 years to make admirable use of them in the observations of the sun, moon, 
and planets, and of a large catalogue of stars. 

The observations of the sun, moon, and planets, have been recently 
rendered available to astronomers by the present Astronomer Eoyal, Mr. 
Airy, who, with incredible labour and zeal, undertook the reduction, not 
only of Bradley's planetary observations, but also of those of Bliss, Maske- 
lyne, and Pond, his successors. The results of these reductions are given 
in three thick quarto volumes, published at the expense and by direction 
of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and whether we consider 
the inestimable value of the contents of these volumes, the immense labour 
and responsibility involved in so great a work, the skill and accuracy 
with which it is conducted, or the gratuitous zeal evinced by it, we may 
well consider the work as worthy of the reputation of its author, and 
greater praise in this instance it is impossible to bestow upon it. The results 
of the star observations are incorporated in the Fundamenta Astronomice of 
the illustrious Bessel, in which all the resources of modern analysis have been 
employed, and the most correct values of the constants of refraction, aberra- 
tion, precession, nutation, and other astronomical elements, deduced from 
these same observations, have been used, to give the utmost precision to the 
results. The names of Bradley and Bessel can never henceforth be separated ; 
and their joint labours have given data which have already enabled us, by 
comparison with modern observations, to solve many cosmical problems which, 
without them, would be at the present time impossible. The accuracy of 
Bradley's observations is, perhaps, on the whole, incomparable ; with instru- 
ments which are theoretically very inferior to the modern transit-instrument 
and mural-circle, he has produced observations that scarcely yield to the 
most refined modern observations made with all the advantages of improved 
mechanism and methods of observing ; he seized at once the highest place 
both in theoretical and practical astronomy, and left little for his successors 
but patiently to tread in his footsteps, and to avail themselves of every ordi- 
nary and casual improvement that might suggest itself. Yet all this was 
accomplished by the personal labour of himself and one assistant ,- and the 
official remuneration to himself was the same salary of 100Z. per annum 
which had been given to Flamsteed, diminished by several office fees. It is, 
however, gratifying to be able to add that he was not allowed to go altogether 
unrewarded. The vicarage of Greenwich was offered to him in 1751, and on 
this being declined, through conscientious scruples, he received a pension 
from the Crown of 250£. per annum, and this was continued till the end of 
his life. For some years before his death his health declined, and especially 
during the last two years his ill-health was attended with great and painful 
depression of spirits. He died in the year 1762, in the 70th year of his age, 
and was buried near his mother and wife at Minchinhampton. 

His successor was Dr. Nathaniel Bliss, then Savilian Professor of Astro- 
nomy at Oxford, who lived only till March of the year 1764. He left but few 
observations behind him, and these require no particular mention. 



ORSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 637 

Dr. Nevil Maskeltne was appointed to succeed Bliss, and his observations 
commence with the year 1765. Though the observations were made with 
Bradley's instruments, and without any great alteration in the methods of 
observing, yet the fame and character of the observatory were much increased 
by the steady perseverance with which the observations were uninterruptedly 
made during his directorship. A principle, too, was established, which has 
had great influence on astronomy since that time. Flamsteed's observations 
were regarded as personal property, and were at length published in a com- 
plete form by his executors. After Bradley's death. his executors acted on 
this precedent, and claimed his observations. An expensive lawsuit was the 
consequence between the executors and the Crown, which commenced in 1767 
and ended in 1776, and the executors retained possession of the observations. 
They were afterwards presented to the University of Oxford, and have ever 
since remained in the possession of that body, though, with their accustomed 
liberality, they have allowed the present Astronomer Eoyal to make a manu- 
script copy of them. On Maskelyne's appointment there was a distinct stipu- 
lation that the observations were the property of the Crown, and that they 
should be printed yearly at the public expense. 

Maskelyne's attention was first turned to astronomy by the occurrence 
of the great eclipse of 1748 ; and it is an interesting fact, that the same 
phenomenon similarly affected the mind of the French astronomer Lalande. 
After graduating at Trinity College, Cambridge, he took orders, and in 
the year 1755 accepted the charge of a curacy near London. During this 
period of his life, he occupied himself with his favourite science, and 
contracted a strict intimacy with Bradley, and made for him several very 
important calculations. In 1759 he was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society, 
and in 1761 was chosen by Bradley to observe the transit of Yenus, at St. 
Helena. With the prudence and sagacity which always characterize great 
minds, he determined to make this expedition subservient to the determina- 
tion of other astronomical data. Of these, the moon's parallax and the 
annual parallax of Sirius wpre the chief ; and for this purpose he took with 
him a sector which the Eoyal Society had caused to be constructed for this 
expedition, but which was not completed till the very instant of his depar- 
ture, and of which the defects were consequently unknown ; he took also with 
him an excellent clock, by Shelton, which had been regulated at the Eoyal 
Observatory by Bradley. To his great mortification he found that the sector 
gave results so irregular as to be utterly unfit for the delicate determinations 
that were required of it. But even this discouraging circumstance he knew 
how to turn to the advantage of science ; for, by minutely examining the cause 
of failure of his sector, he discovered that it arose from a faulty mode of sus- 
pending the plumb-line, which was in some degree common to all the mural 
quadrants of that period, and by his representations Bird was induced to turn 
his attention to the subject, and a new suspension was invented, which, though 
perhaps not free from all objection, yet was very superior to any that preceded 
it. Maskelyne made also excellent use of his voyage, in giving trial to all 
the methods which had been proposed for the problem of finding the longi- 
tude, giving especial attention to the method of lunar distances. He gave 
new formulae for the calculation of the observations, and rigorously computed 
the effect of parallax and refraction. 

On his return he published the British Mariner's Guide, a work at that 
time of great utility, and rendered still more so through his recommendation 
of the publication of a nautical almanac, on the plan which had been traced 
by Lacaille on his return from the Cape of Good Hope, which proposal was 
afterwards carried into effect with immense advantage to nautical science. 
Maskelyne's reputation was, by such means as we have mentioned, fully esta- 
blished as one amongst the first practical astronomers of the day ; and in 
1765, on the death of Bliss, he was appointed Astronomer Eoyal, as has been 



638 LONDON. 

before mentioned. His assiduity in performing the duties of his office was 
wonderful. He scarcely ever left the observatory, except on some important 
scientific mission ; all observations of any delicacy or importance were made 
by himself, and especially the observations of the moon ; he superintended 
the computations for the Nautical Almanac, from the year 1767 to the time 
of his death, a period of 44 years ; he improved the instruments which had 
been left him by Bradley, and improved also the use of them ; he introduced 
the practice of observing on five wires with the transit-instrument, which was 
an immense improvement on Bradley's method, who rarely used more than 
one ; he introduced the practice of estimating tenths of seconds ; and he 
devised the plan of sliding the eye-piece across the field of view of the tele- 
scopes, for the avoiding of the effects of parallax for the oblique pencils of 
light. 

In 1774 he made his memorable expedition into Scotland, for determining 
the effect of the attraction of the mountain Schehallien ; and, for the observa- 
tions, he used the same sector which had succeeded so ill at St. Helena, but 
of which he had altered the suspension and corrected the divisions. It is 
well known with what consummate skill he conducted the observations, by 
which the deflexion of the plumb-line was rendered measurable, and from 
which the mean density of the earth was ultimately deduced. But in general, 
keeping steadily in view the object of the institution of the Greenwich 
observatory, viz., the improvement of nautical astronomy, he continued to 
observe the moon with undeviating regularity, and to apply his observations 
to the correction of the lunar tables. The best tables of that period were those 
constructed by the celebrated Tobias Mayer. He edited an English edition of 
these tables, and added the tables of the horary motions, which were wanting 
in the Gottingen edition ; he also compared the places of the moon computed 
from these tables with his own observations ; and it was finally under his 
auspices that Mason gave a corrected and augmented edition, Avhich is the 
basis of Burckhardt's more modern tables. It was during his time that the 
Board of Longitude was organized by the Government for the encouragement 
of nautical science, and especially of the problem of finding the longitude at 
sea ,* and the efficacy of this Board was mainly due to his unwearied co-opera- 
tion and wise counsels, as well as to his collateral and most useful labours. 

In 1781 he published "The Requisite Tables," to be used in connexion 
with the Nautical Almanac, which is a useful book even at the present period. 
Maskelyne's star-observations were few, or, rather, he observed a very small 
catalogue of principal stars ; and this is rather unreasonably complained of 
by Delambre, who yet on the whole appreciates very fairly the merits of this 
great astronomer. It is to be remembered that Maskelyne throughout his 
whole directorship was allowed but one assistant for the observatory duties ; 
and the wonder of the practical astronomer of the present time is, not that 
he left anything undone, but that he accomplished so much with so small 
means. He chose wisely in determining to confine himself to the lunar and 
planetary observations, and to the absolute determination of the places of 
certain fundamental stars as indispensable points of reference, instead of 
dissipating his energies by attempting vaguely indiscriminate observations 
of the stars. The fundamentals of astronomy were established in his day, and 
this in the eyes of the judicious astronomer is his real glory and praise. 

Towards the latter part of his life he had serious misgivings concerning the 
accuracy of the quadrants, which, it began to appear, had considerably altered 
their shapes. The theory of the construction of instruments had been keep- 
ing pace with the improved methods of observing, and with the more enlarged 
views which were daily gaining ground of the requirements of astronomy. 
Mr. Pond, afterwards Astronomer Royal, by means of some observations 
made at Westbury, by himself, with a small circle, had called attention to 
some discrepancies of the Greenwich quadrant observations ; and after a time 



OBSERVATORIES. GREENWICH. 639 

these observations were recognised as faulty. The superiority also of a com- 
plete circle, revolving in the plane of the meridian, to which a telescope could 
be attached in any position, and by that means errors of division, as well as 
want of exact circular form, be eliminated, was also sufficiently obvious. 
Maskelyne, with his usual sagacity, saw the imperfections of the quadrant as 
compared with the mural-circle, and before his death had given directions 
to Troughton, the most celebrated artist of his day, for the construction of 
an instrument of the latter class. He, unfortunately, did not live to see it 
completed ; and the circle was set up and used by his successor, Mr. Pond, in 
the year 1812, Maskelyne having died on the 9th of February, 1811. At the 
time of his death he was more than 78 years of age ; 45 of which were spent 
in the routine of his duties as Astronomer Royal, and a great part of the 
remainder were devoted to the training by which his astronomical eminence 
was gained. He was for nine years one of the eight Foreign Associates of 
the Institute, and was in correspondence with all the astronomers of Europe. 
He enjoyed during- his lifetime, and left behind him, a most enviable reputa- 
tion ; his works and observations were eagerly sought for and well appreciated 
by the men of his own time ; and astronomy received an impetus from his 
labours of which we can scarcely exaggerate the effects. 

The principal addition to the buildings during Maskelyne's directorship 
was the building of the circle room, in 1808 or 1809, contiguous to and east 
of the transit room. As has been before mentioned, Troughton's mural-circle 
was erected in it in the year 1812. 

John Pond, who succeeded Maskelyne as Astronomer Royal, was born in 
1767. He appears to have imbibed his fondness for astronomical studies from 
Mr. Wales, at that time mathematical teacher at Christ's Hospital, whom he 
attended for some time as a private pupil. Mr. Wales had accompanied Capt. 
Cook in his voyages of discovery, and was well acquainted with the theory 
and practice of instruments, and to him Mr. Pond, even at that early period 
of his life, remarked an appearance of discrepancy in the Greenwich observa- 
tions implying some defect in the instruments, which suspicion was afterwards 
verified by his own private observations. At sixteen he was entered at Trinity 
College, Cambridge ; and during his academical career Professor Lax was his 
private tutor. He does not appear, however, to have confined himself to the 
prescribed studies of the University, and did not derive so much advantage 
from his opportunities as his mathematical abilities, which were acknowledged 
to be of a high order, warranted. It is evident, however, that at this period 
his fondness for astronomy still continued ; for he was one of three students 
who united to induce the Plumian Professor, Mr. Yince, to give a course of 
lectures on practical astronomy. His health, however, compelled him to go 
to a warmer climate, and he spent two or three years in the south of France, 
and in Spain, and afterwards returned to college, where he graduated. 

After leaving the University, a second attack of illness obliged him again 
to go abroad, and he visited in succession Portugal, Turkey, and Egypt. On 
his return he settled at Westbury, in Somersetshire. At this place he under- 
took a series of observations with an altitude and azimuth circle, by Trough- 
ton (usually known by the name of the Westbury circle), by which he suc- 
ceeded in proving beyond a doubt, what he had suspected before, that the 
Greenwich quadrant had changed its form since its erection. These observa- 
tions, and his discussion of them, are published in the Phil. Trans, for 1806 ; 
and it may be interesting to add that the celebrated artist, Troughton, after- 
wards verified the fact of the change of figure of the quadrant, by actual 
measurement. In 1807, Mr. Pond was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; 
and in 1811, on the death of Dr. Maskelyne, he was appointed Astronomer 
Royal. 

Soon after this appointment, in the year 1812, Troughton's mural-circle was 
erected ; and by this means was effected the greatest revolution in the science 



640 LONDON. 

of observing that had occurred since the time of Bradley. In the present 
day, the true causes of the superiority of a perfect circle, read by six micro- 
scopes, revolving freely on a horizontal axis, and to which a telescope may be 
firmly fixed in any position, over a fixed quadrant, are well understood ; but 
at that time, the mural-circle, with the usual fate of everything that is new, 
had to fight its way towards fame ; and it was fortunately in the hands of 
perhaps almost the only man of his time who understood and could avail 
himself of all its advantages. In the first stages of its use a subsidiary zenith- 
tube, still existing at the observatory, was used to assist in obtaining its 
index-error, or zenith or polar point. But in 1825, a second circle, made by 
Mr. Thomas Jones, intended for the Cape of Good Hope, having been sent to 
Greenwich for the purpose of being tried and verified, Mr. Pond became so 
much convinced of the advantage to be derived from the combined use of 
two circles, that on his representations he was allowed to retain it, and a 
second instrument was made for the Cape. Mr. Pond's idea of the use of two 
circles together may perhaps be rendered sufficiently clear to the unscientific 
reader. Imagine a certain number of stars to be observed on any evening 
with one instrument by direct vision, and with the other by reflexion in a 
trough of mercury; on the following evening suppose that the same stars 
are observed directly with both instruments. The mean of the differences 
of the second set of observations will give very accurately the difference of 
the readings of the circles for the same object, or the difference of their index- 
errors or zenith-points. If this difference, thus found, be applied therefore to 
the direct readings of the circle which did not observe at all by reflexion, we 
shall reduce them to the direct readings which would have been found for 
those objects observed by reflexion with the other circle. "We have therefore 
virtually a series of objects observed directly and by reflexion with the same 
circle ; and it is clear that half the sum of each pair of direct and reflexion 
readings will give the reading for a point situated in the horizon, called, 
technically, the " horizontal point ; " and the mean will give the horizontal 
point very accurately, from whence, by the application of 90°, the zenith- 
point is found. We shall see presently, that the present Astronomer Royal, 
Mr. Airy, simplified this process, and contrived to observe equally well with 
one circle. The next great improvement introduced by Mr. Pond was the 
erection by Troughton, in 1816, of the admirable transit-instrument, which has 
been used up to the present time, and which replaced an instrument that of its 
kind was as far inferior to it as the quadrant was to Troughton's mural-circle. 
This instrument is now in its turn giving place to a gigantic transit-circle * 
which will replace at the Royal Observatory both it and the mural-circle, and 
which we feel confident will win still more conquests from the skies. For the 
present we will waive more particular descriptions of these instruments, as 
these will be given with more effect in our walk round the observatory, where 
we shall see the old yet still valued instruments hung up side by side with 
those that represent and support the astronomy of the present day ; and the 
old and the new combined will give us, by means of our necessarily tedious 
historical survey, a very accurate idea of the history of practical astronomy, 
from its first comparatively rude beginnings under Flamsteed, to its present 
perfection of mechanical and observing skill. We will briefly mention the 
other instruments which were erected under Mr. Pond's directorship, all of 
which have, as it were, passed away, or are preserved only as records of the 
past, but all of which are nearly allied to the progress of modern astronomy 
and the fame of the Royal Observatory. 

From the time of Flamsteed, one great and natural object of the search of 

* When the above was written, the transit-circle was in course of erection, but at the 
present time of passing tbese sheets through the press, it is in full operation, and the transit- 
instrument and the mural-circle have been dismounted. We shall take advantage of this cir- 
cumstance to give a description of the observatory as it existed nearly to the present time, and 
as it exists at present. 



OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 641 

astronomers was the distances of the fixed stars, by means of what is called 
their annual parallax. Supposing a star to be at not an infinite distance 
from the earth, it is evident that the line drawn from a spectator to the star, 
at two opposite points of the earth's orbit, or at intervals of half a year, 
would meet the sphere of the heavens in two different points, or there would 
be, with regard to the observed position of the star at different periods, a 
parallactic error. The problem to be solved was to measure this quantity. 
Dr. Brinkley, by very careful observations with the Dublin circle, thought he 
had detected measurable parallaxes, amounting to 2" or 3", in several of the 
principal stars, and amongst the rest in « Aquilae and « Cygni. A friendly 
controversy 7 originated between him and Mr. Pond on the subject, which was 
kept up for several years ; the Greenwich observations with the mural-circle 
not confirming the Doctor's results. Still farther to set the matter at rest, 
Mr. Pond caused two long tubes, furnished with object-glasses and micrometer 
eye-pieces, to be fixed, one at the back of the pier of the mural-circle, and 
the other on the quadrant pier ; his object being to observe with the one 
telescope the pair of stars I Pegasi and a Aquilae, and with the other /3 Aurigae 
and a Cygni, the separate stars of each pair having very nearly the same 
polar distance. This method of observation was objectionable, because it is 
possible that separate parts of a tube, or the different parts of the pier to which 
it is fastened, might shift their relative positions between observations made at 
intervals of several hours ; and in the second place, it is rarely in our capricious 
climate that two consecutive observations can be obtained. But the method 
was sufficient to show that no conspicuous parallax existed, and succeeding ob- 
servations have amply verified all Mr. Pond's conclusions. In 1833 a gigantic 
zenith tube, 25 ft. in length, was mounted by Troughton, in a small sunk chamber 
between the dwelling house and the west dome, for the purpose of making observ- 
ations of y Draconis and of other stars that pass the meridian near the zenith 
of Greenwich. This instrument, notwithstanding all the successive improve- 
ments of Mr. Pond and his successor Mr. Airy, did not produce better observ- 
ations than the mural-circle, and its use was finally discontinued in 1848. 
Before concluding our account of the instruments that were added to the 
observatory in the time of Mr. Pond, it is necessary to mention that an equa- 
torial, formerly belonging to Sir George Shuckburgh, was presented to the 
observatory by his executors, in the year 1811, and is known hj the name of 
the Shuckburgh equatorial ; it will be described in its proper place. 

Mr. Pond was for several years subject to very painful and harassing com- 
plaints; and resigned his office towards the close of the year 1835, being 
allowed a retiring pension of 6001. He died at Blackheath, on September 7, 
1836, and was buried at Lee, in Kent, in the same tomb with Halley. 

During Mr. Pond's directorship the observatory acquired that organization 
which it has since retained, and which was necessary to enable it to meet the 
demand made upon it by the requirements of modern science. On his en- 
trance upon his duties he began, like his predecessors, with one assistant; 
but on his repeated representations and urgent intreaties for increase of the 
establishment, he finally obtained six assistants ; and this amount of force 
for the astronomical department of the observatory has been continued, with 
some modifications, to the present time. Of his assistants, one had been 
assistant to Dr. Maskelyne, viz., Mr. Thomas Taylor, the First Assistant. Mr. 
Taylor retired from office at the same time with Mr. Pond. 

The improvements introduced by Mr. Pond into the observatory, and the 
admirable skill which he displayed in the choice of new instruments, and in 
the use of them after their erection, were not so well understood or appre- 
ciated by his contemporaries as they are at present. The same may be said 
of the laborious fidelity with which his observations, when made, were reduced 
by the staff of assistants under his direction. His catalogue of 1112 stars was 
the most valuable contribution of that period to sidereal astronomy, and 



042 LONDON. 

yields to no modern catalogue in accuracy. His methods and results were 
explained at intervals in very short memoirs published in the Philosophical 
Transactions, unintelligible to the unscientific reader, and rendered rather 
repulsive to the astronomer by their brevity. At present, it is well under- 
stood that everything done by Mr. Pond was done well, and every step that he 
took was a step in advance. 

Mr. Pond was succeeded in September, 1835, by the present Astronomer 
Royal, Geoege Biddell Airy, Esq., then Plumian Professor of Astronomy 
and Experimental Philosophy, and Director of the Observatory in the Univer- 
sity of Cambridge. Mr. Taylor was at the same time replaced by the present 
First Assistant, the Rev. Robert Main, Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge. 
One of the assistants, Mr. Frederic Simms, resigned shortly afterwards, and was 
replaced by Mr. James Glaisher, of the Cambridge Observatory. After this 
time the most important change in the organization of the establishment 
occurred in the year 1840, by the addition of the magnetical and meteorolo- 
gical observatory, with an additional staff of three assistants ; Mr. Glaisher 
being transferred to this department with the office of superintendent, and a 
new assistant being engaged for the astronomical department. After some 
time it was found that the observing staff of the magnetical department was 
not numerous enough to bear the fatigue of the unintermitted night observa- 
tions (observations being made at intervals of two hours throughout the 24 
hours) ; another assistant was withdrawn from the astronomical department. 
The vacancy thus made was not filled up ; but the Astronomer Royal obtained 
permission to employ additional computers, according to his discretion, or as 
the pressure of the reduction of the observations might render it necessary. 

With regard to the extension of the grounds of the observatory, and the 
addition of new instruments, it will be sufficient in this place to state that in 
Mr. Pond's time, the buildings to the east of the circle-room were erected in 
the year 1813. These included the south-east dome, the old library, and 
some apartments appropriated to the use of the assistants. In 1820 the 
zenith tube apartment was erected, connecting the dwelling-house with the 
north-west dome ; and, for the sake of uniformity, the wall was built which 
connects the dwelling-house with the north-east dome. In 1821 the charge of 
chronometers was transferred to the Royal Observatory ; the room which had 
been formerly used as the library being appropriated for them, and the room 
at present used as the library being built. In 1824 a second pier was built 
in the circle room, for Jones's circle. The magnetic ground, and other parts 
of the garden exterior to Mr. Pond's boundary, were inclosed in 1837. The 
magnetic observatory was built in 1837 and 1838. The new south dome, 
built for the reception of the new altitude and azimuth instrument, was 
erected in 1844, upon the walls of an ancient part of the establishment known 
by the name of the " Advanced Building." 

The instruments which have been added during the directorship of Mr. 
Airy, are — 

1. The Sheepshanks equatorial instrument, in the south-east dome. 

2. The altitude and azimuth instrument, for making extra-meridional ob- 
servations of the moon. 

3. The large transit-circle, very recently completed, and placed in the circle 
room enlarged and adapted to the purpose*. 

We shall be now fully prepared for a walk round the observatory ; and our 
preceding historical sketch will facilitate our explanation of the various build- 
ings and instruments, and of the uses to which the latter are applied. 

A visitor on ringing the observatory bell will be answered by the porter, 

* A room adjoining the transit-circle room is fitted up for a zenith-tube of a new construction, 
invented by Mr. Airy, to be called the " reflex zenith-tube;'' but this instrument is not yet com- 
pleted. 



OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 



643 




COUKT OF THE OBSERVATORY. 



who is usually one of the pensioners of the other remarkable institution of 
Greenwich, viz., its Hospital for Seamen. A reference to a card kept in the 
porter's lodge will explain that the privilege of visiting the observatory is of ne- 
cessity made very limited, those officially privileged being officers of the Royal 
Navy and gentlemen officially connected with the Admiralty; other visitors are 
required to be furnished with an introduction from some person of scientific 
distinction. A scientific foreigner is never refused admittance ; and a written 
application, stating some distinct object, is promptly attended to. It is the 
desire of the present liberal-minded director of the institution to give every 
facility to persons who are likely to be benefited by a -visit ; though he feels 
that the time of the assistants thus expended is too precious to be spent in 
attendance upon visitors whose object is simple curiosity. 

On emerging from the humble porch inside the gate, the first object that 
presents itself is the range of low buildings immediately to the left, whose 
official and as it were sacred character is marked by the rails which fence 
them off from the more common portions of the court. The old-fashioned, 
yet rather picturesque gables, and roughly-tiled roofs of these buildings, and 
their general humble aspect, give no evidence of their use, except what we 
may gather from the slits, closed by shutters, which in two places intersect 
them, and the domes that flank them at their eastern and south-western 
extremities; yet in these unpretending rooms not only are all the observa- 
tions made which give its fame to the establishment, but the reduction of them 
is also performed there, and they are rendered fit for the immediate use of the 
astronomer. But, leaving them for the present, we will cross the court, for 
the purpose of ascending to the leads above the octagon room or ancient part 
of the establishment, that we may obtain, before entering minutely on our 
examination, a bird's-eye view of the whole, as well as of the noble prospect 
visible from this elevation. The door immediately opposite to us in crossing 
the court is that of the Astronomer Royal's residence, all the apartments of 
which are on the ground floor, and situated on either side of a long gallery 
running nearly east and west. On the wall of the building, a little to the 
north of this door, is a slab containing the original inscription set up at the 
erection of the observatory. It is as follows : — 

Carolus II., Rex Optimus, 

Astronomise et Nauticse Artis 

Patronus Maximus, 

Speculum hanc in utriusque commodum, 
Fecit, 

Anno Dni. mdclxxvi., Regni Sui xxvin., 

Curante Jona Moore milite, 

R.T.S.G. 



044 LONDON. 

Beneath this inscription are the circular steps leading to the interior of the 
octagon room, through which we might ascend, by means of a turret staircase 
at the western corner of the room, to the roof; but we will, in preference, 
ascend the exterior staircase, recently erected for general purposes of commu- 
nication with the roof. On arriving at the summit, the visitor's attention is 
for an instant diverted from the observatory to the magnificent prospect to 
which he has been suddenly introduced. Beneath him lies the park, dotted 
with its gay visitors, and bounded immediately in front by the palace-like 
central building of the Eoyal Naval Schools. Beyond this, again, on the 
immediate banks of the Thames, are the four colossal piles of building form- 
ing Greenwich Hospital, which, with its burial-ground, infirmary, schools, and 
other buildings, occupies the central part of Greenwich. The eye, in looking 
towards the west, still following the Thames in its course towards London, 
will catch in succession various private establishments for the building of 
steamers, or for manufacturing their engines and boilers. Deptford Dock}^ard, 
with its colossal building sheds, is an imposing object a little farther on; and 
as we look still nearer towards London, the eye is bewildered by the count- 
less objects crowded on the river and its banks ; storehouses, docks, wharves, 
forests of masts, form a dense and inseparable mass, till the eye is literally 
relieved, on a fine day, by the sight of the incomparable building of St. Paul's 
crowning the whole panorama, and losing, even at this distance, nothing of 
its magnificence. In this direction also is traced very distinctly the line of 
the Greenwich Eailway, with the other lines having the same London terminus. 
Towards the south, we look over the well-wooded and undulating surface of 
parts of Surrey and Kent ; the foreground of the picture consisting of the glades 
and woody recesses of the park, and the view being terminated by the heights 
in the direction of Bromley. 

Shooter's Hill, with its mimic fortress of Severndroog, is a conspicuous 
object in the south-east, and is of some astronomical importance, as having 
formed one of the stations of the great trigonometrical survey. Within the 
inclosure of the observatory, the gardens of the Astronomer Royal, terraced 
and trimly kept, meet the eye, and point out the boundaries of the small 
peninsula of level ground on which the observatory stands. The magnetic 
observatory, near the southern boundary, in the shape of a cross, and glisten- 
ing white in the sunshine, with its accompanying electrical mast and small 
observing buildings, is a pretty object at this elevation. In fine, the view 
presented to us has perhaps scarcely its equal in the world as a combination 
of picturesque effect with scientific interest and commercial grandeur. 

But it is time to begin our survey of the instruments. We will commence 
with the self-registering anemometer, in the western turret, which, with the 
pluviometer connected with it, gives, with the smallest possible attention from 
the assistants of the establishment, complete indications for every instant of 
the day and night of the direction and force of the wind, and of the quantity 
of rain which has fallen. This instrument is now comparatively well known, 
many private observers having erected similar ones. It was erected in 1841, 
a little after the establishment of the magnetic and meteorological observa- 
tory ; and has ever since, with a few very trifling interruptions, kept a faithful 
record of the elements of the weather entrusted to it. A large vane is carried 
by a hollow tube, which, near its lower end, and above a small table in the 
turret chamber, carries a toothed wheel. This wheel gives motion to a racked 
plate, carrying a pencil, which, as it is made to move backwards aud forwards 
by the wind turning the vane, marks a paper stretched on a board beneath it. 
This board is driven directly by a clock movement, and the hourly spaces 
traversed by the board are marked on the paper, as are also the spaces at 
right angles to them, corresponding to the motion of the vane through a 
whole revolution. Thus the direction of the wind is marked. For the pres- 
sure, a plate of metal, 1 ft. in area, is placed beneath the varie at right angles 



OBSERVATORIES. GREENWICH. 645 

to it ; it is supported by horizontal rods, sliding in grooves, and is urged in 
opposition to the wind by three springs, which come into play successively 
with the increase of pressure of the wind. A cord from this plate passes 
over a pulley, and communicates with a copper wire passing through the 
centre of the spindle, which at the bottom communicates with another cord 
passing under a pulley, and held in tension by a slight spring, and by this a 
pencil is moved transversely to the direction in which the paper attached to 
the board is carried by the clock. This apparatus fails to measure the pres- 
sure of light breezes of the wind ; and, in fact, does not come into action till 
the pressure exceeds half a pound. 

The anemometer at the top of the small wooden building erected on 
the roof where we are standing, is the invention of Dr. Whewell, and is 
intended to measure the velocity of the wind by a self-registering process. 
A brass plate attached to a vertical spindle, which passes downwards through 
the axis of a fixed vertical cylinder, bears a vane, which turns it freely 
according to the direction of the wind. A frame borne upon the plate car- 
ries a fly having an endless screw upon its axis, and carries also two toothed 
wheels, one vertical and the other horizontal. The first wheel is vertical, and 
works in the endless screw, and has on its axis another endless screw, in 
which works another wheel that is horizontal. This latter is connected with 
the top of a great vertical screw, to which is clamped a concave screw carry- 
ing a pencil that slowly descends as the screw is turned round, and makes a 
trace upon the vertical cylinder. The descent of the pencil is measured each 
day, and gives means of determining the amount of space passed over by the 
wind. The above description will give a general idea of the instrument, 
which is now found in several observatories. 

The receiving vessel for the rain-gauge connected with Osier's anemometer 
is just above the turret, and the rain is conveyed to the pluviometer inside 
by a copper pipe. This vessel is of copper (the first was of glass, but was 
burst during a severe frost), and is suspended in a frame by spiral springs, 
which lengthen as the water increases, until nearly a quarter of an inch is 
collected in the receiver ; it then discharges itself by means of the following- 
syphon arrangement. A copper tube, open at both ends, is fixed in the 
receiver, and over its top a larger tube, closed at the upper end, is placed 
loosely. These tubes form the legs of a syphon ; and when the water in the 
receiver has risen to the top of the inner tube, it falls through into the upper- 
most portion of a tumbling bucket, which, turning over, causes an imperfect 
vacuum in the globe sufficient to cause a draught in the longer leg of the 
syphon, and the whole contents run off. The ascent and descent of the water- 
vessel moves a radius-bar carrying a pencil, which makes a trace upon the 
paper denoting the quantit}^ violence, &c, of the rain. 

Above the other turret is the time-ball, which is every day raised to the top 
of the mast, beneath the cross-arms denoting the four cardinal points, and is 
let fall precisely at one o'clock, p.m., for the purpose of giving correctly the 
Greenwich time to all who are interested in obtaining it. We will give, in as 
few words as possible, a description of the machinery by which the ball is 
raised and let fall. 

The ball itself, 5 ft. in diameter, is a frame of wood, covered with leather, 
and is perforated, to admit of its passage freely up and down the supporting- 
mast. The mast is composed of several pieces of timber joined together, so 
as to form nearly a square, with a rectangular groove in one side, in which 
slides a triangular rod of wood, which, passing through the ball, is firmly 
fastened to it above and below. A piston-rod is connected with this beneath, 
larger at its upper than at its lower extremity, and terminating in a piston 
fitted into an air-tube beneath. On two vertical guiding rods close to the 
piston-rod run the two parts of a weight bored for the purpose, and carrying 
another part sliding on the piston-rod, and to this weight the chain which 



646 



LONDON. 



passes over a pulley, which is seen 
with the flooring, and is acted on 
the floor of the octagon room, and 
When the weight is raised by this 
of it sliding on the piston-rod gets 
of the piston-rod and raises it, and 




raises the ball is attached. The chain 
on opening the turret door on a level 
by a wheel and axle on a level with 
just outside the door of that room, 
means, the collar attached to the part 
beneath a projection on the upper part 
consequently causes the ball to ascend. 

When the rod is 
raised to such a height 
that the ball has 
reached its greatest 
elevation beneath the 
cross, the piston is 
caught by two strong 

clips connected with an apparatus which we must now describe, and 
which is, in fact, the most interesting part of the machinery. The wood 
engravings will assist us in our description. A rod having two arms, a 
and h, is connected by joints with two short arms, moving on pins, c, d, 
in the same horizontal line, and carried by a strong bracket fixed in 
the wall. At e is a crank jointed to a vertical iron rod,/. The rod is 
in two parts, with an intermediate strong spiral spring at g, and is 
fastened beneath at h, to a trigger moveable on a pin at i. By forcing 
this trigger upwards (the hand being applied at h) it is plain that the 
rods a and b will be driven in the direction of the arrow point from 
right to left, and the clips or small ledges carried by c and d, will be 
made to approach each other. The rod is kept in this position before 
the ball is raised, by means of another trigger I, supported by a spring, 
which gets inserted on the upper of the notches seen in the figure. 

Imagine now the ball to be raised. The piston m will, in its ascent, 
push aside (the elasticity of the spring at g allowing it) the clips, which, 
when it has passed them, will spring back again and support it and 
the ball with which it is connected. The chain is now unwound, the 

weight slipping down the piston-rod ; 
the trigger k is pulled up (the rod pro- 
ducing a pressure on the spring g) till 
it is caught in the lower notch, and 
everything is now ready for discharging 
the apparatus and letting the ball fall. 
Near the trigger is placed a mean 
solar clock, rated every day, and kept 
a few seconds fast. Opposite this, the 
assistant charged with the duty of 
letting fall the ball, stations himself 
with his thumb upon the plate n, and 
when the hand of the clock has arrived 
at the proper second, he presses this plate firmly. By this means the trigger 
k is released from the notch ; the spring g expands and helps the rod in its 
descent ; the rods a and b are jerked back in the direction contrary to the 
arrow point ; the piston falls (carrying with it the ball) into an air tube, so 
devised as to ease the shock which would otherwise take place, by the com- 
pressing of the air in it. The violence of the fall is regulated by means of a 
brass cock near the bottom of the air tube. 

We will next proceed to the neighbouring building, or the north-east 
dome, containing the Shuckburgh equatorial. This excellent specimen of 
Eamsden's work was presented to the observatory by the executors of Sir 
George Shuckburgh, an eminent astronomer of his day, in 1811, and is elabo- 




OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 647 

rately described in the Philosophical Transactions for 1793. It was originally 
intended by Mr. Pond to be mounted as an altitude and azimuth instrument in 
the south-east dome, but some doubts were entertained of the firmness of the 
pier, and the idea was abandoned. In this instrument the two pivots of the 
polar axis are at its extremities, as also the two pivots of the declination-axis. 
The pivots of the polar axis (9 ft. in length) turn in Ys carried by piers at 
the opposite extremities of the dome. The north pivot is at the centre of a 
circular frame, and the south pivot is at the apex of a cone, and the polar 
frame consists of six pillars connecting the base of the cone with the circular 
frame. The pillars are united three and three by intervening bars, and carry 
the Ys for the declination-axis and the microscopes for reading the declination- 
circle. The diameter of the declination-circle is 4 ft., and is divided to 5' of 
arc. The telescope is rather more than 5 ft. in length, and its object-glass is 
of 4*1 in. aperture. The hour-circle is connected with the cone ; its 
diameter is 4 ft., and it is divided to 4' of arc ; — its divisions are read by fixed 
microscopes. 

Before leaving this instrument it may be well to explain to the unscientific 
visitor that an equatorial instrument is an instrument capable of following an 
object in the heavens throughout its diurnal course. In its simplest form 
imagine an axis capable of revolving freely, to be placed parallel to the earth's 
axis, and a telescope to be fixed to the middle of it capable of forming any angle 
with it. Then if the axis be turned round so that the telescope shall be in the 
plane passing through it and the star, and the telescope be turned on the axis 
till the star is seen, it is evident that by giving a motion to the axis equal to 
the earth's diurnal motion, the star will continue in the field of the telescope. 
If now a graduated circle be attached to the axis in the plane of the telescope, 
we can observe by proper management the distance of the star from the pole, 
and if another circle be placed parallel to the earth's equator, we can by proper 
management observe the angular distance of the star from the meridian, and 
thus, noting also the sidereal time, obtain its right ascension. But the legiti- 
mate use of an equatorial is to observe, not these quantities absolutely, but 
differentially, that is, by comparing objects, such as comets and planets, whose 
places are required, with stars whose positions are well known. 

We will now recross the court and proceed to the principal observing rooms 
of the establishment, entering by the door of the transit-circle room near the 
eastern end of the range. In this room were formerly placed the two mural- 
circles which have been already mentioned, and here they were used from the 
year 1812 till the year 1848, when, the preparations being commenced for 
erecting a large transit-circle which is intended to supersede them, Trough- 
ton's circle was mounted in a shed erected for it at the eastern end of the 
library, and Jones's circle was stored away under a shed in the south part of 
the grounds of the magnetic observatory, where it still remains. At this time* 
the instruments are in a transition state, the transit-circle being not quite 
ready for use, and we will therefore take the opportunity to describe them in 
the usual order, beginning with the transit-instrument, then proceeding to the 
temporary room occupied by Troughton's circle, and finally returning to the 
transit-circle room. 

The adjoining roomf, into which we now enter, is the transit room, and the 
first object that meets the eye is the admirable instrument which has been in 
use since the year 1815, mounted on its piers. To the visitor not familiar 
with the instruments and processes of astronomy, it may be desirable to explain 
that the transit-instrument is a telescope which is supposed theoretically to 
describe the plane of the meridian. For this purpose it is furnished with two 
axes terminating in two well-polished equal cylindrical pivots, and these 

* That is, at the latter end of 1850, as has been before explained. 

t The transit-instrument has been since dismounted, and the piers taken down, and the room 
is being fitted up as the business apartment of the Astronomer Royal. 



64>8 LONDON. 

pivots being placed in bearings sunk in the stone piers shaped like the letter 
Y (and technically called Ys), the instrument is capable of revolving freely. 
Due care is taken, in building the piers and in placing the Ys, that the instru- 
ment when set up shall be nearly in the plane of the meridian, and it is the 
business of the astronomers who use it to find out what is the deviation from 
this plane, and to make the requisite corrections in the calculation of the ob- 
servations. 

Now suppose the telescope to turn freely upon a very fine axis (a mere line) 
which is horizontal, and at right angles to the meridian, then if the object- 
glass be so placed in its tube that its optical axis shall be also at right angles 
to this line, it is plain that when the telescope revolves, this optical axis will 
describe the meridian plane. If then a fine vertical wire be placed in the 
telescope- tube in the direction of the optical axis, and at the proper focal dis- 
tance, an object viewed through the eye-piece of the telescope will cross the 
true meridian when it is seen to come to this wire. Now in practice it is not- 
possible either to make the line joining the centres of the pivots (round which 
the instrument really revolves) perfectly horizontal or exactly perpendicular to 
the plane of the meridian ; neither is it possible so to place the object-glass in 
the tube that the optical axis shall be exactly perpendicular to this axis of 
revolution ; neither, in the last place, is it possible so to place the wire that 
the optical axis shall exactly pass through it. From these circumstances arise 
three different classes of errors, named respectively the error of collimation, 
the error of level, and the error of azimuth. The error of collimation arises 
from the two combined effects of the want of perpendicularity of the optical 
axis to the axis of revolution and of the want of coincidence of the wire and 
the optical axis. The error of level arises from the want of horizontality of 
the axis of revolution. Finally the error of azimuth arises from the circum- 
stance that the optical axis, which now, supposing the above-mentioned errors 
corrected, describes a great circle passing through the zenith, does not describe 
the meridian, or the great circle passing through the pole also. The error of 
collimation is detected and measured by means of a mark placed at a consi- 
derable distance, or by means of a wire placed in the focus of another tele- 
scope and viewed through the transit telescope. If this mark or wire be 
made to coincide with the centre wire for one position of the transit pivots, 
then, when the instrument is taken out of its Ys and reversed (that is, the 
eastern pivot placed west and the western pivot placed east), the difference of 
position of the mark and wire measures in angular space double the error of 
collimation, and this space is estimated by a micrometer attached to the e} r e- 
piece of the telescope. The error of level is determined by the application to the 
pivots of a large spirit-level, which is seen hanging above the instrument. 
Finally, the error of azimuth is determined by the transits of Polaris or other 
stars near the pole, either observed consecutively above and below the pole, 
or compared with the transits of some southern star, though in the latter case 
the accurate positions of the stars must be known. 

The length of the telescope is about 10 ft., and the aperture of the object- 
glass 5 in. ; the length of the axis is 4 ft. The pivots of the axis are of steel, 
fixed in 1825, and fresh turned in 1832, and their circular form is sensibly 
perfect. There are seven fixed wires in the eye-piece, and two wires moveable 
by a micrometer-screw parallel to the fixed wires. Two fixed horizontal wires 
serve to define the middle of the field. 

The transit-clock* was constructed by Hardy, and was originally furnished 
with Hardy's escapement. A dead-beat escapement was substituted for this 
by Dent in 1829. The jewelled holes were removed by Dent in 1836, and the 
pivots now turn in brass holes. 

The skill of the observer is shown in estimating accurately the seconds and 

* This clock is now used for the observations of the transit-circle, and is placed beneath the 
pier of the south collimating telescope. 



OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 649 

tenths of a second at which a star passes each of the seven wires. Having 
directed the telescope to the object by means of the setting circles at its eye- 
end, and knowing previously the exact clock time at which the star will be 
near the first wire, he takes a second from the clock, and then, applying his 
eye to the telescope, he observes the passage of the star across the wires, 
noting down the time of passage over each, and not referring to the clock- 
face again till the transit is complete, when the counting is verified by again 
looking at it. Bradley did not estimate the fractions of seconds to tenths ; this 
refinement was introduced by Maskelyne, and was an immense improvement, 
the transits being also taken by him over five wires instead of one. 

The observer on duty is charged with the observations of all necessary 
objects that pass the meridian between 3 o'clock on one morning and 3 
o'clock on the succeeding, and it frequently happens that his rest is interfered 
with during nearly the whole of the 24 hours ; our clouded atmosphere causes 
some relief, and without such compulsory rest the labour of observing would be 
too great for the establishment, well manned as it is. 

The transit-instrument answers two distinct purposes. It furnishes absolute 
time, and it determines the right ascensions of objects observed with it. A cer- 
tain number of " fundamental" stars have had their places so accurately deter- 
mined (some of them in the first instance by Maskelyne) that they serve as points 
of reference whereby to determine, relatively to them, the positions of all other 
objects. The right ascensions of 100 of these stars are tabulated in the Nautical 
Almanac, and the clock being so set as to show nearly Oh. 0m. 0s. when the 
first point of Aries (from which right ascensions are measured) passes the meri- 
dian, it will show approximately the right ascensions of all objects when they 
pass the meridian. By comparing then these right ascensions given by the 
clock, with the right ascensions taken from the Nautical Almanac, a " clock 
error" is given by each object, and the mean of several such objects will give 
very accurately the error of the clock on " sidereal time," at a given instant, 
and comparisons of such errors on different days will give the u rate," or the 
daily sidereal gain or loss of the clock. Then, the position of the mean sun 
with respect to the equinox being known, as also the ratio of the intervals of 
mean solar time to the same intervals of sidereal time, if a mean solar clock be 
compared with the transit clock, its error on mean solar time can be com- 
puted. Lastly, the error of the transit clock being thus found by compari- 
son of the observed times of transit with the right ascensions of known ob- 
jects, the right ascensions of unknown objects will be found by applying the 
clock error back again to their times of transit. 

If the visitors have not been wearied with this account of the transit-instru- 
ment and its uses, we will, according to our proposal, go back to the humble 
apartment at present assigned to the mural-circle. It is with no ordinary 
feelings that the well-read astronomical student pays a visit to this instru- 
ment. As before explained, with its erection in 1812 commenced a new epoch 
in practical astronomy, and little additional accuracy worth mentioning has been 
obtained since that time. It consists, as you see, of a circle 6 ft. in diameter, 
with graduations to five minutes of space performed on a band of platinum 
let into its rim, and revolving on an axis having its bearings in a hollow 
metal cone let into the wall. Six microscopes are fixed firmly on blocks let 
into the wall at sensibly equal distances round the circle, and all of these are 
read for every observation. By the mean of these readings, a reading is 
obtained which is not only independent of false centering, but of almost any 
small casual inaccuracies in the graduations. The telescope is firmly clamped 
to the outer rim of the circle both at the eye-end and the object-end, and it 
has been the practice to give it a different position on the limb at the begin- 
ning of every year, for the sake of avoiding any errors of a constant character 
which might affect the observations. The diameter of the object-glass of the 

F F 



650 LONDON. 

telescope is 4 in. Its eye-piece contains five vertical fixed wires and one hori- 
zontal wire moveable by a micrometer. The use of the five wires, one of 
which marks approximately the meridian, is for the purpose of repeating the 
observation of the moon, and by this means giving every possible accuracy to 
the observations of this important luminary. Thus far the visitor will under- 
stand that the mural-circle observes differences of zenith distances or polar 
distances, but by an ingenious contrivance it is made to observe absolute zenith 
distances. On descending into the pit used chiefly for reading the lower micro- 
scopes, and removing the cover from a box standing beneath the circle, it will 
be perceived that this contains a quantity of mercury, and this mercury is 
capable of being placed in any position necessary for reflecting the rays of 
light coming from any object, from its surface back again into the tube of the 
telescope previously placed in a proper position to receive them. Now the 
observer has for his use a catalogue of stars, containing, besides the approxi- 
mate readings of the circle for observation by direct vision, the readings of a 
certain number for observations by reflexion. He then by this means directs 
his telescope properly for the reflexion-observation a few minutes before the 
transit of a suitable star, clamps the circle, reads the microscopes, and arranges 
his mercury trough ; then, ascending the stage, and quietly watching the image 
of the star till it comes near the central vertical wire, he bisects it with the 
horizontal wire by turning the micrometer-screw, and running rapidly down 
the northern steps of the stage, he unclamps the circle and directs it towards 
the star as seen in the heavens (carrying in his mind the circle-reading for 
direct vision), Beclamping the circle he again brings the star upon the wire 
by the use of the slow-motion screw of the clamp, and finally reads the circle 
microscopes and the telescope-micrometer. He has thus two complete observa- 
tions of the same object, one for a position a certain number of degrees below 
the horizon, and the other for the same number above the horizon. It is plain, 
therefore, that the mean (or half the sum) of these readings will be the read- 
ing for an object in the horizon, and this diminished by 90° will be the reading 
for an object in the zenith, technically called the "zenith-point," By such 
observations the zenith-point is accurately determined, and this being applied 
to the circle-readings for all other objects observed, gives apparent zenith 
distances. This beautiful use of the mural-circle was first introduced by the 
Astronomer Royal while he was director of the Observatory of Cambridge. 
If now a certain number of stars near the pole have their zenith distances 
accurately determined for both the upper and lower transits, it is plain that 
the colatitude can be accurately determined, and thus the observed zenith 
distances can be converted into north polar distances, 

As time will not permit of a longer gossip over this interesting instrument, 
we will turn back again, and proceed to visit the east dome, containing the 
Sheepshanks' equatorial, Proceeding up the narrow and rather steep stair- 
case, past the chronometer-room and library (which we will visit on our 
return), we enter the dome from the leads of the eastern buildings. The 
dome itself, which has an opening closed by curved shutters sliding upwards 
and downwards, moves with sufficient ease by means of a toothed wheel and 
rack, the manual power being applied at the ends of long radial bars. It 
turns on fixed wheels, and not, as the other dome, on shot. The instrument 
was erected in the year 1838, the mounting being made by Mr, T. Grubb, of 
Dublin. The object-glass, whose definition is very good, was made by M. 
Cauchoix, of Paris, and was presented to the observatory by the Rev, R. 
Sheepshanks. It is nearly 7 clear inches in diameter, and of 8 ft. focal length. 
The mounting is that usually known by the name of the Fraunhofer mounting, 
the telescope being on one side of the axis, and counterpoised by weights on 
the other side, The hour-circle and declination-circle are small, and only 
used, in general, for setting the instrument, Above the upper bearing of the 



OBSERVATORIES.— GREENWICH. 651 

polar axis is fixed a square box, perforated for the declination-axis, and upon 
a ring on this box another ring turns with stiff friction, carrying two sector 
arms, graduated at their extremities, and read by micrometer -microscopes. 
This gives the means of determining differences of declination, amounting to 
some degrees, with tolerable accuracy. Clock-work is attached to the instru- , 
ment, for the purpose of giving to the telescope a motion equal to the diurnal 
motion. To effect the attachment of the clock, two circular plates are placed 
near together on the polar axis, near its upper extremity ; the lower being 
immoveably fixed to the axis, but the upper one turning freely. These plates 
are capable of being clamped firmly together, so that if the polar axis moves 
it shall carry with it the upper, or moveable plate, as well as the lower one. 
The moveable plate is inseparably connected with a long flat sector in the 
plane of the equator, whose edge is cut in teeth, in which works the endless 
screw carried by the clock. The speed of the clock is regulated by two balls, 
suspended to the end of a horizontal arm, which is carried by a vertical 
spindle. When the velocity is so great as to cause the suspending rods to 
make a certain angle with the vertical, small projections carried by the balls 
are thereby made to rub against the lower surface of a fixed horizontal ring, 
and the friction thus caused prevents the weight which urges the clock from 
increasing the velocity. 

The chief use made of this instrument has been in the observations o^ 
comets, and in the measurement of double stars. The latter class of observa- 
tions is made with a double image micrometer, invented by Mr. Airy, which 
is capable of measuring small distances with very great accuracy. With this 
micrometer the shapes of the planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, have been 
very accurately determined ; and the latter has been proved to be perfectly 
spheroidal in form, contrary to the opinion of former astronomers. The 
interesting binary star, y Yirginis, whose components are now, in their revolu- 
tion round each other, again separating, is measured with great care every 
year; and other observations of a similar character are made as occasion 
requires. 

In going down from this instrument we will step into the chronometer- 
room, in which are kept and rated chronometers belonging to the Govern- 
ment, required for the use of ships. The business relating to the purchase 
and repairs of all government chronometers passes through the hands of the 
Astronomer Royal; and this includes the severe trial, in extreme temperatures, 
of a certain number sent by the makers at the beginning of each year ; the 
Admiralty purchasing in the autumn (after the extreme summer heat is over) 
a small number of those most highly recommended to them. The manage- 
ment of these chronometers (the number of which has at times amounted to 
170) occupies a considerable portion of the time of two assistants, who are 
charged with the duty of winding them daily, and comparing them with the 
clock placed in the room for that purpose. Between 12 and 1 o'clock, the 
junior of these assistants goes round the observatory with a small chronometer, 
called a " click," which is capable of being set going accurately in coincidence 
with the transit-clock ; and by its help he compares the ball-clock, the chro- 
nometer-clock, and such others as are required, with the transit-clock. Having 
thus obtained by calculation the errors of these clocks from mean solar time 
(the error of the transit-clock being determined by stars observed generally 
during the previous evening), he and his colleague proceed to raise and drop 
the signal ball, raising it five minutes before 1 o'clock, and dropping it 
precisely at 1, as has been explained. They then proceed to the chronometer- 
room, where one person, opening the lids of the boxes, begins to wind the 
chronometers ; and the other, following at a short interval, examines them, to 
ascertain that they are properly wound, and then closes the lids. When the 
winding is completed, one assistant takes his seat at a table where is the blank 

F F 2 



652 LONDON. 

fonn book for entering the comparisons of the chronometers, and proceeds to 
write down the numbers called out by the other who is making the compa- 
risons. The latter, lifting the lid of each chronometer, and counting the 
clock-beats, gives for each the clock -seconds corresponding to seconds of the 
chronometer, making each time the requisite mental calculation, and these 
are the numbers written down by his companion. The rapidity with which 
this is done would surprise the uninitiated ; the clock-second being caught, 
the corresponding seconds and tenths corresponding to the seconds of the 
chronometer being estimated, and the mental reduction to Os of chronometer 
being performed, in ordinary cases, in the space of a very few seconds of time. 
When all are compared that are intended to be compared, the assistants 
change places, and the comparisons are repeated, so that any error which may 
have been committed in the first comparison is almost infallibly corrected. 
The chronometers on trial for purchase are subject to a severer ordeal than 
the others. As soon as they are received (early in January), they are, if the 
weather be severe, exposed to the open air, outside the north window near 
the chronometer-room, being placed under a penthouse, protected by a grat- 
ing. After a little time they are suddenly exposed to a trial of extreme heat, 
either by being placed in a tray placed above a large stove, which raises their 
temperature to about 100°, as was formerly the practice, or by placing them 
in an apparatus heated by gas, as is the practice at present. The object of 
this trial is to ascertain whether the compensation of their balances is perfect ; 
and the length of trial to which they are subject is to detect the irregularities 
which would result from inferior workmanship or springs not properly tem- 
pered. The duties of the chronometer-department are necessarily heavy ; 
and it should be borne in mind that the time occupied in it, though unques- 
tionably well bestowed for the public service, and on a subject most intimately 
connected with nautical astronomy, is withdrawn from the usual duties of the 
astronomer, and partly occupied with a good deal of clerk-like business with 
which astronomy has nothing to do *. 

The adjoining apartment, into which we now enter, is the library, well fur- 
nished with books of all classes interesting or useful to the astronomer. 
Ephemerides and almanacs of all nations ; the transactions of all the learned 
societies in Europe and America ; the most elaborate treatises on astronomy, 
and every kindred subject, ancient and modern ; tables of every kind ; im- 
portant star-catalogues, from the earliest astronomical periods to the present 
time; such are the kinds of books that line the shelves of this collection. 
And it is interesting to add that the members of the establishment are all 
fully aware of the advantage which they possess in the privilege of using at 
their discretion such a library, and that they avail themselves of it freely and 
constantly, to their own great advantage and that of the institution to which 
they belong. 

We will now proceed back again to the transit-circle room, and take a view 
of the magnificent instrument which, perhaps, will play a very conspicuous 
part in the future history of astronomy. The great object which the Astro- 
nomer Royal had in view in its erection was solidity and firmness ; and, to 
accomplish this, the separate parts of the instrument are few in number, and 
as much as possible was cast in one flow of metal. The central part of the 
instrument is a large hollow cube, of 20 inches, cast in two parts, which are 
united by several nutted bolts passing through flanges with planed parallel 
surfaces. Each pivot was cast in the same piece with its corresponding part 
of the cube, and was afterwards hardened by a very ingenious chilling pro- 

* Since the above was written, the chronometers have been transferred to a room prepared for 
them above the computing-room, the room in which they were formerly placed being intended 
to form an addition to the library. 



OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 



€53 




TRANSIT-CIRCLE APARTMENT. 



cess, so as to be nearly as hard as the finest tempered steel. The hardened sur- 
faces extend to a depth of about a quarter of an inch. The process of giving 



654f LONDON. 

to the pivots their circular form, and of finally polishing them and rendering 
them equal in diameter, was, as may l>e easily imagined, a very troublesome 
one, and one which nearly exhausted the patience of the eminent engineers, 
Messrs. Ransomes and May, who did the engineering part for the instrument. 
Now it is accomplished, it may he reckoned as one of the greatest triumphs 
of engineering skill applied to the construction of instruments. Though the 
pivots are still unequal by a measurable quantity, yet that quantity does not 
exceed the thickness of a sheet of the finest tissue paper. The telescope-tube, 
which is nearly 12 ft in length, consists of two huge cones, each cast in one flow 
of metal, and these are bolted upon the central cube by means of fianges with 
planed surfaces. When the telescope had been thus far erected, a small 
object-glass was placed in the centre, and a wire at the object-end of the 
telescope was viewed through a micrometer eye-piece at the e} 7 e-end, for the 
purpose of measuring the deflexion of the tube in opposite horizontal positions. 
The experiments were uniformly consistent, and gave for the deflexion, or 
drop of each end of the tube, the one-thousandth part of an inch, an amazingly 
small quantity considering the weight of the tube. The cones weigh each 
If cwt. nearly; and the central cube, with its pivots, weighs nearly 8 cwt. The 
diameter of each pivot is about 6 in., and the whole length of the axis is 
about § ft. The diameter of the object-glass, whieh is a Y^ry fine one, made 
by Simms, is 8 in. ; so that the optical power of the telescope will be quite equal 
to the observation of the faintest objects that will be required in the course of 
ordinary meridian observations. It was found that the 10 ft. transit-instrument 
and the mural-circle were scarcely adequate to the observation of the very faint 
asteroids, so many of whieh have been recently discovered, and that an instru- 
ment of greater power was imperatively required. In addition to this, the ob- 
servations of the moon made with the altitude and azimuth-instrument had 
proved that the transit-instrument, though probably the best of its class, and 
used with the utmost skill, was comparatively unstable, and that the errors 
arising from its defective determination of absolute time were far more to be 
feared than any other. Two circles, of 6- ft. in diameter, are firmly fined on 
cylindrical bands, one on each side of the central cube. The eastern circle is 
used for clamping ; and the other is graduated like the mural-circle, except that 
the graduations are performed on a bevelled or dished surface edge, and will serve 
for the observations of zenith distance. This latter circle is read hj means 
of six long microscopes, about 45 in. in length, whose eye-pieces are arranged 
in a circle at the back of this pier of about 2 ft. in diameter, and having its 
centre about 5 ft. from the fioor. The object-glasses of the microscopes are 
in front of the pier ; and their optical axes, whieh lie in the surface of a cone 
diverging towards the front of the pier, are of course nearly perpendicular 
to the graduated or bevelled edge of the circle*. For convenience, the heads 
of the micrometers of the microscopes are divided into a hundred equal parts, 
instead of sixty parts, as is usually the practice. 

Besides the six microscopes for the reading of the circle in the ordinary 
course of observation, five others are added, having their eye-pieces and object- 
glasses in the same circles as the others, to give means of testing the accuracy 
of the divisions For testing the accuracy of the relative form of the pivots, 
the axis is provided with a collimator, consisting of a lens of 6 ft. focal length 
in the perforated or illuminating pivot, and a tube with a small perforated disk 
in the other pivot. A lamp being placed behind the perforated disk, the 
image of the spot of light is viewed through a telescope of 7 ft. focal length, 
placed opposite to the axis, and micrometrical measures are made of it at 
short intervals through a whole revolution of the pivots. 

The circle has its degrees so marked as to read approximately zenith dis- 

* The surface on which the divisions are cut is, in fact, at any point normal to the line bisecting 
the angle formed by the optical axis of any one of the microscopes, and the axis of the corre- 
sponding illuminating hole. 



OBSERVATORIES. GREENWICH. 655 

tances of objects observed ; while a pointer, fixed to a block projecting from 
the lower part of the pier, points to another graduated band on the outer or 
eastern side of the circle, used for setting the telescope, and gives approximately 
north polar distances. A small finder, with a large field of view, is attached 
to the telescope-tube ; and also a sighting apparatus, for directing the telescope 
to stars by the naked eye. 

For illuminating the field of the telescope and the graduated band of the 
circle, a large gas light is used at the back of the western pier, on a level with 
the centre of the perforated axis, and this throws light at the same time 
through a lens into the telescope, and on lenses placed in large holes lying in 
another conical surface, cut through the pier in the direction of the circle. 
The light thrown into the telescope is received upon a perforated reflector, 
capable of being placed at any angle of inclination with the tube of the 
telescope, and by this means the light in the field of view is moderated. 

For the illumination of the wires in the observation of very faint objects 
with the field of view perfectly dark, eight prisms are employed. Four of 
these are arranged symmetrically on the surface of the reflector, and four others 
are fixed in the eye-piece tube in corresponding positions, nearly in the plane 
of the wires. By pushing the rod that acts upon this reflector, and making its 
position perpendicular to the tube of the telescope, the field of view is rendered 
dark, while the light reflected from the four prisms on the reflector is thrown 
down the tube upon the other prisms, and then reflected by them across the 
field, so as to illuminate the wires on both sides. The tube has galvanic wires 
attached to it, with the object of ultimately observing transits according to 
the American method of self-registration. The eye-piece is furnished at present 
with seven fixed vertical or transit wires, moveable by a micrometer, and with 
one horizontal wire, moveable by a micrometer. The error of collimation is 
obtained by means of two collimating telescopes placed on piers north and 
south of the instrument, as it is impracticable to obtain it by reversing the 
instrument. The error of level is determined by observing with an eye-piece 
with three lenses, furnished with a reflector, the relative situations of the central 
wire, and of its image reflected from a surface of mercury. The error of azimuth 
is found in the usual way by transits of circumpolar stars. 

The examination of the instrument in collimation being effected by the use 
of two telescopes placed on piers north and south of the instrument, it is 
necessary that it should be occasionally lifted from its Ys, for the purpose of 
previously adjusting one of these upon the other, each in turn serving as col- 
limator to the other. 

This is effected in the following manner : — 

Two large stirrup-forks are so placed that they can, by a slight elevation, 
come in contact with the lower sides of the axes of the instrument near its 
two pivots, and that, by further elevation, they can raise it to any desired 
height. These forks are suspended by long screw-stalks, which are raised by 
nuts whose support is upon fixed plates above. The upper side of each nut 
is a bevelled wheel, in which act other bevelled wheels whose axes are hori- 
zontal. A spindle connects the axes of the opposite wheels when the instru- 
ment is to be raised, and the raising is effected by turning this connecting 
spindle. The strain upon the threads of the screw is very nearly relieved by 
counterpoises acting by chains over large pulleys. 

The same screw-rods which carry the stirrup-forks, also carry the fulcra of 
the ordinary counterpoises, by which means the instrument is in almost exactly 
the same state (as regards strain) when it is raised, as when it is in use, as is 
also the pressure upon the screw stalk ; so that if counterbalanced for one state, 
it is nearly counterbalanced for the other, and the effort required for raising or 
lowering it is extremely small. 

As observing by reflexion will be a very important feature in the use of the 
instrument, it was necessary to provide means for carrying the mercury trough 



656 LONDON. 

conveniently and safely, and also to prevent as much as possible any disturb- 
ance of the mercury. 

The frame carrying the mercury trough is itself carried by two bars moving 
freely on pins fixed in the eastern pier in the same horizontal line. The 
length of each bar is about 1 6 ft. from the upper to the lower extremity, and 
8 ft. from the pivot to the lower extremity, leaving just sufficient room for 
the trough to pass freely above the floor of the pit. Their upper extremities 
carry counterpoises, so that in use the trough rests in equilibrium in any 
position. A large iron semicircle, of rather more than 6 ft. radius, is fixed to 
the face of the pier, with its surface projecting beyond, and its centre on the 
same level as the pins, and is rabbeted above and below. To this semicircle is 
attached a clamping-piece, carried by a horizontal bar, whose length is equal 
to the distance between the pivots, viz., 3 ft. 6 in., and connected with the 
bars by loose joints. By this means the bars can be clamped fast in any 
position. 

Two pieces project from the bars at their lower extremities in a direction 
perpendicular to the face of the pier, and these carry two spindles in the 
same horizontal plane. To the ends of the western spindle, which revolves 
freely, arms are attached, which take hold of the mercury trough at its upper 
western edges, turning freely on cylindrical pins, and whose other ends are 
firmly attached to the ends of a large cylindrical counterpoise through which 
the spindle passes. The projecting pieces carry also vertical supports for two 
other moveable arms beneath the former, which are attached to the middle of 
the mercury trough and beneath it. The difference of height of the centres 
of these arms carrying the trough is equal exactly to the difference of height 
of their points of attachment to the trough, and their lengths are exactly 
equal from the centres to the points of attachment. Provision is thus made 
for giving a motion to the trough in the east and west direction, so that its 
level shall not be disturbed ; and it can with great ease be put into its posi- 
tion for use, or put on one side out of the way. 

The shutters of the room are 3 ft. in width, and are opened in six pieces. 
Two of these are vertical, and are opened or shut with great ease by a simple 
combination of levers. The other four pieces are horizontal, occupying the 
ridge of the roof, and are each opened and closed by a combination of levers 
acted on by a winch moving a rack and pinion. The weights of the shutters 
are relieved by counterpoises. At their junctions they are protected by small 
overlapping shatters, and keep out the rain most effectually. 

The next instrument which we will visit is the altitude and azimuth-instru- 
ment, which was erected, as has been mentioned, for extra-meridional observa- 
tions of the moon. Our direct road will be through the computing-room, and 
we will exercise our editorial privileges by pausing for a few minutes, and 
speculating on the busy scene presented to us. Seated at desks and tables in 
different parts of the room are the Astronomer Koyal and the six subordinates 
permanently attached to the establishment, besides one or two persons engaged 
as computers to assist in the labour of reducing the observations. By looking 
a little more minutely we shall observe something of the nature and order of 
their several employments. The Astronomer Royal's table is covered with 
letters and documents, denoting an extensive correspondence and a great 
deal of miscellaneous business ; while maps, drawings, plans, models, &c, 
vouch for the varied nature of the scientific employment of his never-resting 
mind. Above one table are several ponderous manuscript books, arranged 
on a shelf labelled " Transit Observations;" and we may infer that the per- 
sons sitting at this table are mainly engaged in the task of this department. 
Another shelf bears the label, "Circle Observations," and "Altitude and 
Azimuth Observations;" and row after row of gigantic folios vouch for the 
industry of the other persons similarly employed in these departments. On 



OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 657 

looking over the shoulder of one computer, we find that he is employed upon 
a book of blank forms, that is, of printed forms where even' operation to be 
performed is indicated so plainly that scarcely a possibility of mistake or 
error can arise. It is the practice to reduce considerable masses of the same 
class of computation at the same time, so that the computer laboriously 
makes his way through line after line of his work till he arrives at the 
bottom of his pages, when his work is complete, and he passes it on to another 
person for examination. But his duty is never-ending ; a new set of compu- 
tations, involving the same monotonous labour, is awaiting him, and new 
observations are continually supplying the places of those which have been 
reduced. Some idea of the aggregate amount of labour performed may be 
formed by the fact that the various blank forms for calculation amount to 
considerably above 100. 

While some obseiwations are being reduced, others that have been reduced 
and put into the printer's hands, are being passed through the press — a most 
wearying and thankless labour. To insure every possible accuracy to this 
process, two assistants are employed to compare figure by figure the printed 
sheet with the original computations, one person reading from the MS., and 
the other holding the sheet, and being answerable for every figure requiring 
correction. After this process it is passed over to the First Assistant, who 
gives it a systematic examination in the way which his experience suggests 
as best adapted to detect any errors which may yet (and some such will infal- 
libly) remain. If the Astronomer Royal be present the sheet is finally passed 
to him, and he examines such parts as are most liable to error, and is fre- 
quently successful, even at this stage, in finding something still wrong. In 
addition to these astronomical labours, a report on the rates of the chronome- 
ters is required to be sent weekly to the Admiralty, and a good deal of busi- 
ness relative to their repairs is to be transacted with the makers. 

A large paper placed upon a board above the mantelpiece contains the 
arrangement of the assistants for the observing duty for the week. Each 
observer's watch extends from 3 o'clock on one morning till the same hour 
on the following ; and the duties are, for the meridian instruments, to ob- 
serve on the meridian the sun, the moon, and every planet which is visible 
during this interval, together with a list of stars furnished to him, and limited 
to a certain hour of the night ; for the altitude and azimuth-instrunient the 
observer must watch the moon from the time of her rising to her setting, till 
he has obtained a satisfactory observation in both elements, and in cloudy 
weather this duty is very harassing and fatiguing. A chronometer placed in a 
conspicuous part of the room warns the observer during the computing hours 
when the passage of a planet or a bright star is about to take place ; and 
at such times the meridian observers for the day quietly leave the room, 
and, when they have completed their observations, as quietly resume their 
computing labours. In fact, what strikes a visitor most on a casual inspection 
is the quiet, and order, and regularity, with which everything is done. Every 
one knows precisely what his duty is, and how to perform it well. Every 
possible help is made use of for shortening the processes of calculation, and 
among other methods for this purpose great use is made of sliding scales, 
which have been adapted by the Astronomer Eoyal for many processes which 
would without them be very tedious and troublesome. All the best modern 
tables are at hand also to ease the computer, and the economy of labour is car- 
ried to its greatest possible extent in every operation that is to be performed. 

Leaving the computing-room by its western door we find ourselves in a 
passage or thoroughfare that was formerly part of the quadrant-room of the 
observatory. The quadrant immediately opposite to us is that which was 
made by Bird for Bradley, of which an account has already been given in our 
history; To see Graham's quadrant we must go into the room on the other 
side of the pier, which has been rendered fire-proof by means of building up 

F F 3 



658 LONDON. 

the wall above the pier, so as completely to isolate it from the other parts of 
the building, and by making its door, shelves, and other furniture, of iron. 
In this room are stored all the MSS. of the observatory, from the time of 
Flamsteed to the present time. Flamsteed's MSS. were collected and ar- 
ranged by the late Mr. Francis Baily, and they formed the principal mate- 
rials from which his valuable life of Flamsteed was compiled. They are 
neatly and strongly done up in cases and guard -books, so that their existence 
and durability are secured for a long period of time. The MSS. of Halley 
and Maskelyne follow, and the fac-simile copy of Bradley's observations, 
generously allowed to Mr. Airy by the University of Oxford, in whose keeping 
are the original MSS. In a larger chest lie the papers of the Board of Lon- 
gitude, classified according to their subjects, yet not finally arranged or 
reduced to order. The proceedings of this Board form a most important part 
of the history of astronomy ; and an account of its proceedings would form 
one of its most interesting chapters. Amongst those papers lie buried the 
wild schemes of the needy and ignorant pretenders to science, some of whom 
identified the finding of the longitude with the squaring of the circle, and 
both as problems to be accomplished by some sleight of hand, with which 
science had little to do. The Board of Longitude accomplished its object by 
exciting industry and skill in two very distinct departments, viz. by the per- 
fection given to chronometers, and by improved tables of the moon, which 
were elicited by the prospect of the same reward ; but the inspection of the 
papers generally gives a melancholy view of misapplied energy and talent. « 

Amongst the voluminous books and papers of the present Astronomer Royal, 
arranged with a precision of order perhaps unequalled, we may select a few of 
the most prominent for a cursory inspection. Those thick and labelled folios 
over the door contain the MSS. of the computations of the recent Greenwich 
catalogues of stars, a most valuable contribution to science ; and the size and 
number of these volumes will give some idea of the labour of such a work. In 
another part of the room are other large folios, containing the computations 
connected with the chronometrical expedition for the determination of the 
longitude of Yalentia, on the north coast of Ireland. All the computation- 
books for the reduction of the meridian and other observations are ranged in 
order on the shelves, and present rather a formidable idea of the heavy and 
monotonous labours of the computing-room. In fact, we could say now with 
perfect confidence of the contents of this room what was said nearly half a 
century ago of the Greenwich observations by Delambre, that, if the whole 
edifice of astronomy were by any series of casualties to be destroyed, it might 
be rebuilt by the materials found here. The room is already shelved round 
in every possible way, but the accumulation of books and papers is so rapid 
under the present vigorous administration of the observatory, as to be rapidly 
becoming too small for its object. 

The Altitude and Azimuth-Instrument* in the New South Dome, to which 
we now proceed, passing through the quadrant-room, is the last astronomical 
instrument which claims our notice. The dome is erected on the site of what 
was formerly called the advanced building where Flamsteed's mural-arc stood. 
The staircase by which we ascend is carried round the three-rayed brick pier 
which serves as the foundation of the instrument. Upon the three rays of the 
pier are laid the radial arms of an iron triangle, which is the basis of the sup- 
port of the upper pivot of the instrument, and upon its centre is placed a 
smaller pier that supports the fixed circle in which turns the lower part of the 
instrument. An upper triangle, having its angular points in positions corre- 
sponding to the sides of the lower triangle, and connected with it by iron bars 
screwed to the triangles, forms the remaining part of the frame for the support 
of the upper pivot. This part of the construction it is necessary to explain in 

* This instrument is now called, in compliance with a suggestion of Dr. Whewell, the 
"Altazimuth Instrument." 



OBSERVATORIES.— GREENWICH. 



659 




THE ALTAZIMUTH INSTRUMENT. 

our passage up the stairs ; but it will be desirable before entering on any other 
details to explain the objects which the Astronomer Koyal had in view in 
erecting this instrument, and in adopting this peculiar construction. The 
observatory was originally founded for observations necessary to bring to 
perfection the lunar tables, and for the improvement of nautical astronomy. 
The observation of the moon in every part of her orbit has always been, 
therefore, an object of first-rate importance. To effect this, meridian observa^ 
tions have been always employed in fixed observatories as alone giving results 
of the requisite excellence. But, since the moon is invisible at her meridian 
passage for nearly one-third of her orbit, viz. for about 4 days on the average 
before conjunction, and for 4 days after it, and since also a great many obser- 



660 LONDON. 

vations in each lunation are necessarily lost by cloudy weather, it became a 
great desideratum to supply, if possible, by extra-meridional observations, 
these defects. The altitude and azimuthal instrument was evidently the kind 
of instrument that must be employed for this purpose, because, its axes being 
one horizontal and the other vertical, the parts of the instrument are equally 
affected by gravity in every position, and the only thing wanted to produce 
observations which should rival those made with the transit-instrument and 
mural-circle, would be sufficient firmness. To effect this the ^Astronomer 
Royal adopted as his principles of construction, "to form as many parts as 
possible in one cast of metal, to use no small screws in the union of parts, 
and to have no power of adjustment in any." The instrument is therefore, as 
the visitor may see, of unusual weight and solidity. One of the two vertical 
cheeks that are on each side of the telescope carries in one cast of metal the 
four microscopes for reading the vertical circle and the supports of the levels 
parallel to the plane of that circle. The lower piece connecting these cheeks, 
or the base plate, carries in one cast the four microscopes for reading the hori- 
zontal or azimuthal circle, and supports two levels parallel to the horizontal 
axis; and the upper connecting piece carries two other levels similarly situated 
and the upper pivot. These pieces are most firmly connected with the side ver- 
tical cheeks by means of planed surfaces and screw bolts. The vertical circle 
was made in two casts of metal; viz. the cylindrical part, the spokes and 
pivots on one side, the object-end and the eye-end of the telescope were made 
in one cast ; and in the other cast are included the spokes and pivot on the 
other side. Thus the whole of 'the essential parts of the instrument with 
regard to firmness were made in six casts of metal. The weight of these six 
parts is about 16 cwt. 

The instrument thus massively constructed turns upon a lower fixed circle 
strongly ribbed beneath, and supported by three of its ribs resting in grooves 
cut in three metallic blocks let into the pier. The lower pivot (of gun metal) 
upon which the azimuthal frame revolves is spherical, and takes its bearing up- 
wards in a socket in the baseplate, and downwards in a cone of harder gun 
metal in the lower fixed circle. Part of the weight of the instrument is taken 
off from the pivot by a counterpoise acting by means of levers that push a 
slider upwards against the pivot. The upper pivot is held in a Y kept in a 
fixed position by means of a frame of three radial bars that are welded together 
at the centre, and whose extremities, cut into screws, rest in forks cut in the 
upper iron triangle previously described, an outer and an inner nut being applied 
to each, which firmly embrace the fork and prevent the rod from sliding end- 
ways in it. A moderately slow motion is given both in altitude and in azimuth, 
the inner portions of the vertical and horizontal circles being racked, by means 
of pinions working in the rack ; but there is no provision by means of screws 
for a very slow motion. The pivots of the vertical circle were severely tested by 
microscopes fixed opposite to the ends of them, which were made to observe 
the horizontal and vertical coordinates of a dot in each pivot in different posi- 
tions of the vertical circle. The result of the examination was most credit- 
able to the skill of the engineers, Messrs. Ransomes and May, the errors of form 
of the pivots being so small as to require no numerical correction. The divi- 
sion of the two circles was performed by Mr. Simms with his dividing engine, 
and was proved after a severe examination to be nearly perfect. 

A large gas-light, carried by one cheek (the gas being conveyed to it by 
jointed tubes, which accommodate their position to the rotation of the 
instrument), and placed opposite to the perforated pivot, illuminates, by 
means of a series of reflectors, the four microscopes of both circles, and at the 
same time throws light into the field of the telescope. It is worth while to 
mention with regard to the microscopes, that they are surrounded with long 
tubes of brass coated internally with plaster, which reach very nearly to the 
divided limbs, a hole being left for the admission of light ; and that their re- 



OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 661 

flectors are also coated with plaster. The effect of this construction (borrowed 
from the Germans) is that the divisions are seen as dark strokes upon a light 
ground, without any appearance of specular reflexion, and without any bright 
lines at their edges. 

For the purpose of keeping a check on the constancy of the zero of azimuth 
as observed by stars, and for observation of the zero of altitude, a collimator 
or fixed mark is employed, consisting of a lens of long focus fixed in the 
north side of the dome, and of a tube firmly fixed in the upper part of the 
building to the north of the dome outside the computing-room. This tube 
carries a disk of metal with a very minute perforation, behind which is placed 
a gas-light, and, the telescope being directed to it, the appearance is that of a 
well-defined brightish star admitting of very accurate observation. 

We will devote but few words to the explanation of the methods of making 
the observation before leaving the instrument. If the observation be that of 
the azimuth of the moon's limb, the azimuthal circle is clamped before the 
limb comes to the first of the six vertical wires, and, as she passes obliquely 
through the field, the transit of the limb is taken as nearly as possible on the 
same part of each wire by giving motion to the vertical circle, and, when the 
transit is complete, the microscopes of the horizontal circle, and the four levels 
parallel to the axis of the vertical circle, are read. A similar explanation will 
apply to the observation in altitude. 

The observations made with this noble instrument have fully answered the 
expectations of the Astronomer Koyal, both in quantity and excellence. Dur- 
ing the last year the observations were at least double in number of those made 
with the meridian instruments, and of equal goodness. Some also were made 
within one day of the moon's conjunction ; and we may confidently expect 
that a few years' observations with the instrument will, as nearly as is possible, 
bring to perfection the theory of the moon, and annihilate the remaining errors 
of her orbit. 

We have still to visit the Magnetic Obsewatory, and therefore must omit 
many details respecting the altitude and azimuth instrument, for which we 
must refer the scientific visitor to the introduction to the Greenwich Astrono- 
mical Observations for 1847. 

Magnetism is a subject closely allied to nautical astronomy, and its elements 
have been the subject of observation since the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, though it is only within a very few years that a great organized effort 
has been made for collecting sufficient facts for detennining the magnetic con- 
dition of the various points of the earth's surface, and for rendering the know- 
ledge thus acquired subservient to the improvement of navigation. 

For the modern theory of magnetism, and for the invention of the chief 
instruments employed in modern research, we are indebted to the great Ger- 
man philosopher Gauss, as well as for the idea of the organized corporation of 
different countries for determining simultaneously the various required elements 
within their respective boundaries. England, though not taking the lead in 
this movement, has yet answered nobly to the appeal made to her, and to the 
observations made at her head quarters of science, Greenwich, and to those 
made in her colonies, the future philosopher will perhaps mainly have recourse 
in his researches on the theory of magnetism. 

As early as the year 1837 the space of ground on which the Magnetic Obser- 
vatory stands was inclosed from the park on the south-east side of the then 
existing boundary, and in the spring of 1838 the observatory was built. It is 
necessarily placed at a considerable distance from the astronomical buildings, 
and iron is carefully excluded from every part of it. You will observe that it 
is cruciform, with equal arms, which are in the direction of the cardinal mag- 
netic points. The northern arm is separated from the rest by a partition, and 
is used as the office and computing-room of this part of the establishment 



GG'2 LONDON. 

We shall better understand the nature of the instruments employed by 
considering what are the facts which we desire to get knowledge of by obser- 
vation. Every one knows what a magnet is, that is, a piece of iron perma- 
nently affected by magnetism, and rendered capable of attracting other pieces 
of iron towards itself, and, when left at rest, or freed from the action of gra- 
vity, of assuming some definite position of equilibrium. Now the object of 
magnetic observations is to elicit the direction and intensity of the earth's 
magnetism at any particular point of her surface by means of such magnets. 
Every one also who is at all acquainted with mechanics is aware that a force is 
capable of being resolved in two or more directions, so that we may have 
several forces acting in several directions which shall produce exactly the 
same effect as a single force in some other direction. Taking advantage then 
of this law, we propose to ourselves to determine the direction of the vertical 
plane in which the force of magnetism is exerted for this locality, and the 
intensity of the forces, or rather the variations of force, from day to day in the 
vertical and horizontal directions. 

Now the obvious way to determine the direction of the force is to liang up a 
magnetized needle by a wire or a string without twist, and to determine the 
direction in which it will hang with regard to some well-determined line on the 
earth's surface, for instance with the north or south line or astronomical me- 
ridian of the place. And this is what is in fact done by means of the instru- 
ment in the south arm of the cross, called technically the Declination Mag- 
netometer (the old nautical term variation being replaced by the less ambiguous 
one declination). A large bar magnet, contained in a double box covered with 
gilded paper, is suspended by several parallel threads of raw or untwisted silk, 
so as to give as little tension or twisting force as possible, the magnet itself 
being held in a stirrup in a horizontal direction, and the threads passing over 
a reel at the top of a wooden suspension-frame, and being tied to a string so as 
to be at the command of the observer below, for the purpose of elevating or de- 
pressing the magnet. The gilded boxes are used to prevent the disturbance that 
is caused by currents of unequally-heated air which tend to keep the magnet in 
a state of vibration. On the magnet are screwed two frames on opposite sides 
of its centre, one containing a lens, and the other a cross- wire, the direction of 
the line joining the centre of the lens and the cross being the immediate subject 
of observation. This cross is observed by means of the theodolite on the 
pier near us, the telescope of which has a micrometer attached to its eye-piece, 
the circle of the theodolite and the micrometer both being read for each obser- 
vation. 

A reading is thus obtained for the direction of the line nearly corresponding 
to that in which magnetism causes the bar to rest, and a corresponding read- 
ing for the astronomical meridian being obtained by transits of stars near 
the pole, the difference of these gives the magnetic declination, or subject of 
observation. It may be perhaps desirable to mention that we do not observe 
directly the direction of the magnetic axis of the bar by this means, but that 
of a line nearly but not quite parallel to it. But supposing we were to reverse 
the position of the magnet in its stirrup so that the frames which are now west 
of it should be east, and repeat the observation, it is evident that we should 
obtain (supposing there were no change of magnetic direction between the 
observations) double the amount of the error arising from this cause, and the 
error (similar to the error of collimation of the transit instrument) is actually 
measured thus once at least every year. To check the vibrations that may arise 
from any accidental disturbance of the magnet, it is surrounded with a circuit of 
pure copper which may be seen through the hole in front of the box. The 
daylight is thrown into the box through the aperture at the back of the box 
by means of a reflector, and at night an ordinary oil lamp is employed. In 
our present observations of this and the other instruments, we must be under- 
stood as describing their ordinary use independently of the means by which 



OBSERVATORIES. GREENWICH. 66*3 

they are made to register their results photographically. This we shall give a 
brief description of afterwards. 

The next instrument which claims our notice is the BifUar Magnetometer or 
instrument for measuring the variations of the force of magnetism resolved 
horizontally. Its name is descriptive of its construction. It consists mainly 
of a magnet suspended by tvm strings at a small and definite distance asunder. 
It is plain that if we were to suspend a heavy unmagnetized bar of any kind by two 
strings of equal length from the ceiling of a room, it would remain at rest only in 
that position in which it and the strings were in the same vertical plane, and if we 
were to turn it round out of this position, it would resist our efforts and endeavour 
to resume its former position of equilibrium with a force proportional to its 
weight and the angle through which it had been twisted. This principle of 
the force of torsion is ingeniously applied to measure the variations of the 
force of magnetism. A magnet placed horizontally in a metallic suspension- 
piece is suspended by two strings hanging in a vertical plane nearly at right 
angles to the direction of the declination- magnet or to the magnetic meridian. 
The upper part of the suspension-piece carries a plate with a pair of small 
pulleys attached to it, under which two halves of a skein of silk pass ; and this 
is connected with a small circle called a torsion circle, which turns with refer- 
ence to the magnet cell (being hel^ by stiff friction). The magnet is turned 
round by this means till it will hang in equilibrium in a direction very nearly 
at right angles to the plane of the meridian, the torsion of the strings (which 
have been twisted round out of their natural position of rest for an unmag- 
netized bar) being a force that endeavours to pull the magnet round in one 
direction, while its own magnetism is employed in trying to turn it in the other 
direction. Now the force of torsion is very nearly constant, but the hori- 
zontal force of magnetism is subject to ceaseless fluctuations which compel the 
magnet to take up different positions of rest, and these angular changes can 
be by a mathematical calculation connected with the forces that produce them, 
so that if they can be measured, the variations of force in terms of the whole 
magnetic force will be found. For this purpose a small plane mirror, which 
you may see through a glass in the aperture of the side of the box, is attached 
to the frame that carries the magnet, and necessarily revolves with it, and, a 
scale properly divided being placed on the south wall of this arm of the build- 
ing, its divisions reflected in the mirror are observed on a wire of the observing 
telescope directed towards the mirror. The general principles of this instru- 
ment will, it is hoped, be understood by this brief description, and we have 
no time for more details. We will therefore pass on to the remaining mag- 
netical instrument contained in the box in the western arm of the room. 

This instrument is the Balance Magnetometer, for measuring the variations 
of the vertical force of magnetism. Its principle can be explained in few 
words. A magnet placed nearly at right angles to the magnetic meridian is 
made to vibrate like a balance on agate planes, being inserted in a brass frame 
to which two steel knife-edges are attached, and is kept horizontal or nearly 
so by small weights placed near its extremities above and below the centre of 
gravity. By shifting the position of these weights, the inclination of the 
magnet to the horizon, as well as the height of the centre of gravity, can be 
altered. 

On one side of the centre of the magnet a mirror is placed in an inclined 
position, which serves to reflect light from the divisions of an engraved scale 
placed vertically near the observing telescope into the telescope. The obser- 
vations are thus made precisely in the same manner as with the instrument 
last described, and the observed variations in the scale-divisions can be readily 
reduced to the required variations of the vertical force of magnetism. 

The principle of construction of each of the three principal magnetic in- 
struments having been described, it remains for us to show how the magnets 
are caused by photography skilfully applied and adapted, to register their 



664 LONDON. 

own results with no more labour to the person employed than supplying them 
punctually and liberally with properly-prepared paper, and keeping their 
lights always properly burning. It is proper to mention previously that the 
merit of having so successfully accomplished this desideratum in practical 
science is due to Mr. Brooke, a medical gentleman of London. By saying 
this we do not in the least wish to detract from the merits of similar inven- 
tions by Mr. Ronalds, who for some years has with great skill and zeal gratui- 
tously conducted the meteorological observations of the Kew Observatory, but 
we shall afterwards have an opportunity of describing the peculiar and inge- 
nious methods of this gentleman when we come to the description of the 
latter observatory. 

We shall attempt only an explanation of the general principle of the pho- 
tographic method, and of its application to the purpose of making the mag- 
netical and other instruments self-registering ; a description of the exact 
mode of treatment applied to each instrument would exceed the limits to 
which we must confine ourselves. 

Most persons are familiar with the process by which paper is prepared so as 
to render it extremely sensitive to the action of light. It is first washed with 
a solution of isinglass, bromide of potassium, and iodide of potassium in pro- 
portions of nearly 1, 3, and 2, and may, when carefully dried, be put away in a 
drawer till it is wanted for use. When required for use it is placed in a darkened 
chamber and washed with an aqueous solution of nitrate of silver, and is then 
in a proper state of sensitiveness to the action of light, so that if a beam of 
strong light be allowed to fall upon any part of it, an impression is made upon 
that part, which is, however, invisible till the paper is washed with a solution of 
gallic acid, with a small admixture of acetic acid. Imagine, then, a sheet of 
paper properly prepared to be rolled round the glass cylinders, several of 
which we see before us, or rather between two such cylinders for the purpose 
of keeping it safely in one invariable position. Each cylinder has one hemi- 
spherical end, and the inner one is stopped at the other end by insertion in a 
metallic cap, in the centre of which is a short spindle and winch-arm. On the 
rim of the metallic plate is placed a collar of tape, which gives friction enough 
to keep the cylinders with the paper between them firmly in one position. 
The cylinders are then mounted with their axes horizontal, the short spindle 
at one end and the hemispherical termination at the other, resting on friction 
rollers. The winch-arm is lodged in a fork at the end of the hour-end of a 
time-piece with very strong wheels and powerful spring and with duplex escape- 
ment, and the cylinders with the registering paper are thus made to revolve 
uniformly so as to complete a revolution in twelve hours. We must now 
describe how the light is thrown upon the paper, and, to fix the ideas, we 
must be understood as speaking of the declination-magnet, as the principle is 
nearly the same for all the instruments. A gas-light is placed a little out of 
the direction of the straight line joining the suspending skein of the magnet 
and the middle of the cylinders, and light passing from it through a small 
aperture falls upon a concave mirror carried by part of the suspension-apparatus 
of the magnet. The rays of light thus reflected from the mirror are made to 
converge pretty nearly upon the paper on the cylinder, the effect of the 
oblique reflexion being diminished by a plano-convex cylindrical lens of glass 
placed before the cylinder with its axis horizontal. 

The cylinders are completely covered over with a double case of blackened 
zinc, having a slit on each side in the same horizontal plane as the axis of the 
cylinder ; and the beam of light throughout its whole course is, as you see, 
protected by zinc tubes from the admixture of extraneous light. Through the 
slit on the north side the light from a fixed gas-flame is admitted to the 
cylinder, and thus a fixed line is marked, which serves as a base or line of 
reference for measurement. Thus, then, as the magnet, throughout the day 
and night, is constantly making small excursions on one side and the other of 



OBSERVATORIES. — GREENWICH. 665 

its mean position, this faithful and ever-watchful assistant is as constantly 
recording even the slightest movement, and tracing a zigzag line on the paper, 
from which the positions can be readily computed, for any given instant, with as 
much accuracy as if they were made in the ancient or ordinary way which has 
already been described. But to reduce the observations to the same scale as 
the ordinary observations, it is necessary, at certain times in the day, still to 
record the indications of the magnets in the ordinary way, and these observa- 
tions being compared with the photographic indications given for the same 
times, afford means for the reduction of all the observations to the same scale 
as if all had been made in the ordinary way. The same cylinder is made to 
record the indications of two instruments by being so placed that the light 
recording the movements of each shall fall on opposite sides of it. Thus in 
24 hours each paper exhibits two double traces (the cylinders making two 
complete revolutions in that space of time) with a corresponding base line, 
which serves for both instruments ; the cylindrical paper used for the decli- 
nation magnet, for example, carries also the trace of the bifilar magnet ; and 
that used for the vertical-force magnet carries also the trace for the baro- 
meter. 

This latter instrument is a large syphon barometer, and may be briefly de- 
scribed as follows : — A glass float on the mercury in the shorter leg of the 
syphon is partially supported by a counterpoise acting on a light lever turning 
on delicate pivots, leaving a certain portion of the weight of the float to be 
supported by the mercury. The lever is lengthened to carry a vertical plate 
of opaque mica, with a small aperture, and through this aperture the light 
of the gas-lamp, collected by a cylindrical lens, shines upon the photographic 
paper. 

Under a shed in the grounds are placed two thermometers (a wet-bulb and 
a dry-bulb thermometer), giving photographic indications by means very 
similar, the cylinders being vertical and the divisions of the thermometers 
being marked on the paper by the absence of light at the intervals where it 
is intercepted by wires placed across the tubes at every degree. The bulbs of 
the thermometers are large and the cylinders long. 

We have still to describe the electrical apparatus, before leaving the Mag- 
netic Observatory. This consists of two distinct parts, viz., of the instruments 
which we see in the window, communicating directly with a series of vertical 
brass rods, which project from a long horizontal brass tube carried by an in- 
sulating double cone of glass kept warm by lamps, and of the apparatus at the 
top of the lofty pole outside the building. This latter consists mainly of a 
copper tube 5 ft. in length, carrying at its lower extremity a copper 
umbrella, which is fixed upon the top of a truncated cone of glass for insula- 
tion. The glass is hollowed out beneath, a cone of copper being placed in its 
conical hollow, and the heat of a lamp placed beneath it serves to keep the 
glass in a proper state for insulating perfectly. The box containing the glass, 
&c, is fastened to a vertical plank, which is attached to perforated iron bars, 
sliding upon iron rods, that guide the apparatus in its ascents and descents. 
Xear the bottom of the pole is fixed a windlass, the rope of which passes over 
a pulley in the cap of the mast and sustains the apparatus. "When the appa- 
ratus is lowered, the conducting wire is coiled upon a self-acting reel, which is 
urged by a weight, but which may be better understood by actual inspection. 
The atmospheric electricity is collected by means of the flame of a large lamp 
placed on the top of the copper rod, and is conveyed to the instruments within 
the room by the conducting wire soldered on to the outside of the copper 
umbrella beneath the cap. The instruments consist of a double gold-leaf 
electrometer, two Yolta's electrometers, a Henley's electrometer, a Konalds' 
spark measurer, a dry-pile apparatus, and a galvanometer. The electrometers 
and the spark measurer were originally constructed under the superintendence 



666 LONDON. 

of Mr. Ronalds, of whom we shall have occasion to speak in connection with 
the Kew Observatory. 

Near the southern boundary of the grounds is a shed containing an appara- 
tus for determining the absolute intensity of the horizontal force of magnetism. 
A graduated circle is fixed to a tripod stand, with its plane horizontal, and two 
planks at right angles to each other turn horizontally on a pin at its centre. 
Upon the centre of the plank is fixed a box carrying a suspension-apparatus 
for a magnet, which is deflected by another magnet placed at small measured 
distances, in the same plane, and at right angles to it. At one end of one of 
the planks is fixed a telescope with a wire in its focus, and a short scale to be 
viewed by reflexion in the mirror carried by the suspended magnet. The 
division of the scale which is on the wire when the deflecting magnet is away 
being noted, and the circle microscopes being read, the deflecting magnet is 
laid at one of the measured distances, and the planks are turned round till that 
division is again on the wire, when the microscropes are read again. The dif- 
ference of the readings gives the disturbing effect of the magnet. In practice, 
however, the deflecting magnet is generally placed with its poles successively in 
opposite positions, and the difference of readings is then double the effect of 
the disturbance. By combining such observations with the observations of 
vibration of the deflecting magnet, data are found for determining the energy 
of the magnetic force that influences the magnets. 

In an opposite shed or wooden erection is an excellent dipping needle by 
Robinson, with which the magnetic dip is determined three times on the 
Monday of every week. 

Besides the meteorological instruments which give self-registering indications 
by the photographical and other processes which have been described, there 
are others yet to be mentioned. 

Of these the chief is the standard Barometer by Newman, which is fixed at 
the south-west re-entering angle of the Magnetic Observatory. The tube is 
nearly six-tenths of an inch in diameter ; its graduated scale is of brass, and to 
it is affixed a brass rod passing downwards and terminating in a point of ivory. 
In observation, this point and its image reflected in the cistern of mercury are 
brought into contact. The readings of this barometer are very nearly coin- 
cident with those of the Royal Society's flint-glass standard barometer. 

The Thermometers generally are placed on a vertical revolving stand, placed 
at some little distance south of the Magnetic Observatory. This stand re- 
volves freely on a vertical post, and is composed of a vertical board, turned 
away from the sun, to which the thermometers are attached, and of two 
inclined boards separated by an interval of some inches, of which the outer one 
is turned towards the sun. An effectual screen is thus formed from the direct 
effects of the sun's rays, while there is nothing whatever near the thermometers 
to affect the temperature of the air. On the stand are placed a standard ther- 
mometer for the temperature of the air, a dry-bulb and a wet-bulb thermometer 
for determining the temperature of evaporation and of the dew-point, self- 
registering ordinary maximum and minimum thermometers, and self-register- 
ing wet-bulb maximum and minimum thermometers. 

A case to the east of this stand contains the tops of the tubes of four ther- 
mometers sunk in the ground at the depths respectively of 24, 12, 6, and 
3 French feet for the determination of the temperature of the earth and its 
variations at different depths below the surface. 

On the ground, near the stand carrying the thermometers, are two rain- 
gauges, one on Crosley's construction, self-registering, and the other a plain 
cylindrical gauge. A third gauge, also cylindrical, is also placed on the leads 
above the library. 

A small area is railed off for the placing of thermometers used for making ex- 
periments on the radiation of heat from different substances, which were most 



OBSERVATORIES. — KEW. 667 

elaborately conducted by Mr. Glaisher, the superintendent of this department 
of the observatory, and of which the results are given in the Philosophical 
Transactions. 

There is also a thermometer exposed to the full rays of the sun, and another 
thermometer with its bulb placed in the focus of a parabolic reflector for 
terrestrial radiation. 

This completes our survey of the principal instruments of the observatory. 
The accounts given of them, and the descriptions of their mode of use, and of 
the general features of the establishment, are necessarily imperfect, though, 
even now, they will, to many persons, seem unnecessarily long and tedious. 
Enough has been shown to give an idea of the laborious methods practised by 
the astronomer, and of the undeviating rigour and punctuality with which his 
duties are performed. Day after day, and night after night, he is slowly and 
painfully adding to the heap of facts which furnish the materials for future 
discovery, and for correcting still further every element in the theory of the 
celestial bodies with which he is already conversant. 

The visitor either before or after his visit to the Royal Observatory will 
most probably pay a visit also to the other admirable and far-famed institution 
of the town of Greenwich, viz. its Hospital and Schools. The latter have long 
been famed for the excellent training given to the boys in nautical astronomy, 
and chiefly for the skill with which they have been taught to observe with the 
sextant and other instruments. At the present time an observatory, well 
furnished with first-class instruments, is being erected for their use under the 
direction of the Rev. George Fisher, the Chaplain to the establishment. It 
does not fall within our province to give a formal description of these, but it 
may be interesting to know that the transit-instrument and mural-circle which 
are to be erected here are the same instruments which were used formerly 
with so much effect at St. Helena by Mr. Johnson, the present director of the 
Oxford Observatory. 

THE KEW OBSERVATORY. 

We propose to give, in the next place, a description of the Observatory at 
Kew, established in 1842, under the auspices and at the expense of the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science. 

The building appropriated for the magnetical and meteorological observa- 
tions contemplated by the Association, is that which was built about the year 
1768, by Sir William Chambers, for his Majesty King George III., for an 
astronomical observatory. It is beautifully situated in the Old Deer Park, 
Richmond, upon a promontory formed by a flexure of the river, from which 
its least distance is 924 ft. The situation is favourable for electrical observa- 
tions, the highest trees near it being some feet lower than the top of the 
dome that surmounts the building. The building was originally arranged 
for apartments to receive a transit-instrument, a mural quadrant, and an 
equatorial instrument. On entering the building by the flight of steps on 
the north side the visitor finds himself in a fine hall, exactly corresponding 
with an apartment immediately in front of it on the south side. The apart- 
ments to the right and left on the south side of the building contain the 
transit-instrument and the great mural quadrant. The room above the south 
central room is appropriated as a kind of study and laboratory; and this 
room, and the rooms below it, are lined with glass cases, containing philoso- 
phical instruments and objects of natural history. The rooms in the same 
story are used as dwelling apartments for the observer and keeper of the 
building and their families, and one or two other rooms are occupied as sleep- 
ing apartments. 

In the year 1842, on a representation made by the British Association to 
her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and Forests, the building was appro- 



668 




KBW OBSERVATORY. 



priated to their use, and the laborious charge of arranging for the necessary 
instruments, and of superintending the observations, was generously undertaken 
by Francis Ronalds, Esq., a gentleman well known for his previous researches 
in electricity and meteorology generally. From that time to the present he 
has devoted himself almost exclusively to this task ; and the science of atmo- 
spheric electricity, not to speak of other branches of meteorology, is mainly 
indebted to him for its present state of advancement. 

Mr. Ronalds' researches were at first chiefly directed to the observation of 
electrical phenomena, and for this purpose the dome originally intended for 
an equatorial instrument was appropriated. The apartment beneath the dome 
is composed chiefly of wood covered by sheet copper, and is erected on a very 
solid wall built up from the foundation. The dome itself is moveable by well- 
contrived rack-work, and it has the usual sliding shutters. 

To adapt the dome for an electrical observatory a circular hole has been cut 
through its centre, and in it is fitted a smooth mahogany varnished cylinder. 
A strong cylindrical pedestal, surrounded by a stage reached by steps, is fixed 
in the centre, for placing the principal conductor, which is a conical tube of 
copper, 16 ft. long, entering into a brass tube beneath it. This latter sur- 
mounts as a cap a well-annealed hollow glass pillar that rests upon the centre 
of the pedestal, to which it is securely fixed by eight bolts passing through a 
strong wooden collar into the table forming the top of the pedestal. On the 
brass cap surmounting the insulating glass column is fixed a spherical ring 
carrying four arms at right angles to each other, and by means of these arms 
is effected the connection of the conducting rod and the electrometers be- 
neath in a way that needs no particular description. A small lamp is placed 
beneath the glass column to secure the proper warmth for perfect insulation, 



OBSERVATORIES. — KEW. 669 

and to the top of the conducting rod Yolta's small lantern is fitted, in which 
a light is kept always burning. Just above the opening of the dome there is 
fitted in the brass tube a small inverted copper dish or umbrella, to protect 
the instruments from the rain. 

The instruments which are usually kept in connection with the conductor 
are similar to those used at Greenwich (indeed it must be kept in mind that 
the electrical apparatus at Greenwich was copied from that at Kew, with such 
modifications as were necessary, and that Mr. Ronalds gave his willing and 
able assistance in every part of it). The action of the Kew apparatus is, 
however, much more continuous and perfect than that at Greenwich, owing, 
probably, to the length of the conducting wire used with the latter. 

The expressed object of the establishment at Kew was the construction 
and working of self-registering meteorological instruments, and to this sub- 
ject Mr. Ronalds devoted a considerable portion of his attention from the com- 
mencement, but chiefly with regard to the electrical observations. 

For some time the indications of the electrical state of the atmosphere were 
obtained by putting in connection with the conductor a circular plate of tin or 
glass, covered with a thin layer of shell-lac or resin. This plate, being carried 
round by clock-work, becomes electrified in the line and neighbourhood of its 
contact with the conductor, and, on being removed and well powdered with 
chalk, exhibits very interesting figures by the adhering of the chalk to those 
parts. In 1845, however, Mr. Ronalds was enabled to supersede this instru- 
ment by a more efficient one constructed on photographic principles which 
we will briefly describe, from the account given by Mr. Ronalds in a paper 
read before the Royal Society, in January, 1847. 

"A rectangular box, about 16 in. long and 3 in. square, constitutes the 
'body' of a kind of lucernal microscope. A voltaic electrometer (properly 
insulated, and in communication with an atmospheric conductor) is suspended 
within this microscope, through an aperture in the upper side, and near to 
the object-end. That end itself is closed by a pane of glass when daylight 
is used, and by condensing lenses when a common Argand lamp is employed. 
Between the electrometer and the other or eye-end of the microscope, fine 
achromatic lenses are placed, which have the double effect of condensing the 
light upon a screen situated at the eye-end, and of projecting a strong image 
of the electrometer in deep oscuro upon it. Through the screen a very 
narrow slit of proper curvature, in a horizontal position, is cut, and is fitted 
into the back of a case fixed to the eye-end of the microscope, at right angles 
to its axis and vertical. Within this case is suspended a frame, provided with 
grooves, into which two plates of pure thin glass can be dropped, and brought 
into close contact by six little bolts and nuts. This frame can be removed at 
pleasure from a line by which it is suspended; and the line, after passing 
through a small aperture cut through the upper end of the long case, is 
attached to a pulley fixed, with capacity of adjustment, to the hour-arbor of 
a good clock. 

" A piece of properly-prepared photographic paper is now placed between 
the two pieces of glass in the moveable frame ; the frame is removed (in a 
box purposely made for excluding light) and is suspended in the long case ; 
this is closed, so as to prevent the possibility of extraneous light entering it ; 
the clock is started, and the time of starting is noted. 

" All that part of the paper which is made to pass over the slit in the screen 
by the motion of the clock becomes now, therefore, successively exposed to 
a strong light, and is consequently brought into a state which fits it to receive 
a dark^ colour, on being again washed with the usual solutions, excepting those 
small portions upon which dark images of the lower parts of the pendulums 
of the electrometer are projected through the slit ; these small portions of 
course retain the light colour of the paper, and form long curved lines or 
bands, whose distances from each other at any given part of the photograph 



670 LONDON. 

i. e. at any given time, indicate the electric tension of the atmosphere at 
that time." 

By this account it will be readily seen that the principal difference between 
this method and that of Mr. Brooke, which is used at Greenwich, neglecting 
the mechanical adaptations, consists in this, that in the former case the light 
is excluded from those parts of the paper which are to receive the trace, and 
in the latter case it is admitted only to those parts. 

Mr. Ronalds has successfully applied a similar method of self-registration 
to the barometer, the declination-magnet, and the horizontal-force and ver- 
tical-force magnets. 

The observatory is supplied with the usual meteorological instruments, 
viz. a barometer for use in the ordinary way, thermometers, hygrometers, rain- 
gauges, and anemometers. 

We must, in conclusion, not omit to draw the visitor's attention to the 
storm clock used in connection with the Electrical Observatory, which em- 
powers an observer to set down multifarious events occurring in very rapid 
succession, with accuracy and comparative ease. 

The greater number of the scientific visitors of London will doubtless visit 
the two great Universities of England, Oxford and Cambridge ; and a short 
description of the observatories connected with them will, therefore, not be 
out of place. 

We will commence with the latter, because its series of published observa- 
tions commences earlier, though we mean no comparison of the merits of 
these excellent and most active institutions. 

THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY. 

The Cambridge Observatory is situated on the road to Madingly, about a 
mile to the west of Cambridge, on a gently-rising ground, commanding a 
good north and south horizon. It was built in the years 1822 to 1824, after 
the designs of Mr. J. C. Mead, at an expense of upwards of 18,000Z. It is a 
handsome Doric building, with a portico in the centre, and surmounted by a 
central dome. The east end of the building is appropriated to the use of the 
astronomer, and the apartments of the assistants are at the other end. To 
the west of the central portico are situated successively the rooms for the 
mural-circle and transit-instrument ; and a little to the west of the build- 
ing is the dome erected in 1838 for the magnificent Northumberland 
equatorial. 

On the foundation of the observatory, it was put under the charge of Pro- 
fessor Woodhouse, so well known for his treatises on astronomy and other 
valuable works. The present Astronomer Royal, Mr. Airy (then Professor 
Airy), succeeded him in 1828, and, on his removal to Greenwich in 1835, he 
was succeeded by Professor Challis, the present director of the observatory. 

Professor Airy's appointment forms an epoch in modern astronomy. He 
assumed as his first principle from the commencement that unreduced obser- 
vations were worth comparatively little, and he set the example, which has 
since been followed by all English astronomers, of thoroughly reducing his ob- 
servations and of rendering them fit for the immediate use of the theoretical 
astronomer. It had been the practice also before his time to observe the 
superior planets only about the time of their apposition, and even the Green- 
wich planetary observations of that period were few in number, and, to use 
Mr. Airy's own words, " not sufficient to assist in any material degree for im- 
proving the theory." From the first establishment of the mural-circle at 
Cambridge, this defect was obviated, and all the planets were observed on the 
meridian that did not pass later than two o'clock in the morning, the observ- 
ing force (consisting of two assistants) not being large enough to admit of 
observations throughout the night. The Cambridge observations commencing 



OBSERVATORIES. CAMBRIDGE. 



671 




^4F 



CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY. 



with 1828, and the Greenwich observations commencing with 1836, form one 
continuous series, observed with the same accuracy, and reduced according to 
the same plan and with the same elements, and are the most valuable contri- 
bution to the astronomy of the age. 

The transit-instrument was constructed by Dollond, in 1824. The focal 
length of the object-glass is nearly 10 ft., and its aperture nearly 5 in. Its 
supports are massive stone piers, and the pivots of the axis, which are of bell- 
metal, turn in brass Ys, which have the usual adjustments. In the focus of 
the eye-piece are seven fixed vertical wires, and one parallel to them moveable 
with a micrometer. 

The mode of use, illumination of the field, &c, are precisely similar to 
those of the Greenwich transit-instrument. The clock was made by Hardy 
and has Hardy's escapement. 

The mural-circle was constructed by Troughton and Simms, and was mounted 
in the autumn of 1832. Its diameter and the length of the telescope are each 
8 ft. ; and the aperture of the object-glass is 44 in. It is in every essential 
respect similar to the Greenwich instrument, and is used in precisely a similar 
way. 

The clock used in the circle room is by Molyneux, and admits of immediate 
comparison with the transit-clock. 

It must be borne in mind, in connection with the mural-circle, that the 
process of making a complete double observation, by direct vision and by 
reflexion, at the same transit of a star, was practised first by Mr. Airy at 
Cambridge. 

The 5-ft, equatorial in the dome that surmounts the building was erected 
in 1832, by Mr. Thomas Jones. It rests on a stone pillar whose height 
above the level of the ground is about 26 ft. The polar axis consists of four 
brass cylinders fixed at their ends to two brass frames, in the centres of which 
are the pivots. The pivots are supported by stone piers rising from the pil- 
lars ; and the upper pivot is surmounted by an open iron frame about 3 ft. long. 
The declination-circle (3 ft. in diameter) consists of two flat rings, contain- 
ing the telescope between them, and connected by bars across. One ring is 
graduated to every 5', and the other is grasped by the clamp of the tangent- 
screw. The hour-circle is attached to the frame carrying the lower pivot, and 
has two sets of graduations, one in time and the other in space. Its diameter 
is 2 ft. The length of the telescope is 5 ft., and the aperture of its object- 
glass is 2J in. 



672 



LONDON. 



The clock used with the instrument is by Graham, and has a dead-beat 
escapement and gridiron pendulum. 

The last instrument which we have to describe is the great Northumberland 
equatorial, the pride and boast not only of the observatory, but of the uni- 
versity to which it belongs. This noble instrument was the gift of the Duke 
of Northumberland, the former chancellor of the university, and has already 
added to English astronomical fame by the successful search after the new 
planet Neptune. The planet was really observed by Professor Challis twice 
with this instrument before its discovery by Galle, at Berlin, though it was 
not recognised till after the date of that discovery. It is now employed princi- 
pally in the observation of double stars and of the recently-discovered small 
planets*. 

The object-glass, by Cauchoix of Paris, is of 11 i in. effective aperture, 
and the focal length of the telescope is 19 J ft. The mounting is that which 
has been generally used with English equatorials, that is, the telescope is in the 
plane of the polar axis. The advantage of this construction is, that it prevents 
the necessity of reversing the instrument when an object comes to the meri- 
dian. The polar axis consists of six stout deal poles, the ends of which are 
fastened to two six-sided cast-iron frames, at the centres of which are the 
upper and lower pivots. The poles are braced across their middle by trans- 
verse iron bands, counter to which 24 deal spars, crossing each other two and 




NORTHUMBERLAND EQUATORIAL. 

two and abutting near the middle of the poles so as to thrust them obliquely 
outwards, are made to act by means of screws which turn in shoulders on their 
opposite extremities and press against the iron frames. These answer the 
double purpose of giving stiffness to the polar axis and adjusting the iron 
frames so as to be perpendicular to the axis of the instrument. 

The support of the upper pivot consists of two strong wooden beams con- 
nected by two cross iron bars and surmounted by a triangular iron frame, at 

* The description is taken mainly from the Introduction to the Cambridge Observations 
for 1838. 



OBSERVATORIES. — CAMBRIDGE. 673 

the apex of which is the Y for the pivot. The braces are inclined to each 
other in a plane at right angles to the meridian, and deviating a little from 
the vertical towards the south ; their lower extremities, which are armed with 
iron offsets, are firmly embedded in brick-work, and their narrow faces are 
turned towards the polar axis. By this construction the view of no part of 
the heavens is materially obstructed. The support of the lower pivot is a large 
stone slab resting on a mass of brick-work at a slight elevation from the 
ground. This pivot turns in a socket carried by a square mass of iron which 
is moveable by adjusting screws. 

The tube of the telescope is made of well-seasoned deal. The pivots of the 
axis about which 4t moves, turn in cylinders formed of brass pieces furnished 
with adjusting screws, and fixed to two opposite poles of the polar axis, the 
telescope-tube just passing between the other four. Attached to one side of 
the telescope-tube is a flat brass bar nearly 6 ft. in length, carrying a small 
graduated arc perpendicular to its length at one end, and turning at the other 
about a pin fixed in the telescope tube at the distance of 2\ ft, from the axis 
of revolution of the telescope. This arc (called the declination sector) serves 
to measure small differences of declination, and is read by a micrometer mi- 
croscope fixed to the telescope-tube. 

The hour circle is 6\ ft. in diameter. It is not permanently attached to the 
polar axis, but can be clamped to or released from the lower iron frame at 
pleasure. There are two indexes with verniers ; one fixed to the support of 
the lower pivot, and the other fixed to the iron frame. By setting the latter to a 
certain angle, known by an observation of a known star, the telescope can be 
directed to a given right-ascension at a given sidereal time, by means of the 
other index in the usual manner. The graduation of the circle has been per- 
formed with great care by Mr. Simms (who performed generally the gradua- 
tions and the optical part of the instrument), and by the aid of the verniers 
can be read off to Is. of time. The outer rim of the circle is cut with teeth, 
to which an endless screw, connected by a brass rod with a large clock, can be 
applied at pleasure, for the purpose of giving a movement to the instrument 
about the polar axis. The clock is moved by a heavy weight, by which the 
going can be maintained during the act of winding up. The clamping of the 
hour-circle to the iron frame is effected by a tangent screw clamp fixed to the 
frame, by means of which, with the aid of a handle extending to the place of 
the observer, he can, when the endless screw is applied, give motion to the in- 
strument, through a limited space, upon the hour-circle. The rate of motion 
given to the hour-circle by the clock is not affected by this movement. Hence 
supposing the hour-circle to go exactly sidereal time, small differences of right 
ascension can by this contrivance be measured by reading off the angles pointed 
to by the moveable index before and after the changes of position. 

It would be impossible to give in a popular sketch an idea of the mechanical 
contrivances applied in the construction of the dome for sheltering this 
gigantic instrument. After considering with extreme care every form of 
mounting for the revolving part, Mr. Airy, who had taken the charge of erecting 
the instrument, came to the conclusion that the only construction that would 
answer for so large a structure, so as to give the requisite facility of movement 
and freedom from the danger of occasional jamming, is that in which the 
dome turns upon free balls between concave channels. This construction has 
been adopted, and the only danger against which it has been found necessary to 
guard is that of its being dislodged or blown over by wind or unusual disturb- 
ances. This has been obviated by four holdfasts of a peculiar construction. The 
winch which acts upon the machinery for turning the dome is carried to the 
observers chair, so that he can, while engaged in a long observation of any 
object, turn the dome slowly without descending. The accompanying sketch 
will give a very intelligible idea of the general form of the dome. 

The great length of the telescope rendering it necessary to provide special 

G G 



674 



LONDON. 



means for easily placing the observer in all positions in the surface of a sphere 
whose centre is the centre of the telescope, this is accomplished by making a 
frame, of which the upper edge is nearly a circular arc whose centre is the 
centre of the telescope, and causing the frame to traverse horizontally round 
a pin in the floor exactly below the telescope centre ; the observer's chair then 
slides on the chair-frame. The observer has the power, by means of a winch, 
of turning round the frame that carries himself and the chair ; and also by 
means of a lever and ratchet-wheel, of raising or lowering the chair on the 
frame. He can also raise or depress the chair-back, which is adjustible in 
height, and can thus without leaving his seat obtain the most convenient 
position for observing his object and follow it in its diurnal course. 




THE NORTHUMBERLAND TELESCOPE. 

Besides the systematic observations of planets on a better plan than was 
formerly practised, a valuable catalogue of 726 stars observed during the 
directorship of Mr. Airy, and reduced by him, may be numbered amongst the 
valuable contributions to astronomy that have come from this observatory. In 
taking our leave of this noble institution, we cannot wish it a better fate than 
to be always under management so honest and so able as that of its former 
and its present director. 

THE RADCLIFFE OBSERVATORY AT OXFORD. 

The Eadcliffe Observatory owes its origin chiefly to the exertions of Dr. 
Hornsby, Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford, in the 
latter part of the last century. The attention of the University authorities 
had been drawn by him to the need of an establishment for the extension of 
astronomical science, as well as for the practical teaching of it in the Univer- 
sity, and the Eadcliffe trustees were induced by their representations to appro- 



THE RADCLIFFE OBSERVATORY, OXFORD. 



675 



priate part of the funds bequeathed for scientific purposes, to this object, 
and the building was begun about the year 1771. In 1774 it was sufficiently 
advanced to receive the instruments, though from various causes of delay the 
works were not completed till the year 1794. The administration of the 
observatory has been always vested in the hands of the trustees ; and the 
whole expense of its equipment and management has been defrayed by the 
funds at their disposal. 




GROUND PLAN OF THE RADCLIFFE OBSERVATORY. 

The office of Eadcliffe observer has been successively filled by Dr. Homsby, 
Dr. Robertson, Professor Rigaud, and the present director, Manuel J. Johnson. 
Esq. The latter gentleman has succeeded, by his indefatigable zeal and in- 
dustry, in raising the observatory to a very high rank amongst similar modern 
institutions, and there is perhaps not one which, with so small an amount of 
observing and computing force, has produced so large a mass of accurate and 
well-reduced observations. 




SOUTH FRONT OF THE RADCLIFFE OBSERVATORY. 

On taking the directorship in 1839, Mr. Johnson determined to devote 
himself to star-observations, and selected for re-observation the valuable and 
well known circumpolar catalogue of Groombridge. This catalogue contains 

G G 2 



GIG LONDON. 

more than 4000 stars; and, with the services of only one assistant, he has 
succeeded not only in completing his task, but in giving to the public the 
results of the observations perfectly reduced, in yearly volumes issued with 
undeviating punctuality. Indeed it is only justice to state that Mr. Johnson's 
volumes have been published earlier than those of any other observatory, not 
excepting Greenwich. Astronomers are now expecting with eagerness the 
catalogue which shall combine the results of all the observations, and on 
which, without any relaxation of zeal, he is busily engaged. 

The building is an elegant structure, of which the general plan will be well 
understood by the preceding engraving of its south aspect. The dwelling house 
of the director is seen to the east of it, and communicates with the observing 
and public rooms by means of a covered stone passage. 

In the centre is a lofty hall, from which a staircase leads to the upper apart- 
ments, originally intended for lecture-rooms and for receiving books and 
instruments. The whole is surmounted by an elegant tower, with a ball on 
the top of it, commanding a perfect view of the heavens. On the sides of 
this tower are emblematical figures, copied from the Temple of the Winds at 
Athens. 

The building having been originally intended for the double purpose of an 
observatory and an observing school, contains two suites of rooms adapted to 
each of these purposes. Those of the west wing were devoted to the latter 
object, and contained a small transit and a mural arc. The other instruments 
were originally two brass 8 ft. quadrants, a 12 ft. zenith sector, and an 8 ft. 
transit ; and for extra meridional observations there were an achromatic tele- 
scope by Dolland, with object-glass of 4| in. aperture and 10 ft. focal length ; 
a 42 in. achromatic, with triple object-glass of 3| in. ; and a 10 ft. Newtonian, 
by Sir William Herschel. 

We will now proceed to describe briefly the instruments in use at present. 

Transit Instrument. — On Mr. Johnson's appointment to the observatory, 
the 8-ft. transit made by Bird was in use. The telescope of this instrument 
had an object-glass of 4 in. in diameter, by Dolland; the length of its axis 
was nearly 4 ft., the pivots were 1*6 in. in diameter, and did not rest in 
the Ys through their whole length. Counterpoises were originally used, but 
were removed in a trial to get rid of the unsteadiness observable in the in- 
strument. This, however, proving incorrigible, the instrument was taken to 
pieces in 1843, and the object-glass, setting-circles, micrometer, and axis-level 
were used for the construction of an instrument with a totally new mounting. 
The axis of the new instrument consists as usual of three parts, the central 
zone and two cones, each of the latter terminating in a cylindrical pivot of hard 
bell-metal; every care is taken to ensure the most solid connexion of the 
separate parts. 

The telescope consists of two truncated cones, whose bases are secured to 
the centre-piece by screws from within. Four tension rods help to draw the 
cones firmly upon the centre-piece, and carry also the frame that supports the 
diagonal illuminator. The regulation of the light is effected by varying the 
angle of inclination of the illuminating plate to the axis of the tube. 

The length of the horizontal axis exclusive of the pivots is 3 ft. ; the pivots 
are 2 in. in diameter, and 2| in. in length, of which, however, only 1 in. 
rests in the Ys, which are those of the old instrument, having the usual screw- 
adjustments for level and azimuth. 

The supporting piers are of Bath freestone and stand on a mass of cement 
laid on the natural gravel. 

Mr. Johnson speaks in the highest terms of the stability of the instrument 
thus reconstructed. 

The Meridian Circle, by Jones, was erected in 1836. It is 6 feet in diameter, 
and carries a telescope of nearly the same length. It differs from the usual 
circle in being supported on both sides of the graduated circle, revolving on 



THE RADCLIFFE OBSERVATORY, OXFORD. 677 

two pivots of equal diameters. The eastern pivot is placed within a few inciies 
of the graduated circle ; the western is at the extremity of a long cone, pro- 
jecting from the centre-piece of the circle, and both rest in Ys attached to 
stone piers. The upper part of the eastern pier is circular, and nearly of the 
same diameter as the circle. On its outer edge are fixed the reading micro- 
scopes, four in number, with the axes directed towards the graduations of the 
interior face of the circle. The telescope is securely fixed between the gra- 
duated circle and another parallel to it, and the circles are bound together by 
stiff braces at short intervals, and the alternate braces are supported by coni- 
cal radii proceeding from the nucleus. One disadvantage of the construction 
is that the position of the telescope cannot be changed with regard to the limb 
of the circle, as can be done with the usual circle. 

A large telescope of 7'1 in. aperture, and 10 ft. focal length, by Tulley, 
is mounted equatorially in front of the observatory*. It is protected from the 
weather by a small wooden house running on a railroad, which can be readily 
removed when the telescope is used, and the observations are then made in the 
open air. 

The last astronomical instrument which we have occasion to describe is 
the magnificent heliometer made by Repsoid, lately erected. Through the 
kindness of Captain "W. H. Smyth, we are enabled to present to the reader 
an excellent wood-engraving of this admirable instrument. The drawing 
from which the engraving is made was executed by Mrs. Smyth, and Captain 
Smyth, with his accustomed liberality, has put at our disposal the block, 
which was engraved at his own expense for a work which he is preparing. 

To the English reader, who is unfamiliar with the heliometer, it is desirable 
to explain that it is a large telescope mounted equatorially in the ordinary 
way, but with its object-glass divided into two equal parts by a section across 
the centre. The parts of the object-glass are made capable of moving in 
their own planes through considerable intervals by means of screws, and thus 
their optical centres can be separated by a considerable space. Each half-glass 
will thus form a separate image of any object, and the two images will be at 
an angular distance depending on the degree of separation of the centres of 
the glasses. By proper management this contrivance can be made use of to 
measure the angular distances of objects not very far apart, and, from the cir- 
cumstance of its having been formerly applied to measure the sun's diameter, 
is derived the name Heliometer f. It is an interesting fact that with such an 
instrument the parallax of the star 61 Cygni was measured by the illustrious 
Bessel. 

The annexed woodcut will give the best idea of the general form and ap- 
pearance of the instrument, We will endeavour by its help to describe the 
principal details of its construction, first noticing those parts which relate to 
its equatorial mounting J. 

The instrument is supported by a solid block of Portland stone, which rests 
on a pillar of brick 4 ft. 6 in. in diameter and about 18 ft. above the surround- 
ing ground. This elevation was necessary in order to raise the instrument 
above the adjacent observatory. 

The Polar axis, of steel, -1 in. in diameter, is contained in an iron case, 
marked zzz in the plate. The polar and meridian adjustments are made by 
means of screws at the lower extremity, e b is the hour-circle, read off by two 

* The object-glass of this telescope was presented by Sir James South to the University of 
Oxford, and was by that body transferred to the Radcliffe trustees. 

f This name is not sufficiently descriptive of the nature and present employment of the in- 
strument. Various names have been suggested at different periods of its history. The elder 
Dollond called it the divided object-glass micrometer , which is also not satisfactory. If. de 
Charnieres, a French naval officer ofthe last century, who has some claims to be regarded as 
the inventor of the instrument, called it megamster in opposition to micrometer, which is, 
perhaps, the least objectionable name that has-been proposed. 

t For the description we are indebted to the kindness of Manuel Johnson, Esq., the director 
of the Radcliffe Observatory. 



678 



LONDON, 




THK HELIOMKTJSR OF THE RADCUFFE OBSERVATORY. 

microscopes, one of which, s, is shown in the plate, l l is the declination-circle 
likewise read off by two microscopes, one at m, and the other 180° distant from 
it. The cylindrical piece, projecting beyond the declination-circle, serves as 



THE RADCLIFFE OBSERVATORY, OXFORD. 679 

a counterpoise to the telescope. The handles which are seen on this cylindri- 
cal piece are for the purpose of moving the instrument, and, by means of 
them, the observer is enabled to set it in declination very conveniently. 

The declination- axis is contained in the iron case ggg; it is made of steel, 
4 in. in diameter, being of the same size as the polar axis, p' is one of the 
counterpoises of the declination-axis, and there is a corresponding counterpoise 
on the other side, the top of which is just seen in the plate. To these coun- 
terpoises the friction wheels ww are attached, which diminish the pressure of 
the declination-axis on its Ys. pp are counterpoises for the polar axis. The 
larger one is connected with a pair of friction-rollers, which are seen 
edgeways, on the plate, immediately over the hour-circle, p"p" are smaller 
counterpoises attached to frames which have a slight motion at right angles 
to the declination-axis. The small friction-wheels w' w' are attached to the 
lower ends of these frames. There are corresponding wheels on the other side. 
The case of the declination-axis is poised at the place where these wheels 
come, so as to allow them to pass on the axis itself. By this arrangement, 
in almost every position of the telescope, one pair of wheels w'w' bear on 
the declination-axis and relieve the pivots of a part of the lateral pressure, as 
do the wheels w w from the vertical pressure of the axis. The instrument is 
clamped by turning the rod k, and the slow motion in declination is given by 
moving the rod h, which turns the screw ss, acting on the interior triangular 
upright seen in the plate, t is the case containing the clockwork which 
communicates azimuthal motion to the instrument, t n x are rods by means 
of which the clock may be set going or stopped, regulated, connected with, 
or disconnected from, the instrument. By turning t the clock is set in 
motion, or regulated ; x serves to connect it with the instrument. All these 
operations may be performed by the observer in his chair, in most positions 
of the instrument.; y is the clock-weight, weighing about 30 lbs. The railing 
round the pier is for the purpose of assisting the observer in moving himself 
about when lying on his chair. 

Having gone through those parts of the instrument which bel ong to it as an equa- 
torial, we shall proceed to describe its structure as a heliometer. The half object- 
glasses are set on strong brass plates, which slide in grooves. They are moved 
by screws, which, by the intervention of cog-wheels, may be turned by turning a 
pair of rods which pass down the interior of the telescope-tube, f is the handle 
of one of these rods, b is the micrometer-head of one of the screws, which 
marks fractional parts of an interior scale for measuring the separation of the 
centres of the half object-glasses, a similar apparatus being attached to the other 
half object-glass. To obviate the inconveniences of referring to these exterior 
scales after every measurement, which, of course, involves either the observer's 
climbing up to them, or else the lowering of the object-end of the telescope, 
another scale is placed behind the object-glass, in the interior of the tube, which 
scale is read by long microscopes. The requisite illumination for rendering 
the scale visible is produced by the action of a galvanic stream on a platinum 
wire. The galvanic battery is placed in an apartment below, nn are the con- 
necting wires. One of the wires passes through the box containing the polar 
axis ; it is then conducted along the declination-axis into the tube of the tele- 
scope, where its course is marked in the engraving by a white dotted line. 
Contact with the platinum wire is made and broken at pleasure by a very simple 
mechanism, by means of a string, one end of which is close to the observer's hand. 
This mode of illumination answers perfectly, and a battery of Smee's construc- 
tion has been found most convenient. The one actually employed has ten sets 
of small plates, which, plunged into a mixture of 16 parts of water to 1 of sul- 
phuric acid, produces a sufficiently brilliant and enduring light. There is a 
peculiarity about the movement of the half object-glasses, which may here be 
noticed. In former constructions the movement takes place at right angles 
to the axis of the telescope ; in this instrument it is in a circle of which the 



680 LONDON. 

radius is the focal length of the object-giass. The advantage thus gained is 
that the images formed by both segments are always equally distinct ; whereas, 
in the former constructions, one or other must appear out of focus, an objection 
of some importance when the separation of the segments is great. 

The telescope-tube rests on two well-turned steel collars, at the extremity'of 
a massive cradle, c, which extends about two-thirds of its length, d is the 
position-circle, and the telescope is turned round on the collars by the handles 
h h; near the eye-end //are the clamping and slow-motion screws of the posi- 
tion-circle. 

The instrument was made by Messrs. A. and G. Repsold, of Hamburg, at the 
expense of the Radcliffe Trustees. The object-glass is by Merz of Munich. 
Its focal length is 10 ft. 6 in., and the diameter is 7 2 in. 

THE CHATHAM OBSEKVATOKY. 

Amongst the public observatories, we must not pass by without notice a 
small observatory erected at Chatham within the fortifications, for the instruc- 
tion of the cadets sent from Woolwich as candidates for the Royal Engineers. 
Captain (now Sir William) Denison, who proposed that a course of practical 
observing should be added to the studies of the engineer officers, provided at 
his own expense, and lent to the establishment an altitude and azimuth instru- 
ment and a portable transit. To these instruments was afterwards added, by 
the advice of General Pasley, an 18 in. repeating circle. There is also an 
equatorial instrument, whose telescope (by Jones) is of 44 in. full length, and 
2f in. aperture. It was mounted on its pier in the new observatory by Messrs. 
Troughton and Simms. These instruments were at first placed temporarily 
in some wooden huts, but a well-planned observatory was built for them in 
1841, and since that time it has been used systematically as a place for instruc- 
tion in practical astronomy. 

It will be fresh in the recollection of some of our readers that a corps of 
engineer officers, previously instructed at Greenwich, were sent out under 
Colonel Estcourt to measure for the British Government the boundary-line of 
the British territories and those of the United States. The way in which they 
performed this service excited the admiration of those cognizant of these mat- 
ters; and to the general public it will be interesting to be informed that the 
officers of this efficient arm of the military service have now the opportunity 
of being instructed in a branch of study which they are, from their education 
and general intelligence, so capable of employing with advantage to the honour 
and welfare of their country. 

We have now completed the description of the public observatories that fall 
within the limits of an ordinary ride for a visitor to the great metropolis. 
Other public observatories in the British Islands, that do not lie within our 
range, are those of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Armagh, Durham, Portsmouth, 
and Liverpool, which we are obliged to pass by with this bare mention of their 
names. 

We now proceed to give brief descriptions of the private observatories be- 
longing to gentlemen residing within the prescribed limits, and under this 
head we are enabled, through the kindness and prompt information afforded 
by their proprietors, to offer accounts of the following : viz. of those of — 

Sir James South, on the Campden Hill, Kensington. 

George Bishop, Esq., in the Regent's Park, London. 

W. Simms, Esq., at Carshalton. 

A. K. Barclay, Esq., at Bury Hill, near Dorking. 

S. C. Whitbread, Esq., at Cardington, near Bedford. 

J. Drew, Esq., at Southampton. 

Dr. Lee, at Hartwell, near Aylesbury. 

The Rev. C. Lowndes, at Hartwell Rectory. 



OBSERVATORIES OF SIR JAS. SOUTH AND G. BISHOP, ESQ. 681 

The Rev. J. B. Reade, at Stone Vicarage, near Aylesbury. 

T. Dell, Esq., at Aylesbury. 

R. Snow, Esq., at Ashurst, near Mickelharu, in Kent. 

C. May, Esq., at Ipswich. 

The Rev. John Slatter, at Rose Hill, near Oxford. 

The Rev. W. R. Dawes, at Wateringbury, near Maidstone. 

THE OBSERVATORY OF SIR JAMES SOUTH, F.R.8.L. AND E. ; F.L.S.; HOX. M.R.I.A. ; 

ETC., ETC., ETC. 

The observatory of Sir James South is of European fame, and may be consi- 
dered in some degree as the parent of all the rest that we shall have occasion 
to describe. Its munificent owner devoted his time and part of his fortune to 
the advancement of astronomy, at a time when it was not the fashionable 
science that it has since become, and he was one of the founders of that most 
efficient and useful of modern scientific institutions, the Royal Astronomical 
Society. His observations made at the time of his residence in Blackmail 
Street are inseparably connected with the astronomy of that period ; a period 
remarkable for the zeal with which the science began to be prosecuted in this 
country by men whose names are now of world-wide celebrity. 

Of the observations in Blackman Street, the most remarkable are those of a 
catalogue of 380 double stars, which were made in the years 1821 to 1S23, in 
conjunction with Sir John Herschel. The account of these observations, and of 
their results, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1825, is accom- 
panied by an elaborate description of the 5-ft. and 7-ft. equatorials with which 
they were made ; and the visitor of Sir James South's observatory, on the 
Campden Hill, will be interested to see one of those instruments still" mounted 
and in excellent condition. 

The other working instruments of the observatory on the Campden Hill 
are a 7-ft. transit instrument, and a 4-ft. transit-circle. Of the former an 
elaborate account has been given by Sir James in the Philosophical Transac- 
tions for 1826, in a paper containing the comparisons of some observed 
right ascensions of the sun with the best modern tables. The transit-circle is 
celebrated as having formerly belonged to Mr. Groombridge, and as being the 
instrument with which the observations were made for the formation of the 
catalogue of circumpolar stars which bears his name. 

Of this admirable instrument, descriptions, illustrated by engravings, will be 
found in Bees' s Cyclopaedia and in the second volume of Pearson's Introduction 
to Astronomy ; and an account of it, extracted from the former of these works, 
is prefixed to Groombridge's Catalogue, as edited by Mr. Airy. 

The range of observing-rooms is terminated by an apartment surmounted by 
a dome, in which was formerly mounted a large equatorial. This instrument 
has been dismounted, and the dome is at present not used, excepting as a 
receptacle for telescopes and other instruments of a miscellaneous character. 

THE OBSERVATORY OF GEORGE BISHOP, ESQ., F.R.S. J F.R.A.S. AND TREASURER J 
ETC., ETC., ETC. 

This observatory, though of more recent date than that of Sir James South, has 
attained in a short space of time an enviable distinction for its proprietor and 
for his talented coadjutor, Mr. Hind, by the series of brilliant discoveries 
that have been made, and for the really valuable and laborious, yet less known, 
works which have been performed at it. A brief account of its erection and a 
description of the Equatorial chiefly used in it, will properly precede our 
account of the discoveries. 

It was erected in the year 1837, in the grounds to the south-west of Mr. 
Bishop's residence, South Villa, in the Inner Circle, Regent's Park, near the 
Royal Botanic Society's Gardens. 

G G 3 



682 LONDON, 

The principal instrument is an equatorial telescope, equipped on the plan known 
as the English mounting ; the polar axis is 13 ft. 8 in. long and 9 J in. broad at 
the widest part near the centre of its length, tapering off to about 7£ in. at the 
extremities. The solar focus of the telescope is 10 ft. 10 in., and the clear aper- 
ture of the object-glass 7 in. The instrument was wholly constructed by the 
present G. Dollond, Esq., of St. Paul's Church Yard. The circles are 3 ft. in 
diameter ; the hour-circle reads to single seconds of time by verniers, and the 
declination-circle to 10" of arc. The instrument is driven by . clock-work 
motion, this part of the machinery in particular being very elaborately 
worked. 

The stone pier supporting the upper end of the polar axis of the equatorial 
weighs 3£ tons, and that at the lower end 2 J tons. The clock-movement is 
fixed on a stone pedestal perfectly isolated from the floor, as is also the sidereal 
clock. 

The micrometers consist of — 

1. A position- wire micrometer. 

2. A double-refracting crystal micrometer. 

3. A divided eye-glass micrometer. 

4. An annular micrometer. 

The telescope is provided with magnifying powers up to 1200. n Coronse 
was separated in June last with a power of 800, which may give an idea of the 
optical and defining capacity of the instrument. 

The dome is of wood, with stout iron braces, and is not exactly hemispherical, 
but tapers upwards to a point (for the sake of ornament). It revolves on 
wheels working in a live-curb, and its performance is excellent. It is impelled 
by a lever, which acts on iron arms placed at equal distances (about 2 ft.) round 
the inner border. The machinery was finally adjusted by Mr. Penn, of Green- 
wich. When in good order it may be turned more than half-round at one 
effort. 

The observatory consists of a circular equatorial room surmounted by the 
dome, and an arm extending westward, which forms the anti-room and con- 
tains the altitude and azimuth instrument now used for keeping the time, 
various micrometers, a sidereal clock, a chronometer, and general furniture. 
Gas illumination is used in the observatory for the transit-observations. 

A mahogany revolving chair is fixed in the equatorial room, which is very 
convenient for observing objects near the zenith, or for delicate observations 
in general. This chair gained the medal of the Society of Arts and the money 
prize in addition. 

The longitude of the observatory is 0m. 37s.'l W. ; the latitude, 51° 31' 29"*8 1ST. 

In the year 1839 Mr. Bishop was fortunate in securing the services of the 
Rev. W. R. Dawes, a gentleman previously well known for his observations of 
double stars made at an observatory of his own, at Ormskirk. 

During the attachment of Mr. Dawes to the observatory which continued 
till the beginning of the year 1844, the observations consisted principally of 
double-star measurements. The results have not yet been published, but the 
volume containing them has nearly passed through the press, and its publi- 
cation may be expected almost immediately. 

In the year 1844 Mr. Dawes resigned, and was succeeded by J. R. Hind, 
Esq., then an assistant in the magnetical department of the Royal Observatory, 
Greenwich, where he had already distinguished himself by the zeal and ability 
with which, in addition to his ordinary duties, which were severe, he devoted 
himself to the labour of observing comets and calculating the elements 
of their orbits. 

Almost from the time of Mr. Hind's appointment the observations took that 
character for which his talents fitted him, viz., the search of the heavens for 
new comets and planets, and the scrutiny of such stars as seemed to offer any 
physical peculiarities of colour, variability, &c. 



THE OBSERVATORY OF MR. W. SIMMS. 683 

Mr. Bishop and Mr. Hind were almost immediately rewarded by discoveries 
of comets. Three of these bodies were discovered in the years 1846 and 1847, 
of which the latter became visible at noonday, when near its perihelion, and 
for which the King of Denmark's gold medal was awarded. 

The other branch of research was still more successful, viz., the search 
after small planets lying between Mars and Jupiter. It may be desirable to 
say a few words in this place on the nature of the search that must be insti- 
tuted for these bodies, so as to offer any reasonable probability of ultimate 
success. They are in general very faint objects, varying from about the 8th 
to the 11th magnitude, and differing by no physical characteristic from the 
small stars near them. There are then only two means of detecting them, 
viz., 1st. By observing previously all stars that lie within those limits of the 
heavens within which they may be reasonably expected, that is, by observing 
and mapping all the stars for several degrees on each side of the ecliptic ; 
or, 2ndly, by observing on several successive nights all the stars down to the 
11th magnitude in certain spaces of the heavens, pricking off immediately 
their places on maps previously prepared, and then, after re-observation of 
them, noting whether any one of them seems to have had any motion in the 
interval, this being the only planetary characteristic observable. The former 
of these methods was determined on by Mr. Bishop, who undertook, in con- 
junction with Mr. Hind, the formation of ecliptic charts of stars of all magni- 
tudes down to the 11th. This great and important work has been steadily 
prosecuted ever since ; only one chart has, however, yet been published, owing 
to the severe illness of Mr. Hind, at one period of the work — an illness occa- 
sioned chiefly by his unremitting labours. 

In the course of these researches three small planets have been discovered, 
viz., Iris, on August 13, 1847; Flora, on October 18, 1847; and Victoria, on 
September 13, 1850. For the discoveries of Iris and Flora a prize on the 
Lalande foundation was received from the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, in 
April, 1850. It will be readily seen from the preceding brief explanation that 
such discoveries are not accidental, but are the result of a sagacious plan of 
observation carried out with most severe labour and unwearied patience. 

Amongst Mr. Hind's star discoveries may be mentioned a star in Ophiuchus, 
of very great variability, which had never been previously observed. This 
star after its detection became of such brightness that it was visible with the 
naked eye, and it has since faded away and become so faint that the writer of 
the present article remembers to have had great difficulty in observing it 
recently with an instrument of considerable optical power. 

Mr. Hind has paid great attention to the subject of variable stars, a very 
necessary branch of sidereal astronomy at the present time, and has come to 
the following remarkable conclusion concerning them, that a very great pro- 
portion of them are red or orange when about their maximum, and that many 
have a clouded nebulous appearance when at their minimum of brightness. 
These facts have, it is believed, never been observed before, and are well worth 
confirming. 

In closing our account of this observatory, we are sure the intelligent visitor 
will cordially join us in wishing health and long life to Mr. Bishop, its muni- 
ficent founder and proprietor, and to Mr. Hind, his talented and zealous coad- 
jutor. 

THE OBSERVATORY OF W. SIMMS, ESQ., F.R.A.S. 

Mr. Simms, the eminent optician of Fleet Street, has adorned the grounds 
of his country residence at Carshalton, in Surrey, with their most appropriate 
ornament, an observatory furnished with instruments chiefly of his own con- 
struction. The facilities afforded by the numerous railroads that run in every 
direction out of London, enable the merchant, the artist, and the professional 
man, without any interruption to the ordinary attendance on business, to enjoy 



684, 



LONDON. 



the pleasures of the country, and in the short intervals of quiet and repose, to 
devote themselves to such favourite studies as are the recreations of the ener- 
getic mind after the harassing toil of routine business. Mr. Simms has wisely 
employed his opportunities and his leisure in constructing an observatory to 
afford him the means of practically pursuing the science of astronomy to which 
his tastes have always inclined him. 

His observatory consists of a single apartment 16 ft. long and nearly 
8 ft. wide, and is formed in the most simple and economical manner possible, 
the sides being merely a framework of deal covered with sheets of asphalt 
felt. The roof is nearly flat, being only sufficiently inclined towards one side 
to insure dryness. Half the length of the apartment is permanently covered 
over and serves for a computing room, the other half where the instruments 
are placed can be uncovered by running off a shutter upon the covered part ; 
six rollers fixed to the under side of the shutter and running upon two iron 
rails make this a very easy matter. 

The equipments consist of a clock, a transit-instrument, and an equatorial. 
The clock is an old one by Brockbanks, a celebrated maker of his day. The 
pendulum is peculiar ; it is, in fact, a large mercurial thermometer, the bulb of 
which forms the pendulum-bob, and the compensation is effected by the rise 
and fall of the mercury within the tubes. This pendulum was invented 
and made by the late Edward Troughton, to whom the clock originally be- 
longed. 

The transit-instrument is of the 
kind described by Captain W. H. 
Smyth, in his prolegomena to the 
Bedford Catalogue, as the chamber 
transit. Indeed it is the identical 
instrument of which a figure is there 
given. The aperture of the object- 
glass is 1*6 in., and the focal length 
18 in. The place of the observer 
is at one of the pivots in which the 
diaphragm and eye-piece are in- 
serted as at a, in the accompanying 
figure, the illumination of the field 
being effected through the pivot at 
the opposite end of the axis. It 
will be observed that the advantage 
of this construction consists in the 
observer not having to change his 
position whatever may be the alti- 
tude of the object he is observing. 
The purpose of this instrument, as 
is obvious from its dimensions, is 
merely to keep the rate of the 
clock. 

The equatorial, of which a figure 
is given, is of the Frauenhofer form ; 
it is without a clock-motion, but in 
all other respects is fitted up in the most complete manner. The telescope is 
an achromatic of 42 in. focal length, and 3J in. aperture, having a finder, the 
usual apparatus for illuminating the field, a position-micrometer, and a powerful 
battery of negative eye-pieces. It was intended with this instrument to make 
some attempts upon the double stars, but its capabilities in regard to light and 
power are hardly equal to such a task, and it is about to be replaced by an in- 
strument carrying a telescope of 4 in. aperture, and 5 ft. focal length, for which 
there will be just room enough in the observatory. 




THE CARSHALTON TRANSIT. 



THE OBSERVATORY OF A. K. BARCLAY, ESQ. 



685 



The piers are of brick, built in cement, and have 
their foundations about 3 ft. below the floor of the 
observatory. The support for the clock is formed of 
two deals screwed together in the form of the letter 
T, the lower end of which is buried about 4 ft. in the 
ground, having a spur in front to counteract its 
tendency to lean forward. This support answers its 
purpose very well. 

Besides the instruments which are under cover of 
the observatory, there is in the 
open ground a rude and strong 
equatorial-stand, carrying at pre- 
sent an achromatic of 9 in. aper- 
ture and 15 ft. focal length, both 
the discs of which the object- 
glass is made being of English 
manufacture. This telescope has 
hitherto been used for nothing 
but mere star gazing. 



MR. SIMMS'S EQUATORIAL. 




THE OBSERVATORY OF A. K. BARCLAY, 
ESQ., F.R.A.S. 

Mr. Barclay's observatory is si- 
tuated on Bury Hill, near Dorking, 
in Surrey, at an elevation of 400 ft. 
above the sea ; its approximate lon- 
gitude being lm. 23s.*5 west, and 
latitude 51° 13' 40" north. It con- 
sists of an equatorial tower, with a 
small transit-room adjoining the 
lower story. 

The revolving dome is an admira- 
ble specimen of the workmanship 
of Messrs. Ransomes and May. It 
is constructed of cast-iron curved 
rafters, bolted into a trong curb of wood, filled in with 1^ in. deal, and covered 
internally with thin copper. It revolves upon three balls, in very shallow cast- 
iron channel plates. 

The transit-instrument is by Simms, and has a focal length of 42 in., the 
object-glass being 2§ in. in diameter. 

The clock is by Dent, with steel pendulum-rod and turned iron mercury jar. 

The equatorial telescope, the declination-axis of which is 26 ft. above the 
ground level, is mounted on the German construction, having a short polar 
axis and small circles. It stands upon a stone pedestal supported by a brick 
pier, built hollow and filled with dry sand to prevent vibration. The focal 
length is 8 ft., and the object-glass 5*9 in. in diameter. The clock-work move- 



686 LONDON. 

ment is entirely included in the hour-circle, permitting the requisite adjust- 
ment to bring an object to the centre of the field. It has an escapement 
beating eight times in the second, and the pulsations are not perceptible even 
under high power. 

THE OBSERVATORY OF S. C. WHITBREAD, ESQ., F.R.A.S., PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH 
METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

Mr. Whitbread, whose name, as well as that of Mr. Barclay, is so well known 
in the ranks of commerce, has devoted himself to science with that happy 
union of zeal and practical ability that are so characteristic of the English 
mind. In addition to the foundation of the observatory of which we are 
about to speak, he is at the head of a recent organization for advancing the 
science of meteorology, and has accepted the omce of president of the new 
society that has been formed. Of this society we shall have occasion to speak 
in the sequel, in connexion with the various meteorological observatories that 
have been established on an organized plan, mainly by the exertions and 
instrumentality of Mr. Glaisher, of the Royal Observatory. For the present 
we must confine ourselves to the description of Mr. Whitbread's astronomical 
observatory. 

There are two or three interesting circumstances which we will previously 
mention. 

The observatory is situated at Cardington, near Bedford, in a garden be- 
longing to Mr. Whitbread's estate, which was planted by the celebrated John 
Howard the Philanthropist, under whose will it has descended to the present 
occupier. 

The sidereal clock used in the observatory is remarkable for its age and 
its construction, It was made about the year 1760, by Thomas Brass, of 
Guildford, who was an enthusiast in his profession. It is very old-fashioned 
in appearance, but performs admirably at the present time, and the beat is 
remarkably distinct. 

A permanent assistant, Mr. John B. McLarin, has been engaged for con- 
ducting the observations ; and this circumstance gives prospect of good and 
useful work. Indeed an observatory without establishment must become at 
length either an incumbrance or a plaything to its owner ; but a little addi- 
tional and permanent expense in endowment has in almost every known case 
been productive both of honour to the proprietor and of gain to science. 

The height of the observatory above the level of the sea is 81 ft. 

The principal instruments in this observatory are an equatorial, a transit 
circle, and an altitude and azimuth instrument. 

The equatorial was made by Troughton and Simms, for the Eev. Samuel 
King, of Latimer, near Chesham. The instrument, in regard to its general 
arrangement, resembles those made by Fraunhofer. The telescope is an 
achromatic of 4J in. clear aperture, and about 5 ft. focal length. It carries a 
finder, and is furnished with adjustment for focus ; six negative eye-pieces, of 
powers varying from 47 to 410, also one of the pancratic kind; it has a posi- 
tion micrometer, illuminating apparatus, and all the usual appliances to fit it 
for the most delicate operations of sidereal astronomy. 

The telescope rests in a cradle at one end of the declination-axis, and over- 
hangs the side of the supporting frame, having free and unobstructed motion 
in every direction. At the opposite end of the same axis the declination- 
circle is fixed (this circle is of 12 in. diameter). The divisions are cut upon a 
band of silver to ten minutes of arc, which by two opposite verniers are sub- 
divided to ten seconds; and these spaces are so broadly distinguished that it 
is quite easy, by estimation, to take a reading to half that quantity. There 
are microscopes for reading the verniers, with clamps for fixing, and tangent 
screw for giving slow motion to the telescope. 

A striding level, similar in all respects to the axis-level of a transit-instru- 



THE OBSERVATORY OF S. C. AVHITBREAD, ESQ. 687 

merit, can be applied to cylindrical collars upon the declination-axis. This 
level, by which the perfect horizontality of the declination-axis is indicated, 
greatly facilitates the adjustment of the instrument to the meridian of the 
observatory, and with due correction of the line of collimation makes the 
instrument no indifferent substitute for the transit-instrument, in cases where 
so important an auxiliary is not at hand. 

The polar axis is about 25 in. long; the hour circle, 12 in. diameter, is 
fixed near its lower end. The divisions are cut upon a band of silver to one 
minute, and these are subdivided by opposite verniers to single seconds of 
time. The edge of the circle is toothed, and has an endless screw working 
upon it ; which screw can be turned either by hand, for the purpose of setting 
the telescope to any given right-ascension, or it may be connected with clock- 
work, when it is desired to keep the object under observation steadily in the 
field of the telescope, in other words, to counteract the effect of the diurnal 
motion of the earth. The clock is firmly fixed to the iron support of the 
instrument ; it has a centrifugal pendulum, not unlike the governor of a 
steam-engine, and is altogether so arranged that its regulation and govern- 
ment are within reach and under the absolute control of the observer. 

Of the supporting frame it is only necessary to state that it is of cast-iron, 
having a Y to receive the upper end of the polar axis, and a socket for the 
lower end, the latter having screw adjustments both for altitude and for 
meridional position ; and that this stand is screwed firmly to the top of a 
pedestal. 

The transit-circle was likewise made by Troughton and Simms,«for the Eev. 
Samuel King, and is one of the diagonal kind described by Capt. Smyth, in 
his Cycle of Celestial Objects, as the chamber-transit ; but it differs from that 
instrument in having a large and finely-graduated circle, capable of giving 
very exact results in altitude as well as in right ascension, thus constituting 
it an efficient instrument either for the regulation of the observatory clock, 
for determining the latitude of the place, or for obtaining the declination of 
any object within reach of its optical power. The telescope has an aperture 
of 1^ in., and a focal length of about 20 in., with several magnifying powers. 
In this instrument the rays do not proceed directly from the object-glass 
through the tube of the telescope, but are reflected by a prism placed in 
the centre of the axis, and thereby made to pass through one of the cylin- 
drical pivots, forming an image beyond it ; here therefore, that is, at the end 
of this pivot, the diaphragm and eye-piece are placed, and the observer has 
no occasion to change his position, whatever the zenith distance of the object 
may be to which the telescope is directed ; for all objects are alike reflected 
through the pivot to an eye looking through the axis. The great convenience 
of this arrangement will be obvious to eveiy one, and appreciated by those 
who have felt the discomfort of twisting the neck and bending the body into 
suitable positions for observing with the ordinary portable transit-instrument, 
and especially when the objects are near the zenith. 

The lamp is placed upon a stand beyond the remote pivot, the light from 
which is made to diverge upon four segments of a large lens which project 
beyond the sides of the prism, and is thereby refracted and made to converge 
upon and illuminate the field of view. 

The axis is levelled by a striding level of the usual kind, which is furnished 
with a scale showing single seconds of arc. 

The circle is of 12 in. diameter, with divisions upon silver to 5' of arc, read 
by means of two opposite verniers to 5" \ it is furnished with microscopes for 
reading the verniers, a clamp and tangent screw, and all appropriate adjust- 
ments ; the whole is mounted upon a plain stand of cast-iron. 

The altitude and azimuth instrument was made by Troughton, towards the 
end of the last century, for the Eev. Francis Wollaston, who gave a descrip- 
tion of it in his Fasciculus Astronomicus, which was published in the year 1800. 



bSS LONDON. 

It subsequently became the property of the late Admiral Shirreff, from whose 
representatives it was purchased by its present proprietor. 

This instrument may be taken as the type of the modern altitude and 
azimuth instrument ; and considering that it was the first of the kind made 
by Troughton, it is surprising that so little was left to be done in the way of 
subsequent improvement. 

The base is a strong tripod, having adjusting screws for levelling the instru- 
ment, and the azimuth-axis is firmly screwed into its centre ; upon this 
tripod the azimuth circle, of 12 in. diameter, is placed. The divisions are cut 
upon the brass (for the custom of inlaying a band of one of the precious metals 
was not then introduced), into spaces of 10' of arc; these spaces are subdivided 
to 10", by two opposite verniers fixed to a circular plate which revolves upon 
the azimuth-axis ; upon this revolving or vernier plate two columns are 
erected for supporting the superior parts of the instrument ; and in order to 
guard against the possibility of twisting in these important parts (for such 
twisting would be fatal to all azimuthal determinations), the columns and the 
external cone of the azimuth-axis are bound together by a strong connecting 
frame. 

For the purpose of giving greater length to the transit-axis, the columns 
are made to lean outwards from the vernier-plate upon which they are 
based ; and upon the top of them the Ys for receiving the pivots of the 
transit-axis are placed, one of which can be adjusted vertically for the 
purpose of levelling. 

The focal«length of the telescope is about 20 in., with an aperture of about 
If in. It has five vertical and as many horizontal wires in its focus, with 
magnifying powers of about 35 or 40 times. 

The altitude-circle is double, with connecting pillars between them ; it is of 
12 in. diameter, and is read to single seconds by means of two micrometer- 
microscopes, which are supported by an arm firmly secured to one of the 
columns. 

There are two spirit-levels to this instrument, one of which is permanently 
fixed upon the telescope in the direction of its length, and the other is for the 
purpose of levelling the transit axis. 

Both circles are fitted with clamps and tangent screws, and are in all 
respects completed as in modern instruments. 

THE OBSERVATOKY OF JOHN DREW, ESQ., F.R.A.S. 

This observatory is situated at Southampton, at Mr. Drew's residence, 
Winsor Terrace, Cumberland Place. The distance from London might seem 
to place it without our limits; but by the magic agency of the railroad, 
Southampton is brought within reasonable visiting distance ; and we have an 
object in view in showing that the public are benefited by the liberality and 
spirit of Mr. Drew, in giving correct time to this important port, when no 
public means have been resorted to for supplying it. Mr. Drew is well known 
to men of science as a zealous cultivator of astronomy. He is the author 
of a Manual of Astronomy, of which he is, we hear, preparing a new edition, 
and of various papers on meteorology, in the Civil Engineer and Architects 
Journal. 

The observatory consists of an equatorial-room and a transit-room ; the 
former is 9 ft. in diameter, and is adapted to a 5 ft. achromatic by Dollond, 
mounted with a polar axis in the usual manner. The right-ascension and 
declination circles are 1 5 in. in diameter ; and the telescope is furnished with 
a position wire micrometer and a rock crystal micrometer. The astronomical 
powers, of which there are eight, vary from 26 to 410, and admit of being 
increased by the insertion of a concave lens a few inches in advance of the 
focus of the object-glass. 

In the transit-room is a transit-circle by Jones, 30 in. in diameter. The 



THE OBSERVATORY OF JOHN LEE, ESQ. 



689 




SECTIOXAL VIEW OF MR. DREW'S OBSERVATORY. 

telescope is 42 in. focal length, with an object-glass 3j in. in diameter. The 
axis moves on agate bearings. In the focus of the object-glass are five ver- 
tical wires, one fixed horizontal wire, and another moveable in altitude, by 
means of a micrometer-screw. The whole is mounted on stone piers. To the 
eastern pier are attached three microscopes, for reading off zenith distances 
on the circle. The nadir-point is found by observing the image of the wires 
reflected from mercury ; for which purpose an eye-piece with a single lens is 
furnished with a perforated niirror, by which the light, admitted laterally, is 
reflected down the tube. 

Outside the observatory a solid piece of brickwork is erected for the pur- 
pose of carrying a 20 in. collimating telescope, which is never removed ; by 
means of this instrument the horizOntal-point may be determined ; and as 
there is no distant object visible in the horizon from the observatory, the 
wires of the collimator serve, when once adjusted, as a permanent meridian 
mark. 

The object which the observatory is now answering is the determination of 
Greenwich time from the local time at the port. The chronometers of the 
various steamers which leave Southampton are under the care of Mr. St ebbing, 
optician, and his clock is regulated, from time to time, by comparison with 
Mr. Drew's. The observatory was originally built for the purpose of culti- 
vating practical astronomy, and is ready for any work within the range of the 
instruments. 

An account more extended than the present may be found in the Eoyal 
Astronomical Society's Memoirs, vol. x., 5s; o. 3, p. 68 ; and a plan and section 
of it may be seen at the Society's rooms, Somerset House. 

The latitude and longitude of the observatory, as determined by triangula- 
tion from the Ordnance Map Office, Southampton, are as follows — 

Latitude, 50° 54' 34" north; longitude, 1° 24' 25"'8 west. 

THE OBSERVATORY OF JOHN LEE, ESQ., LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., ETC. 

Dr. Lee has been well known for many years as one of the warmest friends 
and most munificent patrons of science. With large means and the magnifi- 
cent mansion of Hartwell House at his disposal, he has always used every 
opportunity that has been presented to him for employing his advantages in 



690 LONDON. 

the furtherance and extension of physical research, and especially of astronomy, 
the only subject which now falls within our province. For many years he 
acted as Treasurer to the Koyal Astronomical and Numismatic Societies, and 
is never absent from his post as one of the standing members of the council of 
the former body. To the Astronomical Society he has made many valuable 
presents, especially in the presentation of the advowsons of two valuable 
livings, viz., that of the vicarage of Stone, near Aylesbury, and that of the rec- 
tory of Hartwell, belonging to his own estate. 

An account of Hartwell House, which is celebrated as being the place of 
residence of Louis XVIII. and his court during his exile from France, will be 
found in Lipscombe's History of the County of Buckinghamshire, and in other 
works ; and our necessarily confined limits forbid anything more than a men- 
tion of it in connexion with the observatory. We cannot, however, refrain 
from a passing mention of the well-arranged museum of objects of natural his- 
tory, and antiquities, which Dr. Lee has formed with immense research and 
care since his accession to the estate. The objects, well-arranged and classified, 
occupy the whole of one very large room, which was formerly the ball-room of 
the mansion. There is also a library of upwards of 20,000 volumes in every 
department of literature, admirably classified and arranged. 

In the building of the observatory regard was necessarily paid to the archi- 
tectural character of the mansion, and, after a great deal of consideration, it 
was determined to connect it with the main building at its south-eastern cor- 
ner, and with mouldings and architectural ornaments, harmonizing as much as 
possible with the mansion. For convenience of access, a communicating door 
from the noble library leads immediately to it with the simple intervention 
of a very small furnished ante-room. The observatory consists of two apart- 
ments, the transit-room, which is first entered from the library, and the dome 
for the Bedford equatorial, to which the approach is by a small flight of steps 
at the eastern end of the transit-room. The latter was built several years 
after the former, when, on the removal of Captain Smyth from Bedford, an 
opportunity was presented to Dr. Lee of purchasing the excellent equatorial 
instrument which was made so good use of by that excellent observer. 

We will first describe the Transit-Room and Transit- Instrument : — 

The apartment is a small oblong room of a hexagonal appearance, from 
having the corners walled or boarded up. The vertical meridian openings are 
ordinary glazed window frames, and the roof being flat, the shutters that go 
across it turn back on simple hinges. The transit-instrument was made by 
Mr. Thomas Jones, and rests on two solid piers of oolite cut from a single 
block, the foundation being a very solid brick pier, which is well worthy of 
inspection. The focal length of the transit telescope is 5 ft., and the aperture 
of the object-glass rather more than 3§ in. The object-glass is not a par- 
ticularly good one, and it was originally intended that another should be sup- 
plied. The length of the axis is about 1\ ft. from pivot to pivot, and the dia- 
meter of each pivot is rather more than 1 in. The eye-piece has five vertical 
or transit-wires, but is not furnished with a micrometer. The setting circles 
on the eye-end are as usual furnished with levels. 

There are two near meridian marks, one to the north and one to the south, 
constructed and fixed according to the principles explained in Captain 
Smyth's Cycle, vol. i. p. 331. The most important part of their construction is 
the intervention of a lens of long focus, which is firmly fixed in the direct line 
between the centre of the axis and the mark, so as to cause the rays from the 
mark, after passing through it, to become parallel, and to prevent any necessity 
for change of the solar focus of the transit-telescope. 

The transit-clock is an excellent one by Yulliamy. 

The Dome for the equatorial is 15 ft. in diameter in the inside, the height 
of the wall above the flooring being 7 ft. The revolving part is covered with 
sheet copper ; it is hemispherical, and runs easily upon three balls resting in 



THE OBSERVATORY OF THE REV. C. LOWNDES. 691 

concave channels. The shutter is ingenious and conveniently arranged ; it is 
in fact the half of a spherical lune of sheet copper, included between two 
vertical circles whose distance where they meet the dome curb is about 3 ft. 
This revolving freely round an axis at the top of the dome, is made to move 
by means of a rack and pinion, on the outside of the surface of the dome, so 
as to close the opening or to leave it exposed. 

The foundations for the upper and lower pivots of the instrument are two 
very solid brick piers of a pyramidal form, nearly 10 ft. in height, resting upon 
concrete ; a third pier is built up between these for the security of the floors of 
the dome. In the subterraneous passages great attention has been paid to 
secure perfect ventilation, and the piers and side-walls are always thoroughly 
dry. 

The instrument itself formerly belonged to Captain Smyth, as has been 
before mentioned, and it is fully described in the first volume of his Cycle, as 
well as in vol. iv. of the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. A brief 
description will therefore suffice in this place. 

The telescope is of 8£ ft. focal length, with a double object-glass of very 
nearly 6 in. clear aperture by Tulley. The flint-glass portion was made from 
a pure homogeneous disc purchased at Paris, in 1828, by Sir James South, who 
disposed of it afterwards to Captain Smyth. From the long and severe expe- 
rience of its qualities by Captain Smyth, he has come to the conclusion that 
the telescope is a very fine one for its size, bearing the usual test objects re- 
markably well. 

The polar axis is nearly 14 ft. in length, and consists of four mitred slabs of 
well-seasoned mahogany, 10 in. square in the middle and 8 in. at the ends, 
strongly joined together by screws that pass through them to interior brass 
squares ; at its extremities are large bell-metal pivots. For the support of the 
pivots two stone piers are built upon the brick foundations before-mentioned, 
of which the northern one rises to the height of 10 ft. above the floor, and 
carries a cast-iron frame with the requisite adjusting apparatus for the reception 
of the Y. The lower pivot turns in a polished metal centre imbedded in the 
stone-pier. The telescope is carried by a stout axle through a hollow centre 
of bell-metal, firmly secured by flanges, and is attached by three broad clasps 
to a brass trapezium. The declination and hour circles are each 3 ft. in diame- 
ter, and are read by verniers to 10". Clock-work is attached to the instrument 
for giving a diurnal motion to the telescope. This was presented originally to 
Captain Smyth by the Rev. R. Sheepshanks. A train of wheels moved by a 
weight beneath the flooring are made to carry a governor similar to that of a 
steam-engine, with revolving balls. It admits of very easy adjustment to time, 
and is very readily connected or disconnected with the instrument. 

In the year 1836 Dr. Lee engaged as his observer Mr. James Epps, at that 
time Assistant Secretary of the Astronomical Society, but this gentleman died 
after a residence with him of only two years. He afterwards engaged Mr. 
John Glaisher, formerly assistant at the Cambridge Observatory, who was 
residing at that period at Stone for the benefit of his health, but he died before 
any regular or continuous observations had been undertaken. 

Since that time no regular observer has been employed, but Captain Smyth 
has, at various visits, remeasured several of the double stars of his Cycle, and 
is, we understand, at present engaged in reducing and printing (for private 
circulation) the results of his observations. 

THE OBSERVATORY OF THE REV. C. LOWNDES, F.R.A.S., AT HARTWELL RECTORY. 

The observatory is a modern brick building upon a solid formation of con- 
crete. It contains a transit-instrument and a sidereal clock. The former was 
constructed expressly for the Rev. C. Lowndes, by Mr. Slater, of No. 4, Somers 
Place West, New North Road ; the diameter of the object-glass being 4"2 in., 
and the focal length 6 ft. It is supported between two piers of Caen stone. 



692 



LONDON. 



The clock is attached to a stone pedestal in the south-west corner of the 
building. It has a mercurial pendulum, and is, ii\ all respects, an excellent 
specimen of Mr. Dent's workmanship. At present Mr. Lowndes has only 
a transit-room, but he proposes shortly to add an equatorial room, in which 
will be mounted a large telescope, which Mr. Slater is now constructing. 
Until this room is built Mr. Lowndes makes use of an equatorial ladder, a de- 
scription of which is given by Captain Smyth in his excellent work the Celes- 
tial Cycle. 

THE OBSERVATOKY OF THE REV. J. B. READE, F.R.A.S., AT STONE VICARAGE. 

The observatory 
at Stone, near 
Aylesbury, has 
recently been 
erected by the 
Rev. J. B. Reade 
upon the vicarage 
lawn. It is an 
elegant Grecian 
building, consist- 
ing of a transit- 
room and a tower 
for the equatorial. 
The transit-in- 
strument is sup- 
ported on solid 
piers of Bath 
stone. The object- 
glass, 4J in. in 
diameter, is an 
interesting speci- 
men of the skill 
of Mr. Peter Dollond, and the solid brass-work mounting is equally creditable 




PROPOSED MOUNTING OF MR. READE'S EQUATORIAL. 



to Mr. Barrow, of Oxenden Street, London, 
room is by Dent. 




MOUNTING OF MR. READE'S 12-FT. TELESCOPE. 



The sidereal clock in the transit- 

The objeci>glass of the equa- 
torial, 7 J in. in diameter and 12 ft. 
in focal length, is by Newman of 
York. The greatest care was taken 
in its construction, and it well re- 
pays the large amount of labour 
both of calculating and grinding 
the proper curves. It has been 
carefully examined by several 
astronomers, who give it a very 
high character. This fine instru- 
ment is at present mounted on a 
Varley's stand, to which Mr. Reade 
has added some very convenient 
adjustments for its motion, both 
in altitude and azimuth; but ere 
long it will be placed in the 
tower of the observatory, on a 
very firm equatorial mounting, 
made by the village carpenter, 
Mr. Carter, under the superin- 
tendence of Mr. Gravatt, the iron- 



THE OBSERVATORIES OF T. DELL, ESQ., AND R. SNOW, ESQ. 693 

work, &c, being prepared by Mr. Donkin. The dome of the tower was for 
merly at Bedford, and will always be an interesting relic to those who can 
appreciate Captain Smyth's Bedford Catalogue. 

THE OBSEEVATOEY OF THOMAS DELL, ESQ. F.E.A.S. 

This observatory, the last on our list of what may be called the Aylesbury 
Observatories, is situated in the town of Aylesbury, on the premises of a rela- 
tive of its owner. Though it is on a small scale, consisting of a very small room 
containing a small transit, yet there is no observatory of all those which we 
have described, on which the true astronomer will look with more pleasure as an 
interesting specimen of true zeal for science shown under difficulties of position 
and circumstances, and of the way in which very useful results may be com- 
passed by comparatively trifling means. Mr. Dell is perfectly able, vrith this 
small transit-instrument, judiciously mounted, to give the time to the town of 
Aylesbury, and, if he should find leisure for much work, to observe a catalogue 
of stars in right-ascension, with an accuracy equal, pretty nearly, to that which 
is attained by far more costly instruments. We will therefore offer no apology 
for giving an account of his plan of building his observatory and mounting his 
transit, which may offer useful hints to other zealous persons similarly situated. 
The building consists of five frames of oak filled up with deal boarding for 
the walls and roof ; these all screw together so that the whole erection may be 
taken to pieces and again set up, on a foundation prepared for it, in a few hours. 
The foundations on which the walls rest are about a foot deep, and of brick- 
work laid in cement, which is carried high enough above the surface of the 
ground to allow a free current of air beneath the floor. The floor is laid on 
joists, resting upon the brickwork, and is of course quite clear of the piers which 
carry the transit-instrument and clock. There is a glazed window at each end, 
and a corresponding opening in the whole length of the roof in the direction 
of the meridian. The roof is covered with canvas well-painted, and while wet 
sprinkled with fine sand and again painted. This is thrown back with the 
shutter when in use, and when closed, it covers the whole roof, and is fastened 
at the side, so that it is completely weather-proof. The dimensions of the room 
on the inside are 7 ft. 6 in. long, by 5 ft. 6 in. wide, and 6 ft. in height. In 
order to have room in this small space, the transit-pier is not placed in the 
middle of the room, but very much on one side. It should be added that the 
whole of the interior is lined with green baize. 

The transit instrument is 33*5 in. focal length, and 2*7 in. aperture, and is a 
very fine one. There are seven vertical wires in the diaphragm and two hori- 
zontal. It has a diagonal eye-piece, and three powers, ranging from 84 to 130. 
It is placed on a pier of brickwork 6 ft. deep and up to the surface of the 
ground 5 ft. square ; above ground it is 18 in. square. The instrument is re- 
markably steady, as it is very rarely that the level needs the slightest alter- 
ation. 

The other instruments are a clock, standing on a pier in the south-west cor- 
ner, a 45-in. achromatic, by Tulley, for occasional observation, a barometer, 
dry and wet-bulb thermometers, maximum and minimum self-registering ther- 
mometers, and a rain gauge. 

The position of the observatory is in north lat., 51° 48' 55"*9; west long., 
3m. 16s. '8 ; and about 284 ft. above the sea level. 

THE OBSEEVATOEY OF EOBEET SXOW, ESQ., F.E.A.S. 

This observatory, which was planned by Mr. Snow, and built in 1834, is 
situated at Ashurst, in Kent, in longitude lm. 10s. west of Greenwich, and in 
north latitude 51° 15' 58'', the former being determined by transport of 
chronometers between Ashurst and Lord (then Mr.) Wrottesley's* observatory 

* Lord Wrottesley, on coming to the title, removed to his seat at Wrotteslev, near Wolver- 
hampton, where he "has an observatory well equipped with excellent instruments] especially with 
a large equatorial, formerly belonging to E. B. Beaumont, Esq. 



G94 



LONDON. 



at Blackheath ; the latter by observations with a portable 20 in. transit placed 
in the prime vertical. Its elevation is 550 ft. above the level of the sea. 
Its general construction, which deserves notice for its convenience and sim- 
plicity, will be well understood by our engraving. It is a small building in 
the form of a parallelogram 24 ft. by 10 ft. The walls are of brick 14 in. in 
thickness, painted of a slate colour. The soil on which the observatory stands 
is a rocky gravel, and the neighbourhood is hilly, though there are no heights 
that materially obstruct the horizon in any direction. 




MR. SNOW'S OBSERVATORY. 



The entrance to the observatory is by a door at its north end, which opens 
into a passage or ante-room useful for keeping books and apparatus. 

This ante-room communicates directly with the transit room, and the latter 
communicates, by means of a flight of steps, with a rotating dome containing 
an equatorial. We will proceed to describe each of the instruments. 

The Transit Instrument by Simms is of 3i ft. focal length, and 2| in. aper- 
ture. The length of the axis is 18 in. from shoulder to shoulder. The piers 
are erected with great solidity from some depth in the gravel beneath, and 
the lower parts of them are cut away for several inches to allow convenient 
space for the observer. The shutter openings are continuous from horizon to 
horizon, and consist of north and south windows, and shutters in the sloping 
roof. 

Adequate provision is made for protection of the instrument from the sun's 
rays. 

There are seven fixed vertical wires, and one wire moveable by a microme- 
ter in the principal focus of the telescope. The error of collimation is ob- 
tained by means of a fixed mark on a stone pillar erected on a hill to the north 
about three-quarters of a mile distant. Numerical corrections are applied for 
the error of collimation, as well as for the errors of level and azimuth ; and 
imperfect transits are rigorously reduced to the mean of wires. 

The transit-clock (which can be seen and heard from every part of the 



THE OBSERVATORY OF MR. CHARLES MAY. 695 

observatory) was made by Molyneux, father to the present well-known clock 
and chronometer maker ; it has the usual dead-beat escapement and mercu- 
rial pendulum. 

The Equatorial is by Simms. The object-glass of the telescope has 3*9 in. 
clear aperture and 5 ft. focal length, and has given its owner every satisfaction. 
It was originally ground for the observatory at Alabama. The mounting of 
the instrument is that generally known as the Fraunhofer mounting, and is 
very solid. It has some peculiarities, among which may be mentioned that 
the polar axis is a bold conical brass tube, long enough to admit both the de- 
clination-axis and the telescope-counterpoise vnthinside of the northern pivot 
and its support. The support of the northern pivot is also a conical brass 
tube. The telescope is made to follow a star by a convenient application of 
clock-work motion, modified slightly from Fraunhofer's plan. The hour-circle 
is 2 ft., and the declination circle 18 in. in diameter. It is fitted up with a 
wire position micrometer, with the usual furniture of eye-pieces. For observa- 
tions into which time enters, direct use is made of the transit-clock. 

The rotative roof of the dome is neatly ribbed within by a frame-work of 
carpentry, and has three convenient openings extending together rather more 
than from horizon to horizon. It is 10 ft. in diameter, and traverses on three 
turned balls of lignum-vitse. Though of sufficient weight to enable it to resist 
the heaviest gales, it is turned easily by hand. Without, the roof is of the 
semiconical pigeon-house shape frequently adopted in such buildings, and is 
covered with copper. 

Other instruments connected with the observatory are — 

A 20-in. portable transit-instrument by Troughton ; 

A 45-in. achromatic telescope by Dollond, with wire position micrometer 
and other equipments ; 

A comet seeker by Simms, on an equatorial stand ; 

An eight-day chronometer, by Molyneux ; 

A Daniell's hygrometer ; two mountain barometers ; some thermometers 
and a pair of small globes. 

Mr. Snow has made good use of the means at his disposal, and many valuable 
contributions made by him to astronomy will be found in the Memoirs and 
the Monthly Notices of the Eoyal Astronomical Society. 

THE OBSEEVATOEY OF CHAELES MAY, ESQ., F.E.A.S. 

Mr. May, of the firm of Messrs. Ransomes and May, engineers of Ipswich, 
who have so ably carried out Mr. Airy's plans in the erection of the altitude 
and azimuth instrument and the large transit circle at Greenwich, has favoured 
us with the following account of an observatory constructed by himself at his 
private residence, and which he intends to furnish with good instruments. 

Its dimensions and general plan resemble the Bedford Observatory described 
by Captain Smyth in his Cycle. The transit room is 17 ft. long, 12 ft. wide, 
and 9 ft. high. Two very substantial stone piers are provided for an instrument 
which may be of 6 or 7 ft. focal length if required. 

The equatorial room is 16 ft. in diameter, covered by a dome similar in con- 
struction to Dr. Lee's ; the floor is 4 ft. higher than that of the transit room, 
surrounding objects rendering a little elevation desirable ; this room is built 
with a very solid foundation for the instrument, the lower portion being 
brickwork in cement, the upper Portland stone ; the north pier is about 8 ft. 
by 3 ft. at the floor line, diminishing upwards to about 6 ft. by 3 ft. at a height 
of 6 ft. from the floor. Upon the brickwork at this height is a Portland stone 
6 ft. by 3 ft., and 10 in. in thickness, forming the support of two other blocks 
of the same kind of stone, which have a clear aperture of 15 in. between them, 
similar to the two piers for a transit instrument. The object proposed by this 
form is to support the upper end of the polar axis in such a manner as to allow of 
the lower transits of the circumpolar stars being seen by the equatorially-mounted 



096 LONDON. 

telescope. The shutter of the dome is in one piece, turning on the apex of the 
dome as a centre, and resting upon rollers at the base, and is moved by a rack 
and pinion. The full opening at the equator is about one hour of time. 

So far as regards instruments, this observatory is not completed ; a 20-in. 
transit, by Cary, is mounted on an iron casting cemented across the tops of 
the transit piers, and there is an indifferent clock with dead-beat escapement 
and wooden pendulum. 

For the equatorial room a telescope, with a very fine object-glass of 6*34 in. 
clear aperture by Merz, of Munich, is mounted upon a cast-iron stand with 
polar axis and arcs divided so as readily to find an object ; this stand is in- 
tended to be superseded by a polar axis upon the same general principle as 
that in the Corporation Observatory at Liverpool. 

THE OBSERVATORY OF THE REV. JOHN SLATTER, F.R.A.S. 

This observatory, recently erected by Mr. Slatter, was completed in the 
spring of the year 1850. It consists of one room whose size is 18 ft. 6 in. by 
10 ft. 6 in. inside measure, 10 ft. 6 in. square being appropriated to the equa- 
torial, the rest to the transit-room, of which, however, a portion has been cut 
off to form a porch. The roof of the equatorial room, which is of course 
revolving, is octagonal • the walls are of 9 in. brick, on which were laid octago- 
nal frames of oak, which serve as the bed for the balls which support the roof 
to run upon. These are kept to their places by a circular oak curb made of eight 
pieces, the joints of which are made to quarter with those of the frame-work 
below ; the base of the roof above the balls is the exact counterpart of this. 
The whole of this frame-work is put together with common bed-screws and 
tightened by tonguing. The roof is of deal rafters, and is in shape a sort of 
truncated pyramid, all the rafters from the angles beneath meeting at the angle 
of a square above of which each side is 2 ft. ; this makes a zenith door, which 
is opened from below by a string acting on a bent lever, and the opening thus 
made is prolonged down the side, which is closed by one sloping door over- 
lapping the aperture. The balls are four, of lignum- vitas \.\ in. diameter, and the 
roof is moved by a cord and hook which fits in staples set at intervals ; the end 
passing round an upright roller, and being then brought over a large pulley 
1 ft. in diameter. The motion is so easy that an observer with the pressure of 
one hand can move it without rising from his seat, but even this is rarely ne- 
cessary as the opening admits of following a star for at least an hour in most 
positions of the aperture. The angle of the octagon that falls on the division 
of the two rooms rests on a square brick pillar diagonally placed, behind which 
is the clock, so that the clock can be equally well seen from either room ; this, 
which is found a most convenient arrangement, was suggested by Mr. Johnson. 

The instruments are both by Simms. The meridian instrument is an 
18 in. transit-circle, which is placed on a stone table; and, with lead plates 
between the iron frame and the stone, it keeps its adjustments with great 
accuracy. The telescope attached to the circle has a focal length of 28 in. 
with an aperture of somewhat more than 2 in. The circle is read by micro- 
meters to 1". 

The equatorial has a focal length of 7 ft. 4 in., and a clear aperture of 
4*9 in. It bears a power of 236 commonly, and with this will separate the 
components of any double star, which exceed 1" in distance; up to this point its 
performance is satisfactory, such stars, e.g. as * Aquilae, being beautifully sepa- 
rated. It shewed the ring of Saturn within a few hours of its disappearance. 
The declination-circle and hour-circle attached to it are of 18 in. and 15 in. 
in diameter respectively, and can be read to 5" and Is. respectively. Both the 
instruments were made by Simms. The clock is an old one by Fayrer. 

The longitude of the observatory is Oh. 4m. 56 "5s. west, and the latitude 
51° 43' 50" north, which agrees closely with the position given in the Ord- 
nance maps. 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORIES. 697 

THE OBSERVATORY OF THE RET. W. R. DAWES, F.R.A.S., AT WATERINGBURY, NEAR 

MAIDSTONE. 

"We have had occasion already to make mention of Mr. Dawes in connexion 
with Mr. Bishop's observatory, of which he had the direction for a considerable 
period. Previously to this Mr. Dawes had established an observatory at his 
residence at Ormskirk, in Lancashire, where, for a period of several years, he 
confined himself chiefly to observations of double stars, the results of which are 
published in the fifth and eighth volumes of the Memoirs of (lie Royal Astro- 
nomical Society. It is but recently that Mr. Dawes has re-established his 
observatory at his present residence at TTateringbury, and our readers will 
remember, as an interesting fact connected with its re-establishment, the early 
announcement of the discovery, by himself and Mr. Lassell, of the third or 
interior ring of Saturn, contemporaneously with its discovery by Mr. Bond in 
America. 

The observatory consists of a transit room and an equatorial room. In the 
transit room is a clock, and a 2-ft. transit circle having a 30-in. telescope with 
an aperture of 2J in. The circle is by Troughton and Simms : it is furnished 
with a rough reading-microscope, and four micrometer-microscopes, which are 
attached to a stout stone fork, forming part of the top of one of the piers; and 
they are so placed as to read off the divisions at the extremities of two dia- 
meters of the circle. 

In the equatorial room is an achromatic refractor by Merz and Son, of 
Munich. The clear aperture of the object-glass is 6 J in., and its focal length 
102 £ in. English measure. It is mounted equatorially on Fraunhofer's plan, 
and is carried by clockwork. The hour-circle is 9J in. in diameter, and is 
divided on silver to single minutes of time, which are subdivided by two oppo- 
site verniers to 4". The declination circle is 12 in. in diameter, and is divided 
on silver to 10', and its two opposite verniers read to 10". The telescope is of 
great excellence : it shows the second satellite of Saturn (Enceladus) very 
plainly when near its greatest elongation, and separates stars of moderate 
brightness whose central distance does not exceed 0"'7. 

The observatory and instruments, having been removed from Mr. Dawes' 
late residence at Camden Lodge, near Cranbrook, were erected at his present 
residence last October. Its geographical position is not yet accurately deter- 
mined, but is approximately in north lat. 51° 15' 12", and east long. lm. 39s.*8. 

Mr. Dawes has procured some micrometrical measurements of Saturn's ring, 
which prove that the portion which he has observed lately and described in 
his paper to the Eoyal Astronomical Society, formed no part of the ring as it 
was seen and measured by Struve at Dorpat. This is very strange ; for, in 
addition to the splendid skies of Eussia, the illuminating power of the Dorpat 
telescope was greater in the proportion of 92 to 40. 

ORGANIZATION OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORIES UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE 
OF JAMES GLAISHER, ESQ., F.R.S., F.R.A.S. 

We have hinted, in our accounts of the astronomical observatories, at an 
organization recently formed for making meteorological observations on a uni- 
form plan and with well-tested instruments, and our work would be incom- 
plete if a brief account were not given of the means by which this has been 
effected, especially as several of the observatories above-mentioned are furnished 
with meteorological instruments, and make regular observations. Of these, the 
observatories of Oxford, Eose Hill, Hartwell, Hartwell Eectory, Stone, Ayles- 
bury, Cardington, and Southampton may be mentioned as taking part in the 
organization. In addition, there are upwards of thirty other stations in the 
British Isles at which observations are regularly made, included between 49J° 
and 56J° north lat., and between 1^° east and 6° west long. 

This organization was planned by Mr. Glaisher in the year 1846, and by 

H H 



698 LONDON. 

successive steps, under his active and talented management, it has arrived at 
its present form. At the present time there are observatories at almost every 
important station in England and Scotland, and a few in Wales and Ireland, 
which regularly transmit observations made under a uniform plan, with well- 
tested instruments, and reduced by means of tables (mostly the work of Mr. 
Glaisher) founded on the same elements. 

To secure the ready and useM application of the observations thus made, a 
copy of them is sent monthly from each station to Mr. Glaisher (from Durham 
an account is sent weekly), and the quarterly results are also forwarded for his 
inspection before they are printed. The various elements relating to the 
pressure, density, temperature, and hygrometrical state of the air, and the 
usual weather results, are then forwarded to the Eegistrar General, and pub- 
lished in the Quarterly Report of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. They are 
also published in the Philosophical Magazine, and latterly in the Civil Engi- 
neer and Architect's Journal. In the arrangement of the observations, all 
abnormal phenomena receive particular attention, in the hope of deriving from 
them important conclusions respecting the theory of the weather. 

From the extent of this meteorological combination, from the personal care 
used in selecting and testing the instruments, and from the rigorous scrutiny 
to which the observations are subjected, there cannot be a doubt that a very 
successful step has been made towards the obtaining of a better knowledge of 
the peculiarities of our climate, and the results now collected will be of in- 
calculable service both in the every-day affairs of life and in the furtherance 
of the service of medical statistics. 

We must not omit the mention of another organization in connexion with 
the different railroads in the British Islands, and under sanction of their 
directors. This has for its object, not only the determination of the direction 
and force of the wind, and the state of the sky in various parts of the country, 
but the immediate publication of the observations in a London journal, for 
the benefit of agriculture and other subjects for which a knowledge of the 
state of the weather over large tracts of country is desirable. The merit of 
this scheme, which has been most successfully carried out, is due to the 
spirited proprietors of the Daily Nevis, who, in 1848, endeavoured, under 
great difficulties, to supply their readers with daily accounts of the simul- 
taneous state of the weather throughout the country. The difficulties of ob- 
taining the necessary intelligence were so great that in the autumn of 1848 
the scheme was abandoned. The Astronomer Eoyal's attention having, how- 
ever, been turned to the subject, which he considered of importance, the 
proprietors were induced, through his representations, to renew their efforts, 
and communications were opened with the directors of the leading railway 
companies ; they were promptly responded to by the directors of the North 
Western, Great Western, South Eastern, South Coast, the Lancaster and Car- 
lisle, and the York, Newcastle, and Berwick lines, and ultimately by very 
nearly all the principal lines. 

The stations were, for the most part, selected by the Astronomer Eoyal, the 
principle of selection being that they should be more frequent in the hilly 
country, and especially on opposite sides of a chain of hills, and at different 
elevations. In the summer of 1849, all the stations were visited by Mr. 
Glaisher, who fixed at each a compass-card, determined the correctness of every 
wind vane near it, and remained till he was satisfied that the observations 
would be correctly made and regularly transmitted. In the autumn of 1850 
several stations were revisited, and the system was partially extended to 
Ireland. 

The plan of working is as follows : — At 9 a.m. on every day excepting Sun- 
days, the required elements are noted by the station-master, and entered into 
a form provided for the purpose by the proprietors of the Daily News. This 
is forwarded to London by the first train, and the accounts from the different 



PANORAMAS. 099 

railways are collected after midnight by a messenger from the office of the 
Daily Ncvjs, and immediately printed and published. 

In addition to these observations, monthly reports of simultaneous observa- 
tions taken at Brussels, and several other towns in Belgium, are forwarded to 
the Astronomer Royal, and passed to Mr. Glaisher; and similar reports are 
furnished from several towns in Ireland. 

All the observations thus collected are represented graphically on maps pre- 
viously prepared by Mr. Glaisher, the direction of the wind being denoted by 
an arrow ■ and many results, which seemed contradictory when unconnected, 
become reconciled when seen in connexion with the configuration of the inter- 
vening country, and many valuable hints are derived. 

We may, in conclusion, mention that in connexion with, or rather growing 
out of, the above Meteorological Association, a Meteorological Society has been 
recently formed for facilitating the reduction and discussion of results, of 
which Mr. Whitbread is first president, and Mr. Glaisher the secretary. 

We have now completed our survey of the observatories, public and private, 
thai are either in London or its neighbourhood, or which are situated within 
the limits of an easy railway journey of it, and in concluding, we beg most 
heartily to offer our best thanks to the directors and proprietors of the several 
observatories, without whose hearty co-operation this work could not have been 
effected. 

The published works which have been made use of in the compilation of the 
history and account of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, are chiefly, 
Bailys Life of Flamsteed ; Rigaud's Life and Miscellaneous Works of Brad- 
ley ; Delambre's Eloge of Mashelyne, in the volume of the Memoirs of the 
Institute for 1841 ; the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society of 
London; and the Introductions to the Volumes of the Greenwich Observations. 

For the Observatory of Cambridge, the account has been compiled chiefly 
from the Introductions to the Observations, and from Mr. Airy's Description of 
the Northumberland Equatorial. 

For the Observatory of Oxford, Le Keux's Memorials of Oxford have been 
consulted, as well as the Introductions to the Observations, though, for the de- 
scription of the heliometer lately added to that establishment, we are indebted 
solely to the kindness of Mr. Johnson, the director. 

We hope that the accounts thus collected with considerable pains will have 
more than a transitory interest. In the description of Greenwich, it has been 
our object, as far as was consistent with the necessary brevity, to give not only 
an authentic and accurate description of the building and the instruments, 
but also an intelligible idea of the leading processes pursued in that famed 
establishment. It is hoped that the visitor skilled in the use of instruments 
will find the brief account an assistance and a guide, while the unlearned visitor 
may learn enough from it by previous study, to render his walk round the ob- 
servatory more interesting and instructive. In the descriptions of the other 
observatories, now for the first time published, the various methods which are 
explained, both of the construction and the use of instruments, may suggest 
many valuable ideas to the amateur astronomer, while it will also suggest the 
expediency, if not the necessity, of some attempt at an organization of labour 
for rendering this very large amount of observing materials conducive to the 
advancement of the science of astronomy. 



PANORAMAS AND ELEGANT PLACES OF AMUSEMENT. 

Colosseum, in the Regent's Park, called also the Cyclorama, a large circular edifice, with 
a massive portico in the Doric style of architecture, is a public exhibition, and contains a view 
of London upon a large scale, as it would appear from an elevated position, such as from 
St. Paul's. In addition there are conservatories of the choicest plants and flowers ; fountains, 
with every fashionable amusement and recreation, natural and artificial, together with a saloon, 

H H 2 



700 LONDON. 

containing works of the Fine Arts, &c, and a splendid concert room, the entrance to which is 
in Albany Street. The prices of admission vary. (See also pp. 719 and 720.) 

Diorama, Regent's Park, situated in a row of fashionable nouses turning out of the New 
Road, on the right, a few doors in the park, is an exhibition of architectural and landscape objects, 
generally well painted, consisting of a rotunda 40 ft. in diameter, so arranged and illuminated 
as to display by the best effects the changes of light and shade with the greatest accuracy in de- 
veloping nature and art. The accommodation consists of boxes and saloon, the floor of which 
turns on a pivot, for the purpose of bringing the spectator to either subject, like the proscenium 
of a theatre, behind which are the pictures for exhibition. (See also p. 721.) 

Panorama, Leicester Square, is an exhibition of ancient reputation. Paintings of the best 
description of scenic art are to be seen in this building, by the payment of Is. each being made 
to either the upper or lower circle. Separate views of objects in each. 

Cosmorama (Exhibition) in Regent Street, displaying views of several objects worthy of the 
scientific and curious. There are two galleries, in which there are convex lenses for viewing the 
several objects. 

Gallery of Illustration, 14, Regent Street, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall.— The proprietors 
have a beautiful new Diorama of our Native Land, illustrative of England and its Seasons, in 
which they have endeavoured to depict the amusements and employments of a country life 
during the several varieties of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The husbandman will 
be found pursuing his useful toil from seed time to harvest ; his occupation in the field from the 
earliest budding spring to the gathering of the ripe golden crops; his more serious duties, his 
church and his God, form prominent features in the illustration ; the sports of the field, per- 
taining to the higher classes, as followed by them in the beginning of the eighteenth century ; 
the peasant's pastime, his may -pole and rustic dance, enjoyed after the labour of the day, are 
not omitted. This diorama, totally independent of the Overland Route to India, is exhibited in 
the lower gallery, accompanied with selections of nature, that so abound in the British poets, 
and have continued down from " The Flower and the Leaf" of Chaucer to modern times. 

The grand moving diorama of the Overland Route to India still continues to be exhibited 
daily at 12, 3, and 8 o'clock. 

Tourists' Gallery, Her Majesty's Concert Room, Haymarket.— Mr. Charles Marshall's 
great moving Diorama has been many months in preparation, and has engaged the pencils of 
numerous eminent artists, English and foreign, from the most recent sketches, and illustrates 
the grand routes of a Tour through Europe, commencing with the departure of the «< John Bull " 
steamer from the Tower of London for Hamburgh.— Route through Germany, Prussia, Austria, 
Bavaria, and down the Danube to Constantinople.— Route through Italy.— Passes of the Alps, 
through Switzerland to Geneva. — Route down the Rhine to Cologne, and home. — The white 
cliffs of Britain. 

The diorama is accompanied by a descriptive lecture, including historical and statistical detail, 
with appropriate music, which has been selected from the works of the first composers, and ex- 
pressly arranged for the subject. 

Admission, Is. ; reserved seats, 2s. 6d. ; stalls, 3s. ; private boxes for parties and families, 
10s. 6d„ 15s., and 11. Is. 

Diorama of the Ganges, a very beautiful and much admired lounge, called the Portland 
Gallery, situated No. 31b', Regent Street (Langham Place), opposite the Polytechnic Institution. 
Pianist, Herr Adolph ; Lecturer, Mr. S. Walsh; machinery by Mr. Cooper; figures and animals 
painted by Mr. Buss ; the diorama exquisitely painted by Mr. T. C. Dibdin, from the admirable 
sketches by James Fergusson, F 5q., made during a long residence in India. Doors open at half- 
past 2 and half -past 7 P-m. Admission, Is. ; reserved seats, 2*. 6d. 

Cummings' South African Exhibition, Chinese Gallery, Hyde Park Corner. Admission, Is. 

In the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, the Valley of the Nile to Nubia, a fine painting ; and in 
the same building also a fine painting of the route to California. 

Mr. Allom exhibits, in Regent Street, his remarkably fine painting, a panoramic view of 
Constantinople, painted and coloured in his usually vivid and accurate style. 

The Bushman Ranger is an exhibition, or painting, depicting scenery of the country, and the 
extraordinary predatory life of the unfortunate cast-off members of society in the colonies. 

Catlin's Exhibition, in Regent Street, of the portraits and warlike weapons and costumes of 
the backwoodsman and the North American savage. 

Grand Exhibition of Art, Adelaide Gallery. Admission, 1*. 

Madame Tussaud's Exhibition, Baker Street, Portman Square, is renowned for the nu- 
merous groups of characters, great as exemplars for the world's guidance — great as political 
leaders and adventurers— great as soldiers and sailors, on whom the world will look with admira- 
tion — great as villains, at whom the world shudders. 

In Linwood's Gallery, Leicester Square, Mr. Brees exhibits the views of New Zealand, and 
delivers an explanatory lecture on the nature of the inhabitants and their country, with some 
account of the English settlers, their prospects, &c. Admittance, Is. Also Cambon ; s grand 
moving Panorama of Paris, St. Cloud, and Versailles. Admission, Is. 

There are panoramas, dioramas, and other similar beautiful objects and exhibitions of several 
kinds, in Pall Mall and No. 5, Pall Mall East. The British Gallery, or Shakspeare Gallery, is 
one of great annual interest, containing the choicest subjects of the English school ; this gallery 
is nearly opposite Marlborough House. Other collections are freely described elsewhere. There 
is also, in Pall Mall East, and Suffolk Street, adjacent, the Gallery of Water-Colour Drawings 
and the productions of British artists, or of those domiciled with us. There is what is called 
the "greatest wonder of the age," Cantelo's chickens always hatching, in No. 4, Leicester 
Square. Admission, Is. There are, however, so many admirable displays of talent constantly 
springing up, that the newspapers of the day will best enlighten us in such matters : the first 
columns of the front page of the Times and other journals are diffuse in, these particular 
advertisements for the information of strangers, and are the readiest sources for the visitor to 
consult. 



PATENT OFFICIALS IN LONDON. 701 



PATEXTS FOE IXYEXTIOXS IX EXGLAND 

Are grants to the inventors of new and useful machinery and processes in the 
arts, and by which certain privileges are secured to them for fourteen years, for 
the exclusive use and exercise of their inventions : after which term they belong 
to the community. Patents are therefore monopolies of a definite character ; 
designed as a security to reward those whose ingenious faculties and practical 
skill have produced improvements of general utility and value. Patents for 
inventions may therefore be considered as bargains between the inventor on 
the one hand, and the public on the other ; and the abuses to which these 
bargains are liable sometimes originate in their want of novelty, and not un- 
frequently from the invasion of the inventor's rights by public jealousy. 

The laws under which patents are granted vary in their form in the several 
European and American States, and are all, in some degree, imperfect, and 
ineffective of their proper object. 

In Great Britain and Ireland, Letters Patent (founded on statutes from the 
18th of Henry YL, but mainly on the 21st of James 1. c. 3) are granted by the 
crown, on behalf of the public, to the inventor of any new machine, manufacture, 
or chemical process, for the sole privilege to make, use, exercise, and vend his said 
invention, during the term of fourteen years : and an inventor, as thus privileged, 
may be the first inventor absolutely, the first publisher if others have also made 
the same invention, or the first importer from abroad, into these realms, of 
an invention not previously herein used and exercised. British patents are 
granted as matters of course, provided certain legal forms are complied with, 
and the official fees duly paid. 

The several processes in soliciting a British patent are as follow : — The inventor 
has to petition the crown to grant letters patent for his invention, of which, at 
this stage, he states the title, and lodges with the attorney or solicitor-general 
a brief outline of the process, or improved machine or apparatus he wishes to 
patent ; and he accompanies his petition with a declaration of the grounds of his 
request, and the portions of the United Kingdom in which he wishes to secure 
his patent right. These documents are lodged at the office of the Secretary of 
State for the Home Department, whence they are referred to the Attorney or 
Solicitor-General ; the selection of either of these officers being with the in- 
ventor. If no opposition occur there from caveats, which last for a twelvemonth, 
(these are formal notices generally entered by rival or inquiring inventors to 
gain information of applications for similar patents,) one of those officers makes 
a report on the petition, and recommends that letters patent be granted. 
This report is taken to the Secretary of State's Office, for the royal warrant, 
directing the bill to be prepared for the royal signature. The warrant is 
committed to the Attorney-General, and if not opposed, he prepares the 
bill, which is signed at the Secretary of State's Office. Under royal warrant, 
sealed with the royal signet, the bill receives the privy seal, and is then directed 
to the Lord Chancellor for letters patent to be made out and sealed with the 
great seal. From this practice, that of soliciting patents for Scotland and 
Ireland differs only in minor details, the common feature of the arrangement 
being that of different forms and fees. 

Having obtained the great seal, the patentee, to complete his patent, has 
fully to disclose the nature of his invention, by drawings, if necessary, accom- 
panied by a specification, which will enable a competent workman to carry 
out the invention ; this instrument has to be enrolled in Chancery, in compli- 
ance with a proviso contained in the letters patent, within the time therein 
named. In the preparation of this instrument great care and judgment are 
needed, based on a knowledge of former patents, to frame the specification so 
that it shall explain with sufficient clearness the nature of the improvements, 
and have that value as property, which a good specification of a patent always 
has. 



702 LONDON. 

By a recent statute (5 and 6 William IT. c. 83), a patentee is enabled, under 
the authority of the Attorney or Solicitor- General, to amend his title and 
specification, if necessary, and to disclaim such part or parts of his invention 
which he may have since found to be old and untenable. This disclaimer 
must be made and enrolled previous to any legal proceedings beiug taken for 
infringement. Under the same statute, also, the inventor may petition for a 
prolongation of his term of fourteen years ; which petition is referred to the 
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, who grant the same, if the petitioner 
makes out a case, satisfactory to them, of extraordinary losses, or delays in 
being able to bring his invention into general utility, or other special reasons 
for the prolongation. 

The properly in a patent can be defended from infringement by a bill in 
equity, or action at law. It may be assigned, in whole or part, by the patentee, 
to any number not exceeding twelve persons. It may be mortgaged to any 
number of persons ; and a patentee can also grant licences for the use of his 
patent, in a variety of modes, to an unlimited number of persons. 

The cost of obtaining a patent, including fees for agency, if unopposed, is 
for England, £110; for Scotland, £80 ; and for Ireland, £135. If the patent 
be granted to two or more persons jointly, which it maybe, extra fees are 
charged for the additional names ; and if the Channel Islands of Guernsey, 
Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and the British Colonies and Plantations 
abroad, are included, a further expense of about seven guineas is incurred. To 
these items should be also added the cost of preparing and copying specifica- 
tion and drawings, the charges for which are of course very variable, according 
to length, intricacy, &c. 

The expenses and regulations under which the foreign patents are granted 
vary considerably. The following brief epitome mast suffice in this place. 

In the United States of America, patents are granted only to the absolute 
inventor, always for fourteen years, and are granted or withheld at the option 
of the Government Commissioners of Patents. The amount of official fees 
payable depends upon the country of which the applicant is a native. Thus, a 
citizen of the United States, or a foreigner who has resided in the States one 
year next preceding the application, and has made oath of his intention to 
become a citizen, pays a fee of 30 dollars ; a subject of the Sovereign of Great 
Britain, 500 dollars ; and any other foreigner, 300 dollars. If the application 
for a patent be rejected by the Commissioner, two- thirds of the fees paid are 
returnable. 

In France, patents for inventions are granted alike to natives and foreigners, 
and the duration of the privilege may be fixed by the patentee at five, ten. or 
fifteen years, the amount of tax being proportional to the term, namely, 500 
francs for five years ; 1000 francs for ten years; and 1500 francs for fifteen years ; 
payable by annual instalments of 100 francs. The patentee thus enjoys the 
power of relinquishing his invention, if found unprofitable, at anytime during 
the intended term, by ceasing to pay the annual instalment of fees. 

In Belgium, patents are granted for five or ten years : imported inventions 
are patentable, and the whole of the Government tax, which is not heavy, may 
remain unpaid until the expiration of two years from the grant. 

In Holland, patents are granted for five, ten, or fifteen years, and may be 
had for foreign as well as native inventions. The fees for a patent for five 
years, are 150 guilders, or £12 10s. ; and for terms of ten or fifteen years, they 
vary from 300 to 750 guilders, or from £25 to £62 105. 

In Prussia, Kussia, &c, the Governments exercise a discretionary power in 
granting or refusing patents, and the laws are of a stringent and arbitrary 
character. 

In Austria, patents are granted for terms from five to fifteen years; the taxes 
must be paid when the application is made, and the invention put in practice 
within one year from the date of the grant. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 703 

The German and Italian States have patent laws peculiar to themselves, but 
generally similar to those already described. 

The principal patent agents are Messrs. Carpmael, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn ; 
Mr. Charles Cowper, Southampton Buildings ; Messrs. Xewton, Chancery Lane; 
Mr. Robertson, Mechanics' Magazine Office, Fleet Street ; Mr. William Laxton, 
Mudyer Street, Westminster. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 
Admiralty, in Whitehall, formerly Wallingford House, a red brick 
structure, of the time of William III. The present front elevation 
was built in the time of George I., by Thomas Eipley, the architect 
of Houghton Hall, Norfolk. It is in the interior a convenient and 
capacious building. The exterior is not what would now be called 
in good taste. It recedes from the street; a stone screen in the 
front was built subsequently by Robert Adams, with some em- 
blematical appropriate ornaments. In this edifice the whole of 
the naval affairs are managed, excepting the accounts; and these, 
with the offices of the Surveyor, Accountant-General, Store- 
Keeper-General, Comptroller of the Victualling and Transport 
Service, Inspector- General of Hospitals and Fleets, and the 
Naval Architecture and Engineering, &c, are in their several de- 
partments conducted at the Admiralty Office, Somerset House. In 
the Admiralty, Whitehall, the First Lord and the Lords Commis- 
sioners sit and hold levees of naval officers, and transact the great 
affairs of the administration of the navy. The correspondence 
emanates also from this, the principal office. In this edifice, there is 
a residence for the First Lord. The other lords, according to recent 
regulation, have not as previously, any residence. The semaphore, 
or telegraph, which was formerly at the top of the building, no longer 
exists. The electric wire, in communication with the several ports, 
are within the Admiralty. The Court of Admiralty, as it is so called, 
to decide legal questions, is held in Doctor's Commons, near St. Paul's. 
Harbour Department. 

Bethune, Capt., C.R.D.B., R.N., C.B. ) -., , , ^ 

Vetch, Capt. J., R.B, F.R.S. [ Memoers of Department 

Washington, Capt. J., R.N., F.R.S. . Inspector of Harbours. 

Braine, R. P. 1 

Eveniss, Gr. H. y Clerics. 

Shillinglaw, J. J. J 

Lowrie, W. Draughtsman. 

The duties confided to this important branch of the Admiralty, are 
— to watch over the interests of the public in the tidal rivers and 
navigable waters of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, in order to prevent any injury to the same by embankments, 
railway interferences, bridges and other structures ; and to examine 
and report to the Board of Admiralty on all applications for the 
erection of such works. 

The power, interest, and jurisdiction of the crown, extend, in 



704 LONDON. 

right of the crown, over all the seas and shores surrounding the 
kingdom, and over the soil in all rivers which have the flux and 
reflux of the sea, up to high -water-mark of ordinary spring tides; but 
the Lord High Admiral, or Lords Commissioners for executing that 
office, possess, by prescription recognised by statute, the conser- 
vancy of these harbours, tidal rivers, and navigable waters; and 
it was to carry out these duties, as well as others which devolve on 
their Lordships, from the working of the 11 and 12 Vic. c. 129 
{Preliminary Enquiries Act\ that this department was formed. 

The Archives of the Department contain a vast quantity of 
Documents, and Records, Maps, Charts, and Plans connected with 
the Harbours of the Kingdom.* These are the result of the desire 
on the part of the Board of Admiralty, to have an accurate Report 
of the present condition of each Harbour, good Charts of its Waters, 
accounts of its Tides, of its Approaches, and of its Commerce ; of 
the Dues, and other sources of Income raised; of the expense of 
Maintenance, and of the Works in progress or in contemplation; 
Abstracts of the Acts and Charters by which it is governed, and 
the constitution of the governing body, and any other statistical or 
interesting information which might regard it ; so that should their 
Lordships have occasion to trace back the history of any harbour, 
and of the changes which may have taken place in it from time 
to time, whether from physical or other causes, they have the ma- 
terials for so doing always at hand. 

Apsley House, the town residence of Field-Marshal the Duke of 
Wellington, is the last or westernmost on the north side of Piccadilly. 
It is named after Baron Apsley, better known as Lord Chancellor 
Bathurst, who commenced it in 1784. It passed to its present 
illustrious owner in 1820, and in 1828, the original exterior of red 
brick was covered with the present casing of Bath stone, designed 
by Mr. B. Wyatt. The iron blinds to protect the windows were 
erected in consequence of the riots attendant on the obstruction of 
the Reform Bill. This mansion contains some fine pictures. {See 
" Galleries.") 

Archways, ornamental. 1. The earliest and most original in 
design is that built by Inigo Jones as a water entrance to York 
House Gardens, and still standing a little east of Hungerford Bridge. 
It is comparable with the finest inventions of this kind by the Italian 
masters. 2. The next in point of time is Wren's Temple Bar, one 
of the first of his designs, and certainly far from possessing anything 
remarkable or even graceful. Structures purely ornamental gave 
no scope for the peculiar bent of his genius, and exposed only his 
failings. 3. The archways giving access to Somerset House quad- 
rangle, at its north-east and north-west corners, are among the 
happiest morsels ever designed by Sir William Chambers. Their 
merit will appear more striking by a comparison with the next, viz., 

* See also Sir John Rennie's admirable work on Harbours, now publishing in monthly parts. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 705 

4. The triple entrance into Hyde Park, from Hyde Park Corner, 
which has the same disadvantage of thinness (forming mere arches 
in a wall, rather than archways) but with this difference, that in 
Chambers' gates the thickness is felt to be sufficient, but here (owing 
to the more representative treatment) ridiculously insufficient ; the 
unreal character of the whole being greatly increased by the mimic 
colonnades. 5. The arch opposite to these, leading into the Green 
Park, was erected after a design of Decimus Burton, in 1828, and 
intended to receive, as a finish, a statue in a quadriga, looking 
towards the front of the arch, as in the representations on antique 
medals. This, placed on the centre of the attic, would at once have 
afforded a motive for that feature (now apparently meaningless), and 
have gracefully pyramidized the whole structure, which the present 
substitute (an equestrian statue of the Duke of "Wellington) does 
only in a very imperfect and lopsided manner. Without entering 
into its sculptural merits, it must be allowed that, viewed architec- 
turally alone, it is far from well placed, being at once too large to 
produce the required pyramidal finish, and too small to occupy the 
pedestal originally provided, without the addition of a second, which 
renders the former motiveless, and stamps the whole with that 
character of patchiness which seems inseparable from works begun 
with one intention and finished with another, if we may draw any 
conclusion from the experience of English architecture for the last 
two centuries, during which this proceeding seems to have been 
general. This peculiarity of our country and times is indeed no- 
where more strongly displayed than at this Hyde Park Corner, which, 
as the only ornamental entrance to the capital, would, in most other 
countries, have been attempted to be treated as a whole, and (whether 
grandly or meanly, richly or plainly) at least with some union or 
symmetry between the entrances of the two parks ; while we have 
not even been able to finish each of these gates as a whole in itself. 
The Corinthian order used to decorate this arch is from that splen- 
did fragment in the Roman forum commonly assigned to the temple 
of Jupiter Stator, and (though its rare degree of richness and delicacy 
is sadly ill suited to stand under the plain and solid mass of a mere 
pedestal to a colossus) yet it is remarkable as the closest copv we 
have of that famous exemplar, repeating faithfully all the enrich- 
ments that its diminished scale would permit. The stone, however, 
being very perishable, they are rapidly disappearing. The only 
legitimate use for the attic over such an order would have been to 
protect statues or receive sculptures on its own faces (as in the 
Roman originals of this kind of structure), and then no other finish 
would have been necessary. The greatest peculiarity (and at the 
same time greatest fault) of this archway is the sham entablature 
continued across the widest intercolumn, and which it is to be hoped 
may one day be removed back to the body of the building, as the 
coupled columns will still obviate the solecism of a distinct bit of 

H h 3 



706 LONDON. 

entablature over each. Even if the bending of the architrave did 
not betray its unreality, it forms with the columns an opening un- 
gracefully wide for its height, besides suggesting the question, if so 
wide an interval can be trabeated, what is the motive for arching a 
narrower one ? * 

Ashburnham House, Piccadilly. The residence of the Russian 
Ambassador, No. 30, Dover Street, Piccadilly. 

Ashburnham House, Westminster. — A mansion erected by Inigo 
Jones, for the Ashburnham family, but now a prebendal house, 
situated south of Westminster Abbey cloisters. In 1731, when 
occupied by Dr. Bentley, and containing the Cottonian MSS., the 
greater part, with 114 of those precious volumes, was destroyed by 
fire, the Doctor having however, on the first alarm, saved the Alex- 
andrian MS. Only the staircase and two rooms (a drawing-room 
and what was intended for a state bed-room) now remain of Jones's 
design. 

Ashburton House, No. 82, Piccadilly (also called Bath House, 
after one which formerly occupied the same site), was erected by 
Alexander Baring, Lord Ashburton, and adorned with a rich col- 
lection of pictures. (See Galleries, Private.) 

Banqueting House, Whitehall (now Chapel Royal). This apart- 
ment having been described (see " Architecture Third Period," page 
177), we need only here add that it replaced the banqueting house of 
the Tudor Palace, that room being burnt down 12th January, 1619, 
and the present commenced in the following June, and finished within 
three years, at a cost of 14,940/., exclusive of 713/. for constructing 
a pier in the Isle of Portland for embarking the stone. The pay of 
the master mason was 4s. IQd. the day, the workmen from 12d. to 
2s. 6d. The ceiling paintings, on canvas, were painted abroad, by 
Rubens, in 1635, for 3000/. There is a bronze bust of James I., by 

* Besides these, one archway of a very costly description, though little decorated (being 
entirely faced with Italian marble), was erected by George IV., before Buckingham Palace, 
but, on the enlargement of that building, was necessarily taken down, and is now erected 
on the site of Cumberland Gate. Its whole design is easily described in very few words, 
being merely the arch of Constantine, stripped of all its sculptures, with empty frames 
to show where the bas-reliefs were meant to be, with the attic reduced in height about two- 
thirds, and the places of the eight colossal statues supplied by scrolls like inverted brackets, 
to afford an excuse for the columns, by removing them from the condition of pillars sup- 
porting nothing, into the less visibly absurd category of buttresses to abut nothing. But it 
would be too much to expect realities in the details of that which, as a whole, must be, in 
every point of view, a sham. Even the .original triumphal arches were, as regards detail, 
(like all the Roman works), merely representative or second-hand art, their merit consisting 
in adaptation, not invention ; yet, as a whole, they were original and fitted to their double 
purpose, as a gate and as a monument. But our arches (like most third or fourth-hand 
counterfeits), serve no end; they are gates to lead through nothing, and monuments to com- 
memorate nothing. The former solecism might indeed, in this case, be obviated by making 
the arch serve as an entrance through some enclosing wall, as that of Burlington House, or 
the Bank (were it not already dressed up in mimic features) ; and the latter by sculpturing 
some of the starved bare panels, and replacing the scrolls by statues, the only objects at 
once beautiful and important enough to justify such an apparatus for their support. Doubt- 
less where sculpture is so scarce as with us, the placing it much above the eye is a pity (and 
such a motive may have led the Romans to choose so frequently for these monuments such 
situations as the foot of a bank or flight of steps), but if the sculpture have only the degree 
of finish fitted to its situation, no labour is wasted; and even if (as in the Parthenon) the 
most finished sculpture in the world were placed near the top of a building, though some 
would call it a pity, it would be less so than the senseless collocation of parts, or the erection 
of a sham. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 707 

Le Sueur, over the door. The precise spot where Charles was 
executed is uncertain, some saying he passed to the scaffold through 
a window, others through a hole broken in a wall. The building 
was first made a chapel by George I. 

British Museum. (See " Learned Societies and Museums.") 
Burlington House, Piccadilly r , was erected about 1665, by Den- 
ham, the nominal Crown Purveyor (the real designer being Webb, 
the pupil of Inigo Jones), for Lord Burlington, lather of the cele- 
brated architect; but entirely remodelled by the latter about 1720. 
This mansion occupies altogether about 8 acres, which is more 
than any other London residence at present ; though a portion of the 
original garden was taken to build the street, called Burlington 
Gardens, and another for the adjoining arcade, which alone is said 
to yield a rental of 4000/. The house, which stands centrally, 
between the garden and an enclosed front court, is of brick, and, 
though symmetrical, far from ornate or ornamental. Of another 
house planned by Lord Burlington (not now standing) Lord Chester- 
field, for whom it was designed, said, " that to be sure he could not 
live in it, but intended to take the house over against it, to look at 
it." If this hint had been followed, perhaps men of taste and for- 
tune would have conferred a double benefit on their neighbours by 
beautifying both sides of the street wherever they built ; but the 
noble architect adopted unfortunately, like most of his contemporaries, 
a different mode of obtaining an architectural prospect, at no less 
expense to himself, yet with no advantage to his neighbours. The 
house is evidently built, not like Lord Chesterfield's, to look at, but 
to look from; yet the beautiful scene provided for the eyes of its 
inmates is not " over against it," but enclosed in its own fore-court, 
and jealously excluded from profane gaze, by a lofty wall, presenting 
externally the aspect of a convent, or rather a prison. Walpole 
says of the colonnaded scenery within, that " we have few samples 
of architecture more antique or imposing ; " and Sir William Cham- 
bers, " few in this vast city suspect, I believe, that behind an old 
brick wall in Piccadilly there is one of the finest pieces of architec- 
ture in Europe." It is incontestably the very finest erected for the ex- 
clusive view of a single house. This extreme and perhaps unparalleled 
degree of aesthetic selfishness is peculiar to the London mansions of 
the last century ; and. however painful may be the idea they impress 
of utter isolation and absence of sympathy between their builders 
and the profanum vulgus without, they are surely no less melan- 
choly as indirect monuments and witnesses to the excessive degra- 
dation of taste in the latter. For, if the domestic building of the 
people had not fallen to such a degree of disgusting falsehood and 
consequent deformity, that men of refined or cosmopolite taste could 
not tolerate the sight, they would not (as many as could afford to 
do so) have immured themselves in an artificial scene, to shut out 
the odious view of their neighbours' works. In these oases of taste, 



708 LONDON. 

a certain degree of truth lingered, till vulgarity had scaled the pyra- 
mid of society to its summit, and leavened the whole mass. Then 
English art ceased to be " so exclusive/' No more Burlington and 
Chesterfield walls were built, because there was no longer any dif- 
ference of principle between the art displayed without and with- 
in them. 

It is sad to observe how many steps yet lower, general design has 
fallen since this. Really the meanest houses of the time of George 
I. and II., those same erections whose ugliness drove the noblemen 
of those times to create around themselves these costly screens, now 
strike the eye, wherever we meet with them, as a grateful relief, 
and by the force of contrast with their younger neighbours, seem 
actually beautiful. Their wooden modillion cornices produce some 
shadow ; their window-frames some finish, a mitigation of the rude- 
ness of square holes ; their undisguised roofs some appearance of 
habitability ; their even-tinted and accurately-wrought brickwork some 
evidence of neatness and respect to those without ; and often (though 
not always) their straightness and truth of lines and angles, the 
result of an unflinching foundation, indicate a stability that is no 
small beauty, and cannot be counterfeited. In a word, though no- 
thing in them be quite what it pretends to be, and though all their 
wood and brick represent the forms of stone, yet they are honesty 
and unpretence itself, compared with the odious tissue of deceits 
lifting its ghastly bankrupt meanness by their side. It is said " when 
things come to the worst they mend," and one is tempted to think, 
surely English building art must at length be come to the worst ; yet 
so thought the last generation and many before it. 

Charter House (or Chartreuse), formerly a monastery of Carthu- 
sians, founded by Sir Walter Manny, in 1371, on a cemetery, north 
of Smithfield, in which it is said 50,000 persons had been buried in 
the great pestilence of 1349-50. This convent being suppressed 
with the rest by Henry VIII. , the ground and buildings passed 
through various hands, and, what is very singular, twice reverted to 
the crown by the execution of their owner for treason ; viz., in 1553 
on the execution of the Duke of Northumberland, and in 1572 on 
that of the Duke of Norfolk. The last owner was Thomas Sutton, 
who, having bought the site in 1611 for 13,000/., founded the present 
triple institution, an hospital, chapel, and school, which Fuller calls 
a "masterpiece of Protestant English charity." It is governed by 
the Sovereign and fifteen of the chief officers of state, and has a 
master of the hospital and of the school, preacher, second master, forty 
boys, and eighty poor brethren. The latter wear black gowns, and 
are provided with lodging, fuel, provisions and pecuniary allowance. 
Among the masters have been Dr. Thomas Burnet, and among the 
scholars, Isaac Barrow, Sir W. Blackstone, Addison, Steele, Wesley, 
Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough, Bishop Thirlwall and Grote 
(historians of Greece), Lord Liverpool (the Premier), and Bishop 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 709 

Monk. Of the buildings, no part can be referred to the original 
foundation of the monastery, though the gateway, the chief Tudor 
fragment, may possibly be of the 15th century. Part of the 
hall, and the great staircase and governor s room, are Elizabethan, 
and the latter contains tapestry. In the master's lodge are many 
good portraits. 

Chelsea College, called by Laud " Controversy College," was 
founded by Dr. Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, and incorporated 
by James I., on May 8, 1610, u to this intent, that learned men 
might there have maintenance to aunswere all the adversaries of 
religion." Two of its fellows were to write the history of their 
times, and Camden and Hayward were appointed to this office. 
Only one wing of the intended building was ever erected. It became 
during the civil war a prison, and after the Restoration was given 
to the Royal Society; but, on determining to erect the present 
Military Hospital, the king bought back his gift, and its site forms 
part of that now covered by this vast establishment. 

Cathedral of St. Paul. — This, like most of the English cathedrals, 
traces back its history to the earliest days of Christianity, and is in- 
timately connected with the introduction thereof into this island, and 
many eventful changes that preceded its final establishment. Though 
there is great uncertainty about the history of all these venerable 
institutions before the arrival of Augustine, it is known from the 
testimony of Tertuliian, that before the year 200, the new religion 
had penetrated all parts of Britain, even those corners inaccessible 
to the Roman arms, and London was then a trading post of some 
note"". It is certain at least, that in 314, immediately after the 
conversion of Constantine, Restitutus* Bishop of London* was one 
of three British prelates deputed by their brethren to attend the gene- 
ral Council of Aries ; and at that of Ariminium, in 350, the Church 
of London was also represented. 

The invasions of the Saxons seem to have extinguished the true 
religion in all the states they founded, and by the time of the com- 
pletion of the heptarchy in 586, British civilization and Christianitv 
were confined to the western watershed of the island. The churches 
were profaned to the worship of Woden and Thor, and this must 
have been the case in the capital of the East Saxons for 'above TO 
years, when the Romish missionary, towards the end of the sixth 

* It is believed, on the concurrent testimony of Eusebius, Theodoret, and others, that soon 
after the year 60, Christianity was planted in this island either by St. Paul, or by his British 
disciples, Pudens and Claudia (2nd Epistle to Timothy, iv. 21, and Martial, Lib. iv., ep. 13, 
and Lib. xi. ep. 54), this Claudia being of the family of Caracracus. The British Triads also 
state that the father of Caractaeus went to Rome as an hostage for his son, and others of 
his family, and after staying seven years, brought back the knowledge of Christianitv. At 
this time", however, London 'pillaged and burnt by Boadicea in 61) was but an un'walled 
village of less note than either Colchester or Verulam, neighbours that would now hardly be 
perceived if absorbed into its suburbs. 

Monkish traditions attribute the first public recognition of Christianity to a south British 
prince, named Luciu*. about the year 170, and place the first religious establishment on the 
site of the present cathedral of Winchester (which also, by a strange coincidence, contains 
our oldest architectural remains of any magnitude), but the authorities for this (though Bede 
is among them) are not generally credited. 



710 LONDON. 

century, established himself at Canterbury, and having converted 
Ethelbert, King of Kent (and at that time Britwalda, or arbiter of 
Britain) found everything favourable for extending his religion and 
his influence into the other states. Mellitus, under the title of Bishop 
of London, was sent to convert this city and Sebert its monarch, 
who, about 610 (for the exact date is involved in some difficulty) was 
baptized, and "immediately, to shew himself a Christian indeed," 
founded two churches, one in the " Thorny island," about two miles 
west of London (hence called West-Minster), and the other on the 
highest ground within the city walls, most probably the site of the 
desecrated British cathedral. Tradition says that the former edifice 
replaced a temple of Apollo, and the latter that of Diana. In lay- 
ing the foundations of the present structure, Wren found what might 
have been remains of sacrifices, but he rejected the tradition because 
there were no fragments of columns or cornices. Yet it is not 
probable that the works of that dark age would retain any vestiges 
of Roman architecture, or even any finished masonry ; most likely 
both the temples and the churches were chiefly or entirely of timber, 
like those of Scandinavia. 

On the death of Sebert, however, about 619, his sons apostatized, 
a persecution of the Christians ensued, Mellitus was banished into 
Kent, and the East Saxons relapsed into Paganism forty years. 
Meanwhile the efforts of Augustine and his successors to spread their 
religion over the remaining Saxon states were successful, but in the 
west and north they called forth vigorous and lengthened opposition 
from the ancient British churches, who would not submit to the inno- 
vations and foreign authority of Canterbury and Rome. In 624, 
Edwin, king of Northumbria, being then Britwalda, was converted 
by Paulinus, but this also was only temporary, for five years after- 
wards this prince was slain, his family and Paulinus escaped into 
Kent, and the Northumbrians were again immersed in Paganism till 
the accession of Oswald ; who, embracing Christianity but protesting 
against the Papal authority, suppressed the see of York and erected 
that of Lindisfarne, under Aidan, an independent Scotch bishop. It 
was from this source that London became a third time Christianized 
by Chad, a Northumbrian missionary, who was the first of its present 
line of bishops. Not till 694, in a conference at London, were 
these ecclesiastical disputes finally settled, by the submission of the 
whole English church to the Kentish Primate. 

In 961-2 the Cathedral was burnt and rebuilt or repaired, but it 
continued probably a building of small extent and importance till 
after the Norman invasion, when nearly all the churches in the 
country began to be rebuilt on an enlarged scale and with great 
splendour. Edward the Confessor had already replaced the little 
minster of Thorny island by one nearly or quite equal to the present 
in extent; and the growing importance of Westminster and London 
now beginning to attain that pre-eminence which their geographical 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 711 

position ensured, led to the commencement of the vast pile, usually 
called " Old St. Paul's" in 1083. The work was continued by 
successive "bishops, till the steeple (of timber), rising to the unequalled 
height of 520 feet, was completed in 1222. But the wondrously 
rapid progress then made and being made, in every branch of archi- 
tecture, must have rendered the Norman work of a previous century 
now antiquated and unsatisfactory to the age that could produce such 
works as those at South wark, Salisbury, and the hundred other gems 
of the " Early English." Accordingly the history of almost every 
such edifice, during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, presents a 
continual process of pulling down the oldest part, to rebuild it with 
the latest improvements ; then to subject the next oldest portion to 
the same change ; and so on, as long as architecture continued a 
living art. Accordingly the munificence of Henry III., at West- 
minster Abbey, excited the emulation of the Londoners, and in 
1240 they completed a new choir, or a remodelling of the old one 
into the pointed style, with three light windows and tracery. The 
east end (which was extremely beautiful) must, to judge from the 
rude engravings of Hollar, have been remodelled at later periods ; 
but the nave, as far as we can learn from the same views (which are 
not even exact enough to distinguish always between pointed arches 
and round ones), must have retained, except in the vaulting, its 
Norman character ; and the tower its Early (or rather nascent) English, 
of the period of Richard I. or John. 

Old St. Paul's was, in some respects, the most remarkable of 
Gothic churches, and carried out the English peculiarities of pro- 
portion to an exaggerated degree. Besides the extraordinary height 
of its lead-covered spire, the central vista was extended to the length 
of nearly TOO ft., exceeding that of any other church till the erec- 
tion of the present St. Peter's, and internally longer even than that 
(excluding its porch). The transept was also longer than that of 
the present or any Gothic cathedral ; but this extreme lengthiness 
was not accompanied (perhaps some would say, not counteracted in 
its effect) by any unusual spaciousness, such as the largest continental 
churches possessed, for the height of the vaulting was only 100 feet, 
or equal to that at Westminster. Indeed, if we can fancy the mid- 
dle avenue of that Abbey extended to double its present length, and 
terminated by (instead of the apsis) an end similar to those of the 
transepts, we shall have a tolerable idea of the interior of Old St. 
Paul's. This vast pile seems to have had double aisles through- 
out, — a splendour of which England affords no other example ; and, 
though patched in so many styles, its general form was remarkably 
simple, Laving square terminations, none of the low chapels so usual 
at the east end, and no minor transept, porch, or other excrescence. 
The great eastern rose window, above a row of tall lancet lights, must 
have been singularly beautiful. 

Under the choir was an Early English crypt, used at the parish 



(12 



LONDON. 




CHURCH OF ST. FATTH. 



church of St. Faith, and adjoining the west front (and correspond- 
ing in place to the u Jerusalem chamber" at Westminster), was the 
parish church of St. Gregory; so that, as Fuller said, "St. Paul's 
may he called the mother church indeed, having one habe in her 
body and another in her arms." South of the nave was an octagonal 
chapter-house, standing detached in the centre of the cloisters, which 
enclosed a small square, not larger than that at Westminster. These 
cloisters were decorated in the reign of Henry V., with a very 
celebrated Dance of Death, painted on wood, and representing 
" Death leading all Estates," from the pope to the child ; with the 
speeches of Death and the answer of each estate, imitated from the 
German of Machabre, each speech being in eight lines, and headed 
thus, " Death speaketh to the Pope." u The Pope maketh aims were." 
u Death speaketh to the Emperour." u The Emperour maketh aun- 
swere," &c. The whole poem has been preserved by Dugdale. 

Immediately after the Reformation, this temple was so desecrated 
as to become a thoroughfare not only for men carrying all sorts of 
wares and provisions, but also for beasts of burden. On the accession 
of Mary this was stopped ; but, for about a century, " Paul's Walk " 
(i.e., the middle aisle of the nave) continued not merely the fashion- 
able lounge, but the news-room, exchange for merchants, and mar- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 713 

ket for hiring servants. Thus Falstaff says of Bardolph, " I bought 
him in Paul's." The largest monument in the nave, that of John 
Beaiichamp, falsely ascribed to the famous Humphrey Duke of 
Gloucester, gave his name to the u Walk," and " Dining with Duke 
Humphrey" means loitering near his tomb, in the hope of an in- 
vitation from some one of the throng of idlers. 

In L561, the famous timber spire was set on tire by lightning, and 
entirely consumed, with great part of the roofs ; and from this time 
the building fell into a decaying condition, till the repairs commenced 
under James L, by Inigo Jones. The beautiful Corinthian portico 
(see Architects, Jones) was then added " as an ambulatory for 
such as usually walking in the body of the church, disturbed the 
solemn service in the choir." It was accordingly soon filled with 
the stalls of seamstresses, and other petty dealers. Besides the west 
front, all the Norman part of the exterior as far east as the transept, 
inclusive, was encased in rusticated masonry (like that of the pre- 
sent building) and Italianized as far as was practicable, but it does 
not appear that the Gothic choir was ever intended to under- 
go this transformation *. 

On the Restoration these works were recommenced under the 
direction of Wren ; but, for want of funds, nothing beyond planning 
had been effected when the great fire happened, four years after. 

■« The daring flames peeped in, and saw from far 
The awful beauties of the sacred quire, 
But since it was profaned by civil war, 
Heaven thought it fit to have it purged by fire." 

The present edifice (see pages 181 to 192), though occupying most 
of the site of the former, retains no portion, even of its foundations ; 
not having even its axis parallel with that of the old cathedral. Its 
architecture having been described above, we shall here only notice the 
monuments, distinguishing by italics those which are most remarkable 
in themselves as works of art : the others bein<r chi en v observable for 
the extrinsic interest derived from the great men they commemorate. 
We begin from the south door, proceeding westward. 

1. General Gillespie, 1814. by Chantrey. 2. Sir Astley Cooper, 1841, by E. H. Baily, R.A. 
3. Sir John Moore, 1809, by Bacon, Jun. 4. (under west window of transept) Sir Ralph 
Abercrombie, 1801, by Westmacott. 5. (against east side of great pier) Captain Burges, 1797, 
by Banks. 6. .south of same pier) Captain Sir Wm. Hoste, 1828, bv Campbell. 7. (over 
the last) Captain Hardinge, 1808, by Manning. 8. (west of same pier)* Dr. Babington, 1833, 
by Behnes. Major-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock, 1812, by Westmacott. 10. (in the angle turning to 
the nave) Sir William Jones, 1794, by Bacon. 11. (the onlv monument in the nave, under 
its middle south window) Bishop Middleton, 1822, bv Louth. 12. (in the angle turning to 
the north transept) Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1792, by Flaxman. 13. Major-Gen. Houghton, 1811, 
by Chantrey. 14. (against the pier) Sir William Mvers, 1811, bv Kendrick. 15. Sir Pulteney 
Malcolm, 1838, by E. H. Baily, R.A. 16. (north of the same pier) Earl St. Vincent, 1823, by 
E. H. Baily, R.A. 17. (east of the same pier) Captain Westcott, 1798, bv Banks. 18. (under 
west window of transept i Lord Rodney, 1792, bv Rossi. 19. (under north window) Sir Thomas 
Picton, 1815, by Gahagan. 2u. Generals Crawford and Mackinnon, 1812, by Bacon. 21. Sir 
Andrew Hay, 1814, by Hopper. 22. Generals Gore and Skerrett, 1814, bv Chantrev. 23. Sir 
William Ponsonby, 1815, by E. H. Bailv, R.A. 24. (under east window of transept") Captains 
Mosse and Riou, 1801, by Rossi. 25. Major-Gen. Bowes, 1812, by Chantrey. 26. General Le 
Marchant, 1812, by Smith. 27. morih side of pier* Admiral Lord Duncan, 1804, by West- 
macott. 28. (west of same pieri Major-Gen. Dundas, 1794, by Bacon, Jun. 29. (above the 

* Our engraving (page 205), represents the tower and spire as James and Charles intended 
to have restored them. The spire never being rebuilt after 1561, and the portico not begun 
till 1633, of course they never existed together as here shown. 



71 4* LONDON. 

last) Generals Mackenzie and Langwerth, 1809, by Manning. 30. (at the angle turning to 
north aisle of choir) Dr. Johnson, 1734, by Bacon- 31. (against the pier, north of the ante- 
ehoir) the Marquis of Cornwallis, 1805, by Rossi. 32. (over the last) Captain Cooke, 1805, by 
Westmacott. 33. (against the opposite pier) Lord Nelson, 1805 by Flaxman. 34. (over the last) 
Captain Duff, 1805, by Bacon. 35. (in the south aisle of the choir) Bishop Heber, 1826, by 
Chantrey. 36. (at the angle turning into the south transept) John. Howard, 1790, by Bacon. 
37. Major-Gen. Ross, 1814, by Kendrick. 38. General Cadogan, 1313, by Chantrey. 39. (under 
the window) Earl Howe, 1799, by Flaxman. 40. (under south window) Lord 'Collingwood, 
1810, by Westmacott. 41. (next the door) Generals Pakenham and Gibbs, 1815, by West- 
macott. 42. (against south end of pier) Lord Heathfield, 1790, by Rossi. 43. (west of the 
same pier) Captain Faulkner, 1795, by Rossi. 44. (over the last) Captain Miller, 1797, by 
Flaxman. 

The first monument erected was that of John Howard, and the 
second that of Dr. Johnson opposite. Both are very fine statues, 
and foreigners used to mistake them, not without reason, for St. 
Peter and St. Paul. To the simple dignity of the earlier monuments, 
succeeded the rage for flying Victories, Fames, and Neptunes, with 
strange infatuation called " classic ; " (as if, in classic times, monu- 
ments were dressed up in the trappings of an obsolete or foreign 
mythology). To this, however, succeeded a rule more tyrannous ; more 
utterly destructive of sculptural art, by reducing the chief part of 
its work to a mere handicraft ; and yet, if possible, still more mistaken. 
Under the ridiculous notion that the classics represented their statues 
in the dresses worn at the time of their erection (an egregious error, 
for in the best periods, whether of ancient or of mediaeval sculpture, it 
used no dress but only drapery), it has become a maxim that statues 
should perpetuate, as an essential part of their hero, the last fashions 
introduced by the contemporary tailors ; an office that Sir Joshua 
Reynolds well observed might safely be left to the cheaper class of 
paintings or engravings, without prostituting the perennial marble 
to so base a purpose, or reducing a great art to a mechanical trade, 
for the sake of recording what, when it becomes interesting at all, 
can bnly serve to amuse an antiquary. We cannot but think that 
since the rise of printing, and especially of " Magasins cles Modes" 
there is little danger of antiquaries, who are in earnest, losing sight 
of any one of the long series of these ingenious expedients for 
enabling the rich to change their marks faster than the poor can 
counterfeit them ; and perhaps the oblivion of one step of this race 
would, after all, be no very serious loss to posterity, for if the things 
themselves be not worth preserving many months, it is difficult to 
see why their images should be so carefully perpetuated. If, how- 
ever, their preservation be of such importance, surely this object 
might with advantage be separated from one so discordant as the 
commemoration of our worthies. The fashions of each year or lustrum 
might have a distinct monument specially devoted to them ; or, if 
economy forbid this, they might at least be displayed on the pedestals 
or other accessories of the monuments, instead of being hung on the 
immortals' backs, where their only effect must be, as soon as the 
fashion has changed, to render their wearers ridiculous. Surely a 
better permanent coat-block might be found than the image of a 
hero. If the tailors have not scope enough in disguising the bodies 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 715 

of all living, death might at least emancipate from their sway. If 
Earth affords not room for the due display of their ingenuity, it need 
not therefore he thrust into Paradise. However the remonstrances 
of our great art philosopher, though anticipating the coming tide, 
were as powerless against it as Canute's voice. It is now an esta- 
blished rule that buttons and button-holes are not only parts of the 
man, but parts of the immortal; that when 6 feet of marble are 
said to be devoted to the memory of a worthy, it is meant that one 
foot is devoted to him and five to his tailor ; and that in the former 
fragment the sculptor must contrive to express the highest aims of 
art, while all the rest is given to caricature ; a task which, as Sir 
Joshua said, would baffle the skill of Phidias himself. 

It is also to be regretted that, from the first, the monuments 
should have proceeded on the principle of occupying the floor instead 
of the walls only. The theatrical " gallery " system of church-build- 
ing, some years ago, led to the remark that the capacity of churches 
(as regards number of worshippers) wa's now no longer estimated 
by the area of the floor, but of the walls. By a similar perversity 
their capacity to hold monuments is measured not by the walls but 
by the floor. This arose indeed in the Gothic times, with the altar- 
tombs and chantries ; but narrow selfishness, and a certain micro- 
scopic habit of vision, have perpetuated it, till Westminster Abbey 
has become a sculptor's show-room, in which the conflicting advertise- 
ments dispute every foot of standing-room with each other and the 
congregation. If any one thinks the monuments in St. Paul's have 
been begun on a different principle, that they harmonize with the 
building, or display any wider spirit, any community of aim, beyond 
the self-glorification of each, he is mistaken. Let him consider the 
appearance of the building when the present system shall have been 
completed, by lining its whole enceinte with a marble population, 
clustered against the basis of every pillar and wall, encumbering the 
floor as with the debris of a cavern, and leaving the naked fabric to 
rear, above the battling throng of pigmies, its vast bald surfaces and 
empty panels ; let him contrast this with the aspect of St. Peter's, 
holding, uncrowded, and with harmony, more monuments than the 
floor of St. Paul's would contain, and he will see the immense dif- 
ference in the ultimate results of the public-spirited and private- 
spirited methods of design, — that which makes the whole more im- 
portant than the part, — or the part more important than the whole. 

The best time and place for entering and viewing this building is 
from the south door, within an hour of noon, in a clear day of sum- 
mer, but not in the months of May or June, as, during great part of 
them, the dome and nave are filled with the rough scaffolding for a 
spectacle which takes place usually about the beginning of June, 
and should not be missed if possible by any visitor to London. The 
whole of the charity children of the capital, amounting often to 9000, 
are placed in a temporary amphitheatre under the dome, left open 



716 LONDON. 

towards the central nave, which is fitted with rising seats for the 
spectators, extending up to the west door. The whole of the children 
sing several portions of the service. There is a rehearsal two days 
before this festival, to which the public are admitted by payment of 
6d. each, and to the principal service itself by tickets, of 
which all the metropolitan clergy have a certain number to give. 
This is at present the only occasion on which the cathedral can be 
entered from the west, though we have it on Wren's own authority 
that the side west doors were intended for daily use, and only the 
centre one to be reserved for solemn occasions. (For the architecture 
of this edifice see pages 181 to 191.) 

There are three daily services in this cathedral, at 8, a.m. ; 
9 45, a.m.; and 3 15, p.m.; and sermons every Sunday and 
holiday, and every Wednesday and Friday in Lent. At other times 
(during daylight) 2d. is demanded for entering the church, and always 
for entering the nave. No one should leave the building without 
ascending, on a fine day between May and September, and between 
noon and 3 p.m., to the lantern ; the base of which is accessible for 
6c/., and the top, as high as the gilt ball, for Is. 6d. more. The 
ascent throughout is internal, safe, and easy ; and the view from either 
of the above-named points (at the time mentioned) the only one that 
can give any idea of London as a whole. The " whispering gallery" 
(over the first circular cornice within) and the " stone gallery" (on 
the top of the external colonnade) are also free to all who ascend to 
the lantern ; and the latter of these affords the best possible view of 
Wren's many ornaments to the city. The library over the south- 
west chapel, the adjoining tower, with its " geometrical staircase," the 
west gallery (commanding a grand view of the interior), and the 
room over the north-west chapel (containing Wren's model and 
various trophies), are to be visited for Is. extra, by those who ascend 
to the lantern. The clock and great bell (not accessible very near) 
are an extra 2d. The crypts are to be seen independently for a 
charge of Is. They contain, in the exact centre, the tomb of Nel- 
son ; at the east end, a few relics of the old cathedral ; and else- 
where the graves of many illustrious men, chiefly dignitaries of the 
cathedral, and artists. The sarcophagus over Nelson was origin- 
ally prepared for himself by Cardinal Wolsey. 

Christ's Hospital, Newgate Street. — A school for poor fatherless 
children and foundlings, which we owe to the truly princely benefi- 
cence of the pious Edward VI., who completed its foundation on 
June 26, 1553, only ten days before his premature death. It 
occupies the site of the Monastery of Grey Friars, and contains a 
slight relic thereof in a row of arches, formerly a cloister, on the 
south side of the principal quadrangle. The parts built in the 
reigns of Edward and his sisters have all been restored, and are not 
now distinguishable from the modern additions, which all affect the 
style (if such it can be called) of that period, except the Great Hall 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 717 

(the building seen from Newgate Street), which is a well-propor- 
tioned Gothic work, very creditable to its designer, John Shaw, 
and was built between 1825 and 1829. The Grammar School 
(pseudo-Elizabethan) has been added still more recently. 

Charles II. founded the Mathematical School, for forty boys, since 
augmented to fifty-four. They are instructed chiefly in Navigation. 
The " King's boys" (as those of King Charles's foundation are 
called) are presented at Court every New Year's Day, and a curious 
picture in the Hall, by Verrio, represents this ceremony as performed 
before James II. The Writing School was founded by Sir John 
Moore, citizen, in 1694. 

The whole number of children now educated in this vast esta- 
blishment seldom falls short of 900, exclusive of the younger ones, 
who are kept in a preparatory branch at Hertford, usually to the 
number of 500. The expenditure is not less than 40,000/. per 
annum. No boy is admitted under seven or over nine years of age, 
and none can remain after he is fifteen, except he be one of the forty 
King's boys," or have attained to the highest class in the school, 
called " Grecians." The second class are called " Deputy Grecians," 
who also enjoy some privileges. On every Easter Monday, the 
London scholars visit the Royal Exchange ; and on Tuesday, the 
Lord Mayor, at the Mansion House. They also sup in public every 
Sunday in Lent, when strangers are admitted into the great Hall, by 
tickets to be obtained from the Governors and others connected with 
the school. Most of the quaint old customs, however, are gradually 
disappearing, except the bare head and curious costume (from which 
the name Blue Coat School is derived). " When the dress is once 
done away with/' says a late writer, " the Hospital will sink into a 
common charity school." On the contrary, we fear such a change 
would render it no longer a charity school at all, and hope the 
uncouth dress and bare head will be jealously guarded, as one of the 
wise barriers set up by the founder against the encroachments of 
that irresistible power which seems inevitably, sooner or later, to 
absorb and appropriate to the rich, every patrimony of the poor 
in this country. It is a melancholy fact, that our boasted and truly 
unparalleled number of eleemosynary foundations only serve (with 
one notable exception — the medical and surgical ones) to prove, by 
failure upon failure, the utter powerlessness of their founders to 
fence them for any considerable time against a power that, with 
imperceptible progress, absorbs them as silently and invisibly as a 
serpent swallows his prey, yet faster than charity can produce fresh 
ones for the same insatiable devourer. 

Early in the present century, some energetic efforts were made at 
different times, to recover the interest of the poor in this splendid 
institution, an interest that seems then to have become so completely 
null that the pride of those who monopolized it had actually erased 
an inscription on the building, that recorded its objects in language too 



718 LONDON. 

blunt for their refined taste, a This is Christ's Hospital where poor 
Blue coat Boys are kept and educated ;" nor has this inscription, as 
far as we can discover, been restored. It was found, however, as 
usual, that those ensconced behind the letter could laugh at the 
spirit of the law ; and whatever return towards the founder's inten- 
tions has since taken place is due to no coercion, but solely to moral 
force and the individual good feeling of the governors, on whom 
alone it depends whether any or how much of the establishment 
shall, at any time, be indeed a charity school, or simply a proprietary 
one. The price of a governorship is 500/. ? which gives the power 
of presenting a boy once in three years, for life. A list of all 
governors who have presentations for the current year is published 
every Easter at the Hospital. Besides this, the Lord Mayor has two 
presentations, and each Alderman one presentation annually, and also 
the power of nominating one governor at half-price. 

Four boys yearly are sent to the universities, and there are two 
scholarships of SOI. each, founded by the Pitt Club, and the pro- 
prietors of the Times newspaper. Girls are no longer educated, as 
formerly, in the chief establishment, but only at the Hertford branch, 
where there are about seventy. 

The great hall contains several interesting portraits, and in the 
counting-house is one of the founder, supposed to be by Holbein. 

Coal Exchange, Lower Thames Street. — A building lately erected 
(during 1848-9), and one of the most singular that any age or coun- 
try has produced. Its plan is well contrived, making use of the 
whole of a very confined site, and consisting of four stories of offices 
surrounding a central hall with an iron domical skylight, and with 
the entrance well arranged in the angle between the two streets. 
In everything relating to decoration, however, the object of the de- 
signer seems to have been, by breaking or contradicting all possible 
acknowledged rules of taste, to persuade us either that art has no 
principles, or that no rules yet laid down have any foundation in 
truth. Whichever be the aim, we are convinced that this bold at- 
tempt will entirely fail of attaining it ; and that, however complacently 
the public taste of England, long utterly perverted, may gaze upon 
its marvellous eccentricities (as it did on the less extravagant ones of 
Adams and Soane in their day), foreigners of real taste and ob- 
servation will see in this building the most melancholy instance yet 
displayed of the state to which a once noble art may, by centuries of 
abuse, neglect, and false principles, be at length reduced. 

The public are not admitted to the ground floor, but freely to the 
three galleries, from which all the decorations are well seen. You 
need not be alarmed at the unstable appearance of the hand-rail, 
as the apparent ropes are really stiff and firm iron (such is the per- 
fection now reached in the most difficult representations). Indeed 
by the assistance of cast-iron such miracles of architecture may be 
exhibited, that Michael Angelo's boast about " a dome in the air " 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 719 

can now excite only ridicule, for in this and our railway structures, 
Ave may see the most massive features of building, rustic basements 
and foundations, apparently in the air. The interior of this building 
was painted by Mr. F. Sang with appropriate arabesques, which should 
be seen before the coal smoke renders them unintelligible, as they 
are well worth inspection, and illustrate, by views, portraits, and 
still life, the natural and commercial history of this important mineral. 
The uncouth objects in the panels of the dome represent magnified 
fragments of the chief fossil plants composing the coal beds. The 
floor is inlaid with a great variety of English woods, many of which 
were growing a few weeks before being used, their seasoning being 
effected by the new process of exposure to a current of dried air. 
In the vaults is a Roman hypocaust left as it was discovered in 
diffgma: the foundations. 

College of Surgeons, south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields. — This 
Eoyal College was incorporated in 1800. The stone portico of the 
present building remains from an older one, but the rest was rebuilt 
in 1835 from a competition design by C. Barry, R.A. It is com- 
posed of " artificial stones," i.e., cast blocks of concrete and stucco, 
-and the projection of the cornice is not a little remarkable for a 
structure so composed. (See article " Learned Societies/') The 
Museum is an enlargement on one left by John Hunter, in 1793, 
and bought by Parliament for 15,000/. It may be seen by the per- 
sonal or written introduction of a member of the college, between 
12 and 4 o'clock, on every day but Friday and Saturday, in every 
month but September. It contains about 23,000 objects, and is 
divided into two departments, the physiological and pathological, or 
those of normal and of abnormal structures. Among the former 
is a fine specimen of the great Irish fossil elk, larger than that in 
the British Museum ; and among the latter that of the gigantic 
elephant Chunee, formerly exhibited in London, and shot in 1826, 
on account of his violent madness, caused, as it now appears, by a 
disease of the interior of a tusk. He did not die till he had received 
100 musket bullets. Here are also the diseased intestines of Na- 
poleon ; and the skeletons of several remarkable giants, dwarfs, and 
monsters, human and animal. 

Colosseum, Regents Park, with aback entrance from Albany Street. 
-The most considerable building erected in London for public shows, 
and therefore not inaptly named, though unfortunately ; as the com- 
parison with its huge and substantial namesake was uncalled for by 
the most distant resemblance of form, and must raise expectations in 
strangers, only to disappoint them. The chief portion and that 
first built, in 1824, is a domed rotunda, 120 ft. in diameter, and 
the same in height, to which is attached on the west an entrance 
portico, so that the whole resembles a miniature of the Pantheon, 
except that the portico is Doric, with only six columns, which are 
said to be exact full-sized models of those of the Parthenon ; but the 



720 LONDON. 

reduction of the eight -columned to a six-columned facade, without 
making any other change in the proportions, has destroyed the sym- 
metry ; and, as usual, the stripping this suhlime style to a bare skeleton, 
the representation of this denuded remnant in plaster sham grandeur, 
and then its prostitution to the purpose of a show, has exceeded the 
true bounds of the burlesque, and altogether failed to please. 

The rotunda was intended for exhibiting a truly admirable pano- 
ramic view of London, taken from the top of St. Paul's, the sketches 
by a Mr. Horner, who projected the speculation, but was ruined by 
it, and the painting by Mr. E. T. Parris. This most elaborate work 
(presenting the rare combination of minute detail with a truth of 
effect amounting to deception) is now hidden by other panoramas 
changed about once in two years, the present one representing the Lake 
of Thun. There are a variety of other scenic arrangements well 
worthy a visit, and the apparent extent given by them to a very small 
piece of ground is remarkable. Round the ground floor of the 
rotunda is a gallery of casts of sculpture, and in the new building 
next Albany Street, an extremely elegant and classic room for ex- 
hibiting cycloramas, or moving landscapes, of which the present 
represents the Tagus from its mouth to Lisbon. (See also " Pano- 
ramas.") 

Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate Street. — The Dining-Hall of Crosby Place, 
the only Gothic private mansion of which any remains exist in Lon- 
don. It has been described under " Architecture" (pp. 160 to 162). 
The cellars, of brick, are probably some of the first English structures 
in that material, which was not introduced till the reign of Edward IV. 
For a century after Sir John Crosby's death, this house continued in 
private hands, but from 1576 to 1590, was used for the reception of 
ambassadors, and as long as it stood entire, seems to have been con- 
sidered the finest dwelling in the city. In 1672 the Hall became a 
chapel, and at present, after many changes, is still used for public 
meetings. The reconstruction of the ends of the Hall, and addition 
of modern Gothic works, took place between 1836 and 1842. 
Neither these nor the old parts are visible from the street, being 
concealed by houses and shops. 

Custom House, between London Bridge and the Tower. — The 
sixth building for the same purpose, on this site. There was one 
before 1385, when it was rebuilt by John Churchman, sheriff. The 
Custom House destroyed in the Great Fire was the third, and that 
which Sir C. Wren built to replace it, was destroyed in the same 
manner in 1718, and was rebuilt by Ripley, who supplanted him in the 
office of surveyor-general, and whose Admiralty still disfigures White- 
hall. This structure escaped longer than any of its predecessors, 
but fell before a similar calamity in 1814; to be replaced by the 
present huge pile, which (it will perhaps hardly be believed) is con- 
structed on precisely the same bricklayer's routine, just as liable as 
ever to another conflagration. The foundations being defective, the 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 



721 




THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 



central parts were again taken down and rebuilt by Sir R. Srnirke, 
who gave the river front its present appearance. The principal 
room, called " the Long Room/' is well proportioned, 190 ft. by 66, 
covered by three low cupola-shaped ceilings. The extent of the 
whole building is 490 ft. by 108. The quay is almost the only river-side 
walk in London open to the public. (See also article " Customs," 
p. 114—123, and 297—339.) 

The revenue collected here amounts to nearly half that collected from 
customs throughout Great Britain. In illustration of the increase 
in this branch of the revenue, it may be mentioned that in the reign 
of Elizabeth, it did not average above 70,000/., in the Commonwealth 
316,000/., and at present about 20,000,000/. The customs were for- 
merlyfarmed, liketurnpike tolls, by private persons, called "Customers." 

Diorama, Park Square, Regent's Park. — A building erected in 
1823, for exhibiting two diorarnic views in the same manner as those 
at Paris. They are changed nearly every year, and are generally 
very admirable for the truth of the changing effects of light and 
colour, in producing which natural light is exclusively used. The 
pictures are suspended in separate rooms, and a circular room con- 

i i 



r22 



LONDON. 



taining the spectators is turned round, much like an eye in its socket, 
to admit the view of each alternately. (See article " Panoramas.") 

East India House, Leadenhall Street. — For a Company that 
governs 100,000,000 of people, maintains armies, and makes war with 
the greatest Asiatic powers, this is hut a humhle and unpretending 
edifice. It was erected by R. Jupp, Architect, in 1800, just 200 
years after the first incorporation of this extraordinary Company, 
and has been since enlarged at various times. Its front, though 
belonging to a very hackneyed class, a mere portico with wings, is 
one of the best of its kind ; but cannot be appreciated, from the 
narrowness of the street, and the northern aspect— a disadvantage 
that seems by a sort of fatality to attend all our best architecture. 
It is much to be regretted that the exteriors of buildings should no 
longer be designed, as formerly, with some reference to the aspect 
and other circumstances of the site. The pediment was sculptured 
by the younger Bacon, and represents, in the centre, Britannia and 
Liberty, to whom, from the east side, Mercury and Navigation 
are introducing Asia. On the other side appear Order, Justice, 
Religion, Integrity, and Industry. The recumbent figures in the 
extreme angles are the Ganges and the Thames ; the finials over 
them, Asia and Europe ; and that on the apex, Britannia. The 
building contains a museum of eastern curiosities, which is open to 




THE EAST JNDTA HOUSE. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 723 

the public every Saturday from 11 to 3 o'clock; and to those who 
obtain a director's order, on Mondays and Thursdays also ; but is 
closed during the month of October. It contains some remarkable 
works of rude art and industry, as Chinese ivory carvings, Brahman 
and Buddhist idols and mythological paintings, armour, and trophies. 
Tippoo's organ, representing a tiger devouring an European, is very 
curious. The music, produced on turning the handle, consists of 
shrieks from the man, after every four of which, comes a growl from 
the beast. In fine contrast with this truly barbaric piece of roval 
furniture, is a specimen of Roman art found under the site of the 
present building, and representing, curiously enough (in tessellated 
work), a female riding on a tiger. There are also here a collection 
of fossils, a very rich library of Oriental MSS., and several portraits 
and statues of the most eminent servants of the company. 

Excise Office, Old Broad Street. — This building occupies the site 
of old Gresham College. It was built by James Gandon, Architect, 
about 1765, and presents nothing remarkable, except being mounted 
on two basements ridiculously exceeding in height and importance the 
superstructure for which they seem meant to prepare us. There is 
a thoroughfare through the quadrangle to Bishopsgate Street. 

Fishmongers' Hall, north-west of London Bridge, — The most 
modern of the halls of civic corporations, and that which makes the 
most architectural pretensions. It replaces one built by Wren, and 
was erected in 1833. It has the advantage of one of the very best 
sites in London, and three open facades, a more united and simple 
treatment of which (especially the eastern one) might have made it 
a very noble building. The loss of such an opportunity is to be 
regretted, no less than the fate which consigns our finest structures 
to obscure holes and corners. Being one of the last of what are 
called Grecian buildings (if we except the sumptuous mask before 
the British Museum), this Hall displays well the peculiarities of that 
singular fashion. It will be seen that their Hellenism consists solelv 
in the use of an order and other details from a Grecian pattern, 
stripped of all its embellishments, and stuck against the walls of a 
modern "box." The opposition of principle to everything Greek 
is so complete, that, while it is a peculiarity of the Greek architec- 
ture to contain no mock-features, the pseudo-Greek exhibits no other 
than mock-features. 

The Fishmongers' Company ranks fourth among the twelve who 
have the title " Honourable." It has a charter of the time of Ed- 
ward III., and boasts among its members Sir William Walworth, 
the gallant Lord Mayor who dispatched Wat Tyler. There is a 
statue of him in their Hall, together with several royal portraits, and 
a very curious and rich embroidered pall of the time of Henry VIII. 
The Companv consists of about 1400 members. (See " Corporation," 
p. 335.) 

St. George's Hospital, Hyde Park Corner (see " Hospitals "). 

i i 2 



724 LONDON. 

Goldsmiths' Hall, Greskam Street, at the back of the Post-Office. 
— The finest of the buildings of the London companies, rebuilt in its 
present form by Philip Hardwicke, R.A., at the same time that the 
Fishmongers' new Hall was in progress, 1833-4. This structure is 
nearly square, and stands quite isolated, with four fronts ; but there 
is not sufficient space for any one of them to be well seen. They 
possess much unity and completeness, contrasting strangely with the 
excessive meanness of the adjacent Post- Office, which, with a similar 
exposure, turns all its pretension one way. The interior is finely 
arranged, and its principal apartments, are equally handsome. They 
are to be seen only by an order from a member of the Guild. This 
Company ranks fifth among those of London, and is one of the 
oldest, having been incorporated in 1327. Among its members were 
Henry Fitz Alwyn, first Lord Mayor of London (from 1190 to 1214), 
and Sir Hugh Myddelton, the famous originator of the New River. 
The building contains a portrait of him, and several other portraits, 
including the sovereigns since George II., by celebrated hands. All 
articles of gold or silver must be assayed and stamped by this Com- 
pany, and about 150 are assayed here daily. A jury of them are 
also entrusted with the examination of the coinage, called " the trial 
of the pix," which is performed in that Saxon building adjoining 
Westminster Abbey cloisters which was noticed under " Architec- 
ture " (p. 127). The original stamp required by the act of Edward 
III. was a leopard's head, to which are now added three others, a 
lion, the sovereign's head, and a letter corresponding to the year of 
the reign. Articles containing more than a certain amount of alloy 
are forfeited. 

Greenwich Hospital. — This magnificent institution was founded 
by William and Mary, in 1694, for maintaining, lodging, and clothing 
300 maimed seamen, a number which has since increased to 3000, 
independently of about 32,000 out-pensioners. The royal founders 
were assisted by private contributions to the extent of 60,000/. ; and 
made use of the unfinished palace begun for Charles I., from a de- 
sign of Inigo Jones, to which were added two beautiful quadrangles 
by Sir Christopher Wren (superintended gratuitously), and, in Queen 
Anne's reign, a repetition of Jones's original building ; the whole four 
now forming an architectural group unparalleled in modern England. 
Lastly, the forfeiture of the Earl of Derwentwater's estates on ac- 
count of the rebellion of 1715, and their appropriation to this Hospi- 
tal, brought it an accession of about 6000/. per annum, to which have 
been added numerous private donations. The Hospital now contains 
a very large additional number of inmates ; and the officers consist of a 
governor, lieutenant-governor, eight lieutenants, four chaplains, and 
about 170 nurses. The in-pensioners receive, besides every necessary, 
from ls/to 2s. 6d. per week, and the out-pensioners from 4/. lis. 3d, 
to 27/. 7s. 6 d. per annum, according to their rank, age, and the nature 
of their wounds. The buildings having been described under " Arclii- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS, 



725 




GREENWICH HOSPITAL. 



726 LONDON. 

tecture" (pages 179, 180), we need only here notice the chief objects 
of interest they contain. 

The hall or gallery, entered from under Wren's western dome, 
with the vestibule leading to it, and the small upper hall beyond it, 
were painted by Sir James Thornhill, and occupied him nineteen 
years, from 1708 to 1727. These decorations are fast disappearing, 
and could never have been very remarkable. The shadowing to re- 
present architecture and sculpture in relief betrays (like all false 
pretences) at once a want of invention, and a most mean and tawdry 
taste, which, however, was the universal fault of the age. The de- 
corations are thus described by Sir Richard Steele : — 

" In the middle of the ceiling is a very large oval frame, painted in imitation of carved 
gold, with a great thickness rising in the inside, to throw up the figures to the greater height; 
the oval is fastened to a great sufrite, adorned with roses, in imitation of copper. The whole 
is supported by eight gigantic figures of slaves, four on each side, as though they were carved 
in stone. Between the figures, thrown in heaps into a covering, are all manner of maritime 
trophies, in mezzo-relievo, as anchors, cables, rudders, masts, sails, blocks, capitals, sea -guns, 
sea-carriages, boats, pinnaces, oars, stretchers, colours, ensigns, pendants, drums, trumpets, 
bombs, mortars, small arms, grenades, powder barrels, fire-arrows, grappling-irons, cross staves, 
quadrants, compasses, &c, all in stone colours, to give the greater beauty to the rest of the 
ceiling, which is more significant. 

" About the oval in the inside are placed the twelve signs of the Zodiac : the six northern 
signs, as Aries, Taurus, &c., are placed on the north side; and the six southern signs, as Libra, 
Scorpio, &c, are to the south, with three of them in a group, which compose one quarter of 
the year. The signs have their attitudes and their draperies varied and adapted to the seasons 
they possess, as the cool, the blue, and the tender green to the spring ; the yellow to the 
summer; and the red and flame-colour to the dog-days and autumnal season; the white and 
cold to the winter : likewise the fruits and flowers of every season, as they succeed each other. 

" In the middle of the oval are represented King William and Queen Mary, sitting on a 
throne, under a great pavilion, or purple canopy, attended by the four cardinal virtues, as 
Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice. 

" Over the Queen's head is Concord, with the fasces; at her feet two doves, denoting mu- 
tual concord and innocent agreement; with Cupid holding the King's sceptre, while he is 
presenting Peace with the lamb and olive branch, and Liberty, expressed by the Athenian 
cap, to Europe, who, laying her crowns at his feet, receives them with an air of respect and 
gratitude. The King tramples Tyranny under his feet ; which is expressed by a French per- 
sonage, with his leade» crown falling off— his chains, yoke, and iron sword broken to pieces 
— cardinal's cap— triple-crowned mitres, &c, tumbling down; and at one end of the oval i 
a figure of Fame descending, sounding forth the praises of the royal pair. 

'.* Just beneath is Time bringing Truth to light; near which is a figure of Architecture, 
holding a large drawing of part of the Hospital, with the cupola, and pointing up to the 
royal founders ; attended by the little Genii of her art. Beneath her are Wisdom and Heroic 
Virtue, represented by Pallas and Hercules: they are represented in the act of destroying Am- 
bition, Envy, Covetousness, Detraction, Calumny, with the other vices, which seem to fall to 
the earth, the place of their more natural abode. 

** Over the Royal Pavilion is shewn, at a great height, Apollo in his golden chariot, drawn 
by four white horses, attended by the Horae— the morning dews falling before him — going 
his course through the twelve signs of the Zodiac; and from him the whole plafond, or 
ceiling, is enlightened. 

" Each end of the ceiling is raised in perspective, with a balustrade and elliptic arches, 
supported by groups of stone figures, which form a gallery of the whole length of the hall 
— in the middle of which gallery, as though on the stocks, is seen the tafferil of the Blenheim 
man-of-war, with all her port -holes open, &c. ; to one side of which is a figure of Victory 
flying with the spoils taken from the enemy, and putting them on board the English man- 
of-war. Before the ship is a figure, representing the City of London, with the arms, sword, 
and cap of Maintenance, supported by Thame and Isis, with other small rivers offering up 
their treasures to her : the river Tyne pouring forth sacks of coals. In the gallery, on each 
side of the ship, are the arts and sciences that relate to navigation, with the great Archimedes, 
and many old philosophers, consulting the compass, &c. 

" At the other end, as you return out of the hall, is a gallery in the same manner, in the 
middle of which is the stern of a beautiful galley, filled with Spanish trophies; under which 
is the Humber, with his pigs of lead—the Severn with the Avon falling into her— with other 
lesser rivers. 

" In the north end of the gallery, is the famous Tycho Brahe, that noble Danish knight, 
and great ornament of his profession and of human nature. Near him is Copernicus, with 
his Pythagorean system in his hand; next to him is an old mathematician, holding a large 
table, and on it are described two principal figures of the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton, 
on which many extraordinary things in that art are built. 

" On the other end of the gallery, to the south, is our learned Mr. Flamstead, Reg. Astron. 
Profess., with his ingenious disciple, Mr. Thomas Weston. In Mr. Flamstead's hand is a large 
scroll of paper, on which is drawn the great eclipse of the sun, that will happen in April, 
1715; near him is an old man with a pendulum, counting the seconds of time, as Mr. Flam- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 727 

stead makes his observations with his great mural arch (circle) and tube, on the descent of 
the moon on the Severn (which at certain times forms such a roll of the tides, as the sailors 
corruptly call the Higre, instead of the Eager, and is very dangerous to all ships in its way; 
this is also expressed by rivers tumbling down, by the moon's influence, into the Severn i. 
All the great rivers at each end of the hall have their proper product of fish issuing out of 
their vases. 

" In the four great angles of the ceiling, which are over the arches of the galleries, are 
the four elements; as fire, air, earth, and water, represented by Jupiter, Juno, Cybele, and 
Neptune, with their lesser deities accompanying, as Vulcan, Iris", the Fauni, Amphitrite, with 
all their proper attributes, &e. 

" The whole raises in the spectator the most lively images of glory and victory, and cannot 
be beheld without much passion and emotion." 

This room did not long serve its original purpose of a dining-hall. 
It remained useless for more than a century, till, in 1823, it was 
made a gallery of naval pictures as we now see it. Thirty-eight 
portraits of admirals were then presented hy George IV. and William 
IV. The rest of the paintings have been contributed chiefly by 
private persons. 

Henry VIII. sailing to Calais to confer with i Admiral Kempenfelt, lost, with most of his 
Francis I.; D. Serres. I crew, at Spithead, in the Royal George; 

Sir Walter Raleigh; after Zucchero. I T. Kettle. 

Defeat of the Spanish Armada ; De Louther- Sir T. Hardy, Governor of the Hospital ; 

bourg. i G. Romney. 

Battle of Southwold Bay; not known. I Lord Viscount Bridport; Sir J. Reynolds. 

Battle of Barfleur ; R. Paton. I Lord Nelson's Victory at the Nile ;" G. Arnald. 

George, Prince of Denmark; Sir G. Kneller. i Death of Lord Nelson; A. W. Devis. 
Sir E. Hawke's Victory in QuiberonBay, 1759; , Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth ; 

Dominic Serres. G.Chambers. 

Taking of Porto Bello, in 1739, by Admiral Lord Collingwood ; Henry Howard. 

Vernon ; G. Chambers. Rear-Admiral Sir E. Berry ; J. S. Copley. 

Death of Captain Cook, the celebrated Cir- Captain Kempthorne attacked by Pirates ; not 

cumnavigator ; J. Zoffany. known. 

Sir S. Hood's Engagement with the French John Worley, aged 97* one of the first pen- 
Fleet, 1782; N. Pococke. sioners admitted into the Hospital; Sir J. 
George III. presenting a Sword to Lord Howe; ■ Thornhill. 

H. P. Briggs. i View of Old Greenwich Palace ; Vosterman. 

Sir J. Jervis's Victory off Cape St. Vincent ; } View of Windsor Castle ; Vosterman. 

G.Jones. Portrait of Columbus; after Parmegiano. 

Lord Viscount Hood ; after Gainsborough. j Vasco de Gama ; not known. 
Admiral Duncan's Victory at Caraperdown ; | Edward, First Earl of Sandwich ; Sir P. Lely. 
S. Drummond. I 

This gallery contains also some exquisitely-finished models of 
men-of-war. (See also " Galleries of Art," p. 400.) 

Corresponding to this in the opposite building, and entered through 
the other dome, is the chapel, which internally is decidedly the most rich 
and complete place of worship fitted up in this country since the Re- 
formation. It replaces one equally remarkable, which was destroyed 
by fire on the 2nd January, 1779, and the present fittings were not 
finished till ten years afterwards ; the architect being James Stuart, 
the celebrated author of the " Antiquities of Athens," a work that, 
while it first revealed to modern eyes the surpassing beauties of the 
Greek architecture, had, by its perversion to the purpose of a pattern- 
book, the most baneful effect on this art. The antiquarian himself, 
however, has here made a very different use of his discoveries, and 
if we may not venture to call it such an apartment as the Greeks 
themselves would have produced under similar circumstances and 
requirements, it is at least the only English work which can pretend 
to resemble theirs at all in general spirit and character. 

The four statues in the vestibule were designed by West, and 
personify Faith, Hope, Charity, and Meekness. The portal is the 



728 LONDON. 

only really rich one since that of Henry VII. 's Chapel, and its prin- 
cipal sculpture is by Bacon. The proportion of the chapel is too 
low, a defect that might have been corrected by pillars, but at the 
expense of convenience and capacity. It accommodates 1400. The 
galleries hardly injure it, having been provided for as part of the 
design. Why should they not be so in all churches where they are 
known to be required ? Why should they be always now a hideous 
unforeseen excrescence, even when erected along with the rest of 
the building ? Among the numerous decorations, all of which are 
worthy of notice, there is, over the lower windows, a series of mono- 
chrome paintings, illustrative of the Gospel history, beginning at the 
south-east corner and proceeding round to the north-east. The first 
four are by De Bruyn (1, the Nativity; 2, the Shepherds; 3, the 
Magi ; 4, the Flight into Egypt) : the next four by Cotton (5, the 
Baptism of John ; 6, the Calling of Andrew and Peter ; 7, our Lord 
preaching from a Ship ; 8, stilling the Tempest) : the next four, 
beginning from the north-west corner, by Milburne; (9, our Lord 
and Peter walking on the Sea; 10, healing the Blind; 11, the 
Raising of Lazarus; 12, the Transfiguration): and the last four by 
Rebecca (13, the Last Supper; 14, the Trial before Pilate ; 15, the 
Crucifixion; 16, the Resurrection). The series finishes with the 
Ascension, by West, over the altar-piece. Besides much sculpture 
in marble, the reading-desk and pulpit of lime-tree are remarkable. 
The former has four alto-relievos, and the latter six, representing 
subjects from the Acts: 1, the Conversion of St. Paul; 2, the 
Vision of Cornelius ; 3, the Release of St. Peter from Prison ; 
4, Elymas struck Blind ; 5, St. Paul before the Areopagites ; and 6, 
before Felix. The communion-table, of marble, is a very original 
and graceful design, and over it is a picture, by West, of St, Paul's 
Reception by the Islanders of Melita, very appropriate to the desti- 
nation of the building. 

These two fine apartments are accessible to the public for a small 
charge every day, and on one day of the week free. The rest of 
this vast institution is remarkable for extreme neatness and order. 

Greenwich Naval Asylum or School, situated south of the Hos- 
pital, and dividing it from the park, maintains and educates 1000 
children of both sexes, the orphans of naval men. The buildings 
have nothing remarkable, except a very long Tuscan colonnade for 
exercise in wet weather. It needlessly apes the splendid colonnades 
of the Hospital, and by being placed symmetrically with that fine 
edifice, as if forming part of one great design, it is made to appear 
both mean and shabby in itself, and a blemish to the whole ; whereas, 
if treated as an independent building, and placed without refer- 
ence to the Hospital, this school would, however near, and however 
inferior in style, have provoked no comparison, and inflicted no in- 
jury on its magnificent neighbour, any more than adjacent private 
dwellings do ; and would have had its own merit (if any) appreciated, 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 729 

which now is utterly thrown away, since no beauty it may possess 
can divert attention from the glaring eyesore and wretched anti- 
climax it presents to the gorgeous avenue of approach. The blunder 
is such as can hardly be paralleled elsewhere. To have splendid 
buildings with no approach, and splendid approaches leading to 
nothing, is a necessary inconvenience wherever fine architecture is but 
a counterfeit, and therefore common enough with us ; but here the 
grandest vista we have leads to much worse than nothing. Unless or 
until this spot could have been occupied by some object worthy of 
such an avenue, i. £., containing more to concentrate attention than 
any of its accessories (such as either a lofty church or a monument 
of the first class), it might have been left open to the view of nature's 
architecture, or at least (if the space could not be spared) be built 
upon irregularly, so as to put a limit to the symmetrical design, and 
leave it alone and complete. 

Guildhall, King Street, Cheapside. — The seat of the municipal 
government of the city, and the chief room for its civic meetings. 
This Hall was commenced in 1411 by the contributions of the several 
companies called Guilds, aided by those of many liberal individuals, 
and, like most mediaeval buildings, was progressively enriched and 
adorned by such contributions, till the final extinction of mediaeval 
art; and since that time, has been patched and kept together by rude 
makeshifts, which (while destroying all its beauty as a whole) leave 
vestiges enough to join in the mute but trumpet-tongued cry of every 
old stone, and (though themselves belonging to a declining state of 
art) to speak, as clearly as Athenian marbles amid Turkish plaster, 
of past refinement and present degradation, — of the sterling grandeur 
and polish of an age that boasted of neither, and the squalor and 
second barbarism of one boasting of everything. 

This building (see " Architecture," pages 158, 159) is now entirely 
surrounded and concealed by modern adjuncts, which are fronted on 
the south, the only exposed side, by the intensely barbarous facade 
of Dance, erected in 1789 ; it contains a library and museum of 
city antiquities, entered from the porch, anda council-room and courts 
of law, beyond the Hall, which is always open as a passage to them. 
Here are held the city courts, nine in number ; and the courts of 
Exchequer, Queen's Bench, and Common Pleas are also held here 
on certain days, four to each term. These apartments contain 
some paintings of no remarkable merit, an account of which was 
given under the article " Galleries." They are chiefly portraits ; also 
the siege of Gibraltar, by Copley, R.A., and the Death of Wat Tyler, 
by Northcote, R.A. ; a statue of George III., by Chantrey ; a bust of 
Granville Sharpe, by the same ; and one of Nelson, by Mrs. Darner. 
The Hall itself is chiefly used for the Lord Mayor's banquet on the 
9th of November, and other entertainments, and for elections. It is 
disfigured by a ceiling, a wretched substitute for the roof destroyed in 
the Great Fire ; by barbarous ornaments in every fashion, from Wren's 

i i 3 



730 LONDON. 

French to Wyatt's Gothic ; by the walling up of all its original side 
windows and enlargement of the end ones ; and lastly, by four hideous 
piles of marble, fit for no place. 

The speech on Beckford's monument is said to be the only one 
George III. allowed to be addressed to him without having been first 
approved in writing. It is disputed, however, whether it was ever 
spoken. Of the other inscriptions, which are somewhat curious, that 
to the great Pitt was written by Burke, that to the younger Pitt by 
Canning, and that to Lord Nelson by Sheridan. The two remain- 
ing works of art, called Gog and Magog, are quite in keeping with 
the modern portions of the architecture. Nothing is known of their 
meaning or intention, but that similar figures were formerly drawn 
on cars in the Lord Mayor's pageant, and kept here during the rest 
of the year. In the fifteenth century, living giants seem to have 
been thought essential as champions, to meet or accompany royal and 
other grand processions. By degrees, the difficulty of always pro- 
curing " a mightie giant" led to the introduction of these substitutes, 
and at length even they became fixtures, so that the present pair 
(which were carved in 1708) werenot even made capable of such trans- 
port, being entirely of wood glued together. 

Hall of Commerce, Threadneedle Street. — A building erected in 
1843, by Mr. Moxhay, formerly a biscuit-baker in the same street, 
and intended as club and reading-rooms, &c, for merchants, to be 
supported by a small annual subscription. It has not, however, 
been a successful speculation, and is consequently used for various 
purposes. The whole was designed by the proprietor, and is in very good 
taste. There is a sculptured frieze on the front, and a statue of 
Whittington in the vestibule. The building occupies the site of' a 
French Protestant church which had stood there since the Fire, and 
in digging its foundations, as in most others in the city, a Roman 
mosaic pavement was found, which is in the British Museum. 

Hope's Mansion^ Piccadilly. — A palatial mansion ; built by 
H. T. Hope, Esq., M.P., in 1849-50, with remarkably handsome 
external decorations in stone and metal, in the modern French style, 
displaying much fancy. The architects were M. Dusillon and Pro- 
fessor Donaldson ; the decorations executed chiefly by French artists. 
The iron railing is among the richest and best executed to be found 
in London ; the founder, Mons. J. P. V. Andre, Rue Neuve Menil- 
montant, No. 12, Paris. The contract price for the casting and 
putting together was 400£. This cost does not include the charge 
for the carriage and duty. For the works of art noticeable within, 
see " Galleries, Private" (p. 411). 

Horse Guards, Whitehall. — A building containing the offices of 
the Secretary at War, and in which the chief business relating to 
the army is transacted. It is a very solid structure broken into com- 
plex forms, much in the picturesque style of Sir John Vanbrugh, 
but the name of its designer is uncertain. It was built about 1753. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 



731 




- . '; . 



THE HORSE GUARDS. 



Through the centre of this building is a thoroughfare into St. James's 
Park, for foot passengers only. The clock in the turret is a standard 
time-keeper for the western parts of the metropolis, as St. Paul's 
and the Exchange clocks are for the city. 

Houses of Parliament, or New Palace of Westminster. — The 
buildings devoted to the legislature of this empire have, till very 
recently, illustrated, even by their physical exterior, the chief pecu- 
liarity of our constitution ; for as it is the unique excellence of this, 
and the main source of its stability, that it has been a work of 
nature rather than of art ; has imperceptibly grown up, like a tree, 
instead of being erected, like a building; has never had a definite 
beginning, nor ever, like the constitutions of less fortunate lands, 
been planned, constructed, or set going ; so has it never till now 
been enshrined in buildings specially constructed for it. We have 
done without a Senate-house longer than any other nation that has 
had occasion for one. Both our legislative assemblies have for 
centuries been lodged in places never built for them, and have 
migrated from chamber to chamber, in a monastery or a royal palace. 
The House of Commons, for almost three centuries after its first 
assembly by Simon de Montfort, had no other place of meeting than 
the Benedictines' chapter- room ; and then, for nearly three more, 
the King's disused chapel was made to serve this purpose ; while the 
Lords met in other chambers of his palace, patched up from time to 
time, as new wants arose. At length the parliamentary buildings 
had become, in the reign of William IV., a huge agglomeration of 
fragments of buildings, and sham-buildings, and undesigned excres- 
cences, in every style and fashion, real or assumed — from the noble, 
truth-seeking, high-motived efforts of the thirteenth-century church- 
men, who built not for man's eye, down to the plaster w T hims and 



732 LONDON. 

nick-nacks of the " first gentleman in Europe." Never, probably, 
was there seen so incongruous and patchy, never perhaps so ugly 
a combination, as all this formed, when the memorable fire of 1834, 
sweeping off all except the sterling works of the earnest men of old 
(the chief fragment of which has since been wantonly destroyed), 
left a field on which England was required for the first time to erect 
a Parliament-house. 

In ancient times, if we may judge from the qualities that distin- 
guish their great monuments from those of our own age, the conduct 
of such works seems to have been divided into three stages, of which 
neither was undertaken till the previous one had been considered 
finished. These were, first, the ascertaining or settling what was 
wanted ; secondly, the settling how to do it ; and thirdly, doing it. 
At present, however, it is usual either to reverse the order of these 
three essential parts of the work', or, at least, to attempt all simul- 
taneously. In this case the modern method has been followed so 
completely, that, of the first stage, the settlement of the qucerenda^ 
only one particular was really decided before commencing the work 
of designing, or even of executing. This particular regarded the 
architectural style, which (in the words of the instructions given to 
designers) was to be "either Gothic or Elizabethan," the former 
epithet being understood to apply to all English works previous to 
the Elizabethan. The direction, therefore, amounted to this, that 
the building was to represent or mimic those of some age (it was not 
decided which) before the reign of James I.; and the alleged reason 
for excluding all improvements or supposed improvements in art 
made since that time, was their universally foreign origin, which, it 
was thought, rendered it a lowering of the dignity of England to 
adopt them in a national edifice*. Without inquiring whether such 
a rule could really be carried out, and such a work composed entirely 
of native inventions and ideas, as well as of native stone and iron, 
it may be observed that such never has been the case yet, in any 
country beyond utter barbarism, from Greece downwards; that not- 
withstandirg the increased intercourse of different countries now, 
their styles were as foreign in the times of their oldest buildings as 
at present; that without freely borrowing each other's inventions, not 
one nation would have had its u Complete Gothic ;" that our Gothic was 
quite as foreign a style as any that we have used since ; and that if 
the Tudor fashion imitated in this building be peculiar to England, it 
is so simply in consequence of its corruptions and debasements. The 
only things in it that we know to be not imported, are its faults ; 
while every beauty and merit it may have is due to the vestiges it 
retains of Gothicism — of the European (not the English) style. 

* The resemblance of this bit of pride to that of another very distant and very despised 
nation is striking. The Chinese, having ceased for some centuries to advance physical science, 
or useful arts, would not condescend to avail themselves of the inventions of other coun- 
tries ; and we, having ceased for some centuries to cultivate true taste and artistic inventions, 
now think it beneath our dignity to make use of those made by our neighbours. Are not 
the cases parallel, putting fine for useful (in its narrowest sense), and mental wants for physical? 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 



733 



However, it was 
settled that, whe- 
ther the edifice 
could or could not 
he really exclu- 
sively English, it 
would conduce to 
national glory that 
it should at least 
pretend to he so. 

With this di- 
rection, architects 
were invited to 
make designs for 
the vast structure, 
without any limi- 
tations as to its 
expense; and it is 
remarkable that 
not one was too 
daring in this re- 
spect. The design 
of C. Barry, R. A., 
being by far the 
most magnificent, 
was at once se- 
lected. The style 
represented is that 
of Henry VIII.'s 
time ; so that, 
whatever may be 
objected to it, we 
have this comfort, 
that it might have 
been worse. We 
might have had 
an " Elizabethan" 
senate-house; and, 
for our escape 
from it, have only 
to thank the ninety 
architects, not one 
of whom had the 
ill taste to propose 
one. 




The 



accom- 



PLAN OF THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAME.N 



panying plan will show the extent of this »reat 



edifice (which 



734 LONDON. 

covers at least twice the site of the old Palace of Westminster, 
about half the ground occupied being taken from the river), 
and the arrangement of the rooms on its principal floor, which has 
undergone but little change during the erection. It is very neces- 
sary to observe, however, in justice to the architect and those who 
chose his design, that hardly a single feature of the exterior now 
appears as it did on the drawings; and that, unfortunately, it is 
difficult to find any one of these changes that has not been a serious 
and important change for the worse. The only part that we can 
consider improved since its original design is the Victoria Tower, in 
which a central pillar, originally proposed, has been dispensed with ; 
the entrances made more lofty; and the windows placed in the 
usual manner, instead of a fanciful arrangement of them on different 
levels. Every other part of the exterior has been greatly injured 
by the covering all its surfaces (most of which were designed to be 
plain) with an endless repetition of the panelling that stood for 
ornament in the last stage of English Gothicesque building, when 
mere mechanical work had been substituted for sculpture, or even 
carving ; fritter for richness ; repetition for variety ; and, in a word, 
display for genuine excellence and high finish. These panels are, 
moreover, here more evidently mimic than in most cases, because 
applied to buttresses and supports (contrary to their use and mean- 
ing, which was plainly to lighten loads, not to weaken their sup- 
porters) ; and, besides, while too plain and monotonous to amuse 
in a near view, or appear rich except at a distance, are too shallow 
to be seen far off. In fact, it is hard to find in them anything to 
compensate for the loss of the broad unbroken surfaces, solid masses, 
and largeness of feature in the original design. To understand this, 
it must be added, that all the buttresses were meant to project much 
farther than they do, especially in the river front ; and that the 
windows were not at first designed to be, as at present, so many 
divisions of the general shallow panelling, filled with glass, instead of 
stone, but deeply recessed and arched apertures. Thus, by a most 
unhappy coincidence of three or four changes, all perhaps adopted 
for different reasons, everything that could contribute to the appa- 
rent solidity, depth of relief, or quantitative contrast of light and 
shade, has been either removed or greatly reduced ; and the loss of 
grandeur by these means all conspiring together, particularly in the 
east front, is hardly conceivable by those who have not much con- 
sidered it. The same front has further suffered a most important 
deterioration in the reduction of its terrace or basement to a mere 
quay, which in the design was graced not only with mouldings and 
a parapet, but with buttresses as numerous as those above. For 
want of some such scale, the eye cannot measure or obtain anything 
like a correct appreciation of its length, and consequently is greatly 
deceived in all the other dimensions. The same effect arises as 
when a miniature model is placed on a plain solid block, which 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 



735 




THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 



always renders it more diminutive. The contrast, too, between the 
extreme plainness of the one and fritter of the other, is too violent 
As first designed they presented a due gradation' of increasing 
ornament, from the water to the sky-line; but now, two distinct 



730 LONDON. 

bands most oppositely treated, the lower having been as much 
starved as the upper has been (we were about to say over- enriched, 
but that is not the fact) overcharged with a deceptive substitute for 
richness*. 

Many persons consider this front too low for its length. If the 
terrace had formed part of it (as the design promised), this would 
have added (at low water) nearly a third to the entire height, and 
perhaps this objection would never have been heard. It is a pity, 
however, that before choosing or calling for designs, some considera- 
tion had not been given to the question (among many others) 
whether 'it were preferable to make one flat front of 900 ft. 
(necessarily very low for its length), or to break it into three or 
four, separated by recessed courts. Besides the advantage of more 
noble proportions in each, and that of light and shade (the north 
sides of these courts receiving the afternoon sun, which can never 
touch the present surface), there would also have been a constant 
change of grouping to a spectator passing on the river, the picture 
varying every moment, and disclosing unexpected combinations, 
which (as may be observed at Greenwich, and at all great mediaeval 
buildings) satisfies better than a single scene, viewed all at once, 
and then having nothing more to show. Moreover, by such arrange- 
ments generally (leaving the spaces required for light, when possible, 
partly open to the exterior) the whole would have appeared im- 
mensely larger than at present; for two reasons, because affording 
so many more different views, and because so much would have 
been visible that is now hidden. There is one advantage, however, 
in this. It leaves so much the less external surface to be symmetrized 
and adorned ; an important point where the symmetry and ornament 
are not natural — the splendour but an assumed mask. 

It is, doubtless, disappointing to most strangers to find, after 
viewing this vast and magnificent outer case, that they have nothing 
more to see, except the principal apartments. There is none of that 
kind of architecture, intermediate between external and internal, 
which is so fertile a source of splendour, beauty, or picturesqueness, 
in the inclosed courts of other extensive buildings, even those of a 
far humbler character, as colleges and convents. A palace of such 
extent as eight acres is naturally expected (at least by foreigners) to 
afford, besides the four fronts, some external splendour in one or 
more large inner areas, at least as ornate as the exterior itself, if not 
more so (in foreign buildings, and our mediaeval ones, always more 
so). But this practice was a relic of the old exploded system of 
uniting use with ornament in the same object ; of building (as 

It must add to the regret caused by the injurious nature of the changes made from the 
original design, to remember that they have increased the expense to nearly thrice its intended 
amount. No one, however, can complain of the cost, but only of its misapplication; for 
after all the entire charge will not exceed a fortnight's revenue, or enough to pay the interest 
of our debts for a month ; a sum which, it may be presumed, no one would be mean enough 
to grudge. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 737 

some old writer recommended) " things useful in a beautiful 
form." Since our entire separation of these qualities, it is a 
maxim that no one thing should attempt both ; and, of course, open 
areas (like all other members of a building) must be one thing or 
the other— ugly necessities or useless splendours. In this case they 
are regarded as the former ; and hence, not being (as in Jones's 
Whitehall, Greenwich, Somerset House, our Gothic colleges, or 
foreign buildings) any part of the show, they are too small (fourteen 
in number) and too irregular to be considered worth more than a 
neat lining of stone, finished in the cheapest fashion that is respect- 
able, viz., the modern castellated. Hence, compared with others, 
this may be called a palace turned inside outward ; and certainly 
the crowded ornament and shallow relief of the outer fronts would 
be better fitted to the interior of courts, and better seen there ; as, 
on the other hand, their castle battlements would have more meaning, 
and their broad surfaces and bold shadowings be more wanted, on the 
exterior, to suit distant view. 

But quaere, will not this greatest peculiarity of the work, its rich- 
ness being all outside^ be hereafter regarded as a true type of the 
times of its production ? — as giving it the natural stamp of the age and 
country of appearances ? 

The portions of the interior finished and accessible to the public 
are the committee-rooms (occupying the greater portion of the river 
front) and the two legislative chambers, which are in the centres of 
the northern and southern halves of the building. The general public 
entrance, when complete, will be through Westminster Hall, up a 
flight of steps at its south end, into a square vaulted vestibule, called 
St. Stephen's Porch ; thence, turning east, up another flight, and along 
the " St. Stephen's Hall," a fine passage, but a very poor substitute, 
alas ! for the Edwardian chapel it replaces (see pages 151 to 155), into 
the octagon hall, in the centre of the whole edifice. This is about 
60 ft. in diameter, and the same in height, covered by a massive 
Gothic dome, on which is to be raised a light open stone lantern and 
spire nearly 300 ft. high, which are an addition to the original 
design. From hence three passages will branch : that straightforward 
leading to the centre of the long corridor of the committee-rooms, 
that on the north to the Commons' lobby and House, and that on the 
south to the Lords'. These splendid approaches occupy altogether 
fully fifteen times the capacity of either House. The royal approach 
(from the great tower at the south-west corner) also fills about 
thrice the space taken by the House of Lords, and includes, besides 
robin g-rooms, &c, a splendid lobby, about 45 ft. square, and a 
gallery 110 ft. long, 45 wide, and 45 high, being the largest room 
in the modern palace. Its decoration is hardly yet begun. That of 
the House of Lords itself is nearly complete, and it has been used 
since April, 1847. It may be seen, during the session, on Wednes- 
days, between 11 and 4, by an order from the Lord Chamberlain 



738 



LONDON". 




THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 



(which is obtainable at an office near the temporary entrance) ; or 
without an order, on the days of hearing appeals, when the House, 
being a judicial court, is of course open. It is (if not intrin- 
sicalfy, at least effectively) the richest chamber erected since the 
fall of the mediaeval church architecture; a gorgeous effect being 
produced by gilding all the mouldings (which include the whole 
of the stone and most of the woodwork), and covering the re- 
maining surfaces with minute coloured patterns. The House is 
nearly °an exact double cube of 45 ft.; the ceiling divided by 
crossing beams into 18 squares, corresponding to the arched com- 
partments of the walls, which are all similar, except that the six on 
each side are occupied by windows with coloured devices, and the 
three at each end by frescoes, a species of painting now first attempted 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 739 

in this country. The three at the throne end are — 1, (over the 
throne,) the Baptism of King Ethelbert, by Mr. Dyce, R.A, ; 2, the 
Black Prince receiving from Edward III. the Order of the Garter, 
by Mr. Cope, R.A. ; and 3, Henry V., when Prince of Wales, sub- 
mitting to the Authority of Judge Gascoigne, by the same artist. 
The three at the other end are abstract personations of the principles 
which these three historical pieces were selected to illustrate ; viz., 
1, (in the centre, opposite Ethelbert's Baptism,) Religion, by Mr. 
Horsley ; 2, (opposite the Institution of the Garter,) Chivalry, by 
Mr. Maclise, R.A.; and 3, (opposite Prince Henry sent to Prison,) 
Justice, by the same. By entrusting the two side pictures of each 
three to the same artist, any ill effect that might arise from their 
very different styles of painting is avoided ; but it is still to be 
doubted whether the broad, large-featured, modern style, quite 
necessary for pictures to be understood at such a distance, agrees 
with architecture whose broadest surfaces are narrower than the 
limbs or drapery-folds. All such works in this building will cer- 
tainly appear cut out ; an equivalent quantity of architecture being 
simply omitted to make room for them. This never appears in the 
old examples of such union of arts; in them, whatever be the style, 
the architecture and painting seem to form each a complete system, 
never standing in the way of the other. Against the piers separating 
these frescoes, at the throne end, are statues representing Archbishop 
Langton and Marshal Robert Fitzwalter ; and the sixteen other 
barons who aided in obtaining Magna Charta will be similarly placed 
before the other piers all round the House. These, as well as all 
the external statues, are by one sculptor, Mr. Thomas. The side 
galleries of this House are appropriated to peeresses ; and that at the 
bar end to strangers, who are admissible only by a peer's order. 

The lobby, a cube of about 30 ft., affords a good (though much 
richer than average) specimen of the internal treatment throughout 
the building. The ceilings are mostly similar to this, and serve to 
conceal the substantial coverings, w T hich are fireproof, being of iron 
beams and brickwork combined in the manner now usual in ware- 
houses ; except in the central octagon and neighbouring approaches, 
where the Gothic vaulting serves at once for both the real and the 
show ceiling. 

The House of Commons was built of the same height and width 
as the House of Lords, but only 62 ft. long, being reduced to the 
smallest possible size for the sake of hearing; but as it still did not 
satisfy on this head, the stone and oaken splendour (similar to that 
of the other House, but without gilding or colour) has necessarily 
been hidden, and the architectural character abandoned. It migbt 
have been known, without an experiment, that modern architecture 
could not give us an ornamental House of Commons. 

No, for that we must go back to our "barbarous" ancestors — to 
an age of widely different principles — one that did, without boasting, 



740 LONDON. 

what we boast of enough certainly, but cannot do. Alas ! how 
humbling would be the contrast could we see the first House of 
Commons, the now dismantled and barbarized Chapter-House of 
Henry III/s Abbey. That was nothing remarkable in its day ; it 
called for no more than a passing line from a chronicler. Yet it was 
richer than any vaunted pile in modern Westminster ; intrinsically 
richer in contrivance, in workmanship, in every kind of finish 
(except those for the luxurious ease of its inmates) ; richer in 
amount of labour, mental and manual, contained in a given space. 
But that is nothing; it was a little richer, but how incomparably more 
august; for all its richness — all, of every kind — was real. There 
was no tinsel, no fair outside- work to hide disgusting realities, no 
distinction into substantial parts behind and show parts before them, 
where all were for use and all for beauty too. The beauties con- 
cealed no ugliness, the splendours no meanness, the refinements no 
rudeness, for there was none to conceal. Nor had the finery to be 
concealed again, in its turn, by utilitarian makeshifts, for it was itself 
utilitarian, and far in advance of our boasted science — far in advance 
practically. This was because the work was another step added to a 
series of progressive trials aiming at perfection in the art of building, 
not in that of counterfeiting excellent building. For this reason 
it closely resembled contemporary works at Salisbury, Lichfield, 
Wells, &c, but it counterfeited no style. It belonged, indeed, to a 
style, but because it was an improvement on works of the same 
kind, not quite so excellent, lately erected ; not a limping " in base 
imitation" after works of a different kind, far more excellent, erected 
centuries before. No, its style and its beauty and richness were 
its own — they were paid for — they were thought for. They were 
intrinsic, and belonged to the structure, not to the structure-hiders. 
They were the results of excellent, refined, and scientific modes of 
construction ; not of an outward clothing in the appearances of such 
results, to hide the clumsy rudeness of a thought-grudging age, for 
which those modes themselves were too refined, scientific, and 
troublesome. The splendour and beauty were no mask ; and there- 
fore they clashed with no reality, called for no sacrifice of con- 
venience, not a foot of space, not a pound of material. That first 
House of Commons had no acres of show approaches ; it re- 
quired no such paltry extrinsic substitutes for intrinsic splen- 
dour, for it had the reality. It lost no beauty on account 
of its utility; it lost no utility on account of its beauty. There 
were no commissions to inquire into its acoustic marvels ; for the 
world was old enough, even then, to build a room in which 600 
people could hear each other singly. The builders had learned to 
retain all the advantages of a rotunda without its defects ; to bring a 
given number as near together as possible, and yet avoid the echoes 
of curved surfaces. But neither experience nor methodised science 
had anything to do with settling the form of the new House. One 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 741 

word, precedent, silenced all reasons ; and the makeshifts used for 
about two centuries had irrevocably fixed that a House of Commons 
must be rectangular; though the permanent building previously 
used for three centuries (one of many built expressly for debating- 
rooms) had fixed nothing. If it had but occurred to some one to 
meet precedent with precedent, and observe that there was both 
older and longer precedent for the debating-room than the chapel 
— for the octagon than the rectangle; perhaps that w r ould have ob- 
tained what scientific reasons could not*. 

A wondrous pile, after all, is this Palace of Westminster ; but 
more wondrous lie within a stone's-throw, and scattered over the 
land. Greater far was the silent triumph of those who could erect 
piles as magnificent as this, and yet as pretenceless as the cottage of 
the rustic, who builds what the Queen, Lords, and Commons of 
England cannot afford — a house without counterfeits. 

Strangers are admitted to a gallery of the House of Commons, 
during its debates, by an order from any member. The front portion 
of the same gallery, or else a better one, is distinguished as the 
Speaker's Gallery, and each member can also put one name on the 
daily list for admission to this gallery ; but as it only has room for 
about 20, only those first on the spot can generally be admitted. It 

intended also to appropriate one gallery in the new House to 
ladies, who have not been admitted since 1738. A change of 
opinion since the completion of the House, as to the proper space 
allowable between the members' seats (which has been increased 

in.) has obliged the greater part of the largest gallery at the bar 
end to be appropriated to members, which leaves much less room for 
the public than was designed. 

The upper story of the river front is occupied almost entirely by 
committee-rooms ; as is the central third part of the lower story; 
the rest by the libraries for members of both Houses ; and the end 
projections by residences : that at the north for the Speaker, and that 
at the south for the Usher of the Black Rod. The south return con- 
tains the apartments of the Lords' Librarian, and the north those of 
the Sergeant-at-Arms. The tower at the northern extremity of all 
is to have a standard clock, with four dials, each 30 ft. in diameter, 
constructed under the direction of the Astronomer Royal. {This 
will be no counterfeit — this will be like the buildings of the Bene- 
dictines.) The steeple above is intended to resemble very nearly 
that of the Town House of Brussels, but on a smaller scale, reaching 
only the height of 320 ft. ; that over the central octagon being 
meant to be 300, and the four corner pinnacles of the Great or 
Victoria Tower, 340 1. 

If, in this brief account, we have not indulged in the self- 

* Something like a reason, indeed, was pretended, against more compact forms than the 
present, on account of the classification of members; but most common-sense people would 
think this a matter regarding the arrangement of seats, not ol walls and ceilings. 

t St. Paul's cross, 365 ; Salisbury, 400. 



742 LONDON. 

gratulation usual in English descriptions of this edifice, it is 
because we cannot forget that this is no erection of a day, or of a 
man, or of a class. The ability, the art, the science of modern 
England, are represented by it — by it must be estimated— by it, in 
the eyes of the world and of all posterity, must stand or fall. No 
explanation can be heard, no excuse admitted. The world judges 
all eventually by their works alone ; and for men, for societies and 
fraternities even, hears extenuations and makes allowances, but not 
for nations. What Karnac is to Egypt, what the Parthenon is to 
Greece, the Colisseum to old Rome, or St. Peter's to her daughter, 
such, at least, this building stands to modern England — nay, it stands 
for more. They (except the last) were not openly, deliberately 
undertaken, and meant as their age's best. This is : as such it has 
been proclaimed with sound of trumpet over and over again ; as such 
the world has a right to regard it; and as nothing else can it be 
regarded. Rightly or wrongly, truly or falsely, and whether we like 
it or no, as long as our girders uphold their loads — as long as they 
are not all rust— and long after our joiners' disguises are all touch- 
wood — long after our finery has perished, and left bare all the rude 
deformity behind — long after the garb assumed to mimic Gothic 
refinement has served its turn, and left bare the realities of our 
construction in all their Celtic barbarism ; this pile must stand the 
type of England's nineteenth century taste (and taste is character) — 
the best of her art — the best of her science — the material embodi- 
ment of her civilization, and (as compared with former works) of 
her progress. It stands our monument and our mirror, to reflect our 
image to others, whether we choose to see it or not. Perhaps, like 
our famous countrywoman, we shall call it a distorting glass that 
shows us how old and ugly we are grown, and how much paint we 
require. The world will not believe this. 

The visitor to this pile will, of course, not neglect either of its 
three beauteous relics of other times (see pages 151, 155, 165, 177): 
the chapel crypt, descended from the glorious days of Edward I. ; 
the hall that the last of a long dynasty built to be the scene of his 
own fall; and the cloisters of Henry VIII., adjoining both. The 
first and last, indeed, are small works, and almost buried, but no less 
than their grand neighbour are they historically and artistically pre- 
cious ; and this not as recording the quaint fashions of distant periods. 
No, their differences lie far deeper than fits of fashion ; they mark 
each an epoch in the progress of our taste. A happy (and we 
cannot but think singular) coincidence has preserved in this spot 
three eminently typical specimens of English art ; one fragment (the 
crypt) from about the end of its age of sterling gold, when it had 
attained the climax of pretenceless excellence ; another monument 
(the hall), the first decided manifestation on a great scale of the germ 
(as we firmly believe) of that principle of representation which has 
overgrown and destroyed our arts — has mainly effected all their 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 743 

changes from the golden age to that of iron, nay, further, to 
that of tinsel ; and a third (the cloister), the very last unmixed 
production of indigenous English art. It is to be regretted that 
one walk of this cloister, being meant to form a short passage to the 
House of Commons (for the use of members only) is to be (or 
possibly has been) rebuilt on a new design. The same spirit that 
swept off St. Stephen's, lest a reality should "not harmonize with" 
counterfeits, will doubtless yet do all the work that remains for it. 
We should think that what is worth such vast and costly imitation, 
must itself be worth preserving. Surely there must be something 
true in what a whole generation deigns to mimic; something great 
in what even this great age cannot do, yet thinks worth counter- 
feiting. 

Eepresentative art is the chief homage extorted by true art; as 
hypocrisy is the indirect tribute to virtue. Such tribute the mas- 
ters of the old world were forced, quite against their will, to pay to 
a little conquered province ; and all their mighty efforts to glorify 
themselves are found, as time advances and mists clear off, to reflect 
only additional lustre on Greece the imitated. So it is with us ; the 
nineteenth century may build, but the thirteenth takes all the honour. 
We may pay, but theirs is the credit. It takes wing, and flies 
at once to its right owners. All the vulgar material greatness, 
the miles, the tons, the millions, whom or what do they honour, but 
that which is worth such repetition ? The great things Old England 
thinks to do to her own glory, become merely foils to set off' the 
far greater that Young England did to the glory of God. 

Lambeth Palace, on the Surrey bank of the Thames, a little 
above Westminster Palace. — In very early times the palace of the 
Bishops of Rochester, from whom, in the time of Cceur de Lion, it 
passed to the Archbishops of Canterbury, and has continued their 
town residence ever since. It contains various fragments of archi- 
tecture, the first being the walls and crypt of the chapel (see p. 1 40) 
erected by Archbishop Boniface, about 1244. The screen was 
erected by Laud; and one of the charges against him was for re- 
storing " idolatrous" glass-paintings in its windows. These were 
a second time destroyed ; and the present paintings are modern, as 
well as the roof. The stone tower adjoining the west end of this 
chapel is called the Lollards Tower, and was used for imprisoning 
those unfortunate sectaries, from its erection by Archbishop Chiche- 
ley, in 1434, till the Reformation. Their dungeon is at the top, 
wainscoted with oak, having on each of its walls two iron rings for 
chains ; and in the oak are cut several names and rude inscriptions, 
as " Nosce Teipsurn," " Ihsu cyppe [keep] me out of all el compane, 
amen," &c. The next remnant, probably, is the Guard-room, 
having a curious arched and ornamental oak roof, but its history is 
unknown. The great brick Gate-house, with its three towers, was 
erected by Cardinal Morton, at the end of the fifteenth century. Of 



7U 



LONDON. 



the sixteenth, there apparently are no remains. Next Is the Library, 
begun by Archbishop Bancroft, who died in 1610. It contains 
25,000 volumes, and forms a gallery round the four sides of a small 
court, formerly the cloister. The Hall (see engraving, p. 174) was 
erected by Archbishop Juxon and his executors, and bears the date 
1663. This was the primate who attended Charles I. on the 
scaffold. Subsequently to this no remarkable buildings have been 
added. There are many portraits of archbishops, one (of Archbishop 
Warham) by Holbein. 




THE MANSION HOUSE. 



Mansion House, at the corner of Walbrook and King William 
Street; the official residence of the Lord Mayor, the chief magistrate 
of London, who is renewed annually. The building occupies the 
site of a market, and was begun in 1739, by the elder Dance. The 
facade, which is crowded and overloaded without being rich, has 
allegorical sculpture in the pediment, designed by Sir Robert Taylor; 
which, like the only other ornament of the kind, that of the East 
India House, being turned to the north, is not intelligible; yet its 
contrast with that lately executed upon the Royal Exchange is 
not flattering to our progress in sculpture between 1745 and 
1845. A long narrow attic which originally ran across the centre 
of the roof, and was called the Mayor's (mare's) nest, has been 
removed. The Mansion House contains some handsome rooms, 
of which the principal is called the Egyptian Hall, being an 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 745 

imitation of what Vitruvius describes under that name. The Mayor 
here gives a splendid private entertainment on Easter Monday, and 
is always expected to spend during the year, on other festivities and 
for public purposes, at least the 8000/. which he receives as salary, 
and much more is usually spent. 

During his short term of office, and within his narrow realm of 
the city, this magistrate is so completely paramount as to take 
precedence even of the Royal Family, as Sir James Shaw success- 
fully maintained against George IV., when Prince of Wales. The 
Lord Mayor is elected from those aldermen who have not held this 
office already, but have held that of Sheriff. He is elected on 
September 29th, but not installed till November 9th, when he goes 
in a procession, the most ceremonious that has been preserved to us, 
by the streets to Blackfriars Bridge, and thence by water to West- 
minster Hall, to take the oaths, and returns with the same state to 
hold his inauguration banquet, in Guildhall, to which the Ministers 
of State are always invited. The carriage used in this procession is 
second only to the Sovereign's state carriage in cumbrous magnifi- 
cence, and was designed by Cipriani, in 1757. Many other curious 
pageants are kept up, and an attempt was made in 1850 to revive 
some of the masques that accompanied this "Lord Mayor's Show" 
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The first Lord Mayor of 
London was Henry Fitz Alwyn, who held office from 1190 to 1214. 
(See also pp. 329, 330.) 

National Gallery, Trafalgar Square. — (See also article "Gal- 
leries/') — A public collection of paintings, begun by order of Par- 
liament in 1824, by the purchase, for 57,000/., of Mr. Angerstein's 
collection of 38 pictures of the old masters, to which about 300 more 
have been added, partly by various grants of Government, and partly 
by private bequests and gifts; of which the most important have been 
those of Sir George Beaumont, the Rev. W. Holwell Carr, Lord 
Farnborough, and the late Mr. Vernon. The whole, except those 
presented by Mr. Vernon, are kept, for the present, in the west wing 
of the building occupying the north side of Trafalgar Square (the 
eastern half being occupied by the Royal Academy), which building 
Iwas erected, for the joint purpose, in 1832-8, and designed by W. 
IWilkins, R.A. Mr. Vernon's patriotic gift, consisting of 162 pic- 
tures, all recent English productions (chiefly by living artists), is, 
For the present, at Marlborough House. They were presented in 
847, and for some months the liberal donor gave up part of his own 
louse for their exhibition. 

The National Gallery is open from 10 to dusk in winter, or to 6 
[n summer, on the first four days of the week, to the general public ; 
ind on Friday and Saturday to students ; but closed to both during 
the latter half of September and the month of October. Catalogues, 
it various prices, down to a penny, are sold at the door. 
Among the finest pictures are, of the Italian schools, the Raising 

K K 



746 LONDON. 

of Lazarus (Sebastian del Piombo, the figure of Lazarus supposed to 
be by Michael Angeld); two parts of an Altar-piece (Francia) ; 
Cartoon of the Murder of the Innocents (Raphael) ; St. Catherine of 
Alexandria (Raphael); Pope Giulio II. (Raphael); the Vision of a 
Knight (Raphael) ; Christ with the Doctors (L. da Vinci) ; Ecce 
Homo (Corregio); the Virgin, called " au panier" (Corregio); 
Mercury teaching Cupid in the Presence of his Mother (Corregio) ; 
a Concert (Titian or Giorgione) ; Bacchus and Ariadne (Titian); 
the Holy Family ( Titian) ; Apollo learning to play the Reed 
(A. Caracci); " Venio iterum crucifigi" (A. Caracci) ; Susannah 
(L. Caracci) ; the same, by Guido; Mary Magdalen (Guido) ; Venus 
and the Graces (Guido). (See again " Galleries," pp. 420, 421.) 

Palaces (Royal). — London first became the capital and royal city 
of England soon after the Norman Conquest. It had, indeed, in the time 
of the Heptarchy, been the capital of Essex, a small state soon absorbed 
into its neighbours ; but on the consolidation of all these by Egbert, 
Winchester became the seat of the Saxon Monarchy, and so continued 
till the Conquest; when William, seeing the rising importance of 
London and the pre-eminence which its river situation could not fail 
eventually to bring it, at once stamped it as the new and permanent 
capital, by erecting his palace, the Tower (see " Tower"). This 
though virtually become little more than a state prison, retained its 
palatial name and rank till the accession of Elizabeth, who, having 
bsen once confined there by her sister, had of course little affection 
for the place. 

The second London palace was that of Westminster, begun by 
William Rufus, under the shadow of Edward the Confessor's stately 
abbey church, and on what was then the green rural bank of the 
river, two miles beyond the " west end" of London. Of this palace 
only a few fragments remain uncovered by the masonry of West- 
minster Hall, which, however, being of the exact size (built on the 
foundations) of " Rufus's roaring hall," gives us an idea of the grand 
scale of Norman taste and hospitality. This continued the chief 
(or sometimes the only) town residence of English kings for the next 
450 years (1097 to 1547). King Stephen founded St. Stephens 
collegiate chapel, in 1150; Edward I. rebuilt its crypt, in the 
beautiful form we now see (" Architecture," p. 158); Edward III. 
added the gorgeous superstructure, now destroyed ; Richard II. 
built the present magnificent Hall (p. 157); and, lastly, Henry 
VIII., in the early part of his reign, made the last addition to this 
famous palace, the small but elaborate cloisters, the last effort 
of indigenous building art. On the accession of Edward VI. the 
chapel was first given up to the use of the House of Commons 
(who had till then met in the Abbey Chapter-house), and from this 
time the Palace of Westminster may be said to have changed its 
former destination as a royal residence for that which it has fulfilled 
for the last three centuries — the double purpose of a seat of legisla- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 747 

ture and of judicature. The latter had, almost from its first erection, 
been carried on either in the Hall itself, or in rooms adjoining it. 
The present law courts, seven in number, contained in the Italian- 
fronted building attached to the west side of the Hall, were erected 
from designs of Sir John Soane, and, with their various appendages, 
are remarkable for their skilful planning, all the space being turned 
to account. Each has a public entrance both from the Hall and 
from the street. All the other modern additions and substitutes 
that covered the site of this palace having disappeared in the fire 
of 1834, the present vast Gothic pile was commenced (see " Houses 
of Parliament"). 

Henry VIII., besides numerous country residences, began the two 
next London palaces, those of Whitehall and St. James's. 

Whitehall had been a residence of Cardinal Wolsey, and named 
after him, York House, which, on his disgrace and its delivery to the 
King, was changed for the present name. The structure, which 
probably bore much resemblance of style to the contemporary parts 
of Hampton Court, built by the same haughty churchman, was soon 
extended so much as to rival its old neighbour at Westminster. It 
covered not only all the ground between the river and the present 
street, but also the site of the present Horse Guards, &c, west of 
the thoroughfare, which then passed through the archways and 
quadrangles of this palace, St. Martin's parish and church were 
then first erected, because " his most dradde Magestie" was offended 
by the numerous funerals passing through, on their way to St. Mar- 
garet's churchyard. James I. and his architect, Jones, projected 
the rebuilding of the whole on a larger scale, in the Italian style ; 
and upon that magnificent plan above alluded to (pp. 176, 177), 
as at once the most vast and most symmetrical design in secular 
architecture ever set on foot in any country. Poverty, however, 
prevented its commencement till after a fire, which (perhaps 
fortunately) destroyed the old banqueting-house, in 1618. This 
was replaced by the present apartment, the first piece of purely 
Italian building in England. Charles I. had the intention of pro- 
ceeding, when possible, with the superb design, but could do no 
more than begin decorating this banqueting-room, with the ceiling 
pictures of his father's apotheosis, painted by Rubens. His tragic 
end very naturally alienated the affections of his successors from this 
palace ; nevertheless it was the residence of James II. The whole 
Gothic pile remained till partly destroyed by a fire, in 1691; and 
a third and still greater, in 1698, which raged seventeen hours, 
swept off everything but the banqueting-house. The ruins re- 
mained untouched many years; in Queen Anne's time the gradual 
continuation of Jones's vast design was much talked of, but nothing 
done, and the fragment (turned into a chapel by George I.) still 
remains isolated. This fine room consists of two side walls, exactly 
alike, faced outside with Portland stone, and representing a rustic 

K k 2 



748 LONDON. 

basement 1 6 feet high ; and an Ionic and Corinthian order, together 
rising to 55 feet more. The basement is occupied by vaults, and all 
above forms one room, a double cube of 55 feet, with orders of 
pilasters corresponding to those without, but richer, and a ceiling 
of nine large panels, containing Rubens' paintings. In the yard 
behind is a statue of James II., by Grinling Gibbons. 

St. James's Palace was originally a hospital for lepers, and made 
by Henry VIII. a sort of adjunct to Whitehall; the Park (which he 
inclosed) connecting both. No fragment of his architecture seems 
to remain externally, except the barbarized gate-tower, nor in- 
ternally, except a debased Gothic fire-place, with the initials H. A. 
(Henry and Anna Boleyn). The chapel-royal may perhaps be partly 
original. Everything else has been patched up in brick, very 
barbarously as regards the exterior, though the chief apartments 
are found to answer better than those of Buckingham Palace for 
holding drawing-rooms, almost the only purpose to which this fabric 
is now applied. It must be certainly matter of surprise, that it 
should have served as the only town residence of royalty from the 
time of William III. to that of William IV., both inclusive, but 
its extent was much reduced by a fire that destroyed the eastern 
parts, in 1809. 

Kensington Palace, a very plain and irregular building, of red 
brick, is an enlargement of a house bought from the Earl of Not- 
tingham (son of the Lord Chancellor), in the reign of William III.; 
and the additions, comprising all the upper story, were designed by 
Wren. The orangery, however (situated some distance to the 
north-east), is more noticeable as a specimen of his architecture 
than the building itself. Considerable additions were made to the 
back, by George II., who made it his children's nursery, and died 
here, as did also William and Mary, Queen Anne, and her husband; 
and her present Majesty was born and held her first council here. 
The last occupant was the late Duke of Sussex. 

Buckingham Palace, now the Palace, was also a private mansion, 
originally called Arlington House, bought and rebuilt in 1703, by 
the Duke of Buckingham (patron. of Dryden) ; and, after various 
changes, bought by George III., in 1761, as a " Queen's House," in 
lieu of old Somerset House, then granted for public offices. All his 
children were born here, and no remarkable alteration was made 
till 1825, when George IV., with the advice of John Nash (the 
builder of Regent Street and the Regent's Park), began its con- 
version into a palace. There seems to have been no settled design, 
but (as usual with us at present) the work of planning and con- 
structing (or rather, the three works of settling what was to be 
done, how to do it, and doing it) were carried on simultaneously, (the 
King even condescending, it is said, to juggle Parliament out of the 
means, which could not have been obtained by straightforward 
asking,) and the final result was the entire disappearance of the old 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 



749 



house, which fronted the 
south, and completion of the 
south, west, and north sides 
of the present quadrangular 
palace, together with the 
low wings running north and 
south. The whole of this is 
such a complex medley of the 
costly and the shabby, in 
various styles and various 
materials, as to defy descrip- 
tion. Suffice it to say, that 
it was no sooner finished than 
(like all English attempts at 
architecture in the present 
age) it was pronounced a 
failure ; for, great as our 
fathers have been in this art 
almost ever since the dark 
ages, the present century has 
half elapsed without produc- 
ing any proof that we can 
erect things capable of stand- 
ing twenty years without be- 
coming laughing-stocks. 

This palace was not inha- 
bited till the accession of her 
present Majesty, for whom 
it was altered by Mr. Blore ; 
but as the inconveniences 
and insufficiency of George 
IV/s structure became con- 
tinually more crying, in 1846 
it was resolved to erect the 
east side, now just finished, 
for which 150,000/. were 
voted, or not quite twice the 
expense of George IV/s 
gateway, a mere ornament, 
which is now being re- 
erected at the north-east 
entrance of Hyde Park. The 
style of the new front is 
German, of the last century, 
and the architect, Mr. Blore, 
has wisely abandoned all attempt to make it harmonize with 
(being at discord in itself) could harmonize with nothing. 




what 



750 LONDON. 

The palace may be viewed, when the Queen is away, by an order 
from the Lord Chamberlain. The exterior and quadrangle, being 
(all but the new side) Nash's work, will be best passed by unnoticed. 
The variety is great, but the only qualities common to the whole, 
tameness and littleness, unfortunately more marked than in any 
of the private erections of the same builder, of whom it may be said, 
(by a slight variation on Augustus' boast) that he found London of 
brick and left it of tinsel. Here, however, everything was adverse; 
situation, aspect, method of procedure — all as unlucky as possible, 
even down to the materials, dingy Bath stone with sculptures of 
white marble. The interior contains no large rooms, and there is a 
general deficiency of height, though, perhaps, not more than usual 
at present, we having become especially niggardly in this respect*. 
Perhaps it is natural for islanders to carry naval ideas into all 
structures, and live "between decks." The chief rooms are— the 
Throne Room, having a marble frieze, " the Wars of the Roses," 
sculptured by Baily, R.A., from designs by Stothard; the Green 
Drawing-Room, over the entrance to Nash's building from the 
quadrangle ; the Sculpture Gallery and Library, both on the ground 
floor. For balls, a tent originally belonging to Tippoo Saib, is erected 
in the loggia adjoining the Green Drawing-Room. The Ionic con- 
servatory, standing detached, on the south side, has been converted 
into a chapel. The Queen's private apartments occupy the upper 
part of the north side, and new front. 

The pictures are chiefly of the Dutch and Flemish Schools, and 
collected by George IV., and are all of great merit. (See article 
" Galleries," pp. 426-430.) 

Post Office (General), St. Martins le Grand (covering the site 
of a collegiate church of that name). The present building was 
erected, 1825-9, from a design by Sir Robert Smirke, R.A. It is 
isolated, and covers a large compact rectangle, and is faced on all sides 
with Portland stone ; but on the west side, which is about 400 feet 
long, with a facade of very plain Grecian character, to which are at- 
tached three porticos, the centre one forming the entrance to a hall 
extending through the whole depth and height of the building, to its 
rear, where is another entrance. The Ionic order throughout is 
similar to that of the British Museum, the column being enlarged 
from that of the little temple (now destroyed) on the Ilyssus, and 
the entablature that from Teos, stripped of all carving. The chief 
rooms are situated north of the hall, where the newspapers, inland 

* It is curious to observe how the height allowed to apartments (if not a general measure 
of the liberality of the age in all respects), seems almost to have risen and fallen exactly with 
the state of architectural art. Thus, the internal height of churches (taking their clear 
breadth as the unit), has regularly diminished at the rate of 5 per century, from the thirteenth 
century, when it was 3, or even 3k times, down to the present, m which it has been reduced to 
i the breadth. The same remark applies, within narrower limits, to state rooms, which, in the 
Gothic times, were considerably higher than broad (Guildhall and Crosby Hall for instance). 
Jones made the height equal the width, and now it is always considerably less. Great height 
may have partly originated as a substitute for ventilation, and its disuse (though attributable 
only to pure parsimony), map eventually lead to some attention by builders to this requisite, 
though it has not y *«ne so. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 751 

letters, and foreign letters, are received at three different windows. 
On its south side are offices for the local London post. The two 
halves of the building communicate by a tunnel under the floor of 
the hall. The middle story of the north half is occupied by the 
offices for dead, mis-sent, and returned letters, &c. ; that of the 
southern, by secretaries' offices, board-rooms, &c. ; and the whole 
upper storv by clerks' sleeping-rooms. (See also " Introduction," 
pp. 99-102.) 

The postal system of England originated no earlier than the time 
of Charles I. The old "penny post" for London and its suburbs 
only, was established in 1680, by the enterprise of Robert Murray 
and William Dockwra, who immediately quarrelled about the priority 
of the invention, and it was, in a short time, seized by the Duke of 
York (afterwards James II.), on whom the monopoly of all letter- 
carrying had been settled. For many years after this there was 
only one receiving-house in London for general letters, and only six 
for London or penny-post letters. There are now nearly 500, ail 
of which receive, indiscriminately, letters for every part of the world. 
Mail coaches were invented in 1784, by Mr. Palmer; and long 
before the rise of railways (which have nearly superseded them) 
had been improved, together with the roads on which they ran, to a 
degree of expedition and certainty quite unparalleled in animal con- 
veyance. In 1801, the "penny post" was altered into a "two- 
penny" one; and till 1840, the charges on all letters beyond its 
limit varied according to distance, the shortest being fourpence. 
Weight made no difference provided the w f hole was on one sheet of 
paper, but any separate piece rendered the letter double. Pre- 
payment was not required and therefore uncommon, and Members 
of Parliament had the privilege of sending ten letters daily, free. 
In 1840, by the exertions of Mr. Rowland Hill, the whole was 
remodelled in its present form, founded on the system of prepayment 
by stamps, equal charges for every distance, and varying only 
according to weight. The postage now for all inland letters under 
half-an-ounce, is one penny; but for all heavier, twopence on every 
ounce and fraction of an ounce. The great reduction thus made on 
ordinary letters did not much increase their number at first, but it 
has now reached nearly five times that under the old system ; and 
this source of revenue, though not so productive as it then was, pays 
nearly double its expenses, which exceed 1,000,000/. per annum. 

To and from every place in the country there is at least one post 
daily, delivered in London between 9 and 11, a.m., and dispatched 
from London at 8, p.m. Letters for this post are received at the 
General Office up to 6, p.m., or up to 7 by the extra payment of a 
penny, and to half-past 7 by that of sixpence. At the branch office 
in Lombard Street, the same rules apply, except the last. At three 
other offices, viz., Charing Cross, Old Cavendish Street (Oxford 
Street), and Stone's End, Borough of South wark, they are received 



752 



LONDON. 




THE GENERAL POST OFFTCE. 



till 6, p.m., and with the extra penny till a quarter "before 7 ; at the 
receiving houses throughout the town, till half-past 5 ; and by letter- 
carriers with bells, up to the same hour, by paying them a penny 
per letter. 

Besides this, most places have a second post to and from them, 
and those within 12 miles of London as many as five daily. 

The posts from one part of London to another, within 3 miles 
of the principal office, are ten daily, which are received at the 
receiving-houses till 8, a.m., 10, a.m., noon, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 
8, p.m., respectively; at the principal office three-quarters of an hour 
later; and are dispatched for delivery, at 10 a.m., noon, 1, 2, 3, 4, 
5, 6, 8, p.m., and 8 next morning. 

The receiving-houses are conveniently distinguished by a plate 
attached to the nearest lamp-post. About fifty of them in London, 
and one in every country town, issue and pay money orders, by means 
of which 8,000,000/. annually is transmitted through the Post Office. 
The price of this great convenience is threepence for sums up to 2Z., 
and sixpence for those above 21. up to 5/., which is the largest sum 
to be sent by one order. Letters containing money, or other valu- 
ables, can be registered at any office, till within half-an-hour of its 
closing for common letters ; the fee is sixpence to any part of Great 
Britain or France (where such letters become " lettres chargees"\ 
and in the latter case, the double French postage. 

Unclaimed letters, or those whose owners cannot be found, have 
their directions copied and exposed in the principal office of the 
town to which they are sent. In London (where these lists hang 
at the west end of the hall of the general office), any one writing 
his address in pencil opposite his name, will receive the letter by the 
next morning's delivery. Such letters, together with the arrivals 
and departures of packets, and other information, are also published 
in the " Daily Packet List." 

Parcels weighing above four ounces must be prepaid. Those 
under four ounces, if sent unpaid, are charged double to the 
receiver; or, if insufficiently paid, the receiver is charged double 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS; PRISONS. 753 

the deficiency. Over-charges are returned within two days, if the 
letter be left for that purpose in the hands of the letter-carrier, 
or presented at a window in the hall of the general office between 
10 and 4. 

Certain documents go at cheaper rates if sent in covers open at 
the ends, so as to be examined, viz. : — 

All addresses to her Majesty, and petitions to Parliament, sent 
for presentation to a member of either House (if not exceeding 
two pounds weight) free. 

Parliamentary papers (which have their weight printed on them), 
one penny per four ounces, or fraction of four ounces. 

Printed books, each singly in its own cover, with no writing but 
the direction, sixpence per pound, or fraction of a pound. 

Stamped newspapers, to and from any part of the British Empire, 
or Colonies, sent within a week of their publication, and with no 
writing or marks except the direction, free; with writing on the 
paper, one penny stamp on the cover. 

The same to foreign countries where they are free, and to France, 
free; where they are not free (except France), twopence British 
postage; from France and Belgium to England, one halfpenny. 

The duties of the London Post Office are suspended on Sundays, 
Christmas Day, and Good Friday, except as regards passing letters 
through London from one part of the country to another. 

Prisons (Debtors' ). The Queens Prison, between the Borough 
Road and Southwark Bridge Road, Surrey, formerly called the 
Queens Bench, but now a consolidation, under a late act, of that 
and two others, the Fleet and Marshalsea Prisons. It is for debtors 
and persons charged with or sentenced for contempt of the Court of 
Queen's Bench. Prisoners were formerly allowed to live anywhere 
within certain limits called " the rules," but this, which originated 
in some time of over-crowding and plague, has been abolished since 
1835. Giltspur Street Compter, a stone-fronted structure, by Dance, 
1791, opposite St. Sepulchre's, Newgate. It serves for the jurisdiction 
of the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, and contains prisoners for 
misdemeanor as well as debt. Wkitec?*oss Street Prison, Cripplegate, 
built 1813, for debtors only, and belonging to the same Sheriffs. 

Prisons (Criminal) have frightfully increased for many years, and 
continue to do so with an advancing rate of increase. The chief 
are : — Newgate, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey; 
now only a gaol of detention for persons about to be tried at the 
adjacent Central Criminal Court, but formerly sufficing both for that 
purpose and for all undergoing sentence for offences in London and 
Middlesex ; though it was, from the time of King John to that of 
Charles II., merely a tower or moderate appendage to the city gate. 
Thus, for four centuries and a half, during which London at least 
lecupled its population, we seem to have required no increase of 
rison room. Even on rebuilding the gate, after the fire, it was not 

K k 3 



754 LONDON. 

thought necessary to enlarge or remove this adjunct; hut from that 
time it began to be crowded, and the nuisance of an inadequate and 
totally unventilated prison increased till, in 1750, the gaol fever, 
communicated by prisoners on trial, killed in one session two judges, 
several jurors, the Lord Mayor, and others to the number of sixty. 
Still the present building was not commenced till 1 770, nor completed 
till 1783, the old one having meanwhile been burnt down in the Gor- 
don riots. The architect was George Dance, city surveyor, the same 
who built the Mansion House and disfigured Guildhall; and the 
facades, which are 297 feet and 115 feet long, may be considered his 
best works, and the beau ideal of prison architecture. 

The exterior of Newgate is treated just as we may suppose a prison 
in ancient Rome to have been ; and there, this would have been the 
true treatment, for it would have distinguished the building not only 
by uncommon mass and gloominess, but also by uncommon plain- 
ness^ rudeness, and want of finish. So also the prison exteriors of 
the middle ages (the south entrance to the Tower for instance) 
were easily conformed to true taste, and made prison-like relatively 
to surrounding structures, because the latter had some beauty, some 
polish or refinement, which, in the prison, could be dispensed with 
or reduced. But what is to be done where the general architecture 
has nothing to dispense with or reduce ? What can be done right in 
prison-building, where all building (that is, not a sham) has survived 
its age of beauty long ago, survived the last vestiges of comeliness, 
and (repudiating all beyond material and animal requirements) has 
reached the ne plus ultra of animal sameness and second savage- 
hood ? Nothing can be distinguished by prison-like qualities, where 
rudeness and squalor have in everything reached their climax ; 
where niggardliness of finish and niggardliness of thought have 
advanced till they can be pushed no farther ; where society is too 
poor to afford anything at once ornamental and real; because the 
arts that once served to glorify God by imitating the excellences of 
nature, and to profit man and ennoble his works by making them 
vehicles of thought and truth, are employed solely in counterfeiting 
appearances of wealth, or appearances casually associated with 
wealth, to assist the imagination of every class in fancying them- 
selves a little richer than they are; because millions are worked and 
fed to supply make-believes ; because society devotes to this end, 
and to sham excitements, all the wealth, all the labour not required 
for the supply of animal necessities; and more than all, so that the 
suppliers of them are pauperized. 

It may be said, indeed, that a prison should be designed as cheaply 
as possible — not only without ornament, but without the deceits and 
pretences elsewhere required to keep up appearances of what is called 
respectability ; that it might have neither a stone nor a tool-stroke 
not conducive to its material requirements, to convenience or to dura- 
bility — not a feature to satisfy a fashion or a fiction, either of architec- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS; PRISONS. 755 

ture or of bricklayership. But this would greatly increase the trouble 
of design ; and yet, after all, be inconsistent, because it would make 
prisons in fact the most beautiful, the most truthful, of our buildings; 
the only ornaments to redeem the landscape that our other erections 
had blotted and deformed. This would too grossly disagree with 
their destination. It would never do for it to be said, " we dwell in 
sham houses, pray in sham churches, learn in sham colleges, admi- 
nister the law in sham tribunals, but send its transgressors to a real 
prison." Such would be the effect of a return towards architectural 
truth beginning in this lowest class of building; and yet it is more 
likely to begin in this than in any other, because it would here be 
most profitable to the pocket. 

From whatever point viewed, therefore, the architecture of prisons 
presents (like everything relating to them) insuperable dilemmas ; 
because all perplexities of the system run down and collect here as 
in a sink, and, whencesoever arising, it is here alone that they show 
themselves undisguised. 

Bridewell was originally a royal palace named after a well in 
the parish of St. Brides, and was given by Edward VI. as the first 
"Workhouse, or rather House of Correction, " for the strumpet and 
idle person, for the rioter that consumeth all, and for the vagabond 
that will abide in no place/' Long regarded as an hospital rather 
than a prison, this asylum only drew an increase of vagabonds to 
the capital. The present building serves for 100, in single cells, 
undergoing sentences not exceeding three months. Bridewell has 
become a general name for prisons of a similar character throughout 
the country. 

The following is a general summary of the prisons connected with the me- 
tropolis, including some of those previously mentioned ; — 

Pentonville Prison. — That great question of crime and punishment, which 
in its national import, creates so deep an anxiety, and claims so large a provi- 
sion of corrective if not remedial measures, has been greatly elucidated within 
the last few years by the experience obtained in the Pentonville Prison, which 
was designed to be a model of construction, and to be appropriated for carry- 
ing into effect the "separate system" of discipline. Before describing that 
building, however, a brief narrative, derived from official documents, of the 
leading circumstances connected with prison improvements in this country, 
may be appropriately presented, and will assist in explaining the particular 
form of prison conduct which the Pentonville establishment is intended to 
enforce. 

The earliest recorded steps taken for the improvement of prison discipline 
appear to have been provoked by the exposure made by the distinguished phi- 
lanthropist, Howard, who, being taken prisoner by a French privateer, in a 
voyage to Lisbon, in 1755, suffered the barbarous treatment then inflicted on 
the unfortunate occupants of the Castle of Brest, and determined to devote 
his future life to an attempt to mitigate the sufferings to which all prisoners 
were then as a matter of course in all cases subjected. Howard was, in 1773, 
created high sheriff of the county of Bedford, and while filling this office he 
had many opportunities of observing the state of the jails under his jurisdic- 



756 LONDON. 

tion. Having given his immediate attention to the alleviation of individual 
distresses, and the remedy of such general grievances as he could succeed in 
controlling, this benevolent man resolved to pursue his investigation over the 
country, and accordingly proceeded upon tours into the counties of Hertford, 
Berks, Wilts, Dorset, Hants, Sussex, Surrey, &c. He was subsequently exa- 
mined before a Committee of the House of Commons, as to the results of his 
inquiries, and received the thanks of the House for his benevolent exertions. 

In the year 1773 to 1784, Mr. Howard extended his inspection to the prisons 
and bridewells of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland, Germany, Swit- 
zerland, Denmark, Sweden, Eussia, Poland, Spain, and Portugal, and published 
an account of his observations in a valuable work on the state of prisons, 
with an appendix. This distinguished ornament of our country and of the 
human race, met his lamented death on the 20th January, 1790, at Cherson, 
in Russian Tartary, having received an infectious fever, a species of plague, 
by his humane visits to the hospitals of that place. 

The exertions of John Howard, and the political events by which their ob- 
jects were promoted, are thus referred to by the Inspectors of Prisons of Great 
Britain for the Home District, in their Third Reports : — 

" Together with the remonstrances of this distinguished benefactor of man- 
kind, circumstances powerfully co-operated to produce a general desire for the 
improvement of our prisons, and imposed on us the necessity of immediately 
devising an enlarged system of transportation. The result of this combi- 
nation of humane remonstrance and political necessity, appears to have 
been a general desire that something should be speedily done to improve 
our prison discipline. The first impulse to public feeling was given by the 
labours of Howard; and great is the obligation which the cause of hu- 
manity owes to the unwearied industry and ardent benevolence of this dis- 
tinguished philanthropist. His labours were rewarded by that deep and 
national feeling of commiseration for the sufferings of prisoners which fol- 
lowed that faithful exposure of them, which his earnest wishes for their 
mitigation, and his truly Christian courage, prompted him to make. But the 
attention of this excellent man seems to have been almost absorbed by the 
physical sufferings which it was his lot to witness. The very magnitude and 
intensity of those sufferings seem to have prevented him from looking beyond 
them to a consideration of the moral evils of imprisonment, which are even 
still more deplorable than the prisoners' privations and discomforts, and with- 
out the proper remedy for which, even an improvement of his physical condi- 
tion is but too often a greater incentive to his further advancement in crime 
and vice. The impulse, however, was thus given to the desire and demand 
for prison improvements ; it was prompt and decisive, and to Howard the 
praise is most justly due." 

The notion which has been officially formed and acted upon, as to the way 
in which this "proper remedy" for "the moral evils of imprisonment" is to 
be sought within prisons, was described by the then Secretary of State for the 
Home Department (Sir J. Graham), in a letter dated 16th December, 1842, 
addressed to the Commissioners for the government of Pentonville Prison. 
From this description, the following extract is quoted here, as it so well ex- 
plains the object aimed at in the conduct of the establishments now under 
our notice. On this account, also, the length of the extract must be excused. 

" It is useless to discuss the abstract question, whether under any regulation 
a prison can supply the means of reforming the character of hardened 
offenders. It is enough to observe that the limited number which the Model 
Prison can contain, will, in the hope of reformation, be generally confined to 
those who are convicted of their first offence, and whose age is between 18 
and 35. 

" Considering the excessive supply of labour in this country, its consequent 



PUBLIC AND FRIVATE BUILDINGS ; TRISONS. 757 

depreciation, and the fastidious rejection of all those whose character is 
tainted, I wish to admit no prisoner into Pentonville who is not sentenced to 
transportation, and who is not doomed to be transported ! 

" The convict, on whom the discipline might have produced the most salu- 
tary effect, when liberated and thrown back on society here, would still be 
branded as a criminal, and would have an indifferent chance of a livelihood 
from the profitable exercise of honest industry. His degradation and his wants 
would soon obliterate the good impressions he might have received, and by the 
force of circumstances which he could not control, he would be drawn again 
into his former habits; he would rejoin his old companions, and renew the 
career of crime. 

"Not so the convict transported from Pentonville. The chain of former 
habits would be broken ; his early associations would be altered ; a new scene 
would open to his view, where skilled labour is in great demand, where the 
earnings of industry rapidly accumulate, where independence may be gained, 
and where the stain of tarnished character is not quite indelible. 

" This is the favourable position for ripening the fruit of improved prison 
discipline ; this is the best chance for turning to account the instruction given 
in useful manual labour ; this is the prospect which will revive hope in the 
bosom of the prisoner, which will confirm his good resolutions, and which will 
stimulate him to energy and to virtue. 

" I propose, therefore, that no prisoner shall be admitted into Pentonville 
without the knowledge that it is the portal to the penal colony, and without 
the certainty that he bids adieu to his connexions in England, and that he 
must look forward to a life of labour in another hemisphere. 

" But from the day of his entrance into the prison, while I extinguish the 
hope of return to his family and friends, I would open to him fully and dis- 
tinctly the fate which awaits him, and the degree of influence which his own 
conduct will infallibly have over his future fortunes. 

" He should be made to feel that from that day he enters on a new career. 
The classification of the convicts in the colony, as set forth in Lord Stanley's 
despatches, should be made intelligible to him. He should be told that his 
imprisonment is a period of probation ; that it will not be prolonged above 
18 months; that an opportunity of learning those arts which will enable him 
to earn his bread, will be afforded, under the best instructors ; that moral 
and religious knowledge will be imparted to him as a guide for his future 
life ; that at the end of 18 months, when a just estimate can be formed of the 
effect produced by the discipline on his character, he will be sent to Van 
Dieman's Land, there, if he behave well, at once to receive a ticket of leave, 
which is equivalent to freedom, with the certainty of abundant maintenance, 
the fruit of industry ; if he behave indifferently, he will be transported to 
Yan Dieman's Land, there to receive a probationary pass, which will secure 
to him only to him a limited portion of his own earnings, and which will im- 
pose certain galling restraints on his personal liberty ; if he behave ill, and if 
the discipline of the prison be ineffectual, he will be transported to Tasman's 
Peninsula, there to work in a probationary gang, without wages, deprived of 
liberty — an abject convict." 

The general arrangement of the Pentonville Prison building comprehends 
a central hall open from floor to roof with spacious corridors of a similar con- 
struction radiating from it, having ranges of cells placed on each side. The 
wings or divisions containing the cells, being thus connected with the central 
building, the whole interior of the prison and the door of every cell are seen 
from one point. The stairs of communication being also placed in the corri- 
dors, and made of open iron framing, do not impede a clear view being ob- 
tained from the hall to the extremity of each wing, or from one end of a cor- 
ridor to the other ; and every movement within the prison, whether of an offi- 
cer or a prisoner, is therefore under constant observation and control. 



758 



LONDON. 




Ftg. 1. 



Of this principle of construction an example exists at Rome, and is thus 
described by Monsieur Duchatel, Minister of the Interior of France in 1842, 
in his work entitled " Instruction et Programme pour la Construction des 
Maisons d'Arret et de Justice. " 



References to Figures. 
Fig. 1 represents a ground plan of the prison. 

a, Entrance gateway. 

b, Chaplain's residence. 

c, Governor's residence. 

d, Rooms appropriated to the use of the messenger and inner porter. 

e, Rooms appropriated to the use of the reception warder and outer porter. 

f, Entrance court, 34 ft. by 46 ft. in dimensions. 

g, Waiting room and offices for the commissioners, secretary, chaplain, and physician. 

h, Corresponding range of offices for governor, clerk, and deputy governor, and visiting rooms. 

i, Central hall. 

J, J, J, J, The four wings of the prison, or ranges of cells. 

k, House for pumping machinery, and cells for prisoners engaged in working it. 

l, l, l, Three sets of radial exercising yards. 

m, m, Two front sets of exercising yards. 

n, n, n, n> n, n, Apartments at angles of external wall, occupied by warders. 

Fig. 2 shows a longitudinal elevation of one of the wings of the prison, and fig. 3 an internal 
and transverse section of part of one of them, the same letters referring to the same parts in 
both of these figures. 

a, b, c, Inlets for introduction of fresh air. 

d, e, f, Outlets for discharge of fresh air. 

g, g, Main fresh air flues. 

h, h, Warming apparatus. 

i, J, Cold air flues. 

k, Main foul air flue. 

l., Smoke flue from apparatus, shown by a dotted line. 

m, Fire-place for summer ventilation. 

n, n, n, n, Galleries supported on iron brackets 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS ; PRISONS. 



759 



IUI 



U 



yi 




Fig. 2. 



" ' Cette prison fut elev§e par les ordres du Pape Clement XL de 1703 & 1735. 
Si Ton entre dans l'examen detaille* du svsteme, et m§me de la disposition 
architecturale de cette prison, on reconnaitre que les Americains ne sont que 



760 



LONDON. 



les imitateurs des Italiens, 
non seulement sous le point 
de vue du regime discipli- 
naire, mais aussi sous celui 
de la construction. Par 
l'examen des dessins ci- 
joints, il sera facile de re- 
connaitre que tout 6tait 
prevu dans chaque cellule 
pour Thabitation constante 
des detenus soumis au re- 
gime de la separation." 

The development of this 
principle upon an extended 
scale, is, however, consi- 
dered to be due to Mr. 



Fig. 3. 



Haviland, who designel 
and erected the Eastern i 
Philadelphia. 

With some modifications! 
the same principle of ar 
rangement is observed in 
Pentonville Prison, but'thd 
details of the building are) 
different from those of any 
previously erected prison,! 
and were designed with! 
reference to the special ob-[ 
jects to be attained in the I 
enforcement of the in-" 
tended system of conduct. 







** \ 


1 ^ 










i £ 


jjj K 1 










Ia 

1 








Cell. 


1 
i 








m 


D 




1 
1 


^ 




I N 






IB 

I 






E 


Cell. 


I 

l 

il. 

i 

i 


} 




I N 






'c 

) 








Cell. 












F 




1 




Corridor. 





Cell. 



Cell. 



Cell. 



7^> 



The accompanying three figures will serve to shew the arrangement and 
construction of the Pentonville Prison, which occupies a rising site on the 
right hand of the road leading from King's Cross to Holloway, and designated 
" The Thornhill Bridge Koad." Of these figures, the first (Fig. 1), shows a 
ground plan of the entire prison with the exercising yards, boundary wall, 
and warders' houses at the angles of the wall. (Fig. 3), shows a transverse 
section of one of the wings, with the three ranges of cells, the air flues for 
ventilation, and for warming, the middle corridor and galleries supported upon 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS; PRISONS. 761 

iron brackets, &c. (Fig. 2), represents an interior longitudinal elevation of a 
portion of one of the wings, and shews the doors of the cells, the galleries, &c< 

The first stone of the building was laid on the 10th April, 1840, and the 
works were completed in the autumn of 1842. The prison was intended for 
the reception of male convicts between the ages of 18 and 35, and to be con- 
ducted upon the "separate system of discipline," which, it should be re- 
marked, originated in England, and was the subject of legislative enactment 
so long ago as the year 1778. The Pentonville Prison was first occupied on 
the 21st December, 1842. Among the provisions of the 2nd and 3rd Yic. 
c. 56, it was stipulated that " no cell shall be used for the separate confine- 
ment of prisoners which is not of such a size, and lighted, warmed, and venti- 
lated in such a manner as may be required by a due regard to health, and fur- 
nished with the means of enabling a prisoner to communicate at any time, 
with an officer of the prison." Also, that a prisoner should have the means 
of taking air and exercise when required ; that he should be furnished with 
the means of moral and religious instruction, with books, and also with labour 
or employment. The standard size of cell adopted in this prison is 13 ft. in 
length, by 7 ft. in breadth, and 9 ft. in height. To avoid all communication 
between the prisoners, it was determined to fit up each cell with the means of 
washing, and with other conveniences, so as to render it unnecessary for any 
prisoner to quit his cell except to attend chapel, and take exercise. The build- 
ing is constructed mainly of brickwork, with iron sashes, iron bars, doors, &c. 
The foundations are laid on solid concrete, 3 ft. deep and 3 ft. wide, and over 
the whole surface of the walls a course of slate is laid in cement six inches, 
above the ground line, thus effectually preventing the access of moisture by 
capillary attraction. 

Basement. — Under the entrance building is a reception ward, in which pri- 
soners are detained until examined by the medical officer, and reported fit 
for admission. Here also are an examining room, clothing stores, bath, and 
a closet for fumigating and purifying clothes. The basement beneath the 
central hall is appropriated to materials, stores, provisions, &c. The cooking 
department comprises a kitchen, furnished with a steam apparatus and conti- 
guous stores for meat, bread, flour, potatoes, &c. Adjoining the kitchen is a 
room in which the provisions are weighed out and arranged in trays, which are 
then placed in a hoisting apparatus, and raised for distribution to the ground 
floor and upper cells. This distribution is ingeniously and rapidly effected by 
placing the trays upon light iron carriages, which are fitted to span the middle 
space in each corridor, and run upon the hand-railing of the galleries. The 
remainder of the basement is used as a mess-room for the subordinate offi- 
cers of the establishment; and also comprises cells for punishment, work- 
shops, &c. 

Ground Floor, shown on Fig. 1, comprises four wings, each containing cells 
on each side, and an entrance building comprising several important offices for 
conducting the affairs of the prison. The following references to the corres- 
ponding letters shown on the plan will explain this appropriation in sufficient 
detail. 

The entire area occupied by the prison and grounds, which is inclosed by 
a boundary wall, measures 6 acres and 10 perches, and there is a terrace and 
road 75 ft. broad in front of the prison, and spaces respectively of 30 and 20 ft. 
on the two sides, with a garden of 2 acres in the rear. In the spaces between 
and in front of the wings, the exercising yards are placed ; these are arranged 
in five sets, three of which are circular, and the other two of an oblong figure. 
The entrance-gate forms the first or front barrier ; the two side gates, and the 
front door of the prison, form the second barrier ; and the third consists of the 
door opening into the central hall on the ground floor, and two doors on the 
basement, which lead from the kitchen and stores before described. 

The well from which the prison is supplied with water, is situated between 



762 LONDON. 

two of the wings, and the pumps are worked by a shaft and cranks fixed in 
bearings, and carried through a series of small compartments, each of which 
may be occupied by a single prisoner, and thus any amount of manual power 
maybe applied for the purpose without admitting communication between 
those employed. 

Upper floors. — The Chapel is situated in the upper part of the entrance-build- 
ing, and is approached by stairs from the level of the first and second galleries 
in the central hall. The seats in the chapel are so disposed, that while each 
prisoner is effectually separated from all his fellows, he can see and be seen by 
the chaplain, and is also exposed to the inspection and control of the prison 
officers. As each prisoner enters his stall, he closes the door after him, and so 
soon as the row of stalls becomes occupied, the officer fastens the whole of the doors 
in the row simultaneously, by a simple mechanical contrivance. For the purpose 
of ventilating the chapel, the space beneath the gallery is adopted as an air 
chamber, and perforations for admitting fresh air are made in the risers under 
the seats. The vitiated air passes into the roof, and thence through the 
clock tower, and owing to the altitude and difference of temperature, this 
means of egress is found effective without further assistance. Under the same 
roof as the chapel, infirmary or convalescent rooms are provided for cases in 
which the constant attendance of a nurse is required, or infectious diseases 
appear, but for all ordinary cases of indisposition, the common cells are found 
sufficient, being well adapted, by the adequacy of space and thorough ventilation, 
for medical treatment and superintendence without removing the patient. 

Ventilation. — The windows of the cells being fixed, and the doors commonly 
closed, it is evident that some other than the ordinary means of ventilation 
are required in order to withdraw the vitiated air, and to supply the necessary 
quantity of fresh air. Two other conditions are also imposed in order to render 
the temperature of the cells accordant with the health of their inmates, and to 
preserve the discipline of the prison : these are, first, that means shall be pro- 
vided for warming the fresh air, when necessary, without injuring its qualities; 
and, second, that the flues or channels for the transmission of the air shall not 
facilitate, to any degree, the transmission of sound. The general arrangement 
of the heating apparatus and air-flues will be understood from the section 
through one of the wings of the prison shown in Fig. 3. The apparatus for 
warming the air is placed in the middle of the basement story of each wing, 
and consists of a boiler or case, to which pipes adapted for circulating hot 
water are connected, and which is also in communication with a large flue open 
to external atmosphere. The fresh air admitted through this flue, after tra- 
versing the boiler surface, is directed right and left along a main flue, which 
extends horizontally under the corridor-floor, and from thence rises through 
small flues formed in the wall of the corridor, which terminate severally in a 
grating placed close under the arched ceiling of each cell on the three stories. 
Thus,^the means are provided of introducing a current of air from the exterior 
into each cell, and of previously warming it to any required degree, or leaving 
it at its original temperature. Corresponding arrangements are made for ex- 
tracting the foul air as follows : — A grating is fixed close to the floor of each 
cell, on the side next the outer wall, and diagonally opposite to the points of 
entrance of the fresh air. This grating covers a flue in the outer wall, which 
communicates at the top with a horizontal foul-air flue in the roof, leading to 
a vertical shaft raised 20 or 25 feet above the ridge. During the summer, a 
small fire is kept up at the bottom of this shaft, by which the temperature of 
the column of air within it is raised above that of the external atmosphere, 
and its specific weight proportionally reduced. The foul air, consequently, 
rises and passes away, and the partial vacuum thus produced is instantly filled 
from the foul-air flues of the several ©ells. The consumption of fuel for this 
apparatus has been about 1 cwt. per diem for each wing, containing 130 cells; 
and the daily cost of thus effecting sufficient ventilation in summer time is about 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS; PRISONS. 763 

ifteen-pence, or about one-eighth of a penny per cell. During the winter season, 
ihe warming apparatus in the basement is put in action, and the smoke and 
disposable heat being thrown into the shaft above the upper cells, the adequate 
amount of ventilation is found to be thus effected, without involving any 
idditional trouble or expense. The temperature preserved throughout the 
3rison, in winter, is from 52° to 60° Fahrenheit ; but for modifying this tem- 
perature to suit the feeelings of individual prisoners, regulators are fixed in 
the fresh-air flues of some of the cells, and by these warm air may be admitted 
from the main flue, or cool air from the corridor, at pleasure. 

Cells. — Each cell, as already stated, has an internal area of 13 feet in length, 
7 in breadth, and 9 in height, to the soffit or underside of the arched ceiling, 
and comprises about 820 cubic feet of space. The division walls between the 
cells are 18 inches thick, and the external walls 22^ inches. The ceilings of 
the cells are formed of a half-brick and grouted in cement, overlaid with con- 
crete, which is levelled to receive a coating of asphalte forming the floor of 
the cell above. The cell doors are fitted with moveable flaps, by which the 
delivery of provisions, &c, is facilitated ; and besides these flaps the doors are 
provided with small openings for inspection by the officers. Each cell is 
provided with a soilpan and trap, and a copper basin for washing, fitted with 
waterpipe, &c. The soilpan, &c, are of strong glazed earthenware. The 
cells are lighted with gas, and each is provided with a handle, by moving 
which a gong is sounded, and the officer's attention thus excited, while, by the 
same movement, a numbered label, which commonly remains against the wall 
outside the cell, is thrown out at right angles, and so remaining, serves to in- 
dicate the cell at which the attendance of the officer is desired. In this way 
every prisoner has the means of summoning an officer in case of emergency. 
The supply of water to each cell is derived immediately by a water trough of 
cast iron which passes along the wall above the cell, and immediately under 
the floor of the gallery. Each of these troughs (which are supplied from 
cisterns on the roof of the building) contains one cubic foot, or about six gallons. 

Central Hall. — The central hall, as already described, is like the radiating 
corridors, open from the ground-floor level to the roof, and thus admits a per- 
fect inspection of the main interior of the prison, and at the same time affords 
great facilities by the hoisting machine, described under the head " Base- 
ment," and by a spiral iron staircase, for ready access to all the galleries from 
one central point, and for the prompt raising of provisions and materials from 
the basement to all the upper wards. 

Exercising Yards. — These are arranged to radiate from a single point or 
line, round or along which a passage of communication is provided. When 
the prisoners have been locked up, each singly in one yard or radial compart- 
ment, an officer who remains in charge of them has the means of instantly 
detecting any irregularity by means of inspection, either from openings in the 
internal walls, or through windows provided above the passages. 

BatJts. — Eight baths are provided, each 5 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. on the top, and 
2 ft. 6 in. deep. By these 32 prisoners are bathed in one hour, and each pri- 
soner has a bath once a fortnight. 

Governor's and Chaplain's Houses. — These are situated one on either side of 
the entrance building, and each contains ample accommodation for its official 
occupant. 

Cost of the Building. — The total cost of the prison to the period of its occu- 
pation was 84,168£. 12s. 2d., which, divided by the number of cells, 520, gives 
an average of 161?. 17-s. 2 jcZ. per cell. This amount, it should be observed, in- 
cludes the furniture and fittings of the whole prison, and quarters for twenty 
prison officers. 

Cost of maintaining Prisoners. — Although this item may be regarded as 
belonging to the system of prison discipline adopted, rather than to the build- 
ing itself, yet as the latter has been specially designed and constructed for 



764) LONDON. 

carrying the former into complete practice, our estimate of the economy and 
value of the edifice is liable to be modified by this consideration, and we may 
therefore quote the reported fact, that in 1848, the cost for the victualling and 
management of each prisoner in the Pentonville Prison was very nearly 36?. ! 
The cost of the building and repairs to the close of the year 1847 is also re- 
ported at 93,000?. The annual interest upon this capital at 5 percent, being 
4650?. represents the sum of 9?. as chargeable against each individual occu- 
pant of the establishment, supposing society is criminal enough to keep its 
cells fully supplied. The annual expense of each prisoner is thus 45?. ! It 
has been reported by an officer engaged in carrying out " the system" at Pen- 
tonville, that " the effects produced here upon the character of prisoners have 
been encouraging in a high degree." It would be quite foreign to our pur- 
pose to examine the evidence, which can be had upon this point. But there 
is certainly no boldness in venturing the remark, that these " encouraging 
effects" need the most clear and unequivocal testimony before so large an 
annual expenditure in the enforcement of any system of prison discipline can 
be justified. And although economy of management should not be aimed at 
as the principal object in our dealings with crime, it must yet be allowed as a 
subordinate one ; and the desirableness of every method of conducting prisons 
should be fairly measured by reference to its comparative expense. 

The Pentonville or " Model" Prison, on which we have already bestowed so 
much of our limited space, has been selected for this particular description on 
account of its adoption by the government of this country as a pattern in 
construction for all provincial prisons under their control. The "separate" 
system which those buildings are designed to enforce, appears to have been 
entertained with much more of theoretical favour than it has been found to 
deserve in practice, and already several departures from the strictness of disci- 
pline first contemplated have been forced upon the management. 

Of the other methods of ruling criminals, which have been conventionally 
exalted into " systems," the prisons of London and its suburbs present only 
two which are to be distinguished from the " separate." These are known as 
the "silent" and and the "city" systems; the former allowing association 
between prisoners, but prohibiting conversation ; the latter allowing both : 
prohibiting neither. 

It would be impossible to enter upon an examination of the merits and de- 
fects of any of these methods. The entire subject is evidently one of the 
highest importance to the well-being of all human society. Yet it cannot be 
denied that all attempts yet made in dealing practically with prison discipline 
are new experiments or trials that have been instituted with only partial re- 
ference to the philosophy of the subjects, and have, as might be expected, 
consequently failed in establishing correct principles, or indicating successful 
rules of proceeding. 

The other prisons in and about the metropolis may be briefly described in 
the following order: — 

First of national prisons, or those which, like the Pentonville establishment, 
are under the control of the government, there are the Millbank Prison, a Peni- 
tentiary Hulks or ship prison, and the debtors' prisons of the Queen's Bench 
and Whitecross Street. 

Millbank Prison or Penitentiary is situated on the northern bank of the 
Thames between Westminster and Vauxhall bridges, and near the latter. It 
is the most extensive penal establishment in England, comprising an inclosed 
area of 16 acres (of which 7 are covered with buildings and airing grounds), 
and being usually tenanted by about 1500 criminals. It is occupied as the 
depot for those sentenced to transportation and destined for the government 
gaols of Pentonville, Reading, or Wakefield ; for the Hulks or ship prisons at 
the dockyards of Woolwich and Portsmouth, or to be expatriated direct. The 
juvenile convicts are sent to the prison at Parkhurst in the Isle of Wight. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS; PRISONS. 765 

The annual amount of the migratory criminal population of Millbank is thus, 
from 4000 to 5000. This prison was built to accommodate 1200 prisoners in 
separate cells upon the solitary system ; but this discipline has undergone 
successive modifications, and is now only very partially observed, the prisoners 
working daily in common, and submitted only to the rule of silence. The 
site upon which the prison (which cost nearly 500,000Z.) is built, is low and 
marshy, and although all practicable improvements have been effected by 
drainage and ventilation, the building is yet, and must still remain, un- 
healthy. 

The Hulks or Ship Prisons, which are moored adjoining the Dockyards of 
Woolwich and Portsmouth, were first adopted for this purpose in accordance with 
the transportation system. The principal hulks now stationed at Woolwich are 
the "Warrior," an old seventy-four gun ship, which accommodates about 480 con- 
victs employed in the dockyard, and the " Justitia," in which are lodged those 
who are employed in the arsenal. The " Warrior," which may be considered as 
the model hulk, has an external appearance of cleanliness and order, but is in- 
ternally ill adapted, as, indeed, every ship must be, for lodging and regulating 
prisoners. Communication between the convicts is not interfered with, and 
produces the natural consequence of mutual contamination. The men eat and 
sleep in gangs of from 12 to 20, each gang occupying a separate compartment 
of the deck, and thus there is, of course, neither silence nor separation. 

The Queen's Prison or Bench is (as before mentioned in p. 753) a receptacle 
for debtors, and, on account of those who have been unfortunate enough 
to become its inmates, must be regarded as a place with many interesting, 
although necessarily painful associations. The name " Queen's Bench," for- 
merly rightly applied to this prison, is so no longer, as, by a statute of the 
5th and 6th Yictoria, the Marshalsea and Fleet Prisons were abolished, and 
their functions transferred to this, under the new name of the Queen's Prison. 
This establishment is now under the rule of the Secretary of State for the 
Home Department, and serves as a national prison, receiving persons com- 
mitted by the Courts of Queen's Bench, Exchequer, Common Pleas, and Equity. 
Its occupants are divided into two classes, namely, ordinary debtors, and debtors 
ho are remanded for fraud and defiance of creditors ; and each of these classes 
is subdivided into those who maintain themselves, and those who do not 
maintain themselves. The prison is open to visitors from 9 in the morning 
to 7 or 9 in the evening, and there is no let or hindrance to admission. The 
prisoners are simply kept in custody within the walls of the spacious yard, 
and each has his own room for sitting and sleeping, except when the overflow 
of the inhabitants compels the putting two prisoners in one room, a practice 
technically called chumming ; and, except in the remand department, are free 
from restraint which cannot be reasonably complained of. 

Whitecross Street Prison, like the Queen's, is entirely a debtors' prison. (See 
also p. 753.) It is situated in Whitecross Street, Cripplegate, and has also another 
frontage in Kedcross Street. It is divided into six separated wards, called, as 
follows : — The Middlesex ward ; the Poultry and Giltspur Street ward ; the 
Ludgate ward; the dietary ward; the remand ward; and the female ward. The 
entire prison is capable of holding 500 persons. In the Middlesex ward are con- 
fined debtors from the county, while those committed from the city are distri- 
buted among the other wards. The Poultry and Giltspur Street ward is occupied 
by city debtors who are not freemen ; the Ludgate ward, by city debtors, who 
are, or rather it should be said, were free men. Freedom of the city is not, how- 
ever, to be confounded with freedom of the jail. The dietary ward is appro- 
priated to those who cannot maintain themselves. The remand ward is more 
strictly controlled than the others, and receives debtors committed for fraud, 
contempt of court, &c. Each ward has its day rooms common to all the prisoners 
within that ward, and such friends as may visit them. The dormitories are each 
adapted to contain about eighteen persons, and are furnished with so many sepa- 



76G LONDON. 

rate iron bedsteads, with blanket, quilt, &c. The place is generally tolerably 
cleanly ; but the sleeping rooms are sadly deficient in ventilation, and the water- 
closets in a shameful state of filth and neglect. These matters, it may be hoped, 
are in course of amendment, or likely to be so ere long. 

Four great prisons have now to be noticed as being within our metropolitan 
range, but they are distinguished from those heretofore referred to, being 
under the jurisdiction of the magistrates for the county of Middlesex, and 
are, therefore, county instead of national prisons : these are the House of 
Correction, or Coldbath Fields Prison ; House of Detention, at Clerkenwell ; 
Tothill Fields Prison, at Westminster ; and Newgate. 

The House of Correction, situated in Coldbath Fields, between Gray's-inn-Lane 
and St. John's Street Koad, occupies a site, in building and yard, &c, of about 
nine acres, and is adapted to contain 1250 prisoners, although a greater num- 
ber is sometimes forced into it. In this prison silence is rigidly imposed ; but 
the prisoners work in common, and are kept in employment in making rugs 
and mats, and picking oakum ; and prison artizans are permitted to follow 
their respective trades of carpenters, tinmen, blacksmiths, brushmakers, &c. 
The number of separate cells is only 250, and the surplus inmates are conse- 
quently put into general dormitories. 

The House of Detention, Clerkenwell, is used to receive prisoners awaiting 
their trial at assizes. It has cells for 300, only half of which are usually 
occupied. The building was newly erected, in 1844, having been before 
rebuilt, namely, in 1818, and first erected in 1775. The cost of the present 
structure is stated at £28,000. The prisoners (who are commonly kept here only 
about seven days) are strictly separated from each other, without employment 
of any kind. Experiments have been made to furnish it, but they are said to 
have failed. The machinery for employment cannot be fairly started during 
the brief stay of each prisoner, nor can his attention be effectually attracted to 
any useful pursuit, while his thoughts, hopes, and fears are excited in contem- 
plating the chances of his trial. 

Tothill Fields Prison was first erected in 1618, repaired or enlarged in 1655, 
and rebuilt in 1836. It is situated in Westminster, between St. James's Park 
and the Yauxhall Bridge Koad, and is a building of great extent and strength. 
It is, however, very badly arranged, the radical principle, as illustrated at 
Pentonville and other prisons, being utterly neglected, and the detached 
buildings, which compose the entire prison, being, for all practical pur- 
poses of control, really so many separate prisons. The silent system is 
strictly observed during the day ; but the separate sleeping cells being only 
270 in number, while the prisoners are frequently more than 800, the rule is 
inevitably liable to be broken during the night, when from 40 to 80 prisoners 
are congregated in each general dormitory, with one officer in each. No kind 
of employment is afforded to the prisoners, except the picking of oakum, and 
working the treadwheel, both of which should be at once abolished from every 
well-conducted prison. 

Newgate is the .most grim of all the misbuilt London prisons, as de- 
scribed also in pp. 753, 754. Its exterior architecture, however, has been 
much admired by foreigners. It is used for the safe custody of those who 
are awaiting trial or punishment, the only permanent prisoners being those 
convicted of assaults or offences on the high seas, and those whose tenure 
of existence is limited by the sentence of death. The average annual num- 
ber of the inmates of Newgate is about 3000 ; the greatest number at 
one time being about 500, when the assizes are approaching, and the 
prison being nearly empty immediately after the proceedings of the Central 
Criminal Court have committed the convicts to the prisons, penitentiaries, 
the houses of correction, or to Millbank. The first stone of the present 
building was laid in May, 1770, but the works proceeded slowly until, in the 
riots of 1780, the old gaol was destroyed, after which the new structure was 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS; PRISONS. 767 

rapidly completed. The entire building is dark and close, with little air, 
and less light. The only separation observed is of the prisoners into felons 
and misdemeanants; contaminating communication is freely permitted, and 
no work or employment of any kind is afforded to the prisoners. 

Two of the metropolitan prisons are under the jurisdiction of the City or 
Corporation of London. These are Giltspur-street, or City House of Correc- 
tion, and Bridewell. 

Giltspur-street Prison comprehends two distinct divisions, viz. the House of 
Correction, and the Compter. The latter is situated as stated in p. 753, and 
appropriated for detenus of various kinds, as remands, those committed from 
the police courts, and, generally, persons awaiting trial, and therefore still un- 
convicted. The House of Correction is used for minor offenders within the 
City of London. None of those sentenced to transportation or imprisonment 
beyond three years, are received here. The entire gaol has only 36 separate 
sleeping-rooms. According to the calculation that three persons can sleep in 
small unventilated cells which were built for only one, being about half the size 
of the model cells for each prisoner in Pentonville, the prison may hold 203 
prisoners. The return for Michaelmas, 1849, however, showed that it then 
contained 246 ! The consequence is that Jive human beings are sometimes 
locked up in one of these miserable cells for 12 or 14 hours out of every 24 ! 
No employment, no classification, no arrangement, no discipline, nothing, in 
short, but disgusting communication between the prisoners, oakum-picking, 
and the tread-wheel. The entire thing is a foul and pestilent disgrace to the 
City of London. A new city prison, which, it is understood, will eventually 
supersede Giltspur-street Prison is now being erected at Holloway, and will, it 
may be hoped, be as distinguishable for its excellences as the present one is 
for abomination of all kinds. 

Bridewell, situated on the west side of Bridge-street, Blackfriars, about 
midway between Fleet-street and the Thames, is a prison to which those 
summarily convicted of offences within the City of London, and apprentices 
sentenced to solitary confinement, are consigned. Its antiquity, &c, is 
described in p. 753. Special provision is made for the latter class of delin- 
quents, but their importance as prisoners seems to have much declined during 
the last generation or two. When they do, however, receive condemnation 
to this prison, they are placed in small cells, closed in with double door, 
and thus effectually separated from seeing, hearing, or associating with 
the poorer class of vagrants and misdemeanants, who share the same roof 
with them. The site of Bridewell is cold and damp, and the building is ne- 
cessarily unhealthy. It is, moreover, ill arranged, and by no means adapted 
for the enforcement of any sort of discipline or system. The cells and corri- 
dors are dark and grievously wanting in light and air, and although each pri- 
soner has a separate sleeping-place, they are allowed to associate much after 
their own fashion during the day. The only occupations are picking oakum, 
and treading the wheel, and at these silence is enjoined, but not enforced. The 
number of prisoners is usually about 100. 

Attached to Bridewell Prison is an institution called the House of Occupa- 
tion, in St. George's Fields, Southwark, which, while being really an industrial 
school, adapted for about 200 inmates — half of each sex — and not a criminal 
establishment, receives occasionally from Bridewell such juvenile delinquents 
as the magistrates think it desirable to remove from that City pesthouse. 

Besides the prisons we have thus enumerated, there are two others which, 
although belonging to the county of Surrey, and being not properly metropo- 
litan establishments, are yet situated so closely to London, that they require 
a passing notice in this place, in order that the visitor to the great metropolis 
may have intimation of all the prison-like institutions it may be in his power 
to visit. The two here referred to are known as Horsemonger-lane Gaol, and 
Brixton House of Correction. 



768 LONDON. 

Horsemonger-lane Gaol is situated on the south side of Eewington Cause- 
way, and has the entrance in Horsemonger-lane. It is a common gaol for 
the county of Surrey, under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff, Court of Quarter 
Session, and thirteen visiting magistrates, and was built at the suggestion of 
the admirable John Howard. This prison consists of two portions, one occu- 
pied by debtors, and the other by criminals, or those arrested on criminal 
charges. These two divisions are of course totally distinct, and no commu- 
nication is permitted between their respective occupants. The debtor part 
of the prison is sufficiently like the debtors' prison already described to need 
no individual description here. The criminal part of the prison appears 
deficient in all that constitutes the features of a well-conducted prison. There 
are ten wards for the criminals, each of which wards has its yard and day- 
room. Each day-room serves to contain from 30 to 40 prisoners, of all ages 
and varieties of crime, left unobserved by any officer, and being denied neither 
the sight of their fellow-prisoners, nor free and contaminating oral intercourse 
with them. Employment and instruction are alike neglected, and picking 
oakum, and treading the wheel, are the only occupations found for the listless 
and degraded creatures gathered in this ill-conducted and crime-teaching 
prison. In the female department, which is adapted for only 28 occupants, 
more than double that number are sometimes crammed, and the consequence 
is that the miserable board, 15 inches wide, provided as a sleeping-place, in 
each cell, is unavoidably vacated, and the stones of the cell floor are adopted 
as a resting-place by the two, or even three hopeless creatures committed to it, 
in order that they may share the one blanket provided to shelter them during 
the long cold hours of night ! 

Brixton House of Correction, situated on the summit of Brixton-hill, about 
four miles to the south of London Bridge, is the other metropolitan house of 
correction for the county of Surrey. It is adapted for 185 prisoners, having 
149 separate cells, and 12 cells adapted for three persons each. The number of 
prisoners usually accommodated is, however, about 400 ! The consequence is 
that the separate cells, each 8 ft. by 6 ft., and unventilated, are filled with three 
persons each (the law not allowing two in one cell). And in the women's de- 
partment of the prison, the 35 cells are said to be sometimes crammed with 
120 to 130 prisoners. Discipline, system, and all other desirable features, 
which such an establishment should present, are of course utterly absent in 
this wretched and unregulated house of contamination. 

Somerset House, east of Waterloo Bridge, is a large unfinished pile 
occupied by public offices (see also pp. 200-203), replacing and named 
after a mansion built by the Protector Somerset, brother-in-law of 
Henry VIII., called Somerset Place, no vestige of which remains. 
On his attainder, this mansion became confiscated, and has remained 
crown property ever since. James I. and Charles I. enlarged and 
beautified it, with additions by Inigo Jones, our first classic architect, 
whose river front was very celebrated, and has served as a model 
for those of two modern buildings, the County Fire Office, at the 
top of Lower Eegent Street, and Cliefden House, near Maidenhead, 
lately remodelled by Mr. Barry, R.A. Charles I. assigned Somerset 
Place to his Queen, and it remained the possession of the Queens 
of England till 1775, though never their residence after 1692. It 
became, like other deserted palaces, divided into lodgings for the 
poorer persons of the Court; but on the purchase of Buckingham 
House, by George III., for the purpose of converting it into a 
Queens Palace, Somerset House was demolished, and Sir William 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 769 

Chambers designed the present fine structure. Its plan, views, and 
architectural character having been given under " Architecture" 
(pp. 200-202), we need only here notice its chief apartments. The 
Royal Society, Society of Antiquaries, and the Astronomical and 
Geological Societies, have rooms in the northern part. The Royal 
Academy also was, for fifty years after its foundation, accommodated 
in the rooms w r est of the entrance, now occupied by the Government 
School of Design. The rooms of the Royal Society are entered 
through the corresponding door in the east side of the arcade en- 
trance (see page 547). 

The largest portion of space is devoted to the business of the 
Admiralty, which is divided between this and Ripley's unsightly 
building at Whitehall. Next to this in importance are the offices 
of Stamps, of Taxes, of Excise, of Legacy Duty, of the Poor Law 
Commission, the Tithe Commission, the estates of the Prince of 
Wales as Duke of Cornwall, the Audit Office, and that of Registrar- 
General of births, deaths, and marriages. About 900 clerks are 
employed daily in these offices from 10 to 4. 

The east wing of the river front forms one extremity of King's 
College, which, on condition of thus completing the long unfinished 
front, was allowed to occupy part of the ground embraced by Sir W. 
Chambers's design for this fine building, and thus it can never now 
be finished. The feeling which left the crane standing on Cologne 
Cathedral is unknown in this country. 

Spencer House, Green Park, the entrance in St. James's Place. 
A mansion built for the first Lord Spencer, by Vardy, the architect 
(as some say) of the Horse Guards; and externally, one of the very 
finest houses in modern London. On the front towards the Park, 
which is of Portland stone, with attached columns, and a pediment 
quite in the style of Palladio, are three finial statues, praised by Sir 
W. Chambers for their uncommon grace and fitness to their situation. 

Squares are an excellent feature, peculiar to the large towns of 
England, but more particularly to London, being distinguished from 
the Piazze, Plazas, Places, &c, of continental cities, by having 
originated in a sacrifice of building-ground, not to the purposes of 
ornament and architectural beauty, but to the pure necessity of ven- 
tilation. They are, therefore, in the newer parts of London, more 
numerous and larger than in other capitals, but not appended to any 
public buildings (which usually hide in obscure secondary streets), 
and not making any pretension to more adornment than the ordinary 
dwellings. A garden inclosed by open railing serves to hide the 
ugliness of sham art, refreshes the eyes wearied with the sombre 
monotony of our rude dwellings, and, though occupying some of the 
space, hardly impedes the circulation of air, but, according to modern 
chemists, actually helps to renew its vital principle. 

Inigo Jones endeavoured to introduce a taste for something like the 

L L 



770 LONDON, 

Italian piazze, and began that of Covent Garden^ a near imitation of 
that at Livorno, which some attribute to him ; but only a portion was 
built with his arcaded frontage ; that portion has since been pared 
down to the extreme of meanness, and the area itself, perverted to 
a market, disfigures the neighbourhood it was to adorn, and pollutes 
the air it was to improve. His next attempt of the same kind, 
Lincoln s Inn Fields, has been more fortunate, remaining still the 
largest ventilation of London, next to its parks (more important 
even than they, from its central situation), and now by far the best 
grown with timber. The equilateral form of this prototype of our 
squares has been pretty generally followed in all of them till 
within the last twenty years, but we now have them of all pro- 
portions, up to a lengthy slip, besides one oval (Finsbury Circus), 
and many semicircles or segments called crescents. For all recti- 
linear figures, even triangles, the term square is retained. The site 
of London being, unlike that of other capitals, unfortunately composed 
chiefly of large undivided estates, and the supply of houses and 
streets by the hundred a matter of wholesale speculation, of course 
the quantity of ground appropriated to these ventilators is merely 
calculated so that the increased rental of houses enjoying the sight 
of a tree, may compensate for the loss of ground from the immediate 
purposes of the speculator ; and hence the proportion these gardens 
bear to the whole area in any district, is a measure of the value 
there set on this privilege. The same misfortune which banishes 
from our urban architecture the attributes of durability and beauty, 
and nearly forbids any advance in that of salubrity, insures us, 
however, the advantage of more of these openings than could be 
expected where the ground is minutely divided ; and also affords a 
chance of more regular and extensively designed arrangements of 
streets. This last beauty, however, parsimony of invention has 
hitherto prevented. If we except a small region north of Hyde 
Park, a triangle inclosed by that park, the Edgeware and Grand 
Junction Roads, we have no instance of that studied symmetry and 
variety in street-planning which the classic taste of Wren and 
Evelyn vainly endeavoured to introduce into the city after the fire, 
and for which the size of the suburban estates, and vast scale of 
the operations on them, might be supposed to present opportunities 
unequalled in modern times. 

The following are the chief Squares of the older class (rectangular 
with their sides nearly or quite equal), with the approximate area of 
each in acres: — Lincoln's Inn Fields, 12; Russell Square, 10; Bel- 
grave, 10; Grosvenor, 7; Portman, 7; Park Square, Portland Place, 
7 ; Euston, 7 ; Finsbury, 6 ; Bedford, 6 ; Tavistock, 5 ; Gordon, 5 ; 
St. James's, 5 ; Brunswick, 4 ; Mecklenburg, 4 ; Bloomsbury, 4 ; 
Cavendish, 4; Hanover, 4; Fitzroy, 4; Soho, 4; Eccleston, 4; 
Warwick, 3 ; Golden, 3 ; Manchester, 3 ; Dorset, 3 ; Blandford, 3. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 771 

Among those of an oblong shape, are — Eaton Square, 15; Chester, 
5 ; Berkeley, 5 ; Lowndes, 4 ; Hyde Park Square, 4 ; Oxford, 3 ; 
Cambridge, 3 ; Montague, 3 ; Bryanstone, 3 ; Torrington, 3 ; Queen 
Square, Bloomsbury, 3 ; Red Lion, 3 ; Woburn, 3 ; and a great 
number in the newer suburbs. 

Openings, of other regular forms : — Finsbury Circus, 4 ; Park 
Crescent, Portland Place, 4; Mornington Crescent, Hampstead Road, 
4 ; Burton Crescent, 3 ; Wilton Crescent, Knightsbridge, 3 ; and 
many smaller. 

Places of irregular forms : — Smithfield, 5 ; Trinity Square, Tower 
Hill, 5 ; Charter House Square, 3 ; Trafalgar Square, 4. 

Thus these openings afford, in the dense parts of the town alone, 
more than 200 acres, or about half the area of the whole walled 
City, or of the present Hyde Park. 

All openings exceeding an acre or two have now been planted 
with railed gardens, except Smithfield and Trafalgar Square. The 
latter, while making more architectural pretensions than any other, 
is greatly in want of some foliage, which the very expensive levelling 
and paving lately finished seems to forbid. A single flight of steps 
in the centre of the terrace would, besides being grander than the 
present ones, have enabled the corners to receive small shrubberies, 
for which this artificial stone-quarry now affords no convenient place. 

Temple (The), between the western part of Fleet Street and the 
Thames. The site of the establishment of the Knights Templars, 
who moved to this spot in 1184, from Holborn. On the dissolution 
of their order in 1313, it passed, after some changes, into the hands 
of the Hospitallers, another of the military orders who had not yet 
" decayed through pride," who, having their chief establishment at 
St. John's, Clerkemvell, leased this possession to students of the 
common law r , who to this day are its occupants. The whole became 
divided into three inns : the Inner Temple (nearest the City), the 
Middle, and the Outer Temple ; but only the two former names are 
now retained, and applied to two legal societies. The buildings 
throughout the district are modern, except one of great interest, the 
original church (see " Architecture," pp. 135-139), which is common 
to both societies; and the Middle Temple Hall (see p. 506). 

Temple Bar (see " Archways"). This was erected by Wren, 
together with, a gate called Holborn Bar, whose name only now 
remains, to mark the western limits of the City Liberties ; which ex- 
tend in every direction (except at the east extremity, or Tower Hill) 
far beyond the old circuit of the w r ails ; and in this direction a full 
half mile beyond the corresponding gates, Ludgate and Newgate. 
The other Bars were merely toll gates. Temple Bar is closed only 
on the occasion of the Sovereign entering the City, when a parley 
takes place, to show either the Lord Mayor's power to exclude, or 
willingness to admit, his visitor. 

L L 2 



772 LONDON. 

Theatres. — The four chief are, — 

1. Drury Lane, in Great Kussell Street, Covent Garden. 

2. Covent Garden, now frequently called the Royal Italian Opera, 
Bow Street, Covent Garden. 

3. The Lyceum, or English Opera House, Strand, near Welling- 
ton Street. 

4. Her Majesty's Theatre, or Italian Opera House, Haymarket. 
For accounts of these, see article " Music" (pp. 617-21). 

The remaining ones on the Middlesex side of the river, with their 
times of performance and prices, are as follows : — 

5. Haymarket Theatre, nearly opposite the Italian Opera House, 
originally built in 1720-21, by Potter. The present theatre was 
constructed by John Nash. Performance begins at seven. Boxes 
and stalls, 5s.; pit, 3s.; gallery, 2s.; upper gallery, Is. Second prices 
at nine, boxes, 3s.; pit, 2s.; gallery, Is.; upper gallery, 6d. 

6. Adelphi Theatre, opposite Adam Street, Strand. Mr. John 
Scott, colour maker, of the Strand, was the original projector, and 
under his superintendence it was built in 1806. Performance at 
seven. Boxes, 4s.; pit, 2s.; gallery, Is.; half-price at nine. 

7. Prince's, or St. James's Theatre, built by Mr. Beazley, King 
Street, St. James's Street. Performance at half-past seven. Boxes, 
6s. ; pit, 3s. 6d. ; gallery stalls, 3s. ; gallery, 2s. 

8. Princess's Theatre, north side of Oxford Street, between Tot- 
tenham Court Road and Regent Street. Performance at seven. 
Stall, 6s.; dress circle, 5s.; boxes, 4s.; pit, 2s.; gallery, Is.; half- 
price at nine. 

9. Sadler's Wells Theatre, originally founded about 1685, St. 
John's Street Road. Performance begins at seven. Dress circle, 3s.; 
boxes, 2s.; pit, Is.; gallery, 6d. 

10. City of London Theatre, Norton Folgate, Bishopsgate Street, 
nearly opposite the Eastern Counties Railway, built by Mr. Beazley. 
Performance at half-past six. Boxes, 2s.; pit, Is.; gallery, 6d.; 
half-price, at half-past eight, to the boxes only. 

11. Strand Theatre, 168, Strand, projected about 25 years since 
by Mr. Rayner, the comedian. Performance at seven. Boxes, 3s.; 
pit, Is. 6d.; gallery, 6d.; second prices at nine. 

12. Olympic Theatre, Wych Street, Strand, originally built by 
Philip Astley, in 1805; recently rebuilt. Performance at seven. 
Boxes, 4s.; pit, 2s.; gallery, Is.; half-price at nine. 

13. Marylebone Theatre, Church Street, Paddington. Performance 
at seven. Best boxes, 4s. ; second, 3s.; common boxes, 2s. ; pit, Is.; 
gallery, 6d.; second prices at nine. 

14. Miss Kelly's Soho Theatre, Dean Street, St. Anne's, Soho, for 
amateur performances. Admittances vary. 

15. Fitzroy, or Queens Theatre, formerly called the Regency 
Theatre, Tottenham Street, Tottenham Court Road. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS 773 

16. Royal Standard Theatre, Shoreditch. 

1 7. Royal Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel. 
On the Surrey side of the river are : — 

18. Surrey Theatre, Blackfriars Bridge Road, first opened in 1782; 
rebuilt and opened in 1806. Performance begins at half-past six. 
Boxes, 2s.; pit, Is.; gallery, 6d.; half-price at half-past eight, to the 
boxes only. 

19. Victoria Theatre, originally called the Coburg, Waterloo 
Bridge Road. Performance at half-past six. Boxes, Is.; pit, fid. 
gallery, 3d. 

20. Astleys (now Batty s) Amphitheatre, for equestrian perform- 
ances, Westminster Bridge Road, built in 1780, by the late Philip 
Astley, an uneducated but enterprising man. Performance at seven. 
Stalls, 5s.; dress boxes, 4s.; upper boxes, 3s. ; pit, 2s.; gallery, Is.; 
upper gallery, 6d. ; second prices at half-past eight. 

Dramatic representations have followed the same course in Eng- 
land as in other civilized countries, and, like other works of ornament 
or luxury (perhaps more distinctly than others), have reflected and 
registered the whole history of national taste and culture, in its 
progress from pristine barbarism or rudeness up to its height of 
refinement, that is, to the state in which the intellectual requirements 
attain their utmost importance and predominance over the material 
or sensuous; and from this again towards the second state of rude- 
ness, in which the external and material re- asserts and gradually 
regains its original ascendancy. 

Our drama, like our other ornamental arts, originated in the 
Church, and is traceable back to the sacred and legendary play that 
in the fifteenth century augmented the attractions of the cathedral 
and abbey, whose services (undergoing in the course of ages all the 
changes that the performances of the theatre have since done) had 
at length passed into these gorgeous spectacles. From the church, 
these representations naturally passed to out-of-door amusements, 
and Clerkenwell, then a clear spring, outside the city, received its 
name from "the parish clerks in London, who, of old time, were 
accustomed there yearly to assemble, and to play some large history 
of Holy Scripture." In 1409, we read of their playing one which 
lasted eight days, "and was of matter from the Creation of the 
World." Gradually these dramas deviated from scriptural story, 
and some began to be founded on other history and tradition; and 
having after the Reformation assumed a purely secular character, 
plays were acted in the houses of the great, by their servants, till 
at length the amusement passed into an art, and the art into a 
distinct profession ; and, in Queen Elizabeth's time, buildings arose 
specially constructed for it. These theatres, which stood on pieces 
of waste ground, about the river banks and the suburbs, were 
octagonal structures of wood, tapering upwards, with windows on 
every side, and a thatched roof covering the galleries and stage, the 



774 LONDON. 

centre over the pit being open to the sky, for no artificial light was 
used, the general time of performance being three o'clock. Scenery 
was not always painted, words answering the purpose with. much 
saving of trouble. Thus we hear of " Thebes written in great 
letters on an old door;" and in a superior performance, towards the 
end of the sixteenth century, the audience were told in the same 
manner, to "suppose the Temple of Mahomet! 9 Such were the 
simple appliances that sufficed for that public whose tastes demanded 
and called forth a Shakspeare. In 1613, however, on the occasion 
when the famous Globe Theatre was burnt down, by some gun- 
wadding alighting on the thatch, Shakspeare's All is true (the first 
title he gave to his Henry VIII.) was " set forth with many extra- 
ordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty, even to the matting of 
the stage; the knights of the order with their Georges and garters, 
the guards with their embroidered coats, and the like, sufficient, in 
truth (says Sir H. Wotton), within a while to make greatness very 
familiar, if not ridiculous." About the same time, some theatres 
T>egan to be roofed entirety over, while the same progress of popular 
taste which called for these "circumstances of pomp and majesty," 
rested satisfied with the productions of writers as inferior to the 
great sun of the English drama as they shine superior to the stars 
of later times. 

In 1640 the Long Parliament suppressed all plays, as inconsistent 
with a time of public calamity; and as the order gradually began to 
be evaded, in 1647 more stringent measures were thought necessary, 
and all convicted of acting were treated as rogues, and publicly 
whipped. This drove the whole of them of course into the Royalist 
party, and put an end to the stage till after the Restoration, w r hen 
it reappeared pretty much in its present form. Females then first 
took part in the performances, which have ever since been by 
artificial light. Under Charles II. play-going became especially 
fashionable as a sign of loyalty. Drury Lane Theatre was founded 
in 1663, burnt down in 1672, and then rebuilt by Wren. Many 
others arose soon after, which are no longer in existence. In 1705 
was opened the " Haymarket Theatre," as it was then called, on the 
site of the present Opera House. The projector was Sir John 
Vanbrugh, architect and dramatist. In 1720 was begun the "Little 
Theatre in the Haymarket," on the site of the present Haymarket 
Theatre. To this was afterwards extended the patent enjoyed by 
the great theatres alone, of representing the legitimate drama, which 
restriction has only recently been relaxed. Sadler's Wells dates as a 
place of amusement from the time of Charles II. On becoming a 
theatre, it was long appropriated to sea-pieces, from the facility of ob- 
taining real water from the adjoining New River. The Shakspearean 
drama, now banished from the greater theatres, has taken refuge in 
this little edifice, which was the first to take advantage of the ex- 
tension of their privilege, and now produces the highest style of 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 775 

English plays with great success. St. James's (or the Prince's) 
Theatre has the neatest and most appropriate exterior (Beazley, 
architect), and a handsome interior. It is now generally devoted to 
French plays. The Princess's (T. M. Nelson, architect) is con- 
sidered to have an interior peculiarly commodious and neatly 
decorated. 

Astley's Amphitheatre, so called after the equestrian who founded 
it, originated in an open riding ring, to the rails of which, in 1774, 
persons were admitted on payment of sixpence. It was afterwards 
covered in, and after several conflagrations and rehuildings, has 
assumed its present appearance, and become a favourite exhibition 
with all classes. 

21. Vauxhall Gardens, Surrey, near Vauxhall Bridge, long a 
favourite place of public amusement, in which music, singing, and 
ballets are performed during the evenings of the summer months. 
Admittance varies; sometimes Is., and at other times 2s. 6d. 

22. Cremorne Gardens, King's Road, Chelsea, on the north bank 
of the Thames, near Battersea Bridge; day and evening amusements 
of concerts, ballets, and sometimes equestrian performances. These 
gardens are very numerously attended. Admittance, Is. 

The Eagle Tavern, City Road, near St. Luke's, Old Street, has a 
theatre, or saloon, in which there are opera performances, vaudevilles, 
ballets, and other dramatic performances. Admission, Is. 

There are many others of a very minor description. The stranger 
is directed to the morning journals for the advertisements of the 
performances, and their particular days or evenings of performance. 
These advertisements are generally classed and inserted just pre- 
ceding the principal articles in each newspaper. 

Tower of London, at the eastern extremity of the city; a castle of 
the Norman kings, afterwards made a state prison, and now a mere 
fort and arsenal. It is probable that so usual a defence as a fort at 
the termination of the wall on the river side, guarding the approach 
of the town from the sea, would not be omitted on the first walling 
of London, in the fourth century, by Theodosius, or, as some say, by 
Constantine. A high authority, however, seems to assign it a still 
earlier foundation. 

" Prince Edward. I do not like the Tower, of any place. 

Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord ? 
Buckingham. . . He did, my gracious lord, begin that place, 

Which since succeeding ages have re-edified. 
Prince Edward. Is it upon record, or else reported 

Successively from age to age, he built it ? 
Buckingham. . . Upon record, my gracious lord." — 

Richard III., Act III., Scene 1. 

This record, however, has not, since Shakspeare's time, been ex- 
hibited, and the earliest we now have is that of the erection of the 
present keep (the White Tower) for William the Conqueror, by 
his famous engineer and leader of the Church militant, Bishop 
Gundulph. This building is fully described under " Architecture" 
(pp. 128-131). 



776 LONDON. 

William did not complete the circuit of outworks, now the inner 
ward, nor does it seem to have been finished till the reign of 
Stephen. The outer circuit, and the defences to the western gate, 
were added by Henry III., about 1240; but nothing beyond plain 
masonry can now remain of that date, except perhaps the pillars 
only in St. Peter's Chapel. The only external architectural features 
remaining are evidently of the fifteenth century, and are confined to 
the two southern entrances; of which the outer or lower is known 
as " Traitor s Gate" now approached from the river, through an 
archway in the modern quay ; and the inner is the " Bloody Tower" 
the traditional scene of the murder of Edward V. and his brother. 
The round bastion adjoining this, on the east (called the Wakefield 
Tower), retains a handsome Gothic octagonal room, but nothing 
externally. All the towers to the inclosure of the inner ward have 
their names and their traditional associations, but the most inte- 
resting is that in the middle of the west side, called the Beauchamp 
Tower, the lodging, in the sixteenth century, of many famous 
prisoners (the unfortunate Queen Anne Boleyn ; John Dudley, 
Earl of Warwick, 1553; Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, 1587); 
who have, with many others, left inscriptions scratched on the walls. 
The Brick Tower, the first proceeding westward from the north- 
east angle, was the prison of Lady Jane Grey ; and the Bell Tower, 
the first eastward from the south-west angle, that of Queen Eliza- 
beth ; both confined here at once, soon after Mary's accession. 
Other parts that have been prisons contain inscriptions by their 
occupants; and the Salt Tower, at the south-east corner, a curious 
planisphere, engraved by Hugh Draper, confined on suspicion of 
magic, in 1561. 

None of the interesting old rooms, however, are generally acces- 
sible, except the ground floor of the Beauchamp Tower, and one 
small apartment in the White Tower, known as Queen Elizabeth's 
Armoury. This vault, which is entered through the modern Horse 
Armoury, is situated under St. John's Chapel (see page 130), and 
being surrounded by walls 17 feet thick, supporting the whole width 
of the chapel aisle, it is the strong room of the fortress. In the 
thickness of one of its walls is formed a small dark dungeon, famed 
as that of Sir Walter Raleigh, and in this are several prisoners' 
inscriptions, of which three are left uncased for the inspection of 
visitors. 

" He that indvreth to the ende shall be savid.— M. 10. R. Rvdson, Kent. An<>. 1553." 
" Be faithful vnto the deth, and I wil give thee a crowne of life.— T. Fane. 1554." 
" T. Cvlpeper of Darford." 

These persons were concerned in the insurrection of Sir Thomas 
Wyatt. 

The Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, still the parish church of the 
fortress, has nothing remarkable but having been the frequent, 
though not the general, burying-place, of those beheaded on Tower 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 777 

Hill, or (when popular feeling rendered that dangerous) within the 
fortress, on the adjoining green, now paved. Here were interred 
without a memorial (in the time of Henry VIIL), Fisher, Popish 
Bishop of Rochester; the Queens Anne Boleyn and Katherine 
Howard ; Sir Thomas More (" in the helfrey, or, as some say, as one 
entereth into the vestry, near unto the hody of the holy martyr 
Bishop Fisher"); Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex; and Margaret, 
the heroic Countess of Salisbury. In the time of Edward VI. — the 
Lord Admiral Seymour of Sudley, beheaded by order of bis brother, 
the Protector Somerset; and the Protector Somerset himself. In 
the reign of Mary — the Duke of Northumberland (before the High 
Altar, "two Dukes between two Queenes, to wit, the Duke of 
Somerset and the Duke of Northumberland betweene Queen Anne 
and Queen Katherine, all four beheaded"); Lord Guildford Dudley, 
and his wife, Lady Jane Grey. In the reign of Elizabeth — 
the Earl of Essex. In the reign of James I. — Sir Thomas 
Overbury, poisoned. In the reign of Charles I. — Sir John Eliot 
(died a prisoner). In the reign of Charles II. — Okey, regicide. In 
the reign of James II. — the Duke of Monmouth (the tradition of 
a substitute having suffered in his place has furnished a base for 
some romance). In the reign of Queen Anne — John Rotier, the 
eminent engraver; and lastly, in 1746-7, the Lords Kilmarnock, 
Balmerino, and Lovat, concerned in the affair of the Pretender, 
There are four monuments to Lieutenants of the Tower, the first of 
the time of Henry VII. 

" I cannot refrain," says Macaulay, in his History of England^ 
" from expressing my disgust at the barbarous stupidity which 
has transformed this interesting little church into the likeness of 
a meeting-house in a manufacturing town/' What will be said 
of the taste that, within the last few years, has transformed nearly 
the whole of this historic fortress into the semblance of a manu- 
facturer's " castellated" villa? The bricklayer's patchwork, and the 
Louis Quatorzine building of Wren, destroyed by the fire of 1841 
(on the site of the present great barrack, north of the White Tower), 
were, no doubt, painfully incongruous. But what made them so ? 
Why, precisely the qualities that, immensely exaggerated in the 
buildings that replace them, render these infinitely more incongruous; 
not their plainness, not their ornament, not their finish or their rude- 
ness, not even their meanness or their different style of decoration, 
but simply its fictitious character. The old keep, that seems to look 
down with such ineffable contempt on these romantic battlements, 
belongs to a period long befbre buildings, or any features of them, 
had begun to pretend to be aught else than they are. It survives a 
long descending series of continually accumulated fictions and pre- 
tences; but in all this far-spun progress from false to more false, we 
had never arrived, nor has any other nation yet arrived, at the 
pitch of untruth embodied in these last additions. Other times and 

L L 3 



778 LONDON. 

countries, however necessary they might find the amusement and 
excitement of antique scenery, have yet had reverence enough not to 
thrust it under the nose of antique reality. In the old world, even 
Hadrian, the greatest patron of " restorations" and mock-antiques, 
who had all the wonders of the world reproduced in his villa, 
ahstained from displaying them in the Capitol ; and at the present 
day, even in China, the land of fictions — the land of sham forts — 
the land of make-believe wildernesses — they have not, as far as we 
can learn, arrived at the exquisite refinement of a sham castle elbow- 
ing a real one for " uniformity of style." 

Uniformity of style ! why, there are not two styles in the world 
so opposite as one without pretence, or even ornament, and one 
whose ornaments are all pretence. To be uniform with the old, the 
new Tower would have had to be treated as we suggested a modern 
prison might be (see p. 754); but this real conformity to the style of 
the old Tower would here also have been unpractical (according to 
tne present use of the word), because, though effecting much pecu- 
niary saving, it would have effected the reverse of a saving in thought 
and trouble; though much cheaper than the present treatment, it would 
have been much more difficult, and moreover have made no show 
after all. The recent additions render this " lion" a more attractive 
one than it ever had been since the live lions were removed. The 
visitor is now both amused and reminded of past ages, by the com- 
pleteness of the characteristic scenery, the crenellation even of the 
very chimney-pots, the wide social bay-window and cautious loop- 
hole (side by side), the bold machicolations, the corbel and gargoyle 
monsters, all trying so hard to frown, that the effort is even more 
striking than the effect. Everything connects the present with the 
far past, and tells of distant and widely-differing ages. 

For viewing the collections of mediaeval armour, and the Queen's 
regalia, tickets must be bought at the outer western gate. There is 
one ticket for the armouries, and one for the jewels, price 6d. each. 
The warders (who retain the dress of Henry VIII/s guard) conduct 
visitors through both collections, as soon as a party of twelve are 
collected, or otherwise every half hour, from 10 to 4. 

The Horse Armoury^ in a modern building attached to the south 
of the White Tower, contains twenty-two equestrian figures, in the 
armour of different periods from 1272 to 1688, arranged chrono- 
logically; but there is, in general, no authority for believing the suits 
to have belonged to the persons whose names they bear, except in 
the later instances, Henry VIII. and those after him. Some other 
very interesting suits are in other parts of the gallery, as — a Saracen 
suit, the oldest here, being prior to the time of Edward I. ; a fine 
suit of the time of Henry VIII., formerly attributed to John of 
Gaunt ; a suit rough from the hammer, of the same age ; a head- 
piece, supposed to have belonged to Henry VIII/s fool; a carved 
ivory warder's horn ; a helmet, and other arms of Tippoo Saib ; and 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 779 

a splendidly wrought Maltese cannon. From this gallery you ascend 
into the ancient room under the chapel, above mentioned, called 
Queen Elizabeth's Armoury, from its containing some spoils of 
the great Spanish Armada. Among these is the " iron coller of 
tormente," and for the same purpose are the thumbscrew, and the 
cravat, or "scavenger's daughter." The various early shields, and the 
curiously combined and elaborately adorned arms of Henry VIII. 's 
time, are all well worth inspection; and the visitor should not neglect 
Raleigh's dungeon and the inscriptions at its entrance. 

Outside, lying on the south of the White Tower, are many curious 
cannon, of various ages, almost ever since their invention. They were 
formerly in the great modern armoury, on the burning of which, 
and destruction of its vast stores, in 1841, many of them received 
the injury we now see. 

The Jewel-house is a new building, erected for the convenient 
exhibition of the regalia, which were formerly kept in an adjacent 
bastion, the Martyn or Jewel Tower, and have been shown to 
strangers since Charles II. tacitly allowed their keeper to do so, as a 
substitute for some perquisites which his office had lost. These 
jewels nearly all date since the Restoration; all those ancient ones 
which contained " crucifixes or superstitious pictures" having fallen 
a prey to Puritan zeal. The plainest Sceptre, or rather Staff, and 
the great Crown, though named " St. Edward's,'"' after Edward the 
Confessor, are known to have been made for Charles II. The only 
remnant of the old regalia is thought to be the Anointing Spoon. 
The other articles used at every coronation, are — the Ampulla, or 
eagle-shaped receptacle for the oil ; the large Sceptre, terminating 
in a cross; the Bracelets; the Spurs; the greater Orb; the blunt 
Sword of Mercy; and the two sharper ones of Justice, Ecclesiastical 
and Temporal. For the coronation of a Queen Consort, there are 
a smaller Crown, Sceptre, and Orb. Two other Queen Consorts' 
Sceptres are here : one of ivory, made for Marie d'Este, Queen of 
James II. ; the other found behind the wainscoting of the old 
jewel-house, in 1814, and supposed to have been made for Mary II. 
The plain circlet of gold was made for Marie d'Este ; and the 
present State Crown, of silver and diamonds, for the coronation of 
her present Majesty. It contains a great ruby and sapphire, the 
former said to have been worn by the Black Prince. The present 
Prince of Wales's Crown, of gold without stones, is modern. The 
remaining regalia are — the golden Salt-cellar, in the shape, it is said, 
of the White Tower ; a silver Wine-fountain, presented to Charles 
II. by the Corporation of Plymouth ; and the silver Font, used at 
Royal Baptisms. 

The Tower Menagerie, after being one of the most famous 
London sights for just six centuries, was removed to the Zoological 
Gardens, Regent's Park. It originated in three leopards presented 
by the Emperor Frederick II. (the greatest zoologist of his day) to 



780 LONDON. 

Henry III., in allusion to the three in the royal shield, since ex- 
changed for lions, as were also their living representatives. 



TREASURY. 



Treasury Buildings, Whitehall, the richly-fronted building south 
of the Horse Guards, and extending to the end of the broad street 
of Whitehall, having a short return front towards Downing 
Street, contains the offices of the Privy Council, the Treasury, the 
Board of Trade, and the official residence of the Prime Minister. 
The Home and Colonial Offices, State Paper Office, and others, are 
contained in plainer buildings (partly erected for dwelling-houses) 
behind this handsome pile, and reaching to St. James's Park. 
The street front, usually known as either the Treasury or Board of 
Trade, has lately been brought to its present appearance by Mr. 
Barry, R.A., but cannot be taken as a fair specimen of his abilities, 
being an enlargement and patching up of the former edifice by 
Sir John Soane, which was designed with a view to extensive changes 
and improvements 6f the whole street and neighbourhood, to which 
(being incapable of completion while they retained their present form) 
it was for many years a disfigurement. This ambitious design being 
at length abandoned, and the architect of the present alterations 
being much cramped by the necessities of working in both the old 
site and the old materials, tbe result is highly creditable. The 
Soanean whims and conceits have disappeared, and the order, which 
is a reduced and simplified model of that of the Temple of Jupiter 
Stator, has, by the enrichment of the frieze and the addition of 
considerable ornament above it, been brought more into harmony 
with the building (or rather the building with it), which would have 
been impossible with less enrichment. The interior of the Treasury 
contains an old royal throne, but nothing else remarkable. 

University College, Upper Gower Street^ Bedford Square. — A 
proprietary place of education, founded in 1828, chiefly by the exer- 
tions of Lord Brougham. Its distinguishing peculiarity is that, by 
leaving all theological studies to be pursued elsewhere, it admits 
students of every religious persuasion indiscriminately. All subjects 
except theology are taught, and the medical department has gained 
much reputation. The degrees conferred by the London University 
are those of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of 
Law, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Law. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 



781 




UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. 



The building (of which only the central portion has vet been 
erected) was designed by W. Wilkins, R.A., the architect of the 
National Gallery. Its other parts are quite overpowered and re- 
duced to littleness by an immense Corinthian portico (stripped of all 
enrichment except the capitals), which, though the largest structure 
of the kind in England, is purely an ornament, having never been 
used even as an entrance. It is unfortunate that so pompous a 
feature should also be in such a situation that very few strangers 
can, in a cursory examination of the town, alight upon it. A 
miniature dome stuck upon its roof, though not having the ex- 
treme inelegance of that on the National Gallery, is equally dis- 
proportioned. The wings have the same diminutive character, all 
having been sacrificed to the exhibition of this very bald and starved 
giant portico ; whose sole beauty, that of completeness and unity, 
is of course also sacrificed in tacking on the utilitarian necessities 
that, after all, could not be suppressed. The ornamentation of the 
wings is also unhappy ; consisting in crowding between the windows 
(which might have sufficed) very shallow pilasters, miscalled antae. 
We say miscalled; for the proper anta was not an ornamental 
feature (or addition ), but simply a neat finish for obviating the 
rudeness of the abrupt termination of a wall. The occasion for it 
never occurs in modern building. We have, therefore, no use for 
the real anta; which, indeed, bears to the feature now so called 
exactly the same relation as a window to a sham window. Now 
these mock antae are properly called pilasters; and (whether resem- 
bling their originals little or much, whether skilfully modified, as in 
the Roman architecture, or merely copied, as in ours) are entirely 
opposed to the character of Grecian art, which (like the early Gothic) 
employed no mock features. 

Westminster, or St. Peters Minster. — One of the most famous 
of the many hundred monasteries to whose gentle but long-continued 
and mighty influence England seems to owe, directly or indirectly, 
all her civilization, greatness, power, and wealth ; — to whose abuse 
and fall appearances would trace all her modern blots and troubles ; 
— to whose ruins, all that is truly great, noble, or beauteous in the 



782 LONDON. 

artificial features of her material physiognomy — all that man has 
added to her face, in harmony with, or not destructive of, its natural 
"beauties. For though the present age has produced the means of 
quicker transit from one spot to another, all that can attract or hind 
men to one spot, all that (besides nature's works) is worth using 
these means of transport or stopping on a journey to see and admire, 
was produced in the times of the lane and the pack-horse. 

This minster of Benedictines was founded in honour of Christ, 
ahout a.d. 604-610, at the same time with the second St. Paul's 
Cathedra], by Sebert, first Christian King of the East Saxons; 
refounded on a greatly -enlarged scale, in honour of St. Peter, about 
1050, by our third King Edward (afterwards sainted), the last of 
the old Anglo-Saxon monarchy, and opened by him with great 
solemnity, in 1065, a week before his death, and nine months 
before the Norman Conquest; founded a third time, in honour 
chiefly of this St. Edward, about 1245, by his admirer and imitator 
Henry III., who lived to complete the eastern arm, transept, and 
chapter-house of the present abbey church ; proceeded with by his 
successor, Edward I., and by the abbots down to the time of its 
surrender to Henry VIII., on January 16, 1539-40; but never 
completely finished. Henry VII. rebuilt the eastern chapel, in honour 
of himself; and succeeding times have found the fabric convenient 
as a national Pantheon. The yearly value of the monastery at its 
seizure, according to Dugdale, was £3471 0s. 2%d. 

The name of this minster has extended to all the west of London, 
the City of Westminster being now bounded on the east by that of 
London, commencing at Temple Bar; on the north by Holborn and 
Oxford Street ; on the south by the Thames ; and on the west by the 
parishes of Chelsea and Kensington. It returns two members to 
Parliament, and is governed by a High Steward and High Bailiff, 
nominated by the Dean and Chapter of St. Peters Church. 

Westminster Abbey, now St. Peters Collegiate Church. — The 
church of the monastery above mentioned, which, about a year after 
its surrender, was erected by Henry VIII. into a cathedral, the 
bishop, Thomas Thirleby, having for his diocese all Middlesex, with 
the exception of Fulham. He was the only bishop of Westminster, 
the diocese being ten years afterwards reunited to that of London. 
In 1556 Queen Mary refounded the monastery, which, on her 
death, three years after, was finally suppressed by the first Parlia- 
ment of Queen Elizabeth, and the present collegiate establishment 
founded, together with the neighbouring celebrated school. 

In the civil war, soldiers were quartered in the church, and 
reduced its interior to the present mutilated condition. The west 
front and towers, never having been finished, were carried up in the 
barbarous style we now see, during the first half of the last century. 
Wren made a design for this, and began the work, whence he has 
most unjustly received the discredit of the whole, most of which 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 783 

was not done till long after his death, and certainly not according to 
his intentions. 

Some description of this glorious fabric having been given under 
"Architecture" (pp. 143-9), and of the older tombs and monumental 
additions to it (p. 150), we need here only mention the chief monu- 
ments, in the order in which they will be seen by the visitor, as 
he follows the verger round the parts east of the transept, to which 
parts the public are not admitted without such guidance, and the 
payment of sixpence. The remaining parts, which contain only 
modern monuments, are free between the hours of 11 and 3, and 
also in summer between 4 and 6, p.m., and the cloisters at all times. 
The entrance to attend divine service is either by the great north 
door, or by the little door in the south-east corner of the transept, 
called Poets' Corner; the exit by either these or the nave. The 
entrance at other times is by Poets' Corner only. 

In proceeding round the eastern part of the building, the guide 
first introduces you to the square compartment inclosed by railing, 
called St. Benedict's Chapel, the south side of which retains one 
of the few fragments now left of the beautiful original decoration 
that extended all round the church. The east side is nearly filled 
by the tawdry pile of marble erected to Frances, Countess of Hert- 
ford, 1598. In the centre stands the tomb of Lionel, Earl of 
Middlesex, Lord High Treasurer under James I., 1645; and there 
are two other altar-tombs, that of Dr. Bill, Dean of this church, 
1561, with a brass engraved figure; and the fine old Gothic one 
with an effigy, to Archbishop Langham, 1376. The mural recess 
and kneeling figure of Dean Goodman, 1601, is a specimen of the 
Elizabethan style of monument. 

Proceeding along the aisle eastward, the next recess, of a po- 
lygonal or apsidal shape, entered through an ancient wooden screen, 
was called St. Edmund's Chapel, having an altar to that sainted 
king of East Anglia, who was massacred by the Danes, in 886. 
This also contains a few rich fragments of the church decoration; 
and just within the entrance, on the right, the altar-tomb of William 
de Valence, son of Isabel, relict of King John. He died 1296, so 
that the tomb is one of the oldest in the church. The lower part 
is of stone, with the arms of Valence and England alternately ; the 
upper part and fine effigy, of oak, the latter covered with copper 
and enamelled with the same arms ; but thirty-three figures of his 
relations, surrounding the oaken pedestal, have been destroyed. On 
the other side the entrance stands the detached tomb of John of 
Eltham, second son of Edward II., who died 1334. It retains his 
recumbent figure, and parts of the " weepers," or surrounding 
statuettes, finely cut in alabaster; but the beautiful stone canopy, once 
the finest in the church, has been demolished, leaving only the 
bases of the clustered buttresses, four on each side, which sup- 
ported it. Adjoining is a small tomb with effigies of two infant 



784 LONDON. 

children of Edward III., who died 1340. Under the westernmost 
window is a canopied tomb and effigy to Sir Bernard Brocas, Cham- 
berlain (as the ancient brass inscription shows) to Richard II.'s first 
Queen, Anne of Bohemia, and beheaded for his loyalty to his master, 
in 1399. A modern inscription has been added by his descendants. 
In front of this is a low tomb, with the remains of a brass figure, to 
Humphrey Bourgchier, a Yorkist, slain in the battle of Barnet, 1470. 
Two engraved brasses in the pavement, one to Archbishop Waldeby, 
1397; the other, the finest in London, to Eleanora, Duchess of 
Gloucester, 1399, complete the mediaeval memorials, in which this 
chapel is peculiarly rich. Among the modern ones that disfigure 
it, the chief are — to Frances, Duchess of Suffolk, grand-daughter of 
Henry VII., and mother of Lady Jane Grey ; to some members of 
the Russell family; to Bishop Monck, of Hereford, 1661; and to 
Mary, Countess of Stafford, 1719. 

In coming out of this chapel, the visitor has just before him the 
very fine tomb of Edward III., whose basement and rich wooden 
canopy are here best seen ; to the right, that of his Queen, Philippa ; 
and to the left, that of Richard II. and his Queen. 

The next apsidal recess, similar to the last, was the chapel of 
St. Nicholas. It is inclosed by an elaborate screen, of the age of 
Henry IV. The first tomb is on the right of the entrance, with a 
recumbent figure of Philippa, Duchess of York, 1431; the canopy 
has been destroyed. The next is under the middle window, to 
Bishop Sutton, or Dudley, of Durham, 1483, a rich monument, but 
which has lost the brass portrait. In the floor is a brass of Sir Hum- 
phrey Stanley, knighted for his conduct at Bosvvorth Field. The 
rest are modern monuments, of which the two most preposterous, 
each 24 feet high, commemorate Anne, Duchess of Somerset, wife 
of the traitorous Protector of Edward VI. ; and the wife and child 
of the great Lord Burghley, 1588-9. Also an altar- tomb to the 
wife of Sir Robert Cecil, his son, 1591 ; a great tomb in the 
centre to Sir George Villiers and his wife, 1605-1632, the parents 
of the first Duke of Buckingham ; and many others. 

Leaving this chapel, we have before us the tomb of Queen 
Philippa; and proceeding under the vaulting that supports the 
gorgeous chantry gallery of Henry V., we ascend a flight of steps 
that leads up from the eastern extremity of the church, to the three 
elaborately- wrought metal gates of Henry VII/s Chapel, which are 
well worthy of notice. The portcullis denotes Henry's descent 
from the Beaufort family; the entwined roses, the union of York 
and Lancaster on his marriage, terminating their long and bloody 
feud. The same devices are repeated in innumerable forms and 
situations. 

Entering the middle aisle of this wonderful mausoleum, the visitor 
knows not what to admire first, or most. The fretted vault- work 
over head, " pendent by subtle magic;" the close array of saints 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 785 

ranged beneath the upper windows, many considered by Flaxman 
admirable works of art, and now nearly concealed by the banners 
of the Knights of the Bath ; the elaborate wood-work of the 
canopies and stalls, wrought, as for more than mortal eye, alike in 
what is seen and what is unseen — carved even to the very under 
sides of the misereres or turning seats, whose unstable support (when 
turned up) was to insure the wakefulness of the religious, in their 
long night services ; — how noble and real is all here ! How unlike 
modern magnificence ! How like that of nature, where everything 
disdains display — courts closer and closer inspection — is more than it 
assumes to be — more than it at first appears ! Thus, in the words of 
a living poet, — * 

" In the elder days of art, 

Builders wrought with nicest care 
Each minute and unseen part, 
For the gods are everywhere." 

In the centre of the apsis or terminating sweep, stands the chantry 
inclosure of brass, still more richly wrought ; and again within that, 
yet richer than aught else, the focus of the whole, the tomb of the 
royal pair; in the words of the King's will, "a Townibe of Stone 
called Touche, sufficient in Largieur for vs booth : and vpon the 
same, oon Ymage of our Figvre, and an other of hers, either of 
them of Copure and gilte, of svche Faction, and in svche Maner, as 
shalbe thovght moost conuenient by the Discrecion of ovr Execu- 
tours, yf it bee not before doon by ovrself in our daies." This, 
unfortunately (but this alone), was not done in his days, or by native 
artists. Hence the "faction and maner" are Italian, the work of 
Pietro Torrigiano, the same who is said to have flattened the nose of 
Michael Angelo ; an injury which, it has been remarked, he might 
have very well expiated, by carrying back to the architect of 
St. Peter's (whose rude and artless structure has with the utmost 
difficulty been kept standing) some notions of refined and scientific 
building, of which, in stone, this chapel is the indisputable master- 
piece. 

At the head of the tomb is interred Edward VI., and in a plain 
vault under the chapel, constructed by George II., that monarch and 
several of the present royal family, without a memorial. In the 
five recesses surrounding the apsis, the fine old sacred sculpture and 
decorations have partly fallen a prey to hideous monuments of 
modern vanity. That of brass, to a Duke and Duchess of Rich- 
mond (d. 1623-39), in the south recess, is somewhat remarkable; 
and that in the south-east, to the Duke of Montpensier, brother of 
Louis Philippe, is by Westmacott. 

We must return through the entrance gates, to gain access to the 
side aisles of this chapel, of which the southern is sometimes 
shown before the body. The principal tomb, in the centre of 
this aisle, displaying the taste of Inigo Jones, was erected by James I. 



786 LONDON. 

to his mother, Mary Queen of Scots. There are four others, 
specimens of the fashions of different times, viz.: — Margaret, 
Countess of Richmond, 1509; Lady Margaret Douglas, 1577; Ge- 
neral Monk, 1670; and Horace Walpole's monument to his mother, 
1737. Four sovereigns, Charles II., William and Mary, and Anne, 
with her consort, George of Denmark, are buried here without 
memorials. 

In the north aisle, corresponding with King James's monument to 
his mother, is a still more sumptuous one, in the same bed-shape, 
erected by him to his two predecessors on the English throne, Mary 
and Elizabeth. At the extreme end are memorials to his two infant 
daughters ; and between them a sarcophagus, in which Charles II. 
placed the supposed remains of the murdered princes, Edward V. 
and his brother, accidentally discovered in the Tower, in 1674 
(d. 1474). In a vault without memorials are James I., his Queen 
(Anne of Denmark), and son Henry. Returning, below the Tudor 
Queens, the tawdry monuments to two Lords Halifax (1695-1719) 
are chiefly noticeable for the latter marking the undistinguished 
grave of his friend Addison, as worthy as any one of a place in 
Henry VII/s Chapel. 

With all the splendour of this royal addition to the church, it 
must ever be regretted that it should have involved the demolition 
of the original St. Mary's Chapel, a work of the golden age, and, 
beyond all doubt, a piece of more genuine art and true magnificence 
than this mausoleum ; which might have been built elsewhere ; and 
whose beauty cannot here atone for the mutilation and patching of 
an otherwise almost matchless and seamless temple. 

Descending the steps from Henry VII. 's Chapel, we have the best 
accessible view of the tomb of Henry V., which stands in a dark 
situation under the fretted vaulting that supports his chantry loft. 
It is more rich than elegant, and has his headless effigy in oak, which 
was covered with silver, the head being of massive silver, all which 
was stolen soon after the Reformation. On the north and south faces 
of the loft are rows of portrait figures, it is uncertain of whom ; and 
over the apex of the arch, in each front, are groups representing his 
two coronations; that in England on the north side, and that in 
France on the south. The badges, repeated in great variety, are the 
swan, antelope, and burning cresset ; the latter adopted by this 
famous prince " by reason of his dissolute life in the tyme of his 
father's raigne ; shewinge thereby that although his virtuous and 
good parts had been formerly obscured, and lay as a dead cole, want- 
ing light to kindle it, by reason of tender yeares and evell company ; 
that, notwithstanding, he beinge now come to his perfecter yeares 
and riper understandinge, had shaken off his evell counsellors, and 
beinge now in his high imperial throne, that his vertues, which before 
had layne dead, should now, by his righteous raigne, shyne as the 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 787 

light of Crescet, which is no ordinary light ; meaninge also that he 
should be a light and guide to his people to follow him in all vertue 
and honnor." 

The next apsis, proceeding northward, was called St. PauVs 
Chapel. Its oldest tomb, forming part of the screen, commemorates 
Lord Bourchier, standard-bearer of Henry V. a Agincourt. Within, 
near the centre, stands another, with effigies of Sir Giles Daubeny 
and Lis wife, 1500-1507. All the others are modern and of little 
interest, except the statue to James Watt, the improver of the steam- 
engine, by Chan trey — the inscription by Lord Brougham. 

Coming out of this, we have in front the nobly simple tomb of 
Queen Eleanor, which (except the effigy) is here best seen. Next to 
it, on the right, that of Henry III., with its Italian work in varie- 
gated materials and mosaic; and beyond, in the next intercolumn, the 
nearly obliterated words u pactum serva" mark the plain slab tomb 
of his son, one of the most glorious of our monarchs ; by the side 
of which we ascend a narrow stair to the raised floor within the 
columns of the main apsis or horse-shoe, the sanctum of the whole 
abbey, the venerable nucleus of the present fabric, St Edward's 
Chapel, oi', as it is now better called, the Chapel of the Kings. 
Though despoiled of all its marketable riches, and battered by civil 
war, this inclosure retains the unique excellence of being desecrated 
by no modern additions. In the centre stands the deserted wreck 
of the once gorgeous shrine of Edward the Confessor. Here his 
adorer, Henry III., having procured his canonization and carried on 
the rebuilding of this beauteous temple throughout his long reign of 
more than half a century, and having been just permitted to see the 
restoration of order, after years of anarchy, on the 3rd of the Ides 
of October, 1269, stooped, with his brother the King of the Romans, 
to bear on their aged shoulders, assisted by his sons Edward 
(afterwards king) and Edmund Crouchback, and as many nobles 
as could get near enough to touch it, the exhumed coffin of the 
royal saint, and place it in a jewelled chest of gold on the top of 
this shrine. Here have the prayer and chant and incense ascended, 
and to this have the eyes of pilgrim crowds been directed, day by 
day, for very many generations ; and here has the spider spun un- 
disturbed for many more. Here Cromwell's soldiers held their 
revels, and committed the most wanton profanities ; and from hence, 
as late as the last century, have the very dust and cobwebs been 
carried to Spain and Portugal, to help immortal beings on their way 
to heaven. 

The pavement was of the minute and precious mosaic called 
Alexandrine work, but enough does not remain to decipher the 
design. The screen dividing the chapel from the choir exhibits, 
besides its elaborate canopy work (probably of the age of Henry VI.), 
a deeply-carved frieze along the top, of fourteen subjects from the 
history of St. Edward, separated by a winding riband, on which 



788 LONDON. 

their legends were inscribed. They represent, beginning from the 
south end: — 1. The Barons, Spiritual and Temporal, swearing fealty 
to him in his mother's womb. 2. His birth. 3. His coronation. 4. 
His alarm at the apparition of the Devil dancing on the money 
collected for Dane-gelt. 5. His generous admonition to a thief 
whom he discovered robbing his treasury. 6. An apparition of our 
Saviour to him and others, while partaking of the Eucharist, in this 
churcb. 7. His prophetic vision of the drowning of tbe King of 
Denmark. 8. His prophetic denunciation of Earl Godwin's sons, 
when they quarrelled at his table. 9. His vision of u Seven 
Sleepers" in a cave at Ephesus, in consequence of which an em- 
bassy was sent to Constantinople, and a search instituted by the 
Emperor, which, we are told, led to tbe discovery of this prodigy. 
10. His vision of St. John disguised as a pilgrim, to whom (having 
emptied his purse in almsgiving) he gave his royal ring. 11. The 
restoration of two blind men to sight, by washing in the same water 
that had been used by the King. 12. The apparition of St. John to 
two English pilgrims in Palestine, by whom he sends the king a 
message concerning his death, and returns the ring as a token. 
13. The pilgrims delivering their message. 14. Edward's conse- 
quent haste to complete the rebuilding of this abbey. 

Against this screen stand the coronation chairs ; that of the Sove- 
reign dating from the thirteenth century, that of the Queen Consort 
from the coronation of William and Mary. In the former (now 
retaining hardly a vestage of its once elaborate decorations in gilding 
and enamel) is inclosed, under the seat, the black stone of Scone, 
the Scottish Palladium, on which, from immemorial tradition, the 
rude chieftains of North Britain had been crowned ; and in this 
seat have all our monarchs, from the great Edward I. down to her 
present Majesty (with the sole exception of the murdered infant, 
Edward V.), in the centre of this church, with all the solemnity that 
religious rites can afford, plighted their vows to the nation, and 
received the allegiance of England and Scotland. 

Between the pillars inclosing this semi-oval chapel stand the 
seven royal tombs, which we have already seen from the surrounding 
aisle, except the effigies on them, which we can now examine. The 
first in time is the second from the corner at which we entered, the 
tomb prepared for himself by the builder of this pile, the weak but 
pious Henry III., the greatest patron of the Church, of priests, and 
of artists, that England has seen. The workmanship is Italian, like 
that of St. Edward's shrine, and the materials very various. The 
effigy, of brass or copper, thickly gilt, but now more thickly coated 
with dust, is also by an Italian, the first metal figure cast in England, 
and has much dignity, but lies too high to be well seen. 

The next tomb, to the right, is that of Eleanor of Castile, the 
renowned Queen of Edward I., to whom, as the pattern of conjugal 
virtues, he also erected a lofty monumental cross of the finest archi- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 789 

tecture, at each place where the body rested in its twelve days' 
journey*. The tomb is every way worthy of its subject, the effigy 
(of brass) being, for simple dignity and benevolence of expression, 
decidedly the finest in England. The shields on the sides of the 
tomb are those of England and Castile. 

On the other side of Henry III.'s tomb, close to the steps by 
which we entered, a plain pile of five slabs covers that monarch's 
famous son and successor, whose epitaph is simple and striking — 

EDWARDUS PRIMUS, SCOTORUM MALLEUS, HIC EST, MCCCVIII. 

and on the north side, facing Scotland, 

PACTUM SERVA. 

It having appeared that the remains of this prince were preserved 
by some kind of wax covering, formerly renewed periodically, the 
tomb was opened in 1774, and the body of the renowned Long- 
shanks discovered in a remarkably perfect state, wrapped in thickly- 
waxed linen, and from the waist downward in figured cloth 
of gold. He measures 6 ft. 2 in., and has on the head a crown, 
and in each hand a finely and curiously- wrought sceptre, reaching 
to the shoulder, one terminating in a cross, the other in a dove. 
These are of copper, and the crown of tin. 

In the south-eastern intercolumn, corresponding to Queen Eleanor's 
tomb in the north-eastern, is that of Queen Philippa, consort of Ed- 
Ward III., whose own tomb follows next, in the middle of the south 
side. We have elsewhere observed ("Architecture," pp. 150, 151), 
how both these monuments afford proof of the national taste and 
skill in arts having, during this long reign, not only attained their 
climax, but passed it, and begun to evince that fatal tendency to 
estimate works of ornament by their amount of manual labour, 
which (together with their perversion from the service of religion 
and the public good to that of private vanity) brought us at length 
to value them mainly as indications of wealth ; hence to the 
" civilized" (?) want of counterfeiting them ; to the entire confusion 
in the popular mind of counterfeits with realities; hence to the 
mechanical multiplication of ornamental forms (as if 100 repetitions 
of a form, upon one thing, all mechanically reproduced, contained 
any more ornament than a single one) ; hence to the perversion of 
machinery — from a supplier of force that the artizan directs, to a 
director of that which he supplies ; and thus, to the reduction of 
the people to machines, power-engines, vainly struggling to compete 
against steam and iron. The completion of these changes now 
precludes all hope of our works again being graced with marks of 
genuine wide-spread refinement and real splendour, such as per- 

* Namely, at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington , Northampton, Stony Stratford, Dun- 
stable, St. Albans, Waltham, and Charing (as some say, chere reine) Cross. Of these, only three 
(in italics) now stand. The rest have mostly been appropriated by the savagery of a later age 
to mend its roads/ What Vandals never did in Italy, nor Turks in Greece, Britons have done 
in their fatherland. 



790 LONDON. 

vade and distinguish ail those preserved from that brilliant age of 
our history comprised in the reigns of the three Edward Plan- 
tagenets*. We may admire and counterfeit, but cannot imitate the 
marks of a civilization so far above ours. As the direction of 
the wind is known by a feather, so are the tendencies of a society to 
civilization or to decivilization written, if we could but read them, 
in the most trifling works of luxury, even the ornaments of a tomb. 

Next to Edward III/s tomb, westward, is that of his son Richard, 
the last of the direct Plantagenet line, an over-enriched work, con- 
trasting as strongly with the opposite plain slab of Edward I., as 
the actions of this luxurious and feeble prince with those of the 
" British Justinian." The tomb was prepared by Richard, on the 
death of his queen, Anne of Bohemia, in 1394, and the effigies of 
brass were specially directed to have the right hands clasped, which 
have now disappeared. Though dying a prisoner, soon after his 
deposition his body was brought and laid here in 1400. 

Near the steps by which we entered, a slab is inlaid with the 
brass portrait of this monarch's treasurer and favourite, John de 
Waltham, twenty-sixth Bishop of Salisbury, the only person not 
royal who has been honoured with a grave in this chapel. Another 
stone near Queen Philippa was inlaid, but retains only the indent 
of a similar memorial to Thomas of Woodstock, brother of Richard 
II., and, as some say, murdered by his order. 

Lastly, occupying the middle eastern arch of the apsis, not 
" shouldering God's altar," but actually replacing it, we find the 
gorgeous facade of Henry V/s monument, the sides of which we 
previously saw from below. It is singularly appropriate to this last 
flower of English chivalry ; the requirement of a gallery above, and 
the two stair turrets, enabling the ingenious artist to imitate, in the 
general form, at once the initial H and the effect of a castle gateway, 
the warlike character of which is refined but not destroyed by the 
minute enrichments. Henry left instructions for this singular ar- 
rangement, a " locum excelsum" over his remains, with stairs for 
ascent at one end of the tomb, and for descent at the other end ; 
whence it is plain (the present turrets being at the sides not the ends 
of the tomb) that he neither commenced it himself (indeed the style 
of vaulting is later than was invented in his reign), nor had the vain- 
glory to select a central and pre-eminent spot, such as none of his 
predecessors had presumed to occupy with their own tombs — a piece of 
profanity which was left for Henry VII. in his chapel. This selec- 
tion is due to the enthusiastic adoration with which his survivors 

* That the general intellectual refinement then attained was not confined to what are called 
ornamental arts may be illustrated by this remark of Sir Matthew Hale, that "under the reign 
of Edward III. the law was improved to its greatest height. The judges and pleaders were very 
learned. The pleadings are more polished than those in the time of Edward II., yet they have 
neither uncertainty, prolixity, nor obscurity ; so that, at the latter period of this king's reign, the 
law seems to have been near its meridian." With our own language yet in formation and un- 
settled, of course there could be no literature ; but in all else the culture of the nation had then 
reached its climax. Mind had attained the greatest preponderance over matter that it ever has 
done in England. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 791 

mourned the young hero so prematurely lost. On a har of wood 
between the turrets still hang (strange ornaments in a church) the 
bruised shield, saddle, and helmet — one of 

. . . . " the very casques, 
That did affright the air at Agincourt." 

The funeral of this prince must have been one of the most sump- 
tuous ever known. Nearly a thousand torch-bearers, in white, 
accompanied it from Paris to Calais, by a long detour through 
Normandy; and the train, even before crossing to our shores in 
several ships, extended a league, with numerous ecclesiastics chant- 
ing the services all the way, day and night, and masses in every 
church where the body rested. Splendid obsequies were performed 
in the cathedrals of Paris, Rouen, Canterbury, and London, and at 
the tw r o former, the citizens (anticipating that we should get him 
canonized) offered large sums to have him buried among them, 
which they would only have thrown away, for the honour and profit 
of a new saint was not obtained even for Westminster ; the papal 
policy, to multiply impediments and expenses in proportion to the 
wealth of the saint-seekers, having in this case reckoned on more 
perseverance than we possessed. Still, it is plain that the shrine of 
the fanatic St. Edward, whose posthumous popularity was more 
due to Norman tyranny than to anything of his own, -was grown 
old-fashioned, and that the Fifth Harry's was meant to supersede it. 
Indeed, his son, when grown up, intended to rebuild the whole 
abbey in honour of him, had not the war of succession intervened ; 
and this design supplies a link otherwise unaccountably missing in the 
series of foundations, actual or intended, which so plainly marks the 
natural course of corruption in worship : — Sebert builds to his Sa- 
viour — Edward to his favourite Apostle — Henry III. to his favourite 
predecessor — Henry VI. to his father — Henry VII. to himself. 

Descending from the Chapel of Kings, we are conducted to the 
last subordinate apsis, called St Erasmus Chapel. It contains 
the ancient tombs of Hugh and Mary de Bohun, grand- children 
of Edward I., a slab only; William of Colchester, Abbot of West- 
minster, d. 1420; Sir Thomas Vaughan, Treasurer to Edward IV.; 
Bishop Myllyng, also Abbot here, d. 1492; Abbot Fascet, d. 1500; 
and Bishop Ruthall, Secretary of State, d. 1524. The florid Eliza- 
bethan monument to a Lord Hunsdon, d. 1596, is also curious; 
and the tomb in the centre, to Cecil, Earl of Exeter, d. 1622, and 
one of his wives d. 1608, with the vacant space for the other, 
d. 1663, who refused to occupy the left side. 

The next chapel, formerly St. John Baptist's, a square compart- 
ment corresponding to what w T e first entered, is occupied by the 
chantry of Abbot Islip, d. 1510; and, being dark and containing no 
remarkable monument, is not shown. Its architecture, how r ever, is 
rich and elegant. 



792 LONDON. 

The present chancel, between the crossing of the transept and the 
screen of St. Edward's Chapel, is flanked and divided from the aisles 
by ancient monuments, of which the three on the north side are 
singularly fine. The largest, next the altar, is to Edmund Crouch- 
back, brother of Edward I., and ancestor of the Lancaster line ; the 
next, to Aymer de Valence, d. 1324, son of William de Valence 
(whose tomb we saw in the first chapel), and grandson of King John ; 
the third, and smallest, to Aveline, wife of Crouchback. This last, 
which has one side blocked up by modern barbarism, is the oldest 
Gothic monument in the abbey (those of St. Edward and Henry III. 
being Byzantine). Of the monuments of Aymer and Crouchback 
(which are visible from the aisle as well as the chancel), Flaxman 
says, " the loftiness of the work, the number of arches and pinnacles, 
the lightness of the spires, the richness and profusion of foliage, the 
solemn repose of the principal statue, the delicacy of thought in 
the group of angels bearing the soul, and the tender sentiment of 
concern variously expressed in the relations ranged in order round 
the basement, forcibly arrest the attention, and carry the thoughts 
not only to other ages but to other states of existence/' English 
monumental art may indeed be said to have culminated about the 
time that these memorials were erected. Some of the same age, or 
a little earlier, in Salisbury and York Cathedrals, are equally fine. 

In the north aisle, not far from the back of Aymer's tomb and the 
entrance to Islyp's chantry, is a slab inlaid with the fine brass por- 
trait of Abbot Esteney, or Eastney, d. 1498; one of the best remaining 
here, many having been stolen for the value of the metal. 

Of the two tombs occupying the intercolumns south of the 
chancel, that with a wooden superstructure in four gabled com- 
partments, covers the bones of the venerable Sebert, first founder of 
the Abbey, which, after being buried 700 years, were exhumed and 
brought here, in 1308, by the monks. It was gorgeously painted 
and gilt, and is remarkable for retaining traces of oil painting, 
perhaps the earliest in existence, and disproving the common tra- 
dition that Van Eyck invented that process. The four main panels 
were thinly plastered and then painted, each with a single human 
figure, both on the front under the canopies, and on the back 
towards the south aisle. In the front, the first niche from the east 
contained the figure of Sebert, the second of Bishop Mellitus, the 
third that of Henry III., and the fourth it is not known whom, this 
panel, as well as that of Mellitus, being now quite defaced ; but 
some traces of Sebert and Henry may still be distinguished, as well 
as decorations of foliage, &c., on the groining. The back, towards 
the aisle, is said to have exhibited Sebert, St. Peter, Edward the 
Confessor, and St. John; but only the figure of Edward can be 
traced, presenting his ring to St. John, according to the legend. 
The whole has been defaced with planes and other tools, in Croni- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 793 

well's time. The tomb or sarcophagus itself, in an ornamented 
recess, is now hidden by a framed and glazed specimen of painting 
from some other part of the church. 

The other monument, in the barbarous semi-Italian style of 
Henry VIII. 's time, covers Anne of Cleves, his divorced Queen, 
d. 1557. 

In the centre of the chancel is a large square of Alexandrine 
pavement, coeval with the building, and far more perfect than that 
in Edward's Chapel, though it has lost all the brass letters of its 
inscriptions, and many thousand of its almost innumerable tesserae 
of porphyry, jasper, lapis lazuli, touchstone, and various marbles. 
The interlacing circles contained many lines of Leonine verse, very 
obscure, relating, it is thought, to the Ptolemaic system of the 
world, as the line surrounding the central ring is — 

™ Sphoericus archetypum globus hie monstrat microcosmum." 

The four verses running along the outer border import that the 
work was performed in 1268, with materials brought from Rome, at 
the expense of Henry III., by one Odoric, the King, and the Abbot. 
It has hence been called "Abbot Ware's pavement," but, whether his 
idea or not, it certainly was a very fine one, worthy the designer of 
a grand monumental edifice, thus to register its date by an elaborate 
work at once decorative and expressing the latest cosmographical 
science of the day. Instead of the trash, pieces of money, &c, now 
buried under foundation stones, professedly with a similar object, 
how variously and how nobly might this idea of the Westminster 
architect, which that age could so inadequately carry out, be adopted 
in later times, if they ever built in the spirit that dictated this 
glorious pile — built for the future as well as the present. How fitly 
might some u microcosmum" distinguishing the stage then reached 
by human knowledge (not, as here, speculation, but positive know- 
ledge, and particularly in geography, or uranography, in which 
there can be no halting or retrogression) — how fitly might such 
embodiments of our latest science, more complete and condensed and 
highly finished than is possible in works multiplied by printing or 
cognate arts, at once decorate and usefully enrich the monuments 
containing them, mark their precise age, commemorate and possibly 
preserve discoveries, and set up landmarks of the advance of mind. 
The riddling inscriptions on this "microcosm" pavement (mere 
monkish speculative trifling) seem to have diverted attention from 
the beauty and fitness of the general aim. 

The last enclosure to which visitors are conducted is the east 
aisle of the north transept, formerly divided by screens into the 
three chapels of St. John the Evangelist, St. Michael, and St. An- 
drew ; and still enclosed and almost blocked up by contending heaps 
of sculptured marble, all bearing witness to the vulgar ostentation 
or savage gratitude of modern times. The extreme unfitness of 
these monuments to any temple, and still more to the beauteous one 

M M 






794 LONDON. 

they incumber, is made, if possible, the more painful, because more 
irremediable, by the excellence of the sculpture of some of them ; 
two of those in this aisle being among the finest in the church — 
or rather the museum, that so disgustingly desecrates the church : 
one is by Roubiliae, to a Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale, d. 1734-1752. 
The lady is represented dying in the arms of her husband, who 
endeavours to ward off the dart cast by Death issuing from a cave 
below. The whole would be well fitted to Madam Tussaud's 
" Chamber of Horrors," combining that high finish and exactness of 
corporeal imitation, and that frightful grossness and matter-of-fact, 
peculiar to the tastes of a late — very late — stage of civilization. The 
other celebrated monument is to Sir Francis Vere, d. 1608. The 
four kneeling knights supporting the slab are very life-like. Among 
the other memorials are two mere tablets to the philosophers 
Dr. Thomas Young, and Sir Humphrey Davy, d. 1829; and a 
statue by Baily, R.A., to Telford, the introducer of suspension 
bridges, d. 1834. 

The remaining parts of the church, over which the visitor is 
allowed to proceed alone, contain, like this last, only modern monu- 
ments. In the north transept, almost given up to them, will be 
observed the grave-stones, near each other, of the great rivals Pitt 
and Fox, and a monument to the latter (d. 1806), by Westmacott. 
A statue of Canning (d. 1827), by Chantrey. Immense marble 
advertisement of a Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, of Charles II/s 
time. Beyond it, and also occupying an entire arch of the east 
aisle, a similar pyramid of triumph to their son (d. 1711), by Bird. 
Next to it, against the north end wall, Admiral Vernon (d. 1762), 
by Rysbach. Filling the arch of the west aisle, opposite the se- 
cond Newcastle monument, that to the great Earl of Chatham (d. 
1778), by Bacon; a national tribute. Filling the next arch, another 
public monument to three officers under Rodney, 1782. Occupying 
the next, Chief Justice Mansfield (d. 1793), by Flaxman. In the west 
aisle, behind these colossal displays, an uninscribed statue, designed 
by Flaxman, of Kemble the actor, in the character of Cato, (d. 1823). 
Bust to Warren Hastings (d. 1818), by Bacon, jun. Monument, at 
the end, to Lord Halifax (d. 1771), by Bacon; and a great number 
of others. 

It seems impossible to turn from this transept and its unparalleled 
sculptural display without a very humiliating sense of the contrast 
presented to the ancient monuments we previously saw. Even 
shutting our eyes to the more odious characteristics of the modern 
show, as a whole — the selfish disregard and ruthless destruction of 
our fathers' beauteous work and its decorations (far more elaborate 
than what replaces them) — the deliberate sacrifice of its space, its 
grandeur, its completeness, and their elaborate thought and handi- 
work, all devoted to God's glory, wherever it was supposed to stand 
in the way of mans — the treatment of the glorious fane left by their 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 795 

pietv, as simply the largest ready-made shelter, conveniently near at 
hand, adaptable to our purpose — even shutting our eyes to all this, 
the general impression conveyed by this Pantheon is one in which 
disgust must, we think, predominate. The tout ensemble is, at the 
very best, that of an advertising van ; the expression that of a des- 
perate scramble for individual display — a total absence, not only of 
general plan, but of any community of aim — a total sacrifice of the 
great to the little — of all other objects to the narrowest one, the 
self-display of each monument. They seem ready to dispute for 
pre-eminence till they consume each other, like Earl Godwin's sons. 
All this may be characteristic, beautiful, and true to life^ but does 
that render it more consistent among the dead? May it not here be 
too life-like ? and is not this scuffle within the temple unseemly for 
its very truthfulness to the world without? How different the 
general impression of the old monuments. They, too, are true to 
the external world, but it is the natural instead of the artificial world. 
They, with all their elaboration, seem to scorn display ; to be made 
not to show themselves, but to be sought out. Like flowers in the 
valley, or stars, they seem without rivalry, though differing one from 
another in glory ; while the modern are like nothing in nature — like 
rival suns disputing the empire of the temple above. 

Again, how regularly has the thought contained in these works 
become more and more diluted. The ancient sculptor seems not to 
have thought it worth while to take up more space, or use more 
material than he could fill throughout, in every corner, with fine or 
curious thoughts and ideas, decorative, sculptural, or even poetical; 
and this without detracting from the unity of the whole. But the 
modern, under pretence of this unity, leaves all these subordinate 
parts mere specimens either of his technical dexterity or of neat 
mason's work. Such an amount of thought as our fathers considered 
only sufficient to nestle in a capital or a boss, or be packed into a 
spandril, we think worth filling an aisle with a heap of marble and 
years of human labour. 

Considering the contrast between the means of the ancient and 
modern monument makers ; considering what they did with a little 
coarse stone — with mechanical appliances and skill that we call bar- 
barous, and tied down by the strictest subordination of their works to 
the great monument that shelters them, and sacrifice of their display 
(as parts) to the whole — and what our artists do, with their tons of 
marble and thousands of money — with the utmost mechanical refine- 
ments and technic skill, and with Heavens temple freely surrendered 
to their pleasure, to batter, deface, defile, and block up, as they dare 
not an exhibition or a bazaar, — the wonderful success of the former, 
compared with the latter, is the more remarkable. 

Passing by the north aisle of the choir, towards the nave, we may 
notice the tablets to three musical composers: — Purcell, d. 1695; 
Dr. Blow, 1708; and I>r. Arnold, 1802; the inscription on the first 

M M 2 



796 LONDON. 

by Dryden. Also statues to Sir G. L. Staunton (d. 1801) ; and Sir 
Stamford Raffles (d. 1826), by Chantrey; and one to Wilberforce 
(d. 1833), by Joseph. 

In the north aisle of the nave, third, window, Spencer Percival, 
shot in the House of Commons, 1812, a public monument by West- 
macott; fifth window, Robert Killigrew, killed at Atmanza, 1707, a 
monument in one stone, by Bird. Before this is the little square 
stone of Ben Jonson, who was buried upright. The original stone> 
with the inscription " rare Ben Jonson \" clone " at the charge of 
Jack Young, who, walking here when the grave was covering, gave 
the fellow eighteen pence to cut it," was removed, and a copy 
(with his name mis-spelt) placed in Poets' Corner; where it has 
been the only form of epitaph in this church thought worthy of 
repetition, a neighbouring grave displaying " rare Sir William 
Davenant." Seventh window, Major-General Laurence (d. 1775), by 
Tyler, at the charge of the East India Company, which is per- 
sonified by the principal figure pointing to his bust. At the end, 
Captain Montague, killed in Lord Howe's fleet, 1794; a public monu- 
ment, by Flaxman. 

Over the west entrance, William Pitt, by Westmacott; a public 
monument. On the south side, opposite Captain Montague, Captain 
Cornewall, d. 1743; the first public monument erected. The end 
compartments of each aisle, under the towers, are blocked up by 
similar erections. 

In the south aisle, at its end, under the tower arch, Secretary 
Craggs (d. 1720), by Guelphi. Under the first window, Congreve, 
the comedian (d. 1728), by Bird, at the expense of a Duchess of 
Marlborough. Second window, Bishop Spratt the poet, and his son 
(d. 1713-1720), by Bird. The apotheosis above, well named the 
" pancake monument," will, it is to be hoped, not always disgrace the 
name and nation of Admiral Tyrrell. Fourth window, Field Marshal 
Wade (d. 1748), by Roubiliac. Fifth window, the wives of Sir Samuel 
Morland (d. 1674-80), whose epitaphs are among those which the 
Spectator remarked were so modest as to conceal their praises in 
languages not understood once a twelvemonth — one in this case, 
Ethiopic. General Fleming (d. 1750), by Roubiliac. Sixth window, 
Sir William Temple, the statesman of Charles II/s time, and his 
family, erected pursuant to his will. Sidney, Earl Godolphin 
{d. 1712), by Bird. General Hargrave (d. 1748), an elaborate com- 
position, by Roubiliac. Seventh window, Sir Palmes Fairholme, shot 
at Tangier, 1680; the epitaph by Dryden. Major Andre, executed 
by the Americans, as a spy, 1780; by Van Gelder, at the expense 
of George III. 

Against the choir screen, on the north of the entrance, Sir Isaac 
Newton, by Rysbach, a monument which, containing more real 
elaboration and meaning than most of the modern, may be said to 
be, comparatively with them, worthy of the man, though not 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 797 

of the place. Some shameful injury has been inflicted by relic 
hunters, but not repaired, as Major Andre's memorial has been 
several times. On the other side, the first three Earls Stanhope 
(d. 1720-54-86), by Rysbach. 

In the south aisle, continuing towards the transept, Thomas 
Thyme, mysteriously murdered in Pall Mall, 1682, by Quellin. 
Dr. Watts, the poet and divine (d. 1748), by Banks. Pasquale de 
Paoli (d. 1807), by Flaxman. Sir Cloudesley Shovell (d. 1707), by 
Bird; one of the absurd monuments mentioned by Addison, in the 
Spectator. Sir Thomas Richardson, the Chief Justice (d. 1634), a 
bust by Le Sueur, much admired. William Thyme (d. 1584) ; the 
first monument erected west of the transept. 

The south transept, or more properly, its south-eastern part, is 
known as " Poets' Corner," from containing memorials to nearly all 
our poets, w r hether buried in this church or elsewhere. In interest, 
this part of the fabric is equal, or second only to St. Edward's 
Chapel, to which it also presents the most direct antithesis in point 
of beauty and taste ; all the interest of that spot being confined to 
its artistic monuments — all the interest of this to its epitaphs. 

Chaucer, the father of English poetry (d. 1400), is commemorated 
by a tomb erected over his grave, in 1555, by a private individual. 
It is under the middle window of the east aisle, in a place exactly 
corresponding to that of Gower, in St. Saviour's, South wark. Spen- 
ser (d. 1598), has a monument standing centrally in the end of the 
aisle, a copy in marble, of the original, which had fallen to decay. 
Michael Drayton, poet and antiquary, contemporary w r ith Shakspere 
(d. 1631), has an epitaph by Ben Jonson, much admired, on the left 
of the little entrance door. A statue of Shakspeare (d. 1616), by 
Scheemaker, stands facing the main transept, under the last aisle 
arch, which is walled up. The remains of the immortal bard would 
have been brought from Stratford, but for the solemn request left 
on his grave : — 

•■ Kind friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare 
To dig the dust inclosed heare." 

This memorial was erected in the time of George II., as w r ere also 
those to Ben Jonson (d. 1637) and Milton (d. 1674), both in the 
corner, adjoining Spenser's. They were carved by Rysbach, and 
the inscriptions are those alluded to in the Dunciad: 

" On poets' tombs see Benson's titles writ." 

To the left of Chaucer's tomb, Cowley (d. 1667), the epitaph by 
Sprat. Exactly opposite to this, Thomas Triplett (d. 1670). In 
the corner, near Milton's bust, one to his contemporary, Butler, the 
author of Hudibras (d. 1680). Near this also, Thomas Shad well 
(d. 1692), Poet Laureate to William III/ Under the window next 
to St. Benedict's Chapel, Dryden (d. 1700); the bust by Scheemaker. 
To the right of Chaucer, John Phillips (d. 1708); the epitaph, bv 
Atterbury, was at first refused admission because it contained the 



798 LONDON. 

name of Milton, which was thought a pollution to the walls : this 
was some twenty years hefore the erection of Milton's memorial. 
At the transept end, beyond Shakspere's statue, Nicholas Rowe 
(d. 1718), tragedian, and Poet Laureate to George I., by Rysbach, 
the epitaph by Pope. Against the last pillar on the west side, 
Addison (d. 1719), who was buried in Henry VII/s Chapel. This 
statue by Westmacott was not erected till ninety years after the 
death of the guileless satirist. Against the screen, behind Shak- 
spere, facing the entrance, Prior (d. 1721), a monument erected by 
himself, or in pursuance of his will. In the main transept end, a 
medallion of Gay, d. 1732, by Rysbach; the epitaph partly by 
himself (in questionable taste), the latter part by Pope. In the 
corner, next to Shakspere, Thomson, the poet of the Seasons 
(d. 1748), by Spang. In the end of the aisle, to the right of Spenser 
and under Milton, Gray, the elegist(d. 1771), by Bacon; the epitaph 
by Mason. At the end of the main transept, in a recess, Goldsmith 
(d. 1 774), by Nollekens ; the epitaph by Dr. Johnson, who could not 
" disgrace the walls of Westminster Abbey" with an English one. 
To the back of the screen, towards the little entrance, Mason 
(d. 1797), by Bacon; the epitaph by Bishop Hurd. Against the 
south-east pillar, Christopher Anstey, humourist (d. 1805). Robert 
Southey, late Poet Laureate (d. 1843), by Weekes. 

In the floor, among the gravestones, are those of Campbell, author 
of the Pleasures of Hope; Dr. Johnson, lexicographer, &e. ; Garrick, 
actor; Sheridan, dramatist, &c. ; Macpherson, author of Ossian; 
and William Gifford, critic. Also, near the centre, the patriarch 
Old Parr, who was born in the Middle Ages (under Edward IV.), 
and died in modern times (1635), aged 152, having lived in ten 
reigns* 

Among the monuments to eminent persons not poets, Camden, 
the antiquary (d. 1623), at the corner next the nave, against the wall 
of that part of the cloister which projects into the church. In the 
same compartment, Casaubon (d. 1614), and Grabe (d. 1711), both 
eminent scholars. Grabe, not the happiest figure in the exhibition, 
is unfortunately conspicuous ; and Garrick by his side, unveiling 
Shakspere, does not improve the effect. On the same wall, further 
south, Dr. Isaac Barrow, theologian, chaplain to Charles II. (d. 1677). 
Dr. Hales, theologian and physicist, who introduced artificial ventila- 
tion (d. 1761). Handel, musical composer (d. 1759), by Roubiliac. 
In the end wall, the great Duke of Argyle (d. 1743), by Roubiliac, 
one of his most famous works. The figure of Eloquence was much 
admired by Canova. Towards St. Benedict's Chapel (where we 
started), Dr. South, eminent divine (d. 1716), by Bird. Dr. Busby, 
the most famous master of Westminster School (d. 1695), by the 
same. 

The glass paintings were anciently among the most interesting 
monuments of a great church, for that admirable method and long- 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 799 

sighted care which distinguishes early monastic art seems to have 
appropriated the windows to the honorary memorials of persons 
not buried in the building, the only sculptural monuments to indi- 
viduals being strictly tombs. Of these fragile but imperishable paint- 
ings (which, while defying time and natural agents, trusted — alas ! 
too confidently — to the continuity of human progress), fanaticism and 
wantonness have here left but very imperfect remains, in five only 
of the windows — the three of the apsis over St. Edward's Chapel, 
and two at the west ends of the side aisles. The former are coeval 
with the building, and represent, in one window, our Saviour and 
the Virgin Mary; in another, St. Augustine the Missionary (d. 611) 
and Bishop Mellitus (d. 624) ; in a third, Edward the Confessor 
giving his ring to the Pilgrim, according to the legend above- 

O O © © ? © © 

mentioned. The other two small windows, in the west towers, 
represent an Ecclesiastic, unknown, and Edward the Black Prince 
(d. 1376). 

The great west window, and that of the north transept, were 
executed early in the last century ; a time, of all others, the most 
strictly intermediate between the fall, or so-called "loss" of this 
art, and its pretended revival. Whence their technical complete- 
ness ? Was the art not yet " lost," or had it begun to be 
recovered ? Why, they simply prove the whole story of lost secrets 
a miserable fiction. Nothing has been lost (or nothing worth re- 
covering) in the mere externals of the craft — its manipulation, its 
teachable things, its lex scripta. What has been lost is precisely 
neither more nor less than has been lost in all other arts — no part of 
the art itself, but the end to which it is directed, the spirit in which 
it (in common with all others) was carried on ; — the spirit of an age 
of unsophisticated honesty — of an age that built, carved, painted, 
did all, as unto more than men — of one that had not yet heard of 
" effect" in our sense of the word ; that for our word " effect" read 
excellence; and for our cheapness, nature-like economy. That is 
what is lost; not the way to make red glass, or this, or that pre- 
paration, process, or rule. This is what is lost, not in one but in 
all arts alike, and all over Christendom, but most completely in 
England ; and neither science nor skill can recover it. 

The north window, executed in 1722, represents in its sixteen 
parts, our Saviour and the Eleven standing, and the Evangelists 
recumbent. The west window, put up when the front was finished, 
in 1735, has in the top row, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; in the 
next, seven of Jacob's sons ; in the lowest, five more, Moses, and 
Aaron. It will be observed that these subjects are so chosen as to 
admit of the names being mostly interchangeable. The patriarchs 
would have served just as well for apostles, or vice versa; the 
primary, or rather sole end being ornament ; and the semblance of 
meaning being only nominally retained in conformity to antiquated 
prejudices, but plainly regarded as an embarrassing clog, to be as 



800 LONDON. 

nearly shaken off as possible. Otherwise, the difference from older 
works consists mainly (as in the sculptural monuments) in the dilu- 
tion of thought — the spreading a very little over a vast surface; 
indeed, husbanding and making it go as far as possible ; and the 
making external qualities and effects serve in its stead — the sensuous 
instead of the intellectual. All this, we must remember, like 
everything in the history of art, is characteristic, not of the artist, 
but of the age for which he works. 

Of the south transept windows and their sham antiques, we 
would gladly say nothing; but there is in this last refuge of our 
arts, — this attempt to reproduce an effect without its cause, by simply 
exaggerating the defects of our fathers' works, by throwing away all 
advantages that they had not, instead of acquiring what they had, — 
thus wilfully combining all their works' unavoidable defects and all 
our own, with the merits of neither ; — there is something in this so 
dismally pitiful, that even the open surrender of mind to matter, 
as in the monstrosities of modern engineering, seems less humi- 
liating. One would think it should be disgrace enough to record 
in monuments what we must perforce show, viz., how much we 
have lost ; without going out of our way to make it appear (falsely),, 
that we have in six centuries gained nothing — no better materials 
from all our chemistry — no larger pieces from all our manufacturing 
pretension — no less clumsy construction from all our boasted me- 
chanics — no finer workmanship from all our refinement — no more 
graceful design from all the opened stores of Greece and Italy- 
no richer variety from all our laboured collection of the brain work 
of every other age and clime ; in a word, that six centuries have 
passed away to leave us not only minus the principal thing, but plus 
nothing. 

On comparing these monuments of the incredible power of 
fashion with the north and west windows, it will be observed that 
even the purely physical and sensuous requirements of harmony and 
balance of colours are now too much to expect. In the Georgian 
windows (as in mediaeval ones), colours are so arranged that no 
two which are discordant come together, and so apportioned as for 
the whole of any one window to balance, or, when optically com- 
bined, produce neutrality; but in the Victorian ones, so "practical" 
are we become, even these things are more than we can or will 
do, though they are now mere matters of rule, to be done almost 
by the blind, while our fathers had no guide but the delicate per- 
ception unimpaired by separation from nature. Paradoxical as it 
may seem, it is literally true, that before optical laws of colouring 
were known, they were nearly always practised, and since they 
have been know r n, hardly ever. 

When the present heartless fashion of caricaturing our ancestors 
over their very graves shall have run its course — when this insult to 
common sense and right feeling shall have got its requisite length 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 801 

of rope (a consummation that cannot surely now be far distant, for 
it has been lengthening many years) — then, but on no account till 
then — if we might indulge in a hope for common sense either to 
let alone the decoration of Heaven's temple and commemoration of 
our worthies, or else to devote to them the best of our science, 
the best of our manufactures, the best of our ingenuity, study, 
taste, and judgment — there would seem no reason why any of the 
Abbey windows should remain glazed like those of a stable. Not 
only does sacred story afford subjects enough for more than fancy 
windows with scriptural names, but the series begun with Augustin 
and Mellitus might be fitly continued by memorials to eminent 
English divines, at least, if not lay characters. As such memo- 
rial paintings were gradually substituted for the present monu- 
ments, they might be successively removed ; the private ones to be 
delivered to the representatives of the families who erected them, 
and the public ones (that we might not add to a disgraceful record 
the disgrace of suppressing it) to be arranged as curiosities, in 
chronological order, in some convenient place, such as Westminster 
Hall, whose plain walling, 600 feet in length by 22 high, would 
afford ample room for them. If the beautiful wall-arcades, or stone 
stall-work were then restored, as to mouldings, but with no new 
carving (for we have no right to palm off our designs as parts of the 
building; that is forgery), each archlet would afford space for two 
or Aree sculptural memorials immovably confined like the metopes 
of the Parthenon ; and though we could not insure good taste in 
these insertions themselves — for taste is a thing too subtle to be 
reached by restrictive laws, and will tell its tale in spite of all 
attempts at falsification — yet, by allowing no memorial to extend 
either in breadth or in projection beyond the inclosing recess, we 
should at least preserve the tout ensemble from any of the hideous 
disfigurement that has now given it the expression of a tradesmen's 
bazaar, by insuring the ancient and natural subordination of the 
parts to the whole. Monuments are records to be examined, not 
advertisements to scramble and be thrust at us. Moreover, a 
national building ought no longer to admit monuments of family 
vanity ; and might further exclude all such niggardly barbarisms as 
the mere marble placards now becoming common, under a miserable 
perversion of the term " simplicity? If people think to honour the 
worthy dead by the " simplicity" of the smallest possible amount 
of thought by which an inscription can be displayed — if they can 
afford nothing better than neat masonry — they will find a proper 
place for such " simplicity" in a tubular bridge, and not in West- 
minster Abbey. We want no engineering here. It is contrary to 
all nature and reason that ornaments should be less elaborate than 
what they adorn — jewels cheaper than their casket. Supposing the 
wall-arcades restored as above suggested, no memorial should be 

M M 3 



802 LONDON. 

placed in them without sculpture or foliage, or, at the very least, 
mouldings in curved and graceful forms. 

Let us proceed to the exterior. It is now admirahle only as a 
whole, the unfortunate selection of its original stone having led to the 
loss of all the details. What are called " restorations" have taken 
place at two periods, under Wren and quite recently; the former in 
undisguised rudeness, the latter in sham refinement. There is this 
further difference; that Wren's repairs (which are pretty equally 
spread over the whole) are simply and directly with the object to 
preserve — to keep the fabric together, by renewing only the things 
that absolutely required it for stability, and these mostly with as 
little work as possible. They can never be mistaken for parts of 
the original. The recent ones (which are chiefly confined to the 
north side of the nave, and east of the cloisters) are of a totally 
different kind, placing that object last which Wren placed first, and 
vice versa. Their primary, if not sole end, is appearance; to 
renew a smart external surface, as much like the original as we can 
guess; so that (while availing ourselves of the ancient core) we may 
dress it so as to destroy or conceal all our fathers' work, and make 
the fabric appear ours; so as to silence the incessant clamour of those 
odious old stones, always looking down and taunting us with " you 
cannot do this!" The aim of the new kind of "restoration" is 
appropriation . 

The two kinds of repair cannot be mistaken. They are distin- 
guishable most easily by the order in which they are carried on. 
Thus, at the Temple Church (see pp. 136-139), if the object of the 
Templars, in 1840-5, had been of the former kind, they would, before 
painting and polishing, have either restored the pillars and vaulting 
to their designed position, or at least completed those provisions for 
its stability which the original architect had so happily contrived, 
but, for want of mathematics, could not exactly carry out ; and they 
would, rather than break the integrity of the pile by throwing out an 
undesigned excrescence, have tolerated their organ anywhere (even 
where it had always been) ; for it has been well said of this kind of 
repair, " better a crutch than a broken limb." It is better to block 
up, hide, or disfigure to any extent, than destroy or mutilate. So 
also here, if the object of the Dean and Chapter had been now (as 
in Wren's time) the preservation of the treasure entrusted to them, 
we should, before seeing the wholly inessential outside tracery of the 
cloisters smartly and fancifully renewed, have seen their walls and 
vaulting restored to the stable form from which the removal of but- 
ments has caused them to swerve ; and before seeing ornaments added, 
we should have seen the squalid erections over them removed; and 
the flying buttresses which are now (in the nave) the only parts 
unaffected by the dressing and ornamenting, would (as the most vital 
and exposed part of the structure) have been the first to receive 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 803 

repair and protection. In everything the nature of modern restora- 
tion is evident ; it is not (like Wren's) to preserve a work of others' 
art, but to keep up appearances with the vulgar, and, as far as 
possible, appropriate its merit. 

Besides the odiousness of the spirit displayed in such works, it has 
been well observed that they are an offence and injustice to universal 
humanity ; that the beautiful works of another age do not belong to 
this (much less to those who may happen to have their guardian- 
ship) ; that every succeeding age has its right in them ; that they 
are not ours, and we have no right to touch them. We have no right 
to stick up (as on the nave) our carvings, and our statues, and our 
designs, as parts of Westminster Abbey. If any people want a 
fancy abbey of their own, they are welcome ; let them build it on 
their own ground, and let it be all their own, inside as well as out, 
structure as well as clothing. Let them scorn to do as the Templar 
lawyers ; who, when they had a fancy to copy an old church (that 
of the Templar knights), to save a rood of ground, made the original 
a palimpsest for their copy. The Dean and Chapter have no right 
to do this. They have no more right to give posterity, as part of 
Westminster Abbey, that which is not part of it, than they have to 
perpetuate as part of the Bible or of Magna Charta that which is 
not so. They cannot do this, but they can do the former, unless the 
nation prevent them. Now the artistic works of all past times, 
besides being the records and charters of art (and those of the 
13th century are among her classics), are also the truest records of 
humanity. To falsify or add to them is forgery ; it is a perpetuated 
lie, and falsification of the world's knowledge. It is absurd to say, 
"we do not add our works — they are restorations, copies." Of what 
are they copies ? If of what existed before, it need not have been 
renewed. But if not copied from this, they are ours, and a forgery. 
Every part of the original surface either remained or was gone. 
But where it remained, it needed no renovation ; and where it was 
gone, how could we copy it ? The work is ours, and a forgery. 
This is the case with every member and feature that is carved by 
hand. It is an unique ; and has no right to be touched, unless 
necessary to be renewed for stability, and then only in a different 
(obviously different) material, and with a date : otherwise it is a 
forgery ; it pretends, in the eyes of posterity, to be what it is not. 
Again, mouldings have no right to be swept off and renewed entirely 
(as at the Temple Church), leaving no specimen of the original to 
prove their authenticity. " Restorers" have no right to destroy the 
world's records (or their evidence) and oblige us to take their word 
only. We may have evidence that the church in Temple Lane is 
like that of the Templars; but what is the next generation to do ? 
For them the church of the Templars exists no more. They have 
only an authorized copy. All, then, that remains lawful ground for 



804 LONDON. 

unlimited "restoration/' is plain wall. But this is just what no one 
wants restored, for taste. Who admires the new buttresses any 
more for their dapper faces? And as the old work is simply cut 
away, to hang on the reduced remnant an added burthen, any in- 
crease of stability from such casing is very problematical, except in 
so far as it protects from the atmosphere and further decay. This, 
doubtless, is proper ; but then we have no business with the smooth 
faces and sharp angles. How do we know they were so originally ? 
To make it appear that we know them to have been so is forgery. 
They may have had features we know nothing of, or may have been 
quite rough, as we ought to leave them — not to mimic age, but to 
show the true character of the work, and avoid misleading posterity. 
All that is spent on this outside smartness should have been bestowed 
first on closer fitting and more durable construction,, 

How humbling is the sight of the microscopic littlenesses now 
done to meet the demand for " restorations." We cannot (we the 
rich) proceed with a monument nineteen-twentieths or forty-nine 
fiftieths finished (as this or Ely Cathedral), and for want of the 
remainder, standing a fragment. We cannot (we the practical) clear 
what is blocked up by some hideous tumour of the last century's 
niggardliness or vanity. We cannot (we the engineers) straighten a 
few crippled pillars (as here and at Salisbury) ; far less (we the 
scientific) prevent their bending again, or make provisions and re- 
medies against decrepitude of structure, that our unscientific ances- 
tors had almost made. No, but we do what we can. We can renew 
stones whose edges are battered, with wonderful perfection ; we can 
scrape this and colour that, as smooth as a mason's sign, and as fine 
as a harlequin ; we can pave with tiles to any pattern ; and we can 
polish every bit of marble we find. These great things we English 
of the nineteenth century can do ; and by doing them, show that we 
would do greater if we could. 

It is hard to say what is the greater paradox in modern restoration ; 
that an age should set itself up to restore that of which it can pro- 
duce none of its own, or that things should be worth copying, and yet 
be destroyed to make room for their copies. When valuable MSS. 
are copied, is the architectural method followed ? Is the old writing 
erased line by line, to save material on which to write the copy? 
Common sense would seem to suggest that what is worth copying is 
worth preserving ; and that an original, in ever so decayed a state, 
must be at least worth any copy taken from it in that state. 

Alas for the Gothic artists' choice of stone ! But they had no 
chemists, no physicists, no commissions of inquiry] and they little 
guessed the dilemmas its decay would bring on us. Alas, they knew 
not the time would ever be that the world could not replace the least 
of their works ! 

The old building adjoining the south-west tower is the "Jerusalem 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS. 805 

Chamber," in which Henry IV. breathed his last, having been seized 
with apoplexy while at his devotions before St. Edward's shrine, and 
preparing to depart on a crusade. 

" It hath been prophesied to me many years 
I should not die but in Jerusalem, 
Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land: 
But bear me'to that chamber : there I'll die: 
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die." 

Here the two Houses of Convocation still nominally meet. Its date 
is about the accession of Richard II., of whom it contains a curious 
cotemporary portrait. Of the same date, or rather earlier (1364), 
are the south and west cloisters, and the passage into them from 
Dean's Yard. But the north and east walks, adjoining the church, 
are of the golden age, and very lovely. We doubt if the most 
ignorant of architectural styles can pass from them to the later ones 
without perceiving the fall of art begun, or rather the fall of the 
whole atmosphere of the age ; — without perceiving that the spirit of 
the thirteenth century is fled ; that the age is no more one having a 
meaning for all its arts, whose arts were all a hymn of praise ; that 
their object is beginning to be human applause, or fashion, or priestly 
imposition and gain ; that effect-hunting is come, and husbandry of 
thought, with its stiffening methodization ; that the first step is made 
towards engineering. 

The modern monuments in the cloisters are not numerous, nor 
very noticeable. In the south walk are the graves of several of the 
abbots of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but distinguished only 
by modern inscriptions of the name and date, and wholly foot-worn 
effigies lying half under the stone seat. The calm and solemn beauty 
of these cloisters makes them a retreat unparalleled in London. 

They are greatly mistaken who suppose this beauteous pile derives 
its only or chief interest from the past — that it tells only of glories 
departed never to return — of phases of society superseded and ex- 
tinct, and varieties of human industry not to be repeated. It has not 
more matter for mourning than for hope — it is not a whit more pre- 
cious for its records of what has been^ than its foreshadowing and 
resemblance to what shall be; for the beautiful and true do not (in 
any variety of human work) die out of the world ; but (as surely as 
wrong shall not prevail over right) they shall revive, even if forgotten 
longer than St. Edward's " Seven Sleepers." The beautiful works 
of the thirteenth century are not behind, but immensely in advance^ 
of our civilization. They mark the point reached in its former 
efforts by a kind of human progress now stagnant, providentially 
allowed to stagnate (as its higher kinds often have been, by inscru- 
table Wisdom), while lower, comparatively animal kinds alone 
advance. Low and little, very little, is the humble office of our 
poor steam-driven matter-ridden selves, and the time in which our 
lot is cast. We may know this from the very extravagance of its 
self-applause ; for the meanest servants in a great house are always 



806 LONDON. 

the proudest. One of the greatest wonders of these wonderful things 
of the past is, that they who did them never boasted of them. AH 
history shows that neither men, nor countries, nor times, take the 
pains to blow their own trumpets, who give any reason for others to 
save them that trouble. The times that do things really great leave 
others to find that out, as these monks did. 

Of course, when we speak of revival, we mean no allusion to the 
present melancholy attempts at reproducing the effects of mediaeval 
art without its cause. They have done all they can, they have 
achieved their end, and (whether continued, or soon to give place to 
something as absurd, or more so) they will achieve the same end and 
no more, viz. to amuse the vulgar, disgust the thinking, form nine- 
days' wonders, forgotten before they are well finished or their authors 
leave the scene, and stand laughing-stocks ever after. The cause 
must return before its effects ; and it will return. This pile, which 
we call old, though unfinished, but which some nations (had it 
been built with their materials) would have considered yet in its 
youth — this pile may not see it ; its youngest and stoutest neigh- 
bours may not see it ; but as surely as wrong shall not eventually 
expel right from the world, shall all that was right in the spirit 
that begun this Abbey — all that produced its beauty — revive to walk 
the earth again, and produce like effects, and greater. Interesting 
for its past history it may be, but more interesting as a work which 
(like those of classical antiquity) may live through a whole night to 
another dawn ; may have its chief influence yet to exert ; may pos- 
sibly (if not in its bodily presence, at least in its multiplied repre- 
sentations) survive to times in which the very cause of its own 
beauty, that did but blossom when it was begun, and faded long ere 
it was left off, shall take deeper root, spread wider, and bear richer 
fruit than it ever then did. (See also pages 143-172.) 



RAILWAY STATIONS IN LONDON. 

In the year 1830, the first railway was opened in England for steam locomotive 
traffic, between Liverpool and Manchester. Since that date, the progress of an in- 
vention by which time and space are nearly annihilated, has been so rapid, that at 
the close of the year 1850, upwards of 6000 miles of railway were open to public 
use in the United Kingdom. The history of the development of this source of 
improved means of intercommunication has been attended with many sad episodes, 
and it may recall to many the recollections of bitter deceptions, and of heavy losses ; 
but, as far as the public alone is concerned, the result of the labours of the last 20 
years has been unquestionably to endow the country with one of the most powerful 
and efficient means of civilization. We will, however, confine our notice to the 
principal stations in the metropolis. 

These may be enumerated as consisting of the stations of the Great Western 
Railway, the North- Western, the Great Northern, the Eastern Counties, the Black- 
wall, the South-Eastern, Brighton and South Coast, and the South- Western Rail- 
ways. Comparatively speaking, a small but highly valuable link in the general 



RAILWAY STATIONS. 807 

system of railway traffic, viz. the Birmingham and East and West India Docks 
Railway, is hardly complete enough to justify our doing more than thus to call 
attention to the many very remarkable and beautiful works comprised within its 
length. The main interest of this line consists in its connecting together the whole 
system of railways on the north of London ; and if a projected branch be carried 
out, it will also be the means of completing the circle of ironway round London. 
The stations do not present any very remarkable points of interest, and therefore we 
shall but allude to them in passing. 

1. Great Western Railicay. — The London station of this line, which communi- 
cates with the west and extreme south-west of England, is situated in the parish of 
Paddington, close to, and below the level of the terminal wharf of the Paddington 
branch of the Grand Junction Canal. The position and actual arrangements of the 
station were only designed as temporary ; and it would, perhaps, under such circum- 
stances, be unfair to dwell upon them with so critical an eye as if they had been 
designed for the permanent terminus of a main trunk line. The same fact of the 
temporary destination of the whole constructions may extenuate their very slight, 
hasty, and ill-considered arrangements ; for, in face of the great assumptions of 
superiority claimed by the advocates of the " broad gauge," for all connected with 
their system, we are certainly entitled to expect greater perfection of detail in their 
works than in those of the more modest, but more rational, " narrow gauge " 
engineers. The attainment of novelty, when only justified by its novelty, seems, 
however, as little to be desired on railways as on any other occasion. 

The station of the Great Western Railway occupies more particularly the ground 
between the bridge at the end of Westbourne Terrace, and the lands belonging to 
the Grand Junction Waterworks. It is so difficult to obtain statistical information 
from this Company, that it is impossible to give either the precise area or the leading 
dimensions of the different parts of the works. Their main arrangement is, how- 
ever, as follows. 

Travellers approach the booking office from the Bishop's Road, by an incline 
passing between the canal on the east, and the goods and cattle station of the rail- 
way on the west. There are two departure lines, one reserved for the long, the 
other for the short traffic, with spare lines under cover, to hold the trains made up 
for departure and the carriages ready for use. A narrow court, in which it would 
be impossible for any but a London driver to turn a vehicle, separates the departure 
from the arrival platforms. These last have also two lines of rails, the precise 
destination of which is regulated by the station master, according to the wants of the 
service. The waiting-rooms, booking and paying-offices are very temporary and 
incomplete; nor can the sheds be cited on any other score than as sheltering tolerably 
the carriages in this eminently provisional station. The only details worthy of par- 
ticular notice are those connected with the distribution of luggage, by which less 
confusion arises here than at the other London termini, and the absence of turn- 
tables, whose places are ingeniously and effectually supplied by a series of traversing 
platforms. 

The goods traffic is carried past the passenger station, and all such articles as 
require to be kept under cover are loaded and unloaded in a shed with three lines 
of rails in the centre, two platforms, and two carriage roads on the same level as the 
rails ; the platforms being raised to the respective levels of the carts, or of the rail- 
way trucks. Beyond the carriage roads are sheds inclosed by gratings, for the 
purpose of storing goods left at the station for any length of time; the goods 
deposited on the platforms are taken away within the 24 hours. Communication is 
established between the unloading platforms and the stores by means of flying 
bridges, let down for the purpose. The centre line of rails is destined for the 
removal of the unloaded trucks ; the side rails, close to the platforms, are devoted to 
the in and the out traffic, the length of the shed being such as to allow about 15 
waggons to stand on each side at one and the same time. 

The heavy traffic (such as stone, timber, iron, or other such articles, and cattle) 
is carried on in an uncovered area, south of the parts of the station hitherto 



808 LONDON. 

noticed. There are two very extensive and beautiful travelling cranes employed for 
the unloading and stacking the Bath stone conveyed in large quantities by the rail- 
way. The arrangements for unloading cattle are very unsatisfactory, nor can any 
commendation be given to the mode of disposing of the spare waggons, which are 
left in an open ill drained yard — a very slough in wet weather. Indeed, the whole 
goods arrangements bear evidence, not only of the temporary nature of the station, 
but also of the further fact, that this is not the most important nor the most lucrative 
source of income to the Company. 

„ The shops at the London terminus of the Great Western Railway are of the same 
nature as the other constructions ; that is to say, they are temporary, and ought to 
have been cheap. The carriage repairs are executed here for the London end of the 
line, and many carriages are also built here ; but it would be in vain to seek for any 
particular organization, or for any remarkable implements; everything is as rude and 
imperfect as it would be on an American railway ; even the smith's fires are blown 
by bellows worked by hand. There is a rather large shed for the working engines, 
extensive coke and other stores, and a long suite of offices, board rooms, &c. 

Like most of the railway companies whose termini are in London, the shops of 
the Great Western Railway for repairing the locomotives and constructing new ones, 
are at an intermediate point on the line. In this case Swindon is the place chosen, 
and the establishment has been formed for the probable necessity of turning out one 
locomotive in a week. Actually, the wants of the line are far below that number, 
and the shops remain as additional proofs of the miscalculations of the era of public 
delusion in which they were erected. 

The number of miles of railway which use the Paddington as their London 
terminus may be taken as nearly 375, without including some branches of the 
broad gauge. There are usually 14 trains out per day, and as many in for the pas- 
senger traffic only ; and generally four trains of goods, bringing perhaps, on the 
average, 1000 tons per day. 

The goods engines have three coupled wheels on a side, 5 ft. diameter ; the engines 
for the express trains have lately been made with eight wheels, the driving wheels 
being 8 ft. in diameter. The ordinary locomotives have been so often described, 
that a more definite notice of them is not required on the present occasion. 

2. London and North- Western Terminus. — The directors of this railway, wisely 
foreseeing the development their traffic was likely to assume, took the precaution to 
secure in the commencement an ample space of ground, so as to be enabled to 
develope their trade facilities according to the future exigencies of their line. Un- 
fortunately for the shareholders, the same enlightened prudence has not regulated 
the decisions of the ruling authorities in all the details of the constructions ; conse- 
quently many, nay, nearly all, of the original buildings have been demolished, and the 
existing station in no way resembles that which was built about the epoch of the 
opening. 

The whole system of railway travelling was, however, so new, and the revolution 
it was destined to effect in all the habits of life so dimly foreseen, that it is not 
wonderful that the calculations of its most sanguine advocates should have been thus 
surpassed. The accommodations offered by the North- Western Railway Company 
have kept pace with the demands for them, and now, after having been frequently 
• altered, not only in detail, but also throughout, their London terminus may be cited 
as the most perfect and the most commodious of any. It is situated, for passenger 
business, at Euston Square, and for the goods business at Camden Town. 

The passenger station near Euston Square occupies a surface of about 12 acres, 
in which the operations necessary for the dispatch and reception of not less than 
18 trains each way per day, are carried on with so little noise, confusion, or sem- 
blance of bustle, that it would almost seem that these complicated arrangements 
acted of their own accord. The entrance to the station is through the gigantic 
and very absurd Doric Temple placed in the centre line of Euston Square, but 
without reference to the court yard it leads to ; facing it is a large, massive, 
plain range of buildings containing the offices, waiting-rooms, and board and meeting- 



RAILWAY STATIONS. 809 

rooms of this Company. Passengers pass firstly into an immense and beautiful 
hall, with a ludicrous cage for the sale of refreshments in the centre ; those who 
intend to travel by the main northerly lines, proceed to the booking-offices on the 
east side ; those who intend to travel by the midland lines, proceed to the booking- 
offices, &c, on the west side, from which also it is usual to start the express trains. 
The booking-offices are very fine specimens of architecture, but the waiting-rooms 
are far from corresponding with them in magnificence. Indeed, the habits of our 
travelling public are not such as to require much accommodation in the intervals 
during which they wait for the departure of the trains. At foreign railway stations 
passengers are not allowed to go upon the platform until just before the time for 
departure. In England the practice is to allow the public access to all parts of the 
station devoted to the dispatch of the trains; and, consequently, it is found that 
they prefer walking about the platforms with their friends until the last moment. 
A very social result, perhaps ; but the presence of so many strangers must sadly 
interfere with the execution of the duties of the Company's servants. 

The extensions, branch lines, and the immense number of country lines which 
communicate with the London and North-Western Kail way are so numerous, that it 
is impossible to say precisely the number of miles over which passengers are booked 
here. A rough calculation from the time tables would show that certainly not less 
than between 700 and 800 miles use the Euston station as their London terminus. 
As was before stated, the "out" trains of the main line leave upon the rails next the 
waiting-rooms on the east side, those for the midland counties leave upon the rails 
on the west side. The " in " trains all arrive on the line on the extreme east of the 
station, where there is a platform and a road for public and private conveyances to 
transport the crowds who arrive. There are several spare rails under the same shed 
roof, upon which the carriages are examined, cleaned, and arranged for departure, 
and at the end of the passenger platform is a series of turn-tables to pass the car- 
riages to the midland rails. The whole of the operations connected with the recep- 
tion and dispatch of the trains are thus carried on under a shed of immense superficial 
extent; but too low, or at least without sufficient ventilation, to allow of the rapid 
escape of the steam from the locomotives. Some idea of the extent of this shed may 
be gathered from the following fact extracted from the delightful book of Sir F. 
Head, called " Stokers and Pokers," viz., that there are not less than 8979 square 
yards of plate-glass in the skylights only. 

On the west of the lines leading from the station are the shops where the car- 
riage repairs for the London end of the line are effected ; they are very extensive, 
and would well merit inspection on account of some ingenious contrivances for the 
purpose of passing the vehicles from the different lines to others where they may be 
required, and on account of the tools employed in the different shops. There is a 
very beautiful smith's shop with sixteen fires arranged round a central shaft, a set 
of lathes, boring, screwing, and punching machinery, circular and upright saw 
frames, &c, all of which are put in motion by a very compact and efficient steam- 
engine of sixteen-horse power. No carriages are made here, the Company finding 
it preferable to deal with private contractors. 

The line between the Euston and Camden Town stations is principally earned in 
cutting below the neighbouring streets. The works were executed in the London 
clay, and although neatly carried out, sufficient precautions were not taken against 
the future action of the land waters. It has been found necessary, therefore, to 
consolidate the retaining walls by a series of immense cast-iron struts, which cause 
this portion of the line to resemble an open tunnel, if such a phrase be allowed. 
After traversing the bridge on the Regent's Canal, we enter the goods station, 
certainly the most convenient of any in London, and, with the exception of the 
embryo station of the Great Northern line, the largest we can boast of. The general 
plan of the whole of this establishment may be briefly stated thus. The goods and 
coal traffic, the coke making, and the waggon repairs are carried on in the portion 
upon the east of the main line ; the engines for the goods trains are also placed in 



810 LONDON. 

reserve on this side ; the engine house for the passenger train locomotives, and the 
shops for the small locomotive repairs, are placed on the west of the main line. 
. Whether wisely or not it is not for us to to say, but the London and North- 
Western Company have made arrangements with some of the great carrying houses 
for the collection and distribution of the goods and parcels addressed to them, to 
and from London. The establishment of Messrs. Pickford and Co. is the best and 
the most elaborately organized; for, although the sheds of Messrs. Chaplin and 
Home's receiving-houses are very conveniently arranged, the means and appliances 
in the former establishment are much more elaborate and complete. Messrs. Pick- 
ford's shed is 300 ft. in length by 217 ft. in breadth, and is so well organized as 
to allow an average movement of goods to the extent of 850 tons per day. A steam- 
engine of 12-horse power works 30 steam cranes, and a lift able to raise about 
l^ton, with a series of oat-crushing, chaff-cutting, hay-cleaning, and other machinery 
for the preparation of food for the horses, besides working a pump which raises 
water from a well in the chalk at a depth of 380 ft. from the surface. There are no 
less than 800 ft. of shafting required to give motion to all this machinery ; a set of 
traps in the floor afford also the means of communicating with the barges upon the 
Regent's Canal. 

Messrs. Chaplin and Home's sheds are far from being so extensive as these, and 
the whole of the operations connected with the manipulation of the goods are effected 
without steam power ; they have no immediate connection with the canal. 

Sir F. Head gives the following details of Messrs. Pickford's establishment, itself 
a curiosity, an " imperium in imperio." There were when he wrote no less than 
Clerks. Porters. Horses. Vans. Waggons. Drays. 

234 538 396 82 57 25 

and certainly they have since then rather increased than diminished. 

The coal traffic has been of so modern an introduction, to the London end of this 
line at least, that the arrangements for its reception are as yet but very temporary 
and incomplete. It must, however, be a source of congratulation to the London 
public, that the long-borne and heavy monopoly of the Newcastle Field coal- owners 
has been at length broken by the introduction of the new and beautiful varieties of 
coal from the Clay Cross and Kennel districts. The arrangements for the reception 
of cattle are equally effective with those for the reception of coal, and they appear to 
be equally provisional. 

There are on the average nine goods trains dispatched from, and received at, the 
Camden Station every day. 

It has been found that the manufacture of coke in London is more expensive than 
to transport the already made coke from the coal districts of the north; consequently, 
the eighteen ovens near the Regent's Canal, although fully worked, are regarded 
more as guarantees for the regularity of the London service, than as efficient sources 
of supply; they are stated to yield 360 tons per day, or about two-fifths of the total 
quantity consumed at this end of the line. 

Beyond the part of the station thus reserved for the goods traffic are, firstly, the 
shops for the construction, maintenance, and repair of the goods waggons, in which 
is a collection of tools, lathes, &c, driven by steam, as well worthy of inspection 
as that at Euston Square. This is succeeded by a very solid, imposing looking 
building, polygonal in plan, destined to receive 24 goods locomotives; the walls are 
of great thickness, and in brickwork ; the roof is mainly composed of cast and wrought 
iron — a very equivocal combination in such situations, for the gases evolved from the 
locomotives usually corrode the iron. At the entrance are coke- stores, waiting- 
rooms for the engineers, and a set of offices connected with this department. 

The passenger train locomotive sheds are, however, the most magnificent ; they 
are 400 ft. long by 90 ft. span, covered by a very beautiful specimen of combined 
timber and iron framing, on the Queen-post principle. The sheds are destined to 
receive 40 locomotives at a time, and are usually half full. The attention of profes- 
sional readers is drawn to a practical defect in the position of the skylights, owing 



RAILWAY STATIONS. 811 

to the chimneys of the locomotives standing directly under the glass on the two out- 
side lines. It has been found in practice, that the unequal movements produced in 
the glass by the heated vapours from the engines impinging directly upon it, caused 
the glass to break to a very considerable extent ; to remedy this defect as far as 
possible, a kind of suspended scaffold has been placed over the position occupied by 
the centre of the rails; but it appears, as it is, a very clumsy makeshift; the lesson 
should not, however, be lost upon professional men. 

As all the heavy repairs of the locomotives are executed at the Company's work- 
shops at Wolverton, nothing is done here beyond such works as are requisite to 
maintain them in ordinary working order. The most important function of the 
steam engine near these shops is to raise the water from a well, said to be 140 ft. 
deep, for the supply of a considerable number of houses near the Camden and 
Euston Stations belonging to the Company. 

In concluding our necessarily brief notice of this railway, we would beg leave to 
record our sense of the extreme urbanity of all the parties connected with it. Their 
politeness and desire to aid any investigation on the part of those known or pre- 
sented to them, contrasts very forcibly with the reserve and caution superinduced 
upon the employes of the Great Western Railway by the narrow-minded jealousy 
of their directors. At the same time, we would again refer our readers to the witty, 
sparkling, but equally clever essay of Sir F. Head already mentioned ; in it are many 
statistics and many details we have been obliged to omit, conveyed in the most 
humorous and easy style. 

3. The Great Northern Railway. — Definitely it is intended that the passenger 
station of this great trunk line shall be placed upon the site of the old Small Pox and 
Fever Hospital, King's Cross ; and just as a lover of the picturesque, or of the agree- 
able in external objects, might regret the position of the Camden Station in the lately 
beautiful fields, just so much must he rejoice that the awful rookery at the back of 
the St. Pancras Road has been to a great extent swept away to make room for the 
buildings of the new railway station. 

The works at King's Cross are at present in a very imperfect state, and it might 
be premature to describe even the projects. Railway boards are notoriously given 
to change their plans, nor are railway engineers more stable in their intentions. 
What we might say would very possibly, therefore, be found totally at variance 
with the works as finished, and it is even with hesitation that we venture to 
describe the works at the goods station which are either actually finished or in 
course of rapid completion. The provisional character of the earliest works of all 
large stations, and the modifications invariably found necessary in carrying out the 
details of the traffic, may serve as our excuse for any differences to be observed 
between our descriptions of the principal intended arrangements now in course of 
execution, and those hereafter applicable to them. 

The approach to the temporary passenger station is from a wide road leading from 
King's Cross to the Company's lands on the north side of the Regent's Canal. The 
booking-offices and waiting-rooms are placed parallel to the outgoing line, which is 
continued beyond the incoming line by the whole length of the offices, See., in ques- 
tion. A wide quay separates the two lines for a considerable distance further, and 
with a spare carriage line both on the in and outside, and a roadway for public and 
private conveyances, is covered by a light and rather elegant iron roof. The shed 
over the incoming line is prolonged beyond that of the outgoing towards the north, 
nearly as much as the latter is towards the south. 

These are only provisional arrangements, and consequently the offices are of a cha- 
racter equally marked by the temporary appearance they present. No carriage-sheds, 
shops, nor definite engine-sheds are constructed, nor are even the large buildings for 
the reception of the goods traffic very far advanced. Enough is, however, done to 
convey a tolerably correct idea of the magnificent scale on which it is proposed 
to establish them. On the west of the actual passenger station we find, for instance, 
a goods shed 600 ft. long by 350 ft. wide, terminating with a row of warehouses, 
several stories in height, and feeing the south, for the reception of corn, flour, and 



812 LONDON. 

other agricultural produce. The distribution of the shed may be described thus : 
the building is divided into three portions, by means of longitudinal walls, separating 
respectively on the east and the west a subsidiary shed for either the in or out goods 
traffic, consisting of two side cart-roads, running longitudinally and parallel to the 
rails, from which they are separated by a rather wide platform for the reception and 
classification of the goods ; only one line of rails exists in the portion walled off for 
the particular purposes of the in and out goods trains. A series of turn-tables on 
these rails enables the waggons to pass into the centre part of the shed, as soon as 
they are loaded or unloaded, through a corresponding number of sliding doors, 
exactly opposite to other doors in the outer walls, communicating with the access 
roads. The central portion of the shed is divided into 4 bays, with 3 sets of rails in 
each, to allow of the making up or dividing of 12 trains under cover. The roofs over 
this portion are of wrought iron ; those of the loading and unloading sheds are prin- 
cipally of timber. 

In each of the unloading and loading sheds there are 18 cranes for the purpose of 
assisting the manipulation of the goods. A set of traps in the platforms also aiford 
facilities for the barges from the canal to receive or discharge their goods directly. 
Similar facilities are offered in the great end warehouse, which also communicates 
directly with the canal by means of a tunnel passing under the access road. There 
is a rather large basin formed for the reception of the barges employed in this part of 
the traffic, leading by a short cut into the Regent's Canal. It is impossible to esti- 
mate the effect likely to be produced on both means of conveyance by this intimate 
junction ; but it affords a subject of contemplation replete with interest to the 
engineer. 

Little progress has been made hitherto with the erection of the stages and shoots 
for the storage and delivery of coals, from which traffic it is evident that the Com- 
pany count upon large returns. The works projected, and of which the execution is 
already so far advanced as to allow an opinion to be formed of the contemplated 
arrangements, are designed to form 4 large groups of coal-stores, of 50 bays, each 
capable of containing 70 tons, or a grand total of 15,200 tons. A very ingenious 
contrivance allows the coal to pass from the waggon to the lower level of the store 
without serious shock, and obviates the danger of comminuting the materials. In the 
floor of the stores are a series of shoots, six to each bay, through which the coals can 
either be discharged in bulk, or their flow can be regulated so as to allow of their 
being easily put in sacks. There is a direct cut from the coal-stores to the canal. 

It is proposed to construct the locomotive and carriage department on the remain- 
ing portions of the land towards the north-west, for a connection with the water car- 
riage is by no means of essential importance to them. The whole land occupied by 
the complete works of this goods station is intended to be about 45 acres. 

The system adopted on this line of railway of burning the clay found in the exca- 
vations, for the purpose of making use of it as ballast, is a most admirable contrivance 
for getting rid of a troublesome material, and of turning it to good account. This 
ingenious, yet simple, notion cannot be too much brought before the notice of engi- 
neers ; and, at the same time that we dwell thus upon the skill and talent displayed 
in the execution of these works, we would also beg to record our acknowledgments 
of the courtesy of those who have so skilfully conducted them. 

4. Eastern Counties Railway. — The London terminus of this line, both for pas- 
sengers and goods, is in the parish of Shoreditch, many of the worst parts of which 
have been cleared away for the purpose of its construction. Compared with the 
North-Western and Great Northern termini, it is small and confined, but the immense 
amount of traffic carried on argues at least that the organization of the service must 
be very effective, and that the duties of the various parties employed must be care- 
fully and faithfully performed. 

From the street the railway is approached by a spacious court, giving access both 
to the offices of the Company, placed transversely to the line, and to the booking- 
offices on the north side parallel to the outgoing rails, and the incoming platform and 
carriage-roads on the south. • As the railway is carried through the greater part of 



RAILWAY STATIONS. 813 

the town on arches at a higher level than the surrounding streets, it has been neces- 
sary to make the access roads on an incline, with a bold sweep on the north and 
south sides respectively. It is rather unfortunate that advantage has not been taken 
of the peculiarities of this position to give a more monumental character to the cen- 
tral pile of buildings. It is respectable, but feeble, in its architectural effect ; too 
much cut up into small parts, and without mass. 

The traffic for the main lines is carried on in the portion of the great shed 
situated towards the north. The booking-offices and waiting-rooms, plain but suit- 
able constructions, are placed, as was before said, parallel to the lines of rails. A 
shed, covered by a light wrought-iron roof, supported on cast-iron columns (which is 
open to the usual objection of our London termini, namely, that it is far too low), 
protects the in and out lines, with a set of rails for spare carriages, and for making 
up the trains. The arrival side has a platform and road for public and private vehi- 
cles, also under cover, as is usually the case in the London stations. The length of 
the shed is sufficient to allow about sixteen carriages at a time to stand on the 
departure line; but on the arrival side there is an overhanging shed, affording shelter 
to a platform, extending some considerable distance down the line. 

The coke-stores and water-column for the locomotives working on this portion of 
the line are placed near a siding close to the main line ; beyond them is a siding for 
the light goods traffic, such as milk, poultry, and dead meat, sent from the country ; 
and this siding communicates at once with the access road on the north. A set of 
lines, with a platform on one side only, is carried out beyond this again for the 
North Woolwich and short traffic branch. It is principally supported by an immense 
timber substructure. The ticket platform is situated on the arrival line, but of late 
the Eastern Counties Railway have very wisely adopted the plan of collecting the 
tickets at the last station on the line before arriving in town, thus saving the public 
at least ten minutes' unnecessary delay, which occurs on the other lines of railway 
where they are collected at a station etablished solely for that purpose. No engine 
or carriage sheds exist near the Shoreditch station, and consequently the spare lines 
at the London end are covered by carriages ready to supply the variable demands of 
the traffic. It is unfortunate that such valuable property should be left thus exposed 
to the destructive action of our variable atmosphere, and perhaps the general want of 
shed room to be observed in most of our London termini may account for the dirty, 
disreputable condition of the greater number of railway carriages. 

Elevated as this station is upon arches, it would, necessarily, be very expensive to 
construct any shop or shed accommodation on the level of the rails ; especially as 
"n so densely-populated a part of the town land must be exorbitantly dear. The same 
economical conditions must also have guided the designers of the goods stations, but 
the manner in which the difficulties have been overcome, and the skill with which 
the Company's servants avail themselves of the various means and appliances afforded 
to them, cannot be either too highly praised, or a source of too exaggerated surprise ; 
indeed, there are few sights in London more worthy of careful examination than the 
goods arrangements of the Eastern Counties E ail way. 

On the rails level, upon a series of arches, are the spare lines, upon which stand 
the trucks prepared for departure, or which may have arrived from the country. The 
quays for loading or unloading the goods are situated on the lower level, that is to 
Bay, on the level of the streets, and the waggons are respectively raised or lowered 
by means of two steam lifts. These quays and lifts are on the northern side of the 
main line, and the former consist of two ranges of warehouses arranged on somewhat 
different principles. The eastern warehouse consists of two sets of rails in the centre, 
with a platform for the reception of goods, and a cart-road by the side of each ; the west- 
ern consists of a double set of rails in the centre, with a series of bays, or indentations, 
able to receive one waggon in length, and with two rails. There are thus sixteen 
turn-tables, and quay face for the broadsides of 24 waggons, besides end face (so to 
3peak) for two more. Cart-roads give access to the platforms nearly as in the east- 
ern warehouse. The advantages and the disadvantages of the two systems of arrange- 

lent seem to be that in the eastern warehouse only sixteen waggons can load or 



814 LONDON. 

unload at one and the same time, whilst the expense of turn-tables is reduced to a 
minimum ; in the western warehouse 22 waggons can load or unload, but it is neces- 
sary to lay down sixteen turn-tables in addition. 

The steam lift is able to raise nominally 13 tons, which in all probability is a 
maker's exaggeration, for it can be very rarely that more than 8 tons can be put 
upon it at once. The height of the lift is 24 ft., the engines 12-horse power. 

On the " up," or arrival side, is an immense warehouse for the reception and stor- 
age of corn or agricultural produce. It contains three sets of rails on the upper 
level, by which the waggons can be run into the interior of the store, and is six stories 
in height. Its capacity is intended to be such as to receive 60,000 qrs. of corn; but, 
of course, as the arrivals by railways are usually cleared away as soon as they come 
to hand, it is impossible to state any precise quantity as existing in them. There are 
a series of shoots, cranes, and other machinery for the expeditious discharge or stowage 
of the goods. Similar facilities are also provided in the goods station at the lower 
level. 

The carriage and engine sheds of this line, with the shops for the repairs of the 
locomotives, carriages, waggons, &c, are at Stratford, and thus can hardly be said to 
enter into the limits proposed for our Gruide. They are, we may however observe, 
tolerably complete, although far from being on the same scale of magnificence as the 
North- Western Railway Company's establishment at Wolverton. 

It is difficult to say how many miles of railway use the Shoreditch station as their 
terminus ; but they may, as an approximation, be stated as above 300 miles. Seven 
trains enter and leave the station for the main traffic, and the North Woolwich trains 
run every half hour. The quantity of goods received varies of course with the 
season, but the arrangements in the lower station are so well made that it would be 
possible to expedite, in both directions, about 1500 tons; and the usual movement of 
goods in the large store or granary is stated to be 400 tons per day. 

5. Blachwall Railway. — The passenger station of this railway, in the heart of the 
city, is situated in London Street, Fenchurch Street, in a very crowded, confined part 
of the town, with an access of great difficulty. The booking-office is on the ground 
floor of a building very plain and unpretending in character. Staircases, leading to 
and from the arrival and departure platforms, are placed immediately beyond these 
offices. At the head of the upgoing staircases are two rather narrow platforms on 
the right hand and on the left ; two lines of rails, with an intermediate and rather 
wider platform, lie between those first named. A low and very badly ventilated roof 
covers these lines and platforms, and beyond them again are a series of temporary 
waiting-rooms. 

The rails, waiting-rooms, and platform on the right hand, or the south, are reserved 
for the traffic of the New Birmingham and East and West India Dock Junction 
Railway, which branches on to this line at Stepney. Those on the left, or north 
side, are reserved for the direct Blackwall traffic. The intermediate platform serves 
for the arrival of both railways. 

It is wonderful to observe the apparent indifference with which the servants of 
the Company go through the very arduous and even dangerous duty of expediting 
and receiving no less than four trains per hour, in each direction, on each of the 
above railways, which, from the terribly cramped position of the station, are obliged 
to go out and come in on the same line. In both cases the engines are detached from 
the incoming trains at a short distance from the station ; those which bring in the 
Blackwall carriages continue alone on the same line they had travelled on; the train, 
however, passes over some points and runs into its bay between the three platforms. 
Whilst the passengers are hurrying out upon the intermediate platform, the engine 
returns, takes the crossing through which the train had passed, and puts itself at the 
head of the train, without reference to whether the tender be foremost or no, and 
takes it out on its down line when the moment for starting arrives. The Junction 
Railway traffic is managed nearly upon the same principles. The engine, however, 
on approaching the station, detaches from the train, crosses, lets the train continue 
on its own line, returns, and, when leaving the station, crosses over to the down line 



RAILWAY STATIONS. 815 

with the train. All these complicated arrivals and departures are thus effected by- 
means of two through crossings, without any turn-table whatever. Indeed, the ex- 
tent of the traffic, and the exiguity of accommodation at this station appear to prove 
that engineers have hitherto greatly exaggerated the amount of accommodation in 
similar situations. Notwithstanding that so many trains are continually crossing and 
re-crossing this line, we do not hear of any accident, or at least only at very remote 
intervals. Certainly there are as few here as on other lines. 

Equally remarkable with the passenger station is the goods station at the London 
end. It is situated near the Minories, and consists merely of a siding entered by a 
pair of back points from the up line, and of sufficient length to receive seven carriages 
at a time. A stage about 25 ft. wide on the average, with three traps, one for 
letting goods down directly to carts on the ground floor or street level, by means of 
a crane ; and the others to slide bag or bale goods to an intermediate story provided 
with similar shoots, runs the whole length of the siding as far as the trucks can be 
brought up to it. In addition to the crane over the trap is another on the upper 
level to load or unload the trucks ; and on the ground floor are some other cranes for 
the use of the waggons. Rude and confined as these arrangements are, they suffice 
for a movement of about 100 tons of goods per day; but it is to be observed that the 
habits of expedition in all business affairs in the City must render this result more 
easily attainable here than elsewhere. 

The intermediate stations on the Blackwall line are of a very mediocre character. 
The station at Blackwall itself is a more noticeable piece of architecture, especially 
towards the river. As a station, it is very little worthy of remark after a visit to 
the Fenchurch Street terminus ; nor are the shops or the carriage sheds more worthy 
of attention. 

On the recently-opened line of railway, called the Birmingham and East and "West 
India Dock Railway, the stations in the intermediate parts of the line are very insig- 
nificant constructions. At the utmost, they suffice for the shelter and reception of 
passengers; as buildings they are beneath notice, nor are there any arrangements for 
facilitating traffic sufficiently remarkable to warrant our dwelling upon them in detail. 
In justice to the parties connected with the line we must, however, observe that 
hitherto the opening has only been partial ; and that the definite arrangements can 
hardly be judged of in the unfinished state of the road. Neither terminus is com- 
plete ; nor are the junctions yet effected with the other lines on the north side of 
London, over or under which this one passes. There are, in the distance traversed 
by the Birmingham and East and West India Junction Railwaj^, many very extra- 
ordinary works w r ell worthy of attentive examination. The whims and exigencies of 
some landed proprietors, whose estates have been traversed, have forced the Company 
to erect bridges in many cases of very great span. These are for the most part 
frightfully ugly; nor does the mode of construction employed inspire much confi- 
dence. Yet it cannot be denied that the wrought-iron bridges on this line display a 
boldness in the use and adaptation of that material to such structures well worthy 
of remark, however little disposed we may be to praise the taste of their general 
forms. 

The numerous accidents which have attended the construction of this railway, 
principally from defective foundations, call also for observation from all those in- 
terested in the true dignity of the profession of an engineer. Some public examina- 
tion ought to be instituted into all such accidents ; not of the illusory character which 
now prevails, but a real bona fide investigation, which should guarantee not only the 
lives of the workmen, but also the pockets of the shareholders, by making the parties 
really to blame amenable to public opinion, and to the pecuniary consequences of their 
neglect or incapacity. 

6. Dover, Brighton, and South Coast Railway. — The joint station of these lines, 
which serves also to receive the traffic of the Greenwich and North Kent Railways, 
is situated on the south side of the Thames, in the immediate vicinity of the new 
London Bridge. The peculiar character of the first portion of the lines terminating 
in it (although perhaps the word " peculiar " is hardly applicable, for most of our 



816 LONDON. 

London termini are precisely similar to it), owing to their being constructed upon 
arches, has forced the condensation of accommodation to its extreme limits. The offices 
and sheds are far from presenting so monumental an appearance, or of attaining the 
development of those of the North- Western, or of the intended Great Northern 
Railways; but they are compact, and sufficient for the traffic they are intended to 
serve. It may, indeed, be questioned whether the last-named Companies have not 
laid out more money on this class of works than the real exigences of the case abso- 
lutely required. 

From London Bridge the approach is by an inclined road, bounded on the south- 
west by St. Thomas's Hospital and grounds, and on the north-east by a range of 
shops, communicating with Tooley Street. The south-western portion of the build- 
ing comprises the booking-offices of the Brighton and South Coast line ; and on the 
extreme south is a screen, masking the gateway of the carriage-road upon the arrival 
side of this railway. A somewhat similar arrangement is observed immediately on 
the north of the Brighton Railway offices ; where a gateway is formed, giving access 
to the carriage-road of the Dover line. The Brighton Railway Offices are thus 
placed at right angles to the axis of the rails. 

The Dover booking-office faces the approach road, and forms the main portion of 
the facade. Beyond it is the North Kent booking-office, parallel with the lines of 
rails ; and beyond this last again, at right angles with the axis of the rails, is the 
Greenwich booking-office. On the first floors of these several buildings are the 
offices, board-rooms, and other accommodations. 

Extensive alterations are in progress on these works, so that, as in the case of the 
Great Northern line, we feel some hesitation in describing their arrangement. They 
may, however, be generally, and with sufficient accuracy, stated to be designed with 
the intention of providing separate lines for the in trains and for the out trains, with 
platforms for both, but with a carriage-road to the inside platform only. Passengers' 
luggage is seized upon on departure, in the manner so humorously described by 
Sir. F. Head, and carried by the porters to the vans or carriages in which it is 
meant to be transported. On arrival, it is left to the tender mercies of chance, for 
no precaution is taken to protect the contents of the luggage vans against the attacks 
of the London thieves. The out line platform is thus at the periods of the formation 
of the trains a strangely-confused passage for luggage, passengers, and their friends, 
so that it is marvellous how, in so narrow a space, the station work can be carried 
on. The waiting-rooms seem to be designed on a very small scale, and of an unas- 
suming character ; as to the general body of the buildings, very little can be said 
either in praise or blame. A fine situation has been lost in this case, as in that of 
the Eastern Counties. 

There are spare lines for the reception of empty carriages under the same roofs as 
the respective arrival and departure lines. The roofs themselves are somewhat re- 
markable ; and there are particular details connected with the roadway of a nature 
to merit prolonged examination. 

Thus the Greenwich traffic is intended to be carried on upon two lines of rail- 
way, under a narrow and rather confined shed. The North Kent traffic is provided 
for in a distinct shed comprising three rails (one for arrival, one for departure, and 
one spare line for empty carriages), with platforms upon the departure and arrival 
side. The roof over this part of the station is of wood, and a very fair specimen of 
carpentry. But the most remarkable part of the whole establishment is the Dover 
shed ; for there are few roofs in London to be compared with it, either on account of 
their boldness, or the scientific construction. It spans three rails, two platforms, and 
a carriage-road, without any intermediate support, and is really an object of consider- 
able interest to the engineer or architect. 

The portion of the shed surface of this station reserved for the Brighton and South 
Coast traffic, is rather less in area than that for the South-Eastern lines. Nor is the 
style of roofing adopted at all worthy of notice. The distribution of the rails seems 
to be designed for the purpose of appropriating one line to the departure trains for 
Brighton and the South Coast ; another for the departures for Croydon and 



RAILWAY STATIONS. 817 

Epsom, &c. ; two spare lines for making up the trains succeed ; and beyond them is 
the arrival line with a platform and a carriage-road. 

It is utterly imposible to define the precise relations of the different companies 
which make use of this joint and multifarious station ; for the fusions, leases, and 
other working arrangements are so complicated as to defy even the keenest percep- 
tion of the more deeply-interested shareholder. At the same time it is to be observed, 
that every day appears to be adding to the extent, not only of the accommodation 
offered by the great railway stations, but also, and to a far greater extent, to the 
demands upon them. The particular class of lines connected with continental traffic 
are, more than any others, liable to this law of incessant and progressive develop- 
ment ; nor, even for the interest of the shareholder, would it be desirable that it were 
otherwise. Our task as a guide is, however, materially increased ; for it is beyond 
our power to follow, " pari passu," the changes either of destination, or of arrange- 
ment, in the stations of this class of lines. An additional difficulty occurs in this 
case with respect to the arrangements, from the fact that inasmuch as several of the 
small branch lines are especially destined for the suburban traffic, they become so far 
exceptional in their arrangements that their departures are more frequent, and even 
more subject to alteration than those of the lines with a more regular description of 
traffic. 

However, in round numbers, we may state that about 500 miles of railway use 
the London Bridge Station as their London terminus. The Greenwich trains run 
every quarter of an hour. The North Kent line sends out about 20 trains between 
7 in the morning and 10 at night; the Brighton line may be taken as dispatching 
eight trains, and the Dover nine trains per day ; if to these be added the Croydon 
and the short traffic on the Brighton line branches, an amount of activity really mar- 
vellous may be stated to exist at the station under notice. 

The engine accommodation here may be stated to be very small ; nor are the 
spare carriage lines at all in accordance with what the real wants of the traffic must 
very often call for. These details, in fact, seem very defective in most of the metro- 
politan stations. 

Before quitting the London Bridge terminus we would call attention to the essays 
being made, under the orders of Mr. Barlow, of a new system of continuous supports 
to the rails, with the view of dispensing with the existing illogical, and essentially 
temporary mode, viz. by laying them in cast-iron chairs, spiked to wood sleepers. The 
merits of an invention of this kind must be so essentially of a nature to be solved by 
their economical results, that in the present stage of its application it would be pre- 
mature to pronounce a decided opinion either for or against it. At any rate, the 
experiment is interesting : if successful, our moist climate argues that its adoption 
will be a source of immense advantage. 

The goods traffic upon the set of lines converging to this part of London is carried 
on principally, and with greater convenience than formerly, at the Bricklayers' Arms 
Station. The arrangements for the reception and delivery of the goods are in nowise 
remarkable, nor are there any warehouses or stores worthy of particular notice ; it 
would, indeed, seem as though the directors of these lines confined their attention 
almost exclusively to the passenger traffic. Traversing, as so many of their branches 
do, the richest agricultural districts of England (those which produce the bulk of the 
wool and nearly all the hops), it seems strange that their goods traffic should be of a 
nature to permit of its being retained in a position so difficult of access, and so far 
removed from the centre of affairs, as the present station. There is ample room, and 
verge enough, it is true, at the Bricklayers' Arms, but when this has been said, we 
have exhausted the amount of praise it merits. 

The engine establishments of all these lines are at points remote from the metro- 
polis. They are upon a small scale, if compared with those at Wolverton, Crew, 
Stratford, or Swindon, nor would they merit an especial visit. The foreign engineer 
may, however, feel some interest in examining the few remaining traces of that sin- 
gular delusion the atmospheric railway, which are still to be found on the Croydon 
line. 

N N 



818 LONDON. 

7. South' Western Railway. — Originally established at Nine Elms, Vauxhall, the 
terminus of this combined series of railways was prolonged, or extended, during the 
railway mania of 1846, to the Waterloo Road. The great crisis arrived before any 
progress had been made in the buildings, and the whole establishment at the present 
day bears evidently the impress of the circumstances attending its projection and its 
execution. There is so marked a desire to form an immense terminus to a great 
trunk line displayed in the selection of the situation, and in the nature of the works 
definitively executed ; yet, at the same time, so ridiculous an attempt at economy in 
the construction of the offices, so half-starved an appearance about the sheds, that it 
would be difficult to point to any railway building about town as more forcibly illus- 
trating the absurd visions or cruel deceptions of that notorious epoch, than the 
Waterloo Station of the South-Western line. It may " point a moral," and a severe 
and bitter one to thousands ; but it is very far from presenting anything " to adorn a 
tale," even so simple as ours must be. 

Raised upon arches, like so many of the other London stations, there is little room 
for development, on account of the frightful expense attending any extension of the 
surface. The width of the shed is then reduced to its extreme limits, and the very 
nature of other works tending rather to develop the station accommodation in the 
direction of its length, we find that, comparatively speaking, its dimensions are 
greater if so regarded. From the Waterloo Road, the approach to the booking-office 
is by a rather narrow, but exceedingly well-arranged road, which, by winding in an 
S curve, not only diminishes the draught, but also serves to mask the barrenness of 
the object to be obtained. The booking-offices and waiting-rooms are very temporary 
affairs, without the slightest pretensions to architectural effect, or to solidity of con- 
struction. The waiting-rooms are equally unpretending, and at most can only be 
said to shelter those waiting for the departure of the trains. 

In the shed itself, here as elsewhere, the most important part of the station, there 
is a platform so arranged that it serves for two departure lines of rails. The short 
line traffic, such as the Putney, Richmond, Windsor, &c. branches, is carried on at 
the east end of the station, upon a line of rails passing to the north of the departure 
line of the main traffic. There are two spare lines for the cleansing, &c, of car- 
riages, and making up the trains ready for departure ; beyond these again is the 
arrival line. A wide platform receives the passengers and the unguarded, uncared 
for, luggage ; and a roadway narrow enough to exercise the utmost skill of our Lon- 
don drivers, if there be any crowding, occupies the remainder of the space up to the 
parapet of the viaduct. There is an inclined exit road on the north side, precisely 
similar to the approach road on the south, and a staircase leading to a tortuous road- 
way which brings the foot-passenger bold enough, or sufficiently well acquainted 
with the intricacies of London, to trust himself to its mazes, to the new Hungerford 
Bridge. 

The only remarkable object in this station is the roof over the shed ; and it is far 
from being, either in design or execution, elegant, or such as scientific calculations 
would require. Indeed, it appears that a particular design for roofs over railway 
sheds has been stereotyped, and followed in the bulk of our stations ; for they are 
nearly all erected upon the same principles, and all are equally slight, primitive in 
their construction, and deficient in taste. They look, in fact, as though a smith had 
been applied to for an estimate and contract, the mode of construction being left to 
his discretion. Possibly, the failures which have taken place in railway station 
roofs may be explained on some such grounds as these. Nevertheless, of the 
class in question, the roof over the Waterloo Road shed is perhaps one of the best. 

The engine and spare carriage accommodation in this station has been reduced to 
the narrowest possible limits, on account of the expensive nature of the substructure, 
and also because the shops and carriage sheds are so much nearer the terminus than 
is usually the case in the railways terminating in London. They are, on the South 
Western lines, concentrated at Nine Elms, where a very efficient, if not a very mag- 
nificent, establishment has been formed, under the original direction of Mr. Beattie. 
These shops are organized upon a system of economy which is very rare in similar 



ROYAL ENGINEERS — HEAD QUARTERS. 819 

cases, but only the more entitled to praise on that account. Altogether, the shops at 
Nine Elms, although neither remarkable for their extent, the beauty of their tools, 
nor even the perfection of their arrangement, will repay a visit better than the gene- 
rality of such factories would do, on account of the plain sound common sense which 
has prevailed in their disposition. 

Between Waterloo Road and Yauxhall, and continuing until we arrive at the 
junction with the old line, now serving only for the goods traffic at Xine Elms, the 
roadway is carried through one of the dirtiest parts of London, upon a series of works 
which would also well repay the visit of an engineer. We would cite especially the 
portion near the Westminster Bridge Road, and that near the Yauxhall Road, as con- 
taining some of the most remarkable works. 

The goods traffic is, as has just been stated, entirely carried on at Nine Elms, at 
an immense distance from the centre of the town, which inconvenience is augmented 
by the tolls upon the bridge and common road. There is a rather large warehouse 
upon the banks of the Thames, so arranged that goods can either be stored in it, or 
loaded at once into barges from the waggons, or vice versa ; otherwise, there are no 
arrangements here worthy of notice ; indeed, they may be said to be rudimentary 
and deficient in the extreme, without facilities either for the reception or expedition 
of goods. This is the more remarkable, because undeniably the south-west of Eng- 
land, if not actually, might soon be made a great producing district. Railroads are. 
however, destined to render much greater services to society than they have hitherto 
accomplished, wonderful as these have been. The first condition seems to be that 
new life be infused into the directing body in a considerable number of cases, so as to 
insure greater desire and effort to advance the public interest, and at the same time, 
and by the same means, that of the shareholder. 

The number of miles of railway to which the Waterloo line was intended to serve 
as a terminus can now hardly be calculated. So many projects have fallen to the 
ground, so many of the magnificent visions of branches and extensions have passed 
into thin air, that the works undertaken in London stagger us with their dispropor- 
tion to the lines they serve. It may be questioned if the actual mileage on this 
series of railways be above 250, yet the station has been carried, reckless of expense, 
into the very heart of the town. Had it been continued so as to join the South 
Eastern line, some explanation might have been found ; as it is, the public certainly 
are the only gainers by the capital thus sunk, both in time and money : this is so 
rare an occurrence with trading companies, that perhaps it is unwise to dwell long 
upon the subject. 

ROYAL ENGINEERS. 

The Head Quarters of the Corps of Royal Engineers are at the Ordnance 
Office, Pall Mall. 

Field Marshal the Marquis of Anglesey, K.G., K.G.H., &c, <fcc, is the 
Master General of the Ordinance, and is, ex officio, Colonel Commandant 
of the Corps, under whom are — 

The Inspector General of Fortifications, Major General Sir John 
Burgoyne, K.C.B. 

First Assistant Inspector General, Colonel Harding, C.B., RE. 

Second Assistant Inspector General, Lieut. Colonel Sandham, R.E. 

Assistant Adjutant General, Lieut. Colonel Matson, R.E. 

All the Fortifications and Military Buildings in the United Kingdom 
and its dependencies, India excepted, are designed and constructed 
under the direction of the officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers. 

The Trigonometrical Survey of the United Kingdom and of many 
parts of the Colonies, has also been carried on under them ; that of Ire- 
land, on a scale of six inches to a mile, is perhaps the most perfect survey 
ever made ; and the plan of the city of London, on a scale of five feet to 

N N 2 



820 LONDON. 

one mile, the largest plan of a city which was ever made ; this plan 
covers a space of 5400 feet, drawn on 900 sheets of drawing-paper. 

In addition to the ordinary duties of the corps, its officers are frequently 
selected by Government to fill important offices requiring great ability 
and scientific knowledge, and to fill the office of Govenors of Colonies, 
among whom may be named Colonel Reid, C.B., the author of the " Law of 
Storms," and formerly Governor, first, of Bermuda and then at Barbadoes ; 
he is now the Commanding Engineer at Woolwich, and takes an active 
part as Chairman of the Executive Board, in the preparations for the 
forthcoming Great Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations. 



SALOONS. 



Saloons are more French than English in the interior arrangement of their architecture ; 
our houses are generally smaller considerably than those of France, Germany, or Italy. We 
have saloons in our theatres, and public places of amusement appropriated for promenade, and 
the sale of refreshments to the visitors. There are saloons in various parts of the metropolis, 
but they are appropriated for lower purposes, and the stranger should be cautious as to the 
character of such doubtful places previous to entering them. There is a saloon attached to 
the Eagle Tavern, which does not fall into the category just referred to. This saloon, it is said, 
is for concerts, balls, promenades, and refreshments. Saloons for music and dancing are licensed 
by the county magistrates. All those so licensed are strictly inquired into, and may be visited 
without outraging the feelings of decent people. A saloon in the palaces of Italy is a state room ; 
in Fiance, a grand room for reception ; in England, in our noblemen's and gentlemen's houses, 
they are not unfrequently meant as drawing-rooms. 



THE SEWERS OF LONDON. 
When the Roman author had completed his survey of the stupendous aqueducts 
which adorned at the same time as they served his native city, he exclaimed with a 
feeling of self gratulation easily to be understood, "Tot aquarum tarn multis 
necessariis mollibus pyramidum videlicet otisiosis comparem, aut cetera inertia, sed 
fama celebrata, Graecorum opera ! " 

In our generation we may almost do likewise ; for, although London underground 
is very far from being what it should be, although considering the immense progress 
made of late years in hydrodynamical engineering, our water-supply is very inferior, 
and our system of sewerage very rude and incomplete ; yet, even if we lay aside all 
sentiments of nationality, we may justly pride ourselves that the sewers and water- 
supply of our great metropolis are as far superior to those of any other city in modern 
Europe, as those of Rome were to any in the ancient world. If, for instance, we 
direct our attention to Paris, or to any continental city, at every turn we are met 
with annoyances, here quietly and unostentatiously removed by agencies, and through 
an organization, whose existence is hardly suspected, until we inquire what becomes 
of the materials which elsewhere so annoy us. So also, bad though our water- 
supply is said to be, susceptible of immense improvement as it unquestionably is, 
there is hardly any city in the world in which this great necessity of life is attain- 
able so cheaply or so copiously as in London. 

We would expressly avoid taking up the position of advocates of things as they 
are, but the tendency of the day is so very decidedly to ignore the benefits we have 
derived from what has been previously executed, that we purposely step out of our 
way to call attention to the results we enjoy ; may the success of our predecessors 
lead us to use aright the lessons they have garnered for our instruction ! 

The legal organization of the municipal duties falling under the generic name of 
sewers (the division of London under ground we are immediately examining) is of 
very early date in English history. In a country so damp as our own, one in which 
the rivers, or even the arms of the sea affect so greatly the value and the nature of pro- 
perty, it was necessarily of vital importance that works should be executed such as 
could protect against "the daily great damages and losses which have happened 
in many and divers parts of this realm, as well by the reason of the outrageous 
flowing8, surges, and course of the sea, in and upon marsh grounds, and other low 



SEWERS. 821 

places, heretofore through public wisdom, won and made profitable for the great 
commonwealth of this realm, as also by occasion of land waters and other outrageous 
springs in and upon meadows, pastures, and other low grounds adjoining to rivers, 
floods, and other water courses." We therefore find that, so far back as 9 Henrv 
III., 6 Henry VI., 8 Henry VI., 4 Henry VII., and 6 Henry VIII., partial 
statutes were issued for the purpose of regulating the conditions under which the 
requisite works were to be executed. These measures, owing to the circumstances 
of the . times in which they were promulgated, could but be of a local and partial 
nature, nor was any general measure introduced until the reign of Henry VIII. 
That phenomenon in history appears to have laid the foundations of modern legisla- 
tion in the class of works now under consideration, by his celebrated " Bill of 
Sewers," promulgated in the 23rd year of his reign (a.d. 1531), with the same fore- 
sight and intuitive perception of the future wants of modern civilization which we 
can trace in so many other acts of his reign. 

The monarchs succeeding Henry VIII. from time to time promulgated similar 
statutes, or assented to acts of Parliament by which the original Bill of Sewers was 
continued, amended, and explained. For the country districts these acts still are 
in force, except in such cases as they may be interfered with either by local acts 
or by the act for Promoting the Public Health. In the metropolis, however, the 
legislature has been obliged to intervene frequently, especially within the last cen- 
tury, owing to the rapid extension of London, " to render more effective the powers 
granted by previous acts of Parliament for making, enlarging, amending, and 
cleansing the vaults, drains, and sewers within the city of London and the liberties 
thereof." The creation of new quarters of the town, themselves larger than the city, 
and the excessive division of local government, led to such a subdivision of the 
districts, that even so lately as the year 1817, no less than eight local commissions 
of sewers existed, exercising a divided and unsystematic sway over the sewers of the 
great metropolis. Each consisted of a board armed nearly with the powers of the 
existing commission; each had its peculiar mode of conducting business, with a special 
staff of engineers or surveyors, clerks, superintendants, &c, with peculiar regula- 
tions as to the size of drains, sewers, &c, their rates of inclination, mode of execu- 
tion and cost ; so that it was impossible to find two sections of the town sewered 
upon the same principles, or in which any co-relation as to cost or mode of execution 
could be observed. 

The eight districts, for that was the number of separate jurisdictions existing, as 
said before, in 1847, were, lstly, the City of London; 2ndly, the Tower Hamlets; 
3rdly, Saint Katherine ; 4thly, Poplar and Blackwall ; othly, Holborn and Fins- 
bury ; 6thly, "Westminster and part of Middlesex; 7thly, Surrey and Kent; and 
8thly, Greenwich. By the act of 1818, all these were concentrated into one 
General Board, under the style and title of the " Metropolitan Commissioners of 
Sewers," with the exception of the local Commission of the City of London and the 
liberties thereof, which has been retained in its pristine state, probably because its 
abuses are so inveterately interwoven with our early prejudices, that they are 
retained as much from a feeling of superstition as of love. The jurisdiction of the 
New Commission extends " to all such places or parts in the counties of Middlesex, 
Surrey, Essex, and Kent, or any of them, not more than twelve miles distant in a 
straight line from St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, but not being within 
the City of London or the liberties thereof." 

Really we may pause to inquire why the effete corporation of the city should be 
allowed to retain its privilege of exemption from the effect of every general measure 
for the public benefit ; it is as though it were desired to form an Egypt of darkness 
in the midst of the enlightened progress of the rest of London ! 

Be this as it may, we repeat that the ancient system of local management pro- 
duced results as multifarious as they were discordant. No system was observed either 
as to the dimensions of the main sewers, or their rate of fall, nor was any attempt 
apparently made to co-ordinate the works of the several districts to any one general 
plan. The Westminster sewers differed in their section from those of the Finsbury 



822 LONDON. 

district, and the latter, again, from those of the Regent's Street Board. Nay, so 
little system appears to have been observed in these matters, that even at the present 
day it is impossible to obtain any very decided statistical information either as to the 
length or the dimensions of the sewers in the different parts of the metropolis. 

The principal object proposed to be obtained by the new organization of the 
sewers was the attainment of unity in their direction. It is always difficult to 
change old habits, especially when the details of the old system are interwoven with 
the daily wants and necessities of a large population; but it would be difficult to point 
out any instance in which order has been introduced into the midst of chaos so suc- 
cessfully, and with so little interference with previous habits as has been done by the 
new Commission. These are matters of history, and as such may be left to explain 
themselves ; nevertheless, it must be a matter of congratulation to all the world, that 
the previous disorder is at length yielding to something like a general system. 

The act of 1848, under the powers of which the present Commission holds office, 
does not fix the precise number of persons who are to form it ; the date of each 
commission, however, cannot exceed two years. The Lord Mayor is, " ex officio," a 
member, and the Aldermen and Common Council have also the right to elect four 
members, whose powers are equal to those of the Royal Commissioners. There is 
great ambiguity about the powers of these representatives of the city at the General 
Board of Sewers ; nor does it appear from the text of the act that their functions 
were ever intended to exceed those of controlling the action of the board in cases 
affecting the City of London ; any such questions, moreover, being only to be dis- 
cussed at special courts, and due notice given thereof. 

Six commissioners form a quorum, the chairman being elected on each meeting by 
a majority of votes. The most important business is transacted at the monthly 
courts, although special courts are held much more frequently. The details of the 
separate branches of the service are usually managed by a series of committees 
chosen by, and out of the body of the commissioners, the said committees fixing and 
arranging the periods of their meeting and the details of the mode of carrying on the 
business intrusted to them. One or two commissioners are named by the Gfeneral 
Board for the purpose of verifying and auditing the accounts, subsequently submitted 
to the whole board. 

The choice of officers, their rate of remuneration, and the regulation of all points 
connected with the discharge of their duties, are entirely under the control of the 
commissioners. It would be impossible at present to give any of these particulars 
precisely, for the creation of the system is too recent for any definite statement to 
be ventured on the subject. 

One of the first objects proposed for the attention of the new Commission was the 
preparation of a plan or map of the metropolis, for the purpose of ascertaining more 
correctly what really had been done. The execution of this map has been confided 
to the Ordnance Office : it is nearly completed, and doubtlessly will form a document 
of extraordinary beauty and interest; but, in the mean time, a certain degree of 
vagueness must be attached to the definitions of the districts of sewerage about 
London, nor can the precise nature of the general system of drainage be exactly 
defined. Indeed, the very intention of the execution of this survey being to prepare 
the means of introducing a more definite and co-ordinate plan, instead of the different 
local measures hitherto adopted, it would be impossible to arrange the system until 
the physical aspect of the region to be worked upon has been distinctly ascertained. 
Perhaps it would be difficult to cite a more striking illustration of the defective 
nature of the old Sewers Commission, than is to be found in the fact of the necessity 
for this survey at the present day, and in the total ignorance of all that had been 
done, as well as the absence of all general system in what remained to be done. 

The works over which the commissioners have control are the sewers, drains, 
watercourses, weirs, dams, banks, defences, gratings, pipes, conduits, culverts, sinks, 
vaults, cesspools, rivers, reservoirs, engines, sluices, penstocks, and other works and 
apparatus for the collection and discharge of rainwater, surplus land or spring water, 
waste water or filth, or fluid, or semifluid refuse of all descriptions, and for the pro- 



SEWERS. 823 

tection of land from floods or inundations within the limits of the commission. 
Strangely enough, however, the only important causes likely to produce inundations, 
the Thames and the sea are entirely beyond their jurisdiction, and are actually as 
much as ever left to the tender mercies of separate commissions. It is fortunate, 
nevertheless, that so vast a stride has been made towards the introduction of a 
rational system, as is implied by consolidating the works connected with the removal 
of refuse, and of flood or land waters, under one administration. So long as London 
retained large open spaces near the densely-peopled parts, it was, so to speak, possible 
to retain a defective organization of its sanatory conditions ; but the enormous deve- 
lopment of the town has so entirely modified the very climate of the central portions, 
that it had become imperative upon the legislature to remedy the evils of omission 
produced by the previously existing want of concentration. 

For the future it will be the duty of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers to 
see that no houses be constructed without a proper provision for the removal of the 
peculiar sources of nuisances above described. They will be called upon also to 
provide the means of removing all the waters flowing from the several enumerated 
sources, in such a manner, and to such a distance, as to guarantee the public health 
from any inconvenience from them. Works of this comprehensive character must 
inevitably require long and anxious deliberation. To provide for the real wants of 
a town like London (the largest in the world, and whose inhabitants, as a general 
rule, are the most fastidiously clean, at the same time that they are the most jealous 
of their individual liberty of action) is a task surrounded by difficulties of an order 
only to be understood by those who have practically felt them. The absence of all 
complete statistical information, and even of a general map of the district, has com- 
plicated the whole question to an astonishing degree. But it would appear that the 
main principles of the general system to be followed are definitively settled, and even 
that considerable portions of the works comprehended in it are already in process of 
execution. 

With respect to the working details of the Commission it may suffice to say that 
the regular meetings of the board for the transaction of current business, and the 
confirmation of the by-laws passed at the special meetings, are held once a month ; 
it being at the discretion of the board to adjourn the meetings to such periods as 
they may think necessary. Any important public business or new law affecting the 
extra-urban district, (fa any works connected with the city and its liberties, can only 
be discussed at special meetings called for those particular purposes, and of which 
due notice is required to be given. The General Board is empowered to nominate 
committees for the purpose of transacting such business as they may judge likely to 
be more satisfactorily managed by such smaller bodies ; the numbers of these com- 
mittees, and of the members required to constitute a quorum, are also under the con- 
trol of the board. The proceedings of the committees are, however, bound to be 
submitted to the Court of Sewers, from time to time, for their approval. 

The secretary, treasurer, engineer, clerks, collectors of rates, and the respective 
sub-agents in the different departments, are under the ultimate control of the board. 

The expense of the operations of the Metropolitan Sewers Commission is met by 
rates levied almost at the discretion of the Commissioners. They are empowered to 
divide the town into districts, "and to levy on each a 'District Sewers Rate' in 
respect of such portion as in the judgment of such Commissioners should be borne by 
such separate sewerage district, of the expense of repairing, cleansing, and maintain- 
ing in effective action, the sewers already made and completed, and which from time 
to time shall be made and completed within the limits of the Commission." A 
maximum rate of one shilling in the pound per annum of the net annual value of 
the property is, however, fixed by the act. But it may be doubted, from the word- 
ing of the next clause, whether it be not lawful for the Commissioners to levy any 
rate they may think proper for the payment of such works as are of universal utility 
to the whole series of districts. The limitation in fact only extends or applies to the 
amount of the rate to be levied for local purposes; nor does there appear to be any 
appeal from the decision of the Commissioners in these ratings. 



824 LONDON. 

Any works executed in a particular street or place not co-extensive with any- 
separate sewerage district, may, according to the judgment of the board, give rise to 
a -' special rate," the amount and mode of levying which they fix without appeal. 
They are also empowered to levy "an improvement rate," which, by a singular irony, 
is fixed at a maximum of ten per cent, on the rack rent, in respect of works they may 
judge to be of private benefit. 

The whole of this portion of the machinery of the new act is so arbitrary and uncon- 
stitutional that it is not possible that its duration can be great. Englishmen have 
no love of taxation, either for local or for general purposes. They may submit, 
grumbling the while, to pay when they find it necessary, and so long as they have some 
control over the parties levying the amount to be expended. But it is monstrous 
to suppose that they should long tolerate a system by which a body, however emi- 
nent, named by royal commission, and in no wise emanating from the public, is 
empowered to raise any amount of money, and in any proportion it may deem advi- 
sable, without appeal to another independent authority. Local boards hitherto have 
doubtlessly produced very incomplete anomalous results ; much of the old system 
required change. But to place such powers in the hands of an irresponsible body is 
a course evidently open to objections so serious and so just as to lead us to anticipate 
a revision, at any rate, of this portion of the new mode of conducting these affairs. 
It is unfortunate that the prejudices of our public, already absurdly alarmed against 
the concentration of business of a general character, should have been afforded so 
strong a justification as has been given in the present instance. 

It is true that auditors are appointed, or at least that the power of appointing 
auditors exists with the Secretary of State ; and that the accounts of the Commissioners 
are bound to be presented to parliament every year. But these provisions are in fact 
illusory, for no remedy exists in case the auditors refuse to pass the accounts ; and 
parliament rarely interferes in matters of such purely local interest as these. 

We conclude our general observations on the subject of the London sewers by 
stating that the value of the property in the district comprehended within the limits 
of the Commission is assessed at no less a rental than 12,186,000^.; and that the 
average amount of the rates levied by the ancient local commissions was about 65,0001. 
per annum. We may add that the composition of the existing board is as follows : 

Twelve commissioners, named by the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
for the term of two years, revocable at pleasure ; and the " ex officio " commis- 
sioners for the city. 

One secretary, and one chief clerk, to transact the general business of the board. 

One accountant, and one surveyor's accountant. 

One clerk of the rates. 

One engineer in chief, and nine district surveyors. 

One crier, and the requisite subordinate clerks in the different departments. 

The Commissioners are not paid for their services ; all the other parties emploj^ed 
are of course paid. 

The definite plan proposed for the approbation of the board, for the perfected 
sewerage of the metropolis, has at length been propounded. 

It consists mainly in the practical recognition of the principle that none of the 
London sewage should be poured into the river within such a distance as to allow 
the ebb or flow of the tide to retain it near the densely-peopled districts. 

After a very elaborate survey, which has extended to no less than 700 miles of covered 
sewers, Mr. Forster has been led to classify the general arrangements : — Firstly, into the 
two great natural divisions of London on the north and London on the south side of 
the Thames. On the north side it is proposed to intercept the whole of the existing 
sewers before they fall into the river, by means of two main intercepting sewers, the 
first at a level such as to allow of the flow of the water by gravitation, and the second 
at such a level as to meet the outfalls of the lowest sewers. The directions of these 
intercepting lines are to be made to converge to a point on the eastern bank of the 
river Lea, where a pumping station is to be erected, and the waters from the low- 
level sewers are to be raised to the upper one, a height of about 47 feet. From thence 



STATUARY. 825 

the united sewers will flow to a reservoir near G-alleon's Reach ; and, unless employed 
for agricultural purposes, the sewage water will there be discharged at such period of 
the tide as to prevent its reflux to London. 

A somewhat similar system will be adopted on the south side of the Thames, where 
it is proposed to form one main intercepting sewer ; but, owing to the physical confi- 
guration of this part of the town, none of the water will flow away entirely by 
gravitation. There will be a pumping station on the banks of the Ravensbourne, 
to raise the water about 25 feet, and a second pumping station to raise the water 
from the continued sewer into the reservoir, in Woolwich Marsh, which is to receive 
it during the intervals of the tides. The waters are to be discharged into the river 
at the last-named point. 

The total length of the main high-level sewer on the north side of the town is 
proposed to be not less than 19 miles 106 yards, including its principal branches. 
That of the low-level sewer is proposed to be about 14 miles 1051 yards; and the exten- 
sion to the reservoirs near Barking is to be about 4 miles long; making a total of inter- 
cepting sewer not less than 37 miles 1607 yards long, draining an area of about 41^ 
square miles, of which about 25J will be discharged by gravitation, and the re- 
mainder by pumping. 

The main sewer on the south side will be of nearly equally colossal proportions ; 
for its total length is proposed to be about 13 miles 3 furlongs, including the main 
trunk drain of about 2 miles long, and the respective branches. The area to be 
relieved is about proportionate to the length of the drain ; but the steam power em- 
ployed will be proportionally greater upon the southern than upon the northern side. 

The estimated cost of these works is about 1,250,000/. for those upon the north 
of the Thames, and about 250,000^. for those upon the south. Compensations for land 
have not been included in either case ; and, from the necessarily great amount of 
contingencies attending these works, it is hardly likely that any estimate can much 
be relied on. Nevertheless, even if the cost of the works should exceed the amounts 
stated, unquestionably the end proposed, viz. the purification of the Thames, may 
be considered cheaply purchased at a greatly-increased outlay. Mr. Forster's plan, 
regarded as a whole, deals in a philosophical and comprehensive manner with the 
difficulties of the case ; and, when completed, may well challenge comparison with any 
work of a similar nature executed in either ancient or modern times. 



STATUAKY. 

Columns in London, as monuments to commemorate great events and great 
persons, are only three in number; of obelisks there are~three; of statues there 
are several, of which the description will be found to follow. Of columns, a 
noble achievement of art and of the genius of the man who was its designer 
and constructor — Sir Christopher Wren, the first in order of time is erected 
on the site where stood the ancient church of St. Margaret's, before the fire 
of London, 1666, in Fish Street Hill, and 202 ft. from the house in Pudding 
Lane in which the fire originated. This beautiful monument of art is a 
fluted column of the Doric order, erected in pursuance of an Act of Parlia- 
ment, in commemoration of the conflagration and rebuilding of the city and 
its public edifices. The column stands on a Palladian pedestal of* about 
21 ft. square, the plinth being 27 ft. Its entire height from the pavement 
is 202 ft., which is nearly 30 ft. higher than that of Antoninus, at Rome; and 
is not only the highest, but also the finest isolated column in the world. Its 
bottom diameter on the upper part of the base is 15 ft., and contains in its 
shaft a staircase of black marble, consisting of 345 steps: on the abacus is a 
balcony, encompassing a moulded cylinder, which supports a blazing urn of 
gilt bronze, of 42 ft. in height. The basso rilievo, on the west side or front of 
the pedestal representing the king affording protection to the desolated city, 
and freedom to its rebuilders, inhabitants, &c, is sculptured in a rude style, 

X N 3 



826 LONDON. 

by Cibber; the four dragons at the four angles, by Edward Pierce. The other 
three sides of the pedestal are covered with inscriptions in Latin; that on the 
north side describes the conflagration of the metropolis; that on the south its 
restoration; and that on the east the years in which, and the persons under 
whom the works were commenced, continued, and brought to perfection. The 
whole structure was erected between the years 1671 and 1677, for the sum of 
13,700?. It is one of the sights of London, for visitors, who have admittance 
for sixpence each person, from 9 o'clock a. m., till dark. 

Secondly, the monument to commemorate the late Duke of York, erected 
at the expense of 25,000?., by his friends, is situated in the opening in 
Carlton Gardens, on the site of Carlton Palace, at the end of Waterloo Place, 
adjacent to the steps leading into St. James's Park. It is a most imposing 
structure, whether viewed from the Park or from Regent Street. 

This column, of the Tuscan order, surmounted by a statue, in military cos- 
tume, of the late Duke of York, is 94 ft. 4 in. in height, including the base 
and capital; the inferior diameter is 10ft. If in., and the lower diameter is 
11 ft. 7| in., so that the proportion of the column is fully eight diameters. 
The acroter is 12 ft. 6 in. in height, and consists of seven courses, forming at 
once a covering to the staircase and a pedestal for the statue to stand on. 
The upper lead of the abacus (on the outer edge of which is fixed a plain 
substantial iron railing), forms a gallery, to which there are ascending winding 
stairs, and from which are obtained delightful views : it is open to the public 
upon the payment of sixpence. The stairs consist of 168 steps, of 2 ft. 4 in. : 
each course in the shaft is the height of five steps, and these five steps in one 
course are placed alternately at right angles to those of the preceding course ; 
so, the four stones, each containing four steps, form one complete round of 
the staircase. Mr. Benj. Wyatt, architect, and Mr. Lowell, of Pimlico, the 
mason and contractor. 

Thirdly, the monument to the immortal Nelson. The name of Nelson is ever 
endearing and enduring with Englishmen. The Emperor of all the Russias, 
when in London, most handsomely subscribed largely to its commemoration, 
yet it was not till after much cold consideration, and a beggarly subscription, 
that a supine Government tardily determined that the site of this monument 
should be the square now called Trafalgar Square, an admirable situation, 
having for its frontage Charing Cross, and for its back ground the National 
Gallery. It is a fluted granite Corinthian column, and capital, cast in gun- 
metal, 176 ft. 6 in. in the whole height, surmounted with a colossal statue of 
18 ft. in height, executed in bronze by Mr. E. H. Baily, sculptor; the column 
designed by Mr. Railton, architect. The square pedestal is 36 ft. in height, 
and is of beautiful proportion, the four sides of which, when completed, will 
have in basso rilievo Nelson's four great battles, cast in the gun-metal taken 
in his fights from the enemy; viz., the battles of Aboukir or the Nile, St. Yin- 
cent, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar. These designs, three of which have been 
already executed, will be splendid examples of sculptured art ; the front is by 
Mr. Carew, sculptor; and the obverse by Mr. Woodington. The east side has 
just been executed ; the other is in progress. 

Obelisks. — There are two obelisks at the foot of Ludgate Hill and Fleet 
Street, to the memory of two popular representatives, Alderman John Wilkes, 
M.P., and Alderman Robert Waithman, M.P. ; and a third, in the Blackfriars 
Road, or in the centre where five roads meet, was erected in 1771, in honour 
of Brass Crosby, Esq., Lord Mayor of London, who was confined in the Tower 
for releasing a prisoner, seized contrary to law, by the House of Commons, and 
for committing the messenger of the House to prison. This obelisk has 
inscribed upon it the measured distance from points in the city of London. 

Statues. — The statues in London are, in comparison with those of many 
other cities on the Continent, in some cases of very inferior description ; yet 
there are many deserving a passing notice. The equestrian statue of Charles 



STATUARY. 827 

the First is a beautiful object, not only for its perfectness in cast, but for its 
historical recollections and its very admirable situation at Charing Cross. The 
artist of this statue was Hubert le Soeur, a pupil of John of Bologna, who cast 
and executed it for the Earl of Arundel, in 1633. Subsequently, during the civil 
wars, it was seized and sold to John River, a brazier, in Holborn, for metal to 
break up. The brazier, possibly an ardent admirer of art, or having a knowledge 
of its value, buried it, and deceived the officers of Government by shewing them 
broken pieces of other metal. At the Restoration, the statue was restored and 
placed where it is now to be seen. The statue of James the Second, in White- 
hall Court Yard, back of the Banqueting-house, is the work of Grinling Gibbons, 
and was placed there Dec. 31, 1688, at the charge of Tobias Rustat; the king 
is pointing with the fore-finger to the site of his own former palace. It is an 
admirable specimen of the works of that renowned artist. The attitude is fine, 
the manner free and easy, the execution finished and perfect, and the ex- 
pression of the face inimitable. In the north-east angle of Trafalgar Square 
is placed the equestrian statue of George the Fourth, by Sir Francis Chantrey, 
for which he was paid 9000 guineas. This, like most of the works of this ar- 
tist, is a fine example of sculptured art. Further to the west, in the open space 
between Cockspur Street and Pall Mall East, is an equestrian statue of George 
the Third, which, although a perfect likeness of the king, is not generally 
admired, on account of its costume. It was executed by Mr. Matthew Wyatt. 
In the open space opposite the New Palace at Westminster, is the bronze statue 
of the Right Hon. George Canning, by Sir R. Westmacott, well executed, at a 
cost of 7000?. It is of colossal size, and appropriately placed near the Senate- 
house, in which he so much distinguished himself. In Westminster Abbey 
there are some monumental statues by Scheemakers and Rysbach, which are 
elsewhere described. Close by, in Queen's Square, Westminster, is a statue of 
Queen Anne, a quaint statue of the old school. In Hanover Square is the 
bronze statue of William Pitt, by Sir Francis Chantrey, erected in 1831, at a 
cost of 7000?. In Hyde Park, near Apsley House, is the splendid and cele- 
brated statue of Achilles, inscribed by the women of England to the Duke of 
Wellington and his brave companions in arms, erected on the 18th of June, 
1822, cast by Sir R. Westmacott, from cannon taken in the battles of Sala- 
manca, Yittoria, Toulouse, and Waterloo. The cost was defrayed by a sub- 
scription of 10,000?., raised among the ladies. The design is from one of the 
antiques on the Monte Cavallo, at Rome, and is considered by foreigners, who 
appreciate this art more than ourselves, a most successful and accomplished 
production. Opposite the entrance to Hyde Park, is the noble Gate erected 
by Mr. Decimus Burton, upon- which is an extraordinarily fine work of art, 
by Mr. Matthew Wyatt, cast in gun metal, the equestrian statue of the Duke 
of Wellington, erected by public subscription at a cost of 36,000?. The pro- 
priety of this position for so noble a monument is questioned architecturally 
(see p. 705). In Soho Square there is a bronze statue ascribed to Charles the 
Second; some antiquaries have claimed it as the statue of the unfortunate 
Duke of Monmouth. In St. James's Square is a statue of William the Third. 
Another of the same monarch is in the Bank of England, in whose reign the 
Bank was founded. In the court yard of the Royal Exchange is a statue 
of Her present Majesty, by Lough, an eminent artist ; but it is considered 
by some as not conveying that delicacy and feminine beauty which are so 
conspicuous in our illustrious Queen : Sir Richard Whittingham, by Carew ; 
Sir Thos. Gresham, by Behnes ; Sir Hugh Myddleton, and Queen Elizabeth, 
by Messrs. Joseph, Carew, and Watson. Fronting the Royal Exchange is the 
equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington ; though ill placed, it is a very 
fine production. In King William Street, facing London Bridge, is the statue 
of King William the Fourth; rude, but beautifully executed, by Nixon. It is 
15 ft. 3 in. in height, is formed of two blocks, and is, with its pedestal, in fine 
proportion. The weight of the whole is said to be 20 tons. There is a statue 



828 LONDON. 

of Sir William Walworth, by Edward Pierce, in Fishmongers' Hall, London 
Bridge. Marble busts of the Kings George the Third, George the Fourth, and 
William the Fourth, very beautifully executed, by Sir Francis Ghantrey, are 
placed in Goldsmiths' Hall. In the front of St. Paul's is a statue of Queen 
Anne. Again, going west, is the equestrian statue of George the First (if not 
removed), in Leicester Square. Also an equestrian statue of George the First, 
by Van Nost, in Grosvenor Square ; of George the Second, in Golden Square ; 
of the Duke of Cumberland (George the Second's brother), in Cavendish 
Square. There is a remarkably fine statue of Sir Hans Sloane, by Eysbach, in 
the Apothecaries' Gardens, Chelsea. In the front of the court of Somerset 
House, is the sculpture composition of Bacon, a recumbent figure of Thames, 
and, in the upper part, a statue of George the Third. Facing the Crescent, in 
Portland Place, is the statue of the Duke of Kent, the father of the present 
Queen, by Gahagan. There is a bronze statue of Francis, Duke of Bedford, 27 ft. 
in height, in Russell Square, facing Bedford Place; and in Bloomsbury Square, 
facing the end of the same Place, Charles James Fox, in a sitting posture ; both 
by Sir Richard Westmacott. In Burton Crescent is the bronze seated figure 
of Major Cartwright, the venerable reformer, by Mr. Clarke, of Birmingham. 
There are statues of James the First and his Queen, and Charles the First and 
Second, in the niches of the Temple Bar; the Gate built by Sir Christopher 
Wren. Queen Elizabeth, in front of St. Dunstan's Church. In Queen Square, 
Bloomsbury, a statue of Queen Anne. There is also a bronze statue, by Schee- 
makers, of Guy, the founder of the hospital in Southwark bearing his name, a 
fine work of art. There are others of various character in the several squares 
not mentioned ; but we must not omit to mention an admirable statue in a 
kneeling position, of the Moor, in Clement's Inn. 

The sculpture in Guildhall is worthy of a visit ; viz. pyramidal monument 
to Lord Chatham, by Bacon ; monument to the Right Hon. William Pitt, by 
Bubb ; monument to Lord Nelson, by Smith ; monument to Alderman Beck- 
ford, by Moore ; also statues of Edward the Sixth, Queen Elizabeth, and 
Charles the First. In the Council Chamber of Guildhall is Chantrey's first 
statue of George the Third; a bust of Granville Sharp, also by Chantrey; and 
a bust of Lord Kelson, by Mrs. Darner. 

The monumental sculpture in the Rolls Chapel is curious. 1. Monument 
to Sir Richard Allington, 1561. 2. Monument (very fine) by Torrigiano, of 
Dr. John Young, Master of the Rolls in the time of Henry the Eighth. Torri- 
giano was sculptor to Henry the Seventh, and was employed by that monarch 
on the fine sculpture in that great work of art. 3. Monument to Lord Bruce, 
of Kilross, 1610, Master of the Rolls in the reign of James the First. Also, 
within a recess, a head of Christ, with an angel's head on each side. No 
mention is made here of statuary monumental sculptures, which are, to a 
considerable and interesting extent, to be seen within St. Paul's Cathedral 
and the Abbey Church of Westminster. An account of them will be found 
under the descriptions of those buildings. 

Inscriptions and Outdoor Monuments. — There is a great deficiency of 
commemorations of men of eminence, in the public streets, and few outdoor 
monuments in the shape of tablets and inscriptions. Those most to be 
noticed, are, London Stone, against St. Swithin's Church, Cannon Street; 
tablet, in Panyer Alley, Newgate Street; tablet to Milton, against the external 
wall of the Church of Allhallows, in Bread Street, Cheapside; a stone at the 
corner of Cock Lane, formerly Pye Corner, where the great fire of London 
ended; a tablet in Bullhead Court, Newgate Street, of King James's Porter 
and Dwarf; the original sign of the Leathern Bottle, over Hoare's Bank, in 
Fleet Street : in Cheapside there are three houses, having their original signs 
affixed to the fronts and let in the brickwork ; No. 37, Cheapside, has the ori- 
ginal sign of the Goose ; No. 39, the Unicorn ; and No. 77, the Seven Stars. 



STEAM NAVIGATION. 829 

STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE THAMES. 

The subject of Steam Navigation is a most important one for all civilised and 
maritime nations, the more so on account of those considerations which have 
direct relation to commerce, and in an especial degree to that of London. 
The enterprise by which so much has been accomplished belongs to the indus- 
trial inhabitants trading on the banks of the Thames ; the many experiments 
made thereon ; the large fortunes that have been sacrificed for its advance- 
ment, and the successful achievements that have, for a series of years, resulted 
from that .determinate spirit of which the Thames has been the theatre. 

It is not our purpose to dilate on its early historical records : much will be 
inserted in the new edition of " Tredgold on the Steam Engine." 

Steam navigation, however, reached the Thames. The precursor of this 
now important branch of metropolitan commerce was a small vessel originally 
called the " Margery," fitted with engines made at Glasgow, by Cook. She was 
built and fitted under the superintendence of Mr. George Dodd, who originally 
was in the navy, and subsequently distinguished himself by his talent as an 
engineer and architect ; and who, as the assistant of the late Mr. Eennie, had 
much to do with the construction of Waterloo Bridge and other great public 
works. The vessel was about 90 ft. long and 15 ft. beam, and drew 4J ft. water. 
Her engine was 14-horse power on the side lever principle. The boiler was at 
the side of the engine, and there was a tube carried across the boiler, through 
which one of the paddle shafts worked. When complete, she made a trial trip 
from Glasgow to Dublin, and thence proceeded round the Land's End to Lon- 
don, performing the whole voyage under steam. This was in the spring of 
1815 ; and after her name was changed to the "Thames," she plied for pas- 
sengers between London and Margate for the season, and in 1816 she ran to 
Gravesend, and occasionally as an excursion boat. She was broken up, and 
her engines were ultimately employed near St. John's Wood to drive a saw- 
mill. 

In 1816 Mr. Maudslay made the first pair of combined engines, and applied 
the power direct to the paddle shaft, instead of using spur gear, &c. Messrs. 
Boulton and Watt then commenced and carried on most extensively com- 
bined lowpressure engines, followed by Messrs. Maudslay, Field, &c, and by 
Messrs. Seaward, Messrs. Kennies, Messrs. Miller and Ravenshill, and many 
others, whose works are most convenient for the manufacture of marine en- 
gines. Messrs. John Penn and Son have subsequently carried on a most ex- 
tensive business in the making of those engines known as the oscillating 
cylinder engines, which they have fitted into boats of large and small tonnage 
and power, for above and below bridge. 

In steam-boat building a very extensive trade has been carried on since 1815. 
Mr. Ditchburn, of Blackwall, has distinguished himself by not only construct- 
ing timber vessels but iron also. Mr. Pitcher, of Northfleet, with whom Mr. 
Harman is now associated, had the contract for building several of the West 
India boats, besides other vessels, for public companies and for foreign govern- 
ments. Messrs. Miller and Ravenhill, of Blackwall, built the " Prince of Wales," 
a fast boat, for the Margate Company, and are now building other vessels of 
iron. Mr. Mare, of Blackwall, has built recently, and for the Russian Govern- 
ment, several iron vessels, which are well spoken of. Mr. Joyce, of the Green- 
wich Iron Works, has recently built an iron vessel to trade as a passenger and 
merchant vessel from London to Boulogne. Messrs. Robinsons and Russell, 
Marine Engineers and Steam Ship Builders, have extensively built and are 
building iron vessels. They have recently built an iron yacht for Robert Ste- 
phenson, Esq., M.P., on Mr. Scott Russell's wave principle, which has attracted 
much notice. On both the north and south banks of the Thames the various 
eminent firms are extensively engaged in the construction of marine engines as 
well as iron and timber vessels. (See also article " Mechanical Engineers.") 

The Thames has now, both below and above bridge, become the highway 



830 



LONDON. 



for the transit of passengers with economy and despatch. The serpentine 
course of the Thames affords most convenient communication for a distance 
of about 18 miles — take Eichmond in the west and Woolwich in the east — by 
small boats, at fares varying according to distance, of Id., 2d., %d., 4d., and 
6d., landing at the several wharfs. The starting-places for either up or down 
the river are London Bridge, Southwark Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Waterloo 
Bridge, Hungerford Suspension Bridge, and Westminster Bridge, besides 
numerous other wharfs; but the stranger is advised to make the bridges 
his points of departure and landing. At all the wharfs may be .seen large 
placards to direct the stranger ; and the money-takers are usually civil men, 
who will direct the foreigner or stranger correctly for his rout. Most of those 
small boats have Penn's oscillating cylinder engines or Joyce's improved en- 
gines. This extensive traffic (above and below bridge) is conducted by the 
Waterman's Company, the Citizen Company, Woolwich and Greenwich Com- 
pany, Iron Boat Company, Westminster Company, Eichmond Company, and 
other companies of a similar description, plying at all times of the day, from 
8 o'clock, a.m. to 8 o'clock, p.m. For Gravesend (the entrance to the port of 
London), a London and Thames watering-place, 30 miles from London, steam 
packets leave London Bridge Wharf, and Blackwall (Brunswick Wharf) almost 
every hour in the day : average of time two hours, at Is. per head. These 
packets are most convenient : they have refreshments on board, and the power 
of each of the engines varies from 20 to 60 horses. In the summer several 
steam packets of timber and iron leave London Bridge Wharf for Margate 
and Eamsgate, Deal, and Dover, at 10 and 11 a.m. They are usually fine 
boats, and contain every convenience and accommodation, being in fact float- 
ing taverns — dinners 2s. In the winter only one boat plies between London, 
Margate, and Eamsgate daily. 

Steam navigation exists to a great extent between the Port of London and 
most parts of the world. There are several companies and proprietary con- 
ductors of this trade. The companies consist principally of General Steam 
Navigation Companies : Cork Company, Dublin Company, West India Steam 
Navigation Company, Screw Eotterdam Company, Batavia (Dutch Company), 
Aberdeen Company, Levant Screw Company, Leith Company, Belgian Ant- 
werp Company, Boulogne Commercial Company, Hull Steam Navigation 
Company, Ipswich Company, Eed Eover and City of Canterbury Heme Bay 
Company, Belfast Company, St. Petersburg Company, Leith, Dundee and Perth, 
and Aberdeen Companies, &c. 

Some of these vessels are of very large tonnage, varying in power from 40 
to 160 horses each engine, each vessel being impelled by two engines. 

The following are the names of the places of destination :- 



Newcastle, 

Norwich, 

Ostend, 

Perth, 

Portsmouth, 



Aberdeen, 

Antwerp, 

Belfast, 

Berwick, 

Boston, 

Boulogne, 

Calais, 

Cologne, 

Constantinople, 

Copenhagen, 

Cork, 

Cowes, 

Dover, 

Deal, 

Dublin, 

Dundee, 

Offices, in Moorgate Street, and several near London Bridge, 



Edinburgh, 

Exeter, 

Guernsey, 

Hamburgh, 

Havre, 

Heme Bay, 

Hull, 

Inverness, 

Ipswich, 

Isle of Wight, 

Jersey, 

Leith, 

Levant — all the Islands, 

Liverpool, 

Margate, 



Ehine, 

Eotterdam, 

St. Petersburg, 

Southend, 

Sheerness, 

Torquay, 

West Indies — all the 

Islands, 
Yarmouth. 



THE THAMES TUNNEL. 831 

The small steam vessels that ply at places between Woolwich and Rich- 
mond are propelled by paddles, usually the ordinary ones. Those of the larger 
vessels trading with passengers and goods to distant places have usually the 
common floats, but some of them have Morgan's paddles, which are extending 
in use every day, being found most efficacious. Screw propelling is used by 
the Cork and Rotterdam Companies, the Levant Company, and the Rotterdam 
Screw Company. 



THAMES TUNNEL. 
The present is an age of unprecedented progress and invention ; an age 
in which time and space appear to have been annihilated — in which 
intelligence is made to speed from one country to another with the 
quickness of thought or the rapidity of lightning — in which the very 
elements are set at defiance and made subservient to our wants — in 
which a difficulty has but to be encountered to be overcome, a want felt 
to be supplied — a century which has beheld the perfection of the steam 
engine, the introduction of railways and steam vessels, the discovery of 
the electric telegraph, the construction of the tubular bridges, and the 
formation of a tunnel beneath the bed of the Thames. The Thames 
Tunnel is indeed one amongst the wonders of this truly wonderful 
age. 

It is now upwards of half a century since the idea of connecting the 
shores of the Thames by a subaqueous passage was first proposed by 
Ralph Dodd, the well-known engineer. The attempt was made, and 
failed, the whole of the funds having been spent in endeavouring to 
sink the shaft. Failure, however, but stimulated exertion, and in the 
year 1805, little more than seven years after the former attempt, a com- 
pany was formed and incorporated by an Act of Parliament, under the 
name of the " Thames Archway Company," with the ostensible object of 
forming an archway or tunnel beneath the bed of the river at Lime- 
house, sufficiently capacious to allow of the transit of vehicles through 
it. Again, however, for a season their efforts were not to be successful, 
although the enterprising promoters of the scheme had secured the most 
talented and experienced engineers in the persons of Mr. Vazie and Mr. 
Trevithick, under whose immediate superintendence the works were 
commenced, and carried on with such spirit and perseverance that, 
although many difficulties delayed their progress, and repeatedly threat- 
ened the destruction of their hopes, they succeeded in sinking a shaft 
on the Surrey shore, and carrying therefrom a driftway under the river's 
bed to within about 200 ft. of the opposite shore. At length, however, on 
the 26th of January, 1808, the river broke in upon the works, and finally 
defeated their endeavours. Interesting in the extreme would be the 
account of this enterprising undertaking, did space allow us to do more 
than just to mention its having been attempted. 

It was in the year 1814 that the attention of Sir Isambart Brunei was 
directed to the subject, and that by mere accident ; he was at that time 
engaged at Chatham, in the construction of the machinery which has 
since deservedly excited such general admiration for the combined 
beauty and simplicity of its mechanical arrangement, and, amongst 
other works, had just completed a small tunnel or driftway for the con- 
veyance of timber from the Medway to the saw mills at the back of the 
dockyard. In passing one day through the yard, he observed a portion 
of the keel of a vessel, which, having been sawn longitudinally, exposed 



832 



LONDON. 



to view the perforations of a sea worm well known by the name of the 
( Teredo Navalis.' He passed on, but the thought occurred to him that 
these insects had made diminutive tunnels; he immediately returned, and 
then remarked, with the greatest interest, the manner in which they had 
bored through the wood by means of an auger-formed head — how, when 
the excavation was effected, the sides were secured and rendered imper- 
vious to water by a calcareous secretion with which the insect lines its 
passage — and how carefully too near an approach to the water had been 
avoided. 

Sir Isambart's active and ever ready mind soon fertilized the first 
crude idea which Nature had lent to him ; and, within a short time, he had 
contrived a mode of forming subaqueous tunnels, by the instrumentality 
of a huge iron ' teredo.' Of this plan — the embryo of the Thames 
Tunnel— we cannot resist giving a brief sketch. Referring to the 
annexed woodcuts, the circular framing e e represents the body of the 




worm, with its auger-formed head 
A d, closely resembling in form the 
tool employed by carpenters for 
boring wood ; this instrument, 
being turned round upon a large 
hollow axis c b, bored its way 
through the ground, which was 
removed by the miners, as shown 
in figure 4. As the worm ad- 
vanced, leaving a space f f, figure 
3, small plates of cast-iron were 
introduced, and the whole was in- 
tended to be afterwards lined with 
brickwork, as shown in figures 
1 and 2. 
Several years elapsed before Sir 
FiG Isambart brought his plan for- 

ward, and it was not until the 
year 1823 that he exerted himself in the formation of a company for 
forming a tunnel beneath the Thames at Rotherjiithe. In this interval 




THE THAMES TUNNEL. 



833 




he had materially modified his 
plan, having given up the idea 
of turning the iron ( shield ' or 
6 worm ' upon its axis, fearing 
the resistance, which he anti- _ 
cipated would be occasioned ^ 
by the friction of the ground 
against its sides, and had di- 
vided it into four distinct 
frames, which could be se- 
parately advanced. Subse- 
quently he substituted the 
rectangular for the circular 
form, considering that in hori- 
zontal strata, varying in con- 
sistency and firmness, a more 
uniform pressure would be 
sustained by the former than 
by the latter. 

The Act incorporating the 
company received the royal 
assent in June, 1824 ; but in 
consequence of a dispute re- 
lative to the property required 
for the site of the Rotherhithe 
shaft, the works were not ac- 
tually commenced until the 
middle of February, 1825. 

A transverse section of the 
tunnel, as executed, is given 
in figure 5, which shows not 
only its external and internal 
form, but also the disposition 
of the bricks of which it is 
composed ; this section is 
taken through the centre of 
the tunnel, in the deepest part of the river, and shows the strata passed 
through in their natural order, and the relative positions of the high 
and low water lines, the bed of the river, and the top of the tunnel. 
Two archways running parallel side by side, possess advantages 
over one single tunnel, where a continuous traffic of vehicles in both 
directions may be expected ; and especially in the present instance, in 
which peculiar circumstances limited the height of the tunnel, namely, 
the contiguity of the bed of the river above, and the existence of an 
extensive quicksand, only a few feet below the level of its invert ; a 
quicksand of so dangerous a character, that Sir Isambart was repeatedly 
warned by eminent geologists, to keep the foundation of the tunnel as 
high as possible, and the accuracy of whose opinion was fully confirmed 
by subsequent experience. Between these two archways, at intervals 
of eighteen feet, doorways, or cross-archways are formed, affording the 
means of frequent communication, presenting a peculiarly pleasing 
feature^ and adding materially to the architectural effect. 

Since the opening of the tunnel, many of these archways have been 
fitted up as stalls or shops. 




Fig. 4. 



834 



LONDON. 



TRANSVERSE SECTION. 



TRINITY H/CH WATERMARK. 




LOW WATER MARK. 





Fig. 5. 

The external dimensions of the brickwork of the tunnel are 37 ft 
6 in. in width, and 22 ft. in height ; the thickness of the brickwork at 
the crown of the arch is 2 ft. 6 in., and the same at the lowest point of 
the invert. The external piers are each 3 ft. thick on the springing 
line of the arches, and the centre pier is 3 ft. 6 in. The archways are 
each 14 ft. wide, and 17 ft. in extreme height ; the upper portion is 
semicircular, and the invert and sides are segmental in form ; the invert 
is laid upon 3-inch elm planking. The number of bricks in every foot 
in length of the tunnel is about 6000 ; their arrangement is shown in 
the section (figure 5) ; the brickwork was built in successive additions 



THE THAMES TUNNEL. 



835 



(or rings as they were termed), sometimes a whole brick, and at other 
times only half a brick in thickness, the completion of each ring pre- 
senting a perfectly plain face, no bond whatever being employed be- 
tween the successive rings. The right-hand half of the figure exhibits 
the mode in which the bricks were laid when working in 9-inch rings, 
md the left-hand half shows the arrangement when half brick, or 4| 
inch work was employed. The tunnel is built entirely with the hardest 
picked stock bricks, laid in cement, the first or inner ring of the arch 
being laid in pure cement, and the other portions of the work in half 
ement and half clean sharp sand. The bricks for the semicircular 
portion of the arch were moulded on purpose for the work to the true 
wedge form, so that the bricks radiated with parallel joints between 
them. The total length of the tunnel is 1200 ft. 

The centre wall, which divides the two archways from each other, was 
built entirely solid, and the cross-archways, which we have described as 
being formed at frequent intervals between them, were afterwards cut 
through the solid wall ; the upper portion being sufficiently cut away 
to allow of a semicircular arch 9 inches in depth being turned, to which 
the old work was made good in cement. Figure 6 is a longitudinal 




Fig. 6. 

section of a small portion of one archway of the tunnel, looking towards 
the other one, and showing these cross-arches of communication. 

The strata shown in figure 5 are in their natural positions, as they 
would have been found had they not been disturbed ; but the ground was 
so much broken up and deranged by the progress of the shield, that 
the strata were seldom met with in the positions and with the regularity 
here shown : a is a stratum of sand, gravel, mud, and river deposits ; 
b, a bed of clay of a reddish brown colour ; c, a stratum of clay mixed 
with silt ; d, a thin layer of silt very full of shells ; e, a stratum of stiff 
blue clay; /, a bed of clay of a more mottled character, containing a 
portion of silt, and a number of shells ; g, a stratum of indurated clay, 
which at times was so hard as to require wedges to break it up ; h, a bed 
of gravel and sand of a green colour ; and i, a similar stratum, but some- 
what coarser. 

The shield or machine by the instrumentality of which the tunnel 
was effected next claims our notice ; brief, indeed, as it must be, and 
inadequate to describe those beautiful mechanical contrivances which 
were prepared to meet and overcome every possible difficulty to which 
the work was contingent. Let us conceive a huge mass of machinery, 
composed entirely of iron, 37 ft. 6 in. in width, 22 ft. in height, about 
8 ft. in depth, and weighing upwards of 200 tons, presenting in front 



836* LONDON. 

a close dense surface of timber, composed of 528 separate boards, and 
on the top and sides a similar close surface of metal, formed by plates 
overlaying the brickwork of the tunnel behind, and entering the ground 
in advance of the front timber surface ; while the back of the shield 
next the tunnel itelf was open, and afforded ready access to the miners, 
by whom its movements were controlled. The interior mechanism of 
the shield was divided into twelve distinct or separate parts, termed 
frames, each about 3 ft. in width, which stood side by side, very much 
like volumes ranged on the shelves of a bookcase, within the space 
which we have above described as being occupied by the shield. Each 
of these frames was again divided into three stories in height, by the 
introduction of iron floor-plates, so that the whole shield contained 
thirty-six small cells or boxes (as they were technically termed), suffi- 
ciently large to enable one man to work within them, but not presenting 
a larger surface of ground in front than under ordinary circumstances 
one man could attend to. In figure 5 we have shown the shield as it 
appeared when viewed from the tunnel, the division into ' frames' and 
' boxes,' which we have above described, being there very clearly seen : 
these frames were numbered consecutively from left to right, for facility 
of reference. 

It will at once be seen how admirably the shield was adapted for the 
duties which it had to perform ; the chief of these was obviously to 
support the ground, but a quality equally essential was the power of 
being easily advanced or moved forward, as the tunnel progressed. Now, 
by its division into frames, these two objects were at once attained, for 
the whole was so contrived that while six alternate frames were engaged 
in sustaining the pressure of the ground, the six intermediate frames 
were relieved entirely from all pressure, and left free to be moved for- 
ward without resistance. These, in their turn, then became the pressure- 
bearers, relieving those which had previously relieved them in a similar 
manner, and enabling them to be advanced without difficulty. 

" It has been already said that the shield, as first designed by Sir 
Isambart, bore a considerable resemblance to the worm, from which the 
first idea was derived ; but the present shield has much more aptly been 
compared with a man, to whom, in its general organisation, each of 
these ' frames ' or divisions bears a resemblance ; having legs with both 
a knee and ankle-joint, with which it alternately steps or walks on in 
advance of the brick structure ; arms, with which it supports and 
steadies itself, or lends assistance to its neighbours when they require it; 
and a head, for supporting the superincumbent earth, which can be 
raised or depressed, or altered in its direction, as circumstances may 
require."* 

Figure 7 affords a view of the three left-hand frames of the shield, as 
seen from the tunnel, the third frame being shown in section, in order 
that the mechanism may be more clearly seen ; and figure 8 is a section 
taken through the same frame, in a line parallel with the direction of 
the tunnel, or perpendicular to that shown in figure 7. The sides of the 
boxes, or frames, are formed by strong castings a a, securely bolted to 
the floor-plates b b, which, as already explained, served to separate every 
frame into three stories, or boxes. The middle boxes were stiffened, 
both transversely and longitudinally, by wrought-iron stays or struts, 
c c and d d ; and the shield was strengthened at the back by two 

* A Memoir of the Thames Tunnel, in Weale's Quarterly Papers on Engineering. 



THE THAMES TUNNEL. 



83* 



wrought-iron straps 
e e, which extended 
from the top to the 
bottom of both sides 
of each frame, passing 
through the interme- 
diate floor-plates. The 
framings of the upper 
and lower boxes were 
sloped away at the 
back, as shown in 
figure 8, to allow 
more room for the 
bricklayers in put- 
ting in the brick- 
work. The lower part 
of the bottom box 
was secured by a 
wrought-iron stay or 
framing, f and g, and 
the upper part of the 
top box by two similar 
framings of wrought 
iron, h and i. Each 
frame was supported 
upon two long jack- 
screws, k k, which, 
from the duty they 
had to perform, were 
termed/^; the lower 
extremities of these 
jacks rested upon 
strong wrought-iron 
plates l l, termed 
shoes, whose object 
was to distribute the 
weight of the frames, 
together with the 
pressure of the su- 
perincumbent earth, 
over a larger surface 
or base ; beneath 
these shoes a flooring 
of elm planks, 3 in. 
in thickness, was laid, 
upon which the brick- 
work of the tunnel 
was built, after the 
ground beneath them 
had been compressed 
by the weight of the 




Fig. 7. 



ihield passing over them. The leg was attached to the shoe by a species of 
ankle-joint e, resembling in principle the method adopted for mounting 
mariners' compasses, which allowed the shoe to adjust itself readily to any 



838 



LONDON. 




r~™ 



3 4 S C 7 8 S 10FHT. 
-1 I ! L_ I ! 1 I 



Fig. 8. 



inequality in the ground. At the upper part of the leg was the knee- 
joint m, about which it turned in the act of stepping forward : the length 



THE THAMES TUNNEL. 839 

of the leg could be varied at pleasure, by means of the screw at m, turned 
by the capstan-head at m, and a second auxiliary one in the middle 
box N. 

The frames were also provided with slings, or arms, o, consisting of 
strong wrought-iron bars, attached at their upper extremities to the 
floor-plates of the odd numbered frames, and at their lower extremities 
to the floor-plates of the even numbered frames ; the attachment con- 
sisting in an eye fitting to a circular pin projecting from the side of the 
floor-plates, so as to allow a freedom of motion about these pins as a 
centre. The upper and lower extremities of the slings consisted of two 
separate bars of metal connected by two plates or cheeks, one on either 
side, through which, and the slings themselves, metal keys or wedges 
passed, by the tightening up or driving back of which, the length 3 of 
the slings could be increased or diminished at pleasure. The use of 
these slings was to enable one frame to derive support from its neigh- 
bour on either side, or, in its turn, to afford support to either of its 
neighbours. Thus, if one of the odd-numbered frames, in which the 
upper extremity of the slings were attached to the top floor-plates was 
required to be supported independently of the legs, it was only requisite 
to tighten up the wedges and lengthen the slings to raise the frame, and 
relieve the legs entirely from pressure ; the slings, in this case, pushing 
up the frame. While in the case of an even-numbered frame, by driving- 
back the wedges of the slings on either side, and so lessening then- 
length, the frame would be drawn up, and the legs relieved from the 
office of supporting the weight of the frame. 

The ground over the roof of each frame was supported by two plates 
of metal Q q, the tails of which always overlaid the brickwork, as shown 
in figure 8, and the points entered the ground some distance in advance 
of the boards, by which the front of the shield was secured. These 
plates of metal (which were technically termed staves) were supported 
upon a cast-iron saddle piece r, resting upon a swivel s, which latter 
being supported in front upon a kind of joint u, and at the back upon a 
jack or strong screw v, could be raised or lowered at pleasure. This 
mode of supporting the top staves allowed of their being brought into 
any position, or having any direction given to them. The tails of the 
staves were supported by a powerful jack-screw w. 

The sides of the shield were secured, and the ground supported by a 
number of similar staves, z z z, figure 7, attached to the frames by a 
sliding bar, passing through a block secured to the sides of the external 
frames, in such a way as to allow of their direction being altered as 
circumstances might require. The tails of the side staves overlapped 
the brickwork of the tunnel in the same manner as the top staves. 

The ground in front of the shield, as we have already mentioned, was 
supported by small boards of wood dd, termed poling boards ; each 
frame had its own set of polings, their length corresponding with the 
width of the frames. These boards were 3 in. in thickness, 6 in. in 
width, and at each end had small iron plates let in containing a recess, 
into which the head of a small jack ee (termed the poling screws) 
fitted; the other end of these screws, resting in recesses formed for them, 
in the front rail of the cast-iron framing a a, composing the sides of 
each box. 

The frames of the shield were not in actual contact, a space of nearly 
3 in. being maintained between them, to avoid the resistance which 



840 



LONDON. 




Fig. 9. 



would have arisen from the friction* 
of the frames if they had been al- 
lowed to rub against each other ; and 
in order to preserve this space, the 
floor-plates of every odd- numbered 
frame was provided at each end with 
a pair of wrought-iron sectors of 
circles, 1 I, figure 9, (or as they were 
termed quadrants,) the heads of which 
bore against the floor-plates of the 
even-numbered frames, and the cir- 
cumference of which worked in the 
recesses mm, formed in the floor- 
plates of the odd-numbered frames 
for their reception. The quadrants 
served only to prevent the frames 
approaching too close : to obviate 
their spreading, a powerful tie, 
formed by two wrought-iron bolts 1 1, 
was attached to the two external 
frames. 

Each frame was supported and 
maintained in a vertical position by 
two powerful screws //, figure 8, 
termed the abutment screws, one at 
the top and one at its lower ex- 
tremity. The heads of these screws 
rested against iron plates hh, which served to throw the pressure occasioned 
by the screw over a larger surface of the brickwork. It was by means of 
these screws that the frames of the shield were advanced. The foregoing 
is but a very imperfect description of this immense machine ; for a fuller 
account, illustrated by plates, showing every detail of its construction, 
we must refer to "Weale's Quarterly Papers on Engineering."* 

We now pass on to describe the mode in which the excavation was 
carried on and the shield advanced. We should first state, that every 
alternate frame of the shield stood three inches in front of the inter- 
mediate frames, which latter, when advanced, were moved forward six 
inches at a time, so as then to stand (in their turn) three inches in 
advance of the others. Thus, the odd-numbered and even-numbered I 
frames alternately stood in advance of each other. We shall now sup- 1 
pose the odd-numbered frames to be behind, and proceed to detail the I 
method of advancing one of them (No. III.), which will sufficiently! 
explain the process adopted in the case of any one of the rest. Figure I 
10 represents a sectional plan of a portion of the frames Nos. II., III.J 
and IV., showing the relative positions of the front rails of those frames J 
together with their poling boards and the poling screws which supportedl 
them. This being the position of things, the first operation is to remove! 
the poling boards of the frame No. III., one at a time, commencing atl 
the top of the box, and, having carefully excavated or cut away thel 
ground to a depth of three inches, to replace the poling and its two! 

* It should be mentioned that two shields were employed in the construction of the tunnel.l 
That which we have just described was the second, and contained several improvements whichl 
experience had pointed out. They were, however, identical in principle, and in their generalr 
mode of action. 



THE THAMES TUNNEL. 



841 



crews ; but instead 
of resting the lat- 
ter upon their own 
frame, as they were 
before, they are now 
placed against the 
front rail of the 
two other frames 
on either side, as 

hown in figure 11 ; 

he object of this 
arrangement being, 
that the interme- 
diate frame, after 
all the poling screws 
have been so re- 
moved, shall be left 
entirely free to be 
advanced or moved 
forward without ex- 
periencing any re- 
sistance from the 
ground against its 
poling boards, the 
whole of which 
are then tempora- 
rily supported by 
its neighbouring 
frames. The frame 
itself is then moved 
forward the re- 
quired distance, or 
six inches, by means 
of the large abut- 
ment screws //, 
figure 8 ; the mode 
of operation being 
first to relieve the 
legs of the frame 
from weight by 
means of the slings, 
in the manner al- 
ready explained, 
then to move for- 
ward the two shoes 
L l, bringing the 
legs into the sloping 
position shown in 
the figure (7), after 
which the frame it- 
self is screwed for- 
ward by turning the 
upper and lower 




Fig. 11. 




Fro. 13. 







842 LONDON. 

abutment screws simultaneously, until the legs are brought again into a 
vertical position, and the frame assumes the situation shown in figure 12, 
being then three inches in advance of its neighbours, Nos. II. and IV. 
The poling boards are now again removed, the ground ODce more 
excavated to a further depth of three inches, and the boards and poling 
screws again replaced, the latter being again restored to their own 
frame, so that they assume the position shown in figure 13, the frames 
and polings of the odd-numbered divisions being now three inches in 
advance of the even-numbered frames, which latter, in their turn, will 
undergo a similar operation to that above explained. 

In figure 8 the polings in the upper box are shown as having been 
worked forward, while in the middle and lower boxes they are repre- 
sented as being in the act of being worked ; in the latter, two polings 
are shown out at once ; this was usually allowed in the lower boxes, the 
ground in which, being further from the river, was usually more solid 
than in the upper boxes, and occasionally, when the ground in the latter 
was unusually good, the miners in those boxes were allowed also to 
remove two polings at a time. 

When the whole shield had thus been advanced sufficiently to admit 
of a ring of brickwork being introduced, this was immediately proceeded 
with, the arches being turned upon a narrow centering or profile v, 
figure 8, and being inserted behind the abutment-screws //, one at a 
time, care being taken that none of the poling screws were resting upon 
a frame whose abutment screws were not in proper bearing. As the 
shield advanced, a timber stage on wheels followed it, which afforded 
ready means of access for the miners and bricklayers to every part of the 
shield. 

Having thus described as fully as our limited space will allow, the 
mode in which the shield was employed and the tunnel itself con- 
structed, we shall next proceed to give a short narrative of the progress 
of the work, and a brief account of some of the difficulties which had 
to be encountered, with the means resorted to in overcoming them, and 
in which the ingenuity and indomitable perseverance of Sir Isambart 
Brunei were so eminently displayed. 

The necessary preliminary arrangements having been made, the opera- 
tion of constructing the shaft on the Rotherhithe shore was commenced 
on the 16th of February, 1825 ; the foundation stone was laid on the 
2nd of March, and the shaft was completed by the end of October of 
the same year. It was fifty feet externally in diameter, the walls being 
three feet in thickness to a depth of forty-five feet, this portion being 
built entirely of bricks laid in Roman cement, and sunk through the 
ground in the mode usually adopted for sinking wells ; that is, the wall 
was built above the ground, upon a strong cast-iron curb, having a 
sharp cutting edge which entered the ground, and the shaft was lowered 
by excavating within it to a depth of forty feet ; at this point, however, 
becoming earth-bound, it was found necessary to complete it by under- 
pinning the brickwork, that is, building it downwards, as the excavation 
was carried down, which was not accomplished without considerable 
trouble, occasioned by the loose nature of the ground which had to be 
passed through, and the great quantity of water met with in some oi 
the strata ; this lower portion of the wall was increased in thickness to 
four feet, and was built of rag stone laid in mortar, composed of Roman 
cement and lime together, and lined with two courses of bricks laid in 



THE THAMES TUNNEL. 843 

cement. At a depth of eighty feet an invert was formed, and in the 
centre a smaller shaft twenty-five feet in diameter was sunk, to serve as 
a pumping well to drain the works during their progress ; it was in the 
construction of this latter well that a confirmation was afforded of the 
truth of the statement already alluded to, relative to the existence of a 
quicksand beneath the tunnel. 

On the completion of the shaft, the several pieces of the shield were 
lowered into it, and put together opposite to an opening which had been 
left in the side of the shaft, and through which the shield commenced its 
march in the latter part of November : its progress at first was necessa- 
rily slow, the men being as yet inexperienced in the use of its several 
parts. 

Very little inconvenience was experienced from water after the first few 
weeks, until nearly the first 200 feet had been completed, after which the 
quantity gradually increased until in April, 1827, when rather more than 
500 feet of the tunnel having been completed, it was found requisite to keep 
as many as forty men constantly at work to pump out the water which 
found its way into the shield. During the whole of this period the 
ground was found to be very loose, and it was only by the most constant 
vigilance and caution, that such steady and good progress was main- 
tained. As, however, the shield approached the centre of the river, the 
nature of the ground was found to alter, and to become more and more 
loose, the silt and clay which had previously been met with giving place 
to gravel, sand, and river deposits, through which the water found its way 
in very large quantities. The progress at this period was, however, greater 
than it had been at any former period, as much as 9 ft. 3 in. in length of 
the tunnel having been completed in three days. 

On the 1st of May, 1827, the miners struck for an increase in their 
wages, in consequence of which several inexperienced hands had to be 
taken on in their place, and the ground becoming still worse than it had 
previously been, some apprehensions began to be felt that an irruption of 
the river might occur ; and after two very serious runs of loose ground, 
on the 8th and 11th of the same month, being successfully repelled, these 
apprehensions were but too certainly verified. On the 12th the influx of 
water in the shield was found to increase with the rise of the tide, and 
although every precaution was taken, about six o'clock in the morning 
the river broke in with overwhelming violence, and with such rapidity 
that the whole tunnel and shaft were filled in a very few minutes. Mr. 
Beamish, the engineer on duty, and the men under him had to make a 
hasty retreat, and narrowly escaped being overtaken by the flood. 

A diving bell having been obtained, with its aid the bed of the river 
was examined, and it was found that a very large cavity had been formed 
by the rush of the water carrying the ground into the tunnel ; so that a 
free communication existed between the river and the tunnel, the tide 
rising and falling simultaneously in both ; the content of the ground 
thus displaced was estimated as being not less than 25,000 cubic feet. 
Immediate steps were taking for repairing this breach, by putting 
down tarpaulings over the hole, and filling it with bags of clay and gravel, 
the diving bell being employed from time to time to inspect the state of 
the filling. These means being found successful, the water was pumped 
out of the tunnel, and the shield was re-entered by Mr. Beamish on the 
27th of June. 

This irruption afforded strong evidence of the stability of the brickwork 

o o 2 



84 i LONDON. 

of the tunnel, which was found undisturbed, as well as of the efficiency 
of the shield, which after the severe shock it had sustained was found tc 
be but very slightly injured. 

It was not until the latter end of September that the advance of the 
shield was resumed, and at first the progress was very slow. The influx 
of water was now found to be more copious than ever, and on one occa- 
sion amounted for several hours to 1200 gallons per minute. 

By the middle of January, 1828, another 50 ft. had been added to the 
tunnel, its total length being then about 605 ft., when on the 12th, another, 
and more sudden irruption of the river took place, the tunnel filling with 
such rapidity, that of all those who were in it at the time, Mr. Brunei 
alone escaped, six men being drowned in different parts of the work, 
Mr. Brunei himself had a very narrow escape, and sustained several se- 
vere contusions, being carried up the shaft by the rush of water amidst 
floating timber and casks. 

The injury was once more repaired in the same way as before, the hole 
in the bed of the river being filled with bags of clay and gravel ; and bj 
the 12th of April, exactly three months after the irruption, the shield 
was once more entered. 

Now, however, a fresh obstacle presented itself to the further progress 
of the work; the experience hitherto gained had shown that the means 
devised by Sir Isambart were fully adequate to the accomplishment oi 
the desired end, but the funds of the company were found to be nearlv 
exhausted, and consequently the suspension of the works became inevi- 
table. 

In order to make the tunnel as secure as possible, and prevent any recur- 
rence of an irruption, Sir Isambart recommended that the shield should 
be blocked up with brickwork, and a solid wall built at the end of both 
arches, so as entirely to shut out the river, which was done in the follow- 
ing July. 

In this state the tunnel remained until the beginning of 1835, when 
an act of Parliament having been obtained, authorising the Exchequer 
Loan Commissioners to advance money for its completion, the works were 
resumed ; Mr. Page being appointed Resident Engineer. 

The old shield had been so much injured by the two irruptions, that 
it was determined to replace it by another ; in which many improvements 
were introduced, and which was made of much greater strength than 
the first. The operation of removing the old shield, and erecting the 
new one, was peculiarly difficult, from the necessity of securely support- 
ing the ground during the whole of the time, and from the confined 
space in which the work had to be performed ; it was, however, success- 
fully accomplished by the 13th of February, 1836, on which day the first 
movement of the new shield was made. 

The progress of the shield, although slow, was tolerably steady, until 
the middle of June, when the ground became so bad that it was fre- 
quently found necessary to block up many of the frames with planks, 
straw, and other materials. Towards the end of July the ground some- 
what improved, and a greater rate of progress was attained. In the 
following March, however, the progress became again checked, and during 
several weeks nothing whatever was done ; during these periods of delay 
very considerable expense was incurred, from the necessity of keeping 
up nearly the same establishment of men as when the works were in full 
progress. At this time the bed of the river over the shield was constantly 



THE THAMES TUNNEL. 845 

watched, soundings being taken every tide, and bags of clay and gravel 
being immediately thrown in, whenever any depression was discovered. 

During July and August a little progress was made, but on Aug. 23rd 
the river broke into the tunnel for the third time, after a conflict of seve- 
ral hours. Fortunately no lives were lost on this occasion, and such 
energetic measures were taken for repairing the evil, that in a week's 
time the hole in the bed of the river had been filled, the tunnel partially 
cleared of water, and the shield re-entered ; and in less than a month, 
the progress of the shield was resumed, and the work was carried on 
with the utmost caution ; notwithstanding which, however, on the 3rd 
of November, the Thames once more invaded the tunnel, and on this oc- 
casion one of the men was unfortunately lost. 

Within a fortnight of the irruption, the shield was once more in the 
possession of the miners, and in a little more than six weeks the whole 
was restored to order, and progress was resumed, although very slowly. 

During February and the early part of March, 1838, a quicker rate of 
progress was attained, and hopes were entertained of still further im- 
provement, when on the 20th, the river broke in for the fifth and last 
time. The progress of the shield was, however, resumed within a fort- 
night, and continued without further interruption. 

Want of space permits our giving in greater detail, the many difficul- 
ties which were encountered, and describing the admirable contrivances 
by which they were successfully overcome, as well as narrating the many 
instances of courage and zeal afforded by the men, of whose conduct 
Mr. Page (the Acting Engineer, under whose direction the tunnel was con- 
structed subsequent to August, 1836) has remarked, u Although custom 
renders every danger or appearance of danger familiar, yet no one can 
witness the conduct of our fine fellows in the shield without emotion. 
In many a trying scene they have stood to their posts in a manner so 
collected and unflinching that I cannot speak too highly in their praise ; 
and in after times when the circumstances attending the progress of the 
Thames Tunnel are brought before the public, the behaviour of the 
miners, particularly the top men, will not be forgotten." For a fuller 
account we must refer the reader to the article on the Tunnel already al- 
luded to in " Weale's Quarterly Papers on Engineering." 

In August, 1840, the tunnel having been completed to a length of 1145 
ft., and the shield having arrived within about 60 ft. of the site in- 
tended for the shaft on the Wapping side of the river, its further pro- 
gress was stopped, until the latter had been completed, as it was appre- 
hended that some settlement in the tunnel might be produced, during 
the operation of sinking the shaft, if brought too close to each other. 
The construction of the shaft was immediately proceeded with ; it was 
made 55 ft. in external diameter at the bottom, but only 53 ft. in 
diameter at the top, the object in making it taper, being to avoid its 
becoming earth-bound, as that on the Rotherhithe side had been ; and 
this expedient was found to answer perfectly, no difficulty being ex- 
perienced in sinking it to the full depth required. In sinking this shaft 
three distinct lines of piles and camp-shedding were met with, showing 
the existence of ancient wharfs on the banks of the Thames, much be- 
low its present level. 

In June, 1841, the shaft having then been sunk to a depth of 27 ft., a 
small driftway was carried from the tunnel under the shaft, and a pipe 
driven up, by means of which the excavation for the latter was effectually 



84G ' LONDON. 

drained. On the 12th of August the excavators in the shaft reached the 
top of the driftway, and on the same day Sir Isambart Brunei achieved 
that which had for years been the object of his most ardent hopes, and 
untiring perseverance, by passing through the tunnel from Wapping to 
Rotherhithe. 

The work was now again resumed in the shield, and by the latter part 
of November the middle frames had touched the brickwork of the shaft, 
through which it passed in the same manner as it had passed through 
the ground, and did not stay its march until the whole of the frames 
were entirely within the shaft. The brickwork of the tunnel was made 
good to tha,t of the shaft, after which in the early part of 1842, the 
shield was taken to pieces and removed, the shafts cleared, the perma- 
nent staircases erected, and the superstructure on the top of the shafts 
built. These operations necessarily occupied much time, and before the 
pumping machinery in the Rotherhithe shaft could be removed, other 
pumps for the permanent drainage of the tunnel, had to be erected in 
the first cross-archway on that side of the river. It was not, therefore, 
until the 25th of March, 1843, that the tunnel was opened as a public 
thoroughfare for the passage of persons from one shore to the other be- 
neath the bed of. the Thames. 

The total cost of the tunnel up to the present time has been 454,714£. ; 
of which 180,000£. was subscribed by the original shareholders, or was 
raised upon debentures, and the remainder was advanced by the Ex- 
chequer Loan Commissioners. To complete the carriage descents or 
approaches it is estimated that a further sum of 180,000£. would be 
required, which would make the total cost of the tunnel available for 
carriage traffic only 634,7 14£, a sum very little more than half that 
which either London or Waterloo bridges cost. 



UNION WORKHOUSES 
Are specially applicable for the lodging and protection of the poor 
in and about London. A great many parishes in the metropolis are 
regulated under the provisions of the Poor Law Act of Parliament. 
We will select as an example one of recent erection. 

The City of London Union Workhouse is situated most advantage- 
ously in the Bow Road, Mile End. It is an edifice of much beauty 
and architectural effect. Mr. Richard Tress was the architect. 

The area occupied by this establishment is about 4£ acres, situate in the Bow Road, partly 
in the parish of Mile End Old Town, and partly in St. Leonard's, Bromley, abutting on the 
high road, and contiguous to the Tower Hamlets Cemetery; a fine open and healthy situation, 
with a clean gravelly subsoil. The first stone was laid by Mr. Alderman Gibbs on the 20th of 
June, 1848, and the building was finished and thrown open to public view on the 12th of 
November, 1849. The style of architecture is Italian, with a campanile in the centre, 100 ft. 
from the ground, on either side of which is a lesser tower, each 70 ft. in height. Beneath are 
the principal stairs, forming a central communication to all parts of the house, on one side 
of which are the day and bed-rooms of the master and male officers, and on the other side 
those of the matron, &c. The chapel is in the front of the building, a neat and unostenta- 
tious edifice, with an open timber roof stained and varnished. It has an altar-piece of white 
marble cement, with two columns of solid marble, each column in one entire stone. These co- 
lumns, are supposed to have been presented by the Emperor of Russia to his English ambassador 
and were found among the old materials removed from the site, and reserved by the architect 
for the purpose to which they are applied. The tablets upon the altar-piece of enamelled slate, 
containing the commandments, were gratuitously written in gold by the vice-chairman of the 
guardians (Mr. Thornton), and the stained-glass window above was a present from Mr. Yigers, 
guardian of the precinct of Whitefriars. One side of the building is appropriated for males, 
and the other for females, but both sexes use the dining-hall and chapel. 

The dining-hall is upwards of 100 ft. in length, 50 ft. wide, and 28 ft. high, with an open timber 
roof, and is capable of accommodating more than 800 persons. 



WATER SUPPLY. 84? 

The kitchens adjoining the dining-hall are furnished with a steam-cooking apparatus, and the 
building is heated throughout with warm water. There are hot and cold water lavatories and 
baths in every department of each floor from the receiving ward to the infirmary. 

The whole of the corridors are fireproof, and are laid with metallic lava. There are nume- 
rous fire mains connected with the pump by which the institution is supplied with water from 
a well 247 ft. deep, sunk 70 ft. into the chalk. 

The infirmary is calculated to contain 200 patients, and is, as well as the fever hospital, de- 
tached from the main building. In addition to cells for refractory paupers, there is accom- 
modation for the imbecile, &c. 

The establishment has accommodation for 1100 paupers besides officers. 

The sanitary improvements consist of water-closets on the ground and one-pair floors, with 
double doors to prevent the escape of effluvia into the house : a wire is attached to the inner door, 
so that no one can enter or leave without letting the water flow to clear the pans. Below the 
pans or seats is a trough, constantly full of water, into which the soil falls, and is thence 
floated into the main sewer by flushing taps. 

The total cost of the building was about 58,000/. The city is 
divided into 97 parishes and one precinct, and has 101 guardians. 



WATEB SUPPLY OF LONDON. 
The supply of water to large towns has now become a subject of such great 
importance, and involves problems of so extensive and complicated a nature, 
that its treatment has called forth in an especial manner the resources of 
science, and occupied the attention of some of the most eminent philosophers 
and practical engineers of modern times. 

London affords a good example of the magnitude of the operations required 
for furnishing this indispensable element of health and comfort to a large city. 
The daily quantity of water supplied to the inhabitants of the metropolis is 
nearly twice as much as would fill St. Paul's Cathedral ; this is drawn from 
sources in some cases many miles distant ; it has to be purified and fitted for 
domestic use ; elevated often to a height of hundreds of feet above its original 
level, and finally distributed through every street and into the interior of 
almost every house, over an area of little short of 100 square miles. It juslj 
easily, therefore, be conceived that the operations for accomplishing these 
objects must be on a scale of considerable magnitude, and must require, in 
their arrangement and management, no small degree of scientific and tech- 
nical skill. 

The following few pages will contain a concise account of the manner in 
which the metropolis is at present supplied with water, prefaced by a short 
historical notice of the several steps by which the system has arrived at its 
present state of advancement. 

HISTORICAL NOTICE. 

In early times, the inhabitants of the metropolis obtained their prin- 
cipal supplies of water by direct carriage from the river Thames, or from 
the tributary brooks and streams in the immediate vicinity. As, however, 
the city increased in size, access to the river became more inconvenient, 
and the labour of carriage more difficult for those who lived at a distance ; 
and recourse was then had to springs discovered on the higher grounds, 
the waters of which were conveyed through earthen or leaden pipes, often 
of considerable extent, to conduits or fountains conveniently situated for 
distribution. The memory of these ancient sources of supply still survives 
in many familiar local names. Thus Walbrook and Holbom (formerly Old- 
borne, the word borne or boorne being synonymous with the northern word 
burn, a brook) remind us of streams formerly limpid and salubrious, but 
now converted into dirty subterranean drains ; — Holywell and Clerkenwell 
perpetuate the remembrance of fountains, once celebrated and probably 
perennial, but now concealed by masses of densely-inhabited buildings; — 
while Conduit Street, Lamb's Conduit, and White Conduit, indicate no less 



848 LONDON. 

clearly the localities of artificial hydraulic constructions, once works of mag- 
nitude and importance, but which have long since disappeared. 

This state of things continued till about the middle of the sixteenth 
century, when the metropolis had so increased in extent that the conduits 
and small streams became insufficient to meet the increasing demands for 
water, and it was again found necessary to have recourse to the more co- 
pious supply derivable from the river Thames. In the first instance it was 
attempted to bring the water from the river to the interior of the city by 
conduits at a low level, but the necessity of raising it threw great obstacles 
in the way of this method of supply, and led to the substitution of another 
scheme, which was eminently successful, and may be called the first metro- 
politan water-works worthy of the name. 

In 1581, Peter Morrys, an enterprising Dutchman, conceived the bold idea 
of forcing the water from the Thames by mechanical pumping power, 
through pipes in the streets, into the houses of the inhabitants. His pro- 
posals were favourably received by the corporation, who granted him the 
necessary powers, and he proceeded forthwith to establish his works. These 
consisted of a water-wheel erected under the first arch of London Bridge, 
which, being turned by the tidal stream, worked forcing pumps, and thus im- 
pelled the water through leaden or wooden pipes in the streets, and thence by 
branches into the houses. The power exerted by the machinery was so great 
that Morrys was able to give public proof of his skill, by throwing a jet of 
water over the steeple of St. Magnus Church, to the no small admiration of 
the wondering citizens, seeing that before that time " no such thing was 
known in England as this raising of water." His works succeeded so well 
that two years afterwards another water wheel was erected in the second 
arch, and the distribution within the city was proportionably extended. The 
London Bridge Waterworks, thus established, subsequently increased further 
in magnitude, and kept up for nearly 200 years a strong competition with the 
New River. They eventually, however, became unprofitable, and, after passing 
into the possession of the New Eiver Company, were demolished along with 
Old London Bridge in 1831. 

The success of Morrys's works gave an impulse to hydraulic operations, and 
several schemes were soon set on foot for the supply of those parts of the 
metropolis which lay beyond the reach of his mains; but none of these require 
further notice here except one gigantic undertaking — the New River, which, 
considering the comparatively unadvanced state of engineering science at 
that time, remains a monument of skill and enterprise, of which the city of 
London has just reason to be proud. 

In 1606 an act of Parliament was obtained to enable the corporation to 
bring a stream of pure water to the metropolis, by a canal, from the springs 
of Chad well and Am well, upwards of twenty miles distant, in Hertfordshire ; 
but the corporation, alarmed probably at the magnitude of the plan they had 
projected, hesitated to commence the works, until, in 1609, an enterprising 
citizen, Mr. Hugh Myddelton (afterwards Sir Hugh Myddelton, baronet), 
offered to execute them single-handed, on condition that the authority pre- 
viously obtained from Parliament should be transferred to him. His offer 
was accepted, and he at once commenced the work ; but through a complica- 
tion of difficulties, and the ungracious refusal of the corporation to aid him 
in his arduous undertaking (although he had brought his canal to within a 
few miles of London), he was compelled to appeal to King James I. for the 
means of completing the works. The King furnished the necessary grant of 
money on condition that half the property in the New River should be ceded 
to him, and on the 16th of September, 1613, the canal being completed, the 
water flowed into the reservoir at Clerkenwell, amidst the rejoicings of a 
large concourse of people assembled to witness the ceremony. The accom- 



WATER SUPPLY. 849 

plishment of this important project has immortalized the name of Hugh 
Myddelton, whose disinterested perseverance, fortitude, and industry in com- 
pleting so useful an undertaking, have eminently entitled him to the grateful 
remembrance of the citizens of London. The advantages the metropolis 
derives from his labours will probably endure yet for centuries to come. 

The New Eiver, the London Bridge works, and what remained of the more 
ancient conduits, kept the greater part of the metropolis well supplied with 
water for the whole of the seventeenth century; but as buildings began to extend 
westward, new demands arose; and again the Thames was reverted to as 
the most obvious source for an increased supply. In 1691 a company was 
formed called the York Buildings Waterworks Company, for supplying a part 
of Westminster with water pumped from a point in the river near Charing 
Cross. These works flourished for some time, but failed under competition 
with the more copious supplies of larger companies, notwithstanding many 
important improvements introduced by that eminent engineer, the late Mr. 
Eennie. In 1818 the works were leased to the New Eiver Company, and in 
1829 were abolished altogether. 

In 1723 a more successful attempt was made in the establishment of the 
Chelsea Watemvorks, for supplying the city of Westminster, and parts adjacent, 
with water taken from the Thames at Chelsea Eeach, For this purpose a 
company was formed, which was constituted a corporation by a charter 
granted by George I. in 1724. In 1729 they purchased the Millbank Water- 
works, which had existed many years previously, but had then fallen into 
difficulties; in 1743 they erected their first steam-engine, and in 1810 removed 
to the site they at present occupy. The company had the privilege of making 
reservoirs in the royal parks, as well as of supplying water for the palaces 
and government buildings, and their operations otherwise extended over a 
large and populous district ; but at first the returns were barely adequate to 
meet the current expenses, and when profits began to accrue they were for 
a long period capitalized in extending the works ; yet, by perseverance, good 
management, and continual improvements in the engineering department, the 
concern at length became profitable, and is now one of the most flourishing 
of the metropolitan water companies. 

After the establishment of the Chelsea Company, no material change took 
place for eighty or ninety years, beyond the gradual extension and improve- 
ment of the works then existing, and the introduction of iron street-pipes * 
in lieu of wooden ones, the expense, leakage, and other inconveniences of 
which had been severely felt. The use of the new material not only enabled 
the old works materially to improve their supplies, but gave a great advan- 
tage to new companies entering the field in competition with them, 

In 1806 an act of Parliament was obtained for taking water from the 
Thames, for the supply of Hammersmith, Kensington, and the vicinity, in 
which direction buildings were fast increasing. The company who carried out 
this undertaking took the title of the West Middlesex Watemcorks Company. 
They did not at first succeed in the suburban districts, in consequence of the 
plentiful supplies of water found in springs and wells; but in 1810 they 
obtained farther powers to extend their works into the north-west districts of 
London, where they now furnish a large portion of the supply. 

In 1811 another company was formed, who availed themselves of the powers 
granted by a clause in the Grand Junction Canal Company's Act, for supplying 
(also to the north-west part of London) water brought by the canal from the 

* In 1746, the Chelsea Company laid their first iron main for conveying water from their 
works on the river to their reservoir in Hyde Park. From this time to 1810 the introduction 
of iron pipes was principally limited to the larger mains, but after that date the use of the new 
material became very general. The system of high service supply was demanded by the inha- 
bitants of the better class of houses ; and the old pipes of wood, stone, or pottery being unable 
to withstand the increased pressure, they were soon replaced by those of iron throughout the 
whole of the districts supplied, 

oo3 



850 LONDON. 

rivers Colne and Brent, and from a large reservoir supplied by land drainage 
in the north-western part of Middlesex. These waters were represented to be 
much superior to that of the Thames, but experience disappointed the hopes 
of the projectors; the water was found not only to be bad in quality, but 
deficient in quantity also, and after vain expedients to remedy the evils, the 
company, which had taken the name of the Grand Junction Waterworks 
Company, resorted, in 1 820, to the Thames, taking their entire supply from a 
point near Chelsea Hospital. 

While these improvements were going on in the west, the inhabitants of 
the other end of the metropolis had not been idle ; the districts eastward, 
beyond the reach of the mains of the New Eiver or London Bridge works, 
had hitherto been dependent on two small establishments at Shadwell and 
West Ham ; but as the population increased, and further supplies became 
necessary, a company was established under the name of the East London 
Waterworks Company, for supplying water from the river Lea. Their act 
was obtained in 1806; they immediately erected works at Old Ford, near 
Bow, and soon spread their mains over an extensive district. 

The portion of the metropolis lying south of the river Thames was first 
supplied with water by two wheels erected under London Bridge, near the 
Surrey shore, and also by separate works at St. Mary Overies. These two 
establishments, both of considerable antiquity, were combined, under the 
name of the Southwarh Waterworks, in 1822. 

In 1785 the Lambeth Waterworks Company was established for supplying 
the parish of Lambeth and parts adjacent with water taken from the Thames, 
at a site nearly opposite Hungerford Market. They commenced their opera- 
tions with a small capital, but by careful management, and avoiding a large 
expenditure at the commencement, their enterprise was attended with 
success. 

In 1805 a third company, the Vauxhall Watervjorks Company, was esta- 
blished for supplying the Surrey side of London. They took their water at 
first from the river Effra, and subsequently from the Thames, near Yauxhall 
Bridge. 

All the companies, whose rise we have chronicled above, in the first in- 
stance, supplied water just as it came to hand, without being over particular 
as to the state it was in. Between the years 1820 and 1830, however, the 
attention of the public was attracted to the quality of the water they were 
receiving, and since it appeared that improvement was needed, the companies, 
urged by the pressure from without, took steps to improve it accordingly. 

The Chelsea Company led the way, and their engineer, Mr. Simpson, has the 
credit of first carrying into effect, on the largest scale, the important process 
of filtration, by which the good quality of the water supplied was effectually 
insured. In 1825, 1826, and 1827, he made many experiments, with a view 
to the introduction of this process, and in 1829 the first large filter, of one 
acre area, was set to work, and so perfect was its operation, that the sub- 
sequent experience of twenty years has suggested no material improvement 
on the principle of its construction. 

The New Kiver Company made extensive settling reservoirs, and discon- 
tinued a supplementary supply which they had occasionally drawn from 
the Thames ; — the Grand Junction Company (the character of whose water 
had been most impugned) removed their source of supply from Chelsea 
to near Brentford, and formed filtering reservoirs there ; — the West Middle- 
sex Company constructed large reservoirs ; — the East London removed their 
source higher up the Lea ; — and, though somewhat later, the Southwark and 
Yauxhall Companies amalgamated, abolished their old sites, and established 
new works at Battersea. 

The Lambeth Waterworks Company, shortly after 1830, formed elevated 



WATER SUPPLY. 851 

reservoirs at Brixton Hill and Streatham, for the purpose of improving the 
service generally, and maintaining a constant supply of water in case of fire. 
They have lately, however, made a bolder improvement ; for, considering the 
state of the river in the tide- way objectionable as a source of supply (owing 
principally to the constant agitation kept up by the steamers plying between 
the bridges, and the increased quantity of sewage poured into the Thames in 
the London district) they obtained, in 1848, an act to enable them to abandon 
their former source opposite Hungerford Market, and to take water from the 
pure stream of the river at Ditton, twenty-three miles above London Bridge, 
and beyond the reach of the tide. The works are now in progress, and it 
is stated the water will be brought into London in the autumn of the present 
year. 

DESCRIPTION. 

The metropolis is now supplied with water by seven companies *, five on 
the north side of the Thames, namely, — 

1. The New Eiver Company. 

2. The East London Waterworks Company. 

3. The Chelsea Waterworks Company. 

4. The West Middlesex Waterworks Company. 

5. The Grand Junction Waterworks Company. 
And two on the south side, namely, — 

6. The Lambeth Waterworks Company. 

7. The Southwark and Yauxhall Waterworks Company. 

In addition to the above may be mentioned the two following, which supply 
suburban districts : — 

8. The Hampstead Waterworks Company ; and, 

9. The Kent Waterworks Companj'. 

Each company supplies a certain district, marked by distinct boundaries. 
Formerly many of the companies were frequently engaged in competition 
with each other over the same ground ; but the effects of this were so ruinous, 
that it ultimately led to a mutual arrangement, by which separate limits were 
assigned to the operations of each company f. 

The following brief descriptions will give an idea of the works of the 
different companies, and the districts they respectively supply. 

The New Eiver Company derive their supply from sources in Hertford- 
shire, of which the principal are, 1st, a copious spring, called the Chadwell 
Spring, situate between Hertford and Ware ; 2nd, an arm of the river Lea, 
in the same neighbourhood ; and 3rd, wells sunk into the chalk at Amwell. 
These united waters are conducted by an artificial channel, called the " New 
River," to London. The distance of the sources from London, in a direct line, 
is about twenty-one miles ; but as the New Eiver winds considerably, in order 
to take advantage of suitable levels of the ground, its total length is nearly 
forty miles. Its average dimensions are about 18 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep, and it 
has an average fall of 3 inches in each mile of length. Leaving Ware, it turns 
southward, and passes through or near Broxbourne, Cheshunt, Enfield, Winch- 
more Hill, Hornsey, Stoke Newington, Balls Pond, and Islington, to reservoirs 

* Supplies of water are also obtained from wells, which are of two kinds ; namely, 1st, 
shallow wells, receiving surface drainage ; and 2nd, deep borings sunk through the tertiary 
strata on which London stands, into the chalk below. The former, though happily almost 
obsolete, are still resorted to for drinking by some few inhabitants, not yet made aware of the 
fearful risk they run from the thousand abominations that contaminate the subsoil of a large 
town; the latter are used principally by breweries and other establishments of sufficient extent 
to go to the expense of sinking for their own water supply. A well, near Charing Cross, 383 
ft. deep, sunk by Messrs. Easton and Amos, for the government, supplies the Trafalgar Square 
fountains, Buckingham Palace, and several of the government offices in Whitehall. 

t In some portions of the south side of London, two companies still supply the same district, 
but the rancorous feeling of rivalry that formerly prevailed exists no longer, 



852 LONDON. 

at Clerkenwell, where the water is delivered for distribution in London. At 
Stoke Newington there are two large reservoirs, occupying thirty-eight acres 
of land, and containing several weeks' supply, in which the water is allowed 
to remain at rest and become clear before it enters the New Eiver Head. 
There are upwards of 160 bridges over the New River, and nearly sixty 
culverts under it for the passage of streams, &c. 

The reservoirs at the New River Head, Clerkenwell, occupy about five acres, 
and lie at an elevation of 85 ft. above high water of the river Thames ; from 
these the water flows by its own gravity into the mains supplying the lower 
parts of the district ; while two steam-engines, of about 150-horse power 
each, are employed for pumping into another reservoir in Claremont Square, 
about 30 ft. higher, and for supplying the high services generally. The 
northern parts of the district, including the hills of Hampstead, Highgate, 
&c, are supplied from the Stoke Newington reservoirs, by two steam-engines 
erected there, aided by another at Highgate, where there are also two elevated 
reservoirs, one lying at about 320, and the other at 420 ft. above the Thames. 
The company derive an auxiliary supply from a well, 230 ft. deep, sunk into 
the chalk, in the Hampstead Road ; the water being pumped into a reservoir 
by a steam-engine of 50-horse power. 

The district supplied by the New River Company is very large, compre- 
hending the whole of central London ; the western boundary is a line drawn 
from Charing Cross by the Haymarket, Tottenham Court Road, and Hamp- 
stead Road, northwards to Highgate ; the eastern boundary is a line running 
directly north from the Tower to Stamford Hill. The number of houses 
supplied in 1849 was 83,206, and the average quantity of water 14,149,315 
gallons per day. 

The engineer to the New River Company is Mr. William Chadwell Mylne. 

Notwithstanding the large quantity of water already supplied by this com- 
pany, they are taking steps to increase it considerably. They are now laying 
down a large main for bringing an extra supply from the river Lea, at Tot- 
tenham ; and are applying to Parliament, this session, for powers to shorten 
the New River, by cuts, to about two-thirds of its present length, and other- 
wise to improve its channel. These alterations will enable them to convey 
into London a large additional quantity of water from collecting reservoirs 
about to be formed in Hertfordshire, on the streams feeding the river Lea. 

The East London Wateewokks Company's establishment is situated at 
Old Ford, near Bow. The water is taken from the river Lea, at Lea Bridge, 
about two and a half miles above the works, and upwards of six miles from the 
junction of the Lea with the Thames ; it is brought to Old Ford by an open 
cut or canal, and after being allowed to settle in large subsiding reservoirs, is 
pumped by steam power into the mains of the district. For this purpose the 
company has several steam engines, amounting together to above 500-horse 
power, among which are one Cornish engine with an 80 in. cylinder, and 10 ft. 
stroke*; and another of the same kind with a 90 in. cylinder and 11 ft. stroke 
working a plunger pump 44 in. diameter and 11 ft. stroke. The pressure 
requisite to drive the water through the mains in the district is given by 
a column of water in a vertical iron pipe, open at the top, called a stand-pipe, 
about 130 ft. high, and 5 ft. in diameter at the bottom, and 3 ft. 6 in. at the 
top, the water being kept at a suitable level in the pipe, by the action of the 
pumps of the steam-engines. Tn addition to the Old Ford works, the company 
have also a reservoir and water wheels at Lea Bridge, for distributing supplies 
in that neighbourhood, and an elevated reservoir on Stamford Hill. 

* This engine, erected in 1838, was the first Cornish engine used for other than mining pur- 
poses. Mr. Wicksteed, under whose direction it was introduced, has given a full account 
of it in " An Experimental Inquiry on Cornish and Boulton and Watt Pumping Engines." See 
also " Pole on Cornish Engines," both published by Mr. Weale. 



WATER SUPPLY. 853 

The district supplied is the whole of the eastern part of London, extending 
from the boundary of the New River district to the river Lea, and including 
Liruehouse, Stepney, Poplar, Bromley, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Homerton, 
Clapton, &c. The number of houses supplied in 1849 was 56,409, and the 
average daily quantity of water 8,829,462 gallons. 

The engineer of the East London Waterworks is Mr. Thomas Wicksteed. 

The Chelsea Waterworks are situate on the north bank of Chelsea 
Reach, about a quarter of a mile to the east of Chelsea Hospital. The 
company have on this spot about 20 acres of land, on which their works 
are constructed. The water is drawn from the Thames by engine power 
through a cast-iron conduit laid in the bed of the river, and is pumped into 
subsiding reservoirs, of which there are three, lined throughout with brick- 
work. They are used alternately, i. e., while one is emptying into the filters, 
a second is subsiding, and the third is being filled from the river. They 
are elevated somewhat above the ground line, and the water, after remain- 
ing some time in them, is allowed to flow by its own gravity into large filter 
beds, where it is further purified by filtration through sand and gravel. The 
filter beds, two in number, are about one acre each superficial area, of which 
the lowest part is occupied by the filtering materials, consisting of layers of 
sand and gravel, the finest sand being at the top, coarser sand, shells, and fine 
gravel below, and coarse gravel and pebbles at the bottom. The water per- 
colates through these strata, and finds its way into open-jointed brick cul- 
verts imbedded in the lowest stratum of gravel, and through them into filtered 
water wells, from whence it is drawn by the engines, and distributed into the 
mains for the supply of the town. The two filtering beds are used alternately, 
being changed at intervals ; for, after a certain lapse of time (dependent on 
the state of the water in the river), the upper surface of fine sand requires to be 
scraped off, and the alternation of the filter beds gives the opportunity of doing 
this without interruption to the supply. The water, after passing through the 
filters, is perfectly clear and bright, and fit for every domestic use. 

There are seven steam-engines on the works, namely, two for pumping the 
water from the river to the subsiding reservoirs ; two * for supplying the dis- 
trict generally ; one for furnishing a supply to the round pond at Kensington 
and to the Serpentine River, and for watering the drives in and around Hyde 
Park, Grosvenor Place, &c. ; and two for supplying Kensington Palace, the 
building for the Exhibition of 1851, and certain other special services. 

The Chelsea Company have, in addition to the reservoirs at the works, 
two elevated reservoirs at a distance, for the purpose of keeping the mains 
constantly charged, and a large supply of water always in readiness, in case 
of fire. One of them, in the Green Park, is at an elevation of 44 ft. above 
Trinity high- water mark of the Thames, and contains about 3,250,000 gal- 
lons. The other is in Hyde Park, at an elevation of 70 ft., and contains 
about 1,500,000 gallons. 

The district supplied by the Chelsea Waterworks Company extends east 
and west from Charing Cross to Fulham, and north and south from the 
Thames to the Uxbridge Road ; it comprehends Chelsea, Knightsbridge, the 
whole of Belgravia and Pimlico, and a large portion of Westminster. The 
number of houses supplied in 1849 was 20,893, and the average quantity of 
water 3,940,730 gallons per day. 

The engineer to the Chelsea Waterworks Company is Mr. James Simpson. 

The West Middlesex Waterworks Company's works are at Hammersmith, 
on the left bank of the river, about half a mile above the suspension bridge, 
and 9 1 miles above London Bridge. The water from the Thames is admitted 

* Complete drawings of one of these engines are given in " Tredgold on the Steam Engine." 



854f LONDON. 

to two large subsiding reservoirs, together above 16 acres area, on the right 
bank or Surrey side of the river, and is conveyed from them by a conduit pipe 
laid under the bed of the stream to the works on the opposite shore. Here 
the company have three pumping engines, viz. two of 70-horse power each, 
and one of 105-horse power, for the purpose of supplying the district. A new 
principal main, 30 inches in diameter, has been lately laid down, extending 
for a considerable distance from the works towards London. There are two 
elevated reservoirs, one at Kensington, 111 ft. above Trinity high- water mark, 
and containing about 3,500,000 gallons; and one on Primrose Hill, 177 i ft., 
containing 4,750,000 gallons. 

The district supplied by the West Middlesex Waterworks Company extends 
west of Tottenham Court Eoad and north of Oxford Street, as far as the 
Edgeware Eoad, including Portland Town, Kilburn, West End, and other 
adjoining parts. They also supply a large western suburban district, includ- 
ing Kensington, parts of Fulham and Brompton, Hammersmith, Chiswick, 
&c. The number of houses supplied in 1849 was 24,480, and the average 
quantity of water 3,334,054 gallons per day. 

The engineer is Mr. William Tierney Clark. 

The Grand Junction Waterworks Company's works are situated on the 
left or north bank of the Thames, a little above Kew Bridge, and about four- 
teen miles above London Bridge. The water is taken by a large conduit pipe 
from the middle of the river to the works on the shore, where it is pumped 
into subsiding and filtering reservoirs, and then supplied to the town. There 
are six engines, two for pumping from the river to the filter beds, and four to 
supply the district. The principal of the latter is a Cornish engine, with a 
cylinder 90 in. in diameter and 11 ft. stroke, working a plunger-pump of 33 1 
in. in diameter and 11 ft. stroke*. Attached to this engine is a stand-pipe, 
which forms a conspicuous object in the neighbourhood of the works, and is 
of somewhat peculiar construction. It is nearly 220 ft. high, and consists 
of a central pipe 5 ft. in diameter at the bottom, tapering to 3 ft. at the top, 
surrounded by four other pipes of 12 in. diameter each. The central pipe 
is connected at the bottom to the pump of the engine, and at the top to the 
four surrounding pipes, the lower end of these latter being connected to the 
main which brings the water to London. The water forced by the pump 
ascends the central pipe, and falls over into the surrounding ones, down 
which it passes into the main. It is a consequence of this arrangement that 
the water will stand at such a height in the descending pipes as will give the 
pressure required to drive the water along the main and into the district to 
be supplied. The main which brings the water to London is between six 
and seven miles in length, and 30 in. internal diameter. The company have 
an elevated reservoir for storing water on Camden Hill, Bayswater, containing 
6,000,000 gallons. 

The district supplied by the Grand Junction Company comprehends that 
part of the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, which lies north of Picca- 
dilly, a small portion of Marylebone, the larger part of Paddington, and St. 
James's to Pall Mall. The number of houses supplied in 1849 was 13,858, 
and the average quantity of water 3,532,013 gallons per day. 

The engineer is Mr. Joseph Quick. 

The Lambeth Waterworks have hitherto taken water from the Thames, 
near Hungerford Bridge; but as this source of supply will be abandoned, 
and the new works come into operation, during the present year, 1851, we 
will restrict our description to the latter. 

* This engine is one of the largest of the kind ever made. It was erected by Messrs. Sandys, 
Came, and Vivian, of Hayle, Cornwall, in 1845. It raises 3257 gallons of water per minute to a 
height of upwards of 200 ft. 



WATER SUPPLY. 855 

The works are situated on the right or south bank of the river Thames, at 
Long Ditton, a mile and a half above Kingston, and nearly opposite Hampton 
Court Palace. This site is twenty-three miles above London Bridge, and three 
miles above the highest range of the tide. The water is here usually very 
clear and pure ; but as it is occasionally disturbed during floods, it is con- 
sidered desirable to filter it at all times : it is, therefore, admitted from the 
river into a series of sunk filtering reservoirs, in which it descends through 
layers of sand, shells, and gravel, and is then passed away by culverts to the 
steam-engines. These force it through a large cast-iron main or aqueduct 
pipe, ten miles long, to elevated reservoirs at Brixton, from which it is dis- 
tributed through the entire district supplied. The steam-engines are collec- 
tively of 600-horse power, and are calculated to pump 10,000,000 gallons of 
water per day*. The aqueduct, or main pipe, is 30 in. in diameter ; it passes 
from the works through Kingston New Town in an easterly direction, proceed- 
ing for two miles by the side of the South Western Railway, thence along the 
turnpike road through Merton, Tooting, and Balham, and finally across Clap- 
ham Park to the company's reservoirs. These are situated at Brixton Rise, 
on the Croydon Road, at a height of about 100 ft. above the Thames, and 
contain upwards of 12,000,000 gallons. From these reservoirs the water 
flows by its own gravity through the mains for the supply of all that part of 
the district lying at a lower level ; but as the company also supply portions of 
the southern suburbs lying higher than this, it becomes necessary again to 
employ steam power. An engine is erected at Brixton, which lifts water into 
another reservoir, near St. Ann's Schools, Streatham Hill, at a level of about 
100 ft. above Brixton, while at Streatham another engine supplies those parts 
lying higher still. The highest service given by the Lambeth Company is at 
Norwood, about 350 ft. above the Thames. 

The district which the Lambeth Waterworks Company have power to 
supply is very large. It extends from the Thames on the north, to Croydon 
on the south, and from Lewisham and Beckenham on the east, to Thames 
Ditton and Esher on the west. The number of houses supplied in 1849 was 
23,396, and the average daily quantity of water 3,077,260 gallons ; but it is 
expected that when the new works come into operation this supply will be 
more than doubled. 

The engineer is Mr. James Simpson. 

The works of the South wark and Yauxhall Waterworks Company are 
situate on the right bank of the Thames, in Battersea Fields, where there are 
two depositing reservoirs, containing 32,000,000 gallons; and two filtering 
reservoirs, containing 11,000,000 gallons. The water is received from a lifting 
engine into the first reservoir, and passes from thence to the extreme end of 
the second reservoir, by which means the whole of the water has to travel 
over the entire surface of both reservoirs before it is taken on to the filtering 
beds. After the water has passed through the reservoirs of subsidence, it 
enters the filtering reservoirs where it has to percolate through a filtering 
medium, composed of the following strata, viz. : — 

ft. in. 

1. A layer of clean sharp river sand 

2. A layer of hoggin, or fine gravel 

3. A layer of fine screened gravel 

4. A layer of rough screened gravel 

5. A layer of coarse gravel . 

5 6 „ 

* These engines are on the double-cylinder expanding principle, from designs by Mr. Simp- 
son, the engineer to the company; they have adapted to them the patented improvements of 
TMessrs. Pole and Thomson, and are expected to possess advantages over any of the kind hitherto 
erected. 



2 


thick 


1 


„ 





9 „ 





9 „ 


1 


„ 



856 LONDON. 

The water is then received into brick tunnels, formed with open joints in 
cement, which communicate with a main tunnel leading to the pump wells of 
the engines. There are four steam-engines, one on Sims's combined cylinder 
principle, of 30-horse power, for lifting the water from the river ; two on the 
Cornish principle, of 130 and 145-horse power respectively, for supplying the 
district • and one of 50-horse power, kept in reserve. The water is forced by 
the engines up two large vertical stand-pipes, about 150 ft. high, each of which 
has ascending and descending legs, the column in the latter serving to drive 
the water through the mains in the town. 

The district supplied is the Borough of Southwark, and the parishes east- 
ward of the Borough as far as Kotherhithe, and south as far as Camberwell ; 
also portions of Lambeth and Clapham, and the whole of Battersea. The 
number of houses supplied in 1849 was 34,217, and the average daily quantity 
of water 6,013,716 gallons. 

The engineer is Mr. Joseph Quick. 

The Kent Waterwokks Company take water from the river Eavensbourne, 
below Lewisham; their pumping establishment is situated on the banks of 
this river at Deptford, where they have reservoirs and filtering basins, and 
three pumping steam-engines ; they have also reservoirs for filtered water in 
Greenwich Park, on Woolwich Common, and near the Marine Barracks at 
Woolwich. The whole of the works have recently been remodelled and en- 
larged. 

This company supply Deptford, Greenwich, and Woolwich, and also parts of 
Rotherhithe, Camberwell, and other places in the south-eastern suburb. In 
1849 they supplied 9632 houses, and delivered 1,079,311 gallons per day. 

The engineer is Mr. William Richard Morris.| 

The Hampstead Waterworks Company are of considerable antiquity, hav- 
ing been established under 35th King Henry VIII., cap. 10; they obtain water 
from springs at Hampstead and Caen Wood, and from two deep wells ; they 
have reservoirs of 35 acres area, formed by embankments across the valleys 
between Highgate and Hampstead, at different elevations; and two steam- 
engines are used for pumping. Their district lies in Kentish Town and Cam- 
den Town. In 1849 they supplied 4490 houses, and distributed an average 
quantity of 427,468 gallons of water per day. 

The general system of supply is the same in each district. Through all 
the principal streets are laid large pipes of cast-iron, called mains, vary- 
ing from 36 inches down to 2 or 3 inches in diameter, the largest being 
situated nearest to the source of supply, and the size gradually diminishing 
to the extreme parts of the district. These mains are always kept filled with 
water under considerable pressure, either by the action of gravity from an 
elevated reservoir, or by the forcing action of pumps worked by steam- 
engines. Subsidiary ramifications of cast-iron pipes, of smaller size, called ser- 
vice-pipes, are also laid in the streets, extending throughout the whole district 
supplied ; these are connected at certain points to the mains, from which 
they thereby receive the water ; but the points of junction are furnished with 
cocks, by which the communication can be stopped, and the water shut off 
from the service-pipes at pleasure. For supplying a house with water, a lead 
pipe is laid down underneath the pavement, one end being fixed into a 
hole made in the service-pipe in the street, and the other passing into the 
inside of the house and opening into a cistern provided for the purpose. 
When, therefore, the communication-cock above mentioned is open, the water 
flows from the charged main into the service-pipe, and thence by the lead pipes 
into the house cisterns. The flow of water into the latter is stopped by a self- 
acting cock and float (called a ball-cock) as soon as each cistern is full. 



WATER SUPPLY. 



857 



The object of the arrangement of mains and service-pipes above described 
is to enable the companies to use what is called the intermittent, in contradis- 
tinction to the constant, system of supply. It would be a very simple thing to 
attach the lead house-pipe at once to a main without the intervention of the 
service-pipe, in which case the water would be what is called constantly on, i. e. 9 
constantly ready to flow whenever the cock within the house was opened ; 
and this system, which has its advantages, is adopted in many country towns ; 
but from the difficulty of finding convenient sites for elevated reservoirs, and 
for other technical reasons, which it would be out of place here to enter into, 
this system has hitherto not been attempted in London, and the plan is 
adopted, in preference, of dividing a district into several portions, and supply- 
ing each portion, in turn, for a short time only. With this view the service- 
pipes already mentioned are laid down, and a set of men are employed, called 
turncocks, whose business it is to open, at proper intervals, the communicating 
cocks between them and the mains, and thereby to turn on the water. The 
frequency of the intermittent supply, and the length of time the water is 
J on," vary under different circumstances ; but the most common practice in 
London now is to give a supply for one or two hours every day, with the 
exception of Sunday. It is a natural consequence of this arrangement that 
every house must be provided with a cistern large enough to store the whole 
quantity required by the inhabitants during the intermission of the water 
supply, be it for what length of time it may. 

In some cases, such as in courts, &c, where a number of small houses stand 
close together, the whole are supplied by a single pipe and cock, common to 
all, which is allowed to run during a certain period every day. 

The supply for extinguishing fires, so frequent, and often so destructive, in 
London, forms an important part of the duties of the water companies, and 
every provision is made to insure the prompt delivery of an abundant quan- 
tity of water whenever and wherever a fire breaks out. For this purpose plugs 
of wood, called fire plugs, are inserted into the water mains in the streets, at 
frequent intervals, and, by knocking out any of these, the water is allowed to 
gush out in large streams, and can be at once made use of for the fire engines 
on the spot. The number of fire plugs in the streets of London is nearly 
30,000 ; their situations are legibly marked on the walls of buildings near. 

The following summary will exhibit some of the statistics of the waterworks 
of London for the year 1849 *. 



Name of Company. Cost of Works. 


Annual Income Number of 
from Water houses 
Rents, &c. ' supplied. 


Average 

number of 

gallons per day. 


New River 1 £1,421 717 


£136,296 
70,585 
35,917 
65,415 
43,387 
22,446 
36,396 
14,442 
7,009 


83,206 
56,409 
20,393 
24,480 
13,858 
23,396 
34,217 
9,632 
4,490 


14,149,315 
8,829,462 
3,940,730 
3,334,054 
3,532,013 
3,077,260 
6,013,716 
1,079,311 
427,468 


East London 1 745, 781 


Chelsea | 455,712 


West Middlesex 648,560 


Grand Junction 522,295 


Lambeth ; 307,352 f 


Southwark and Vauxhall . . j 435,247 
Kent ! 202,1041 


Hampstead 1 121,231 i 


Total : £4,859,999 


£431,893 270,581 


44,383,329 



The sources from which the water is taken may be thus classified : — 

From the Thames 45 per cent. 

From the rivers Lea and Bavensbourne . . .22 „ 

From inland sources — Middlesex and Hertfordshire . 33 „ 



100 
* Extracted from the returns made to the Board of Health, and presented to Parliament, 1850. 
f Excluding the new works, 
i Uncertain. 



858 LONDON. 

The total quantity of water supplied during the year 1849 was 16,200,000,000 
gallons. To give an idea of this immense quantity, it may be stated, thai 
it exceeds the total annual rain-fall of 27 inches over the populated portion 
of the metropolis (twenty-five square miles) by upwards of 50 per cent., and 
that it would cover an extent of area equal to that of the city (about one 
square mile) with upwards of 80 feet depth of water. Its total weight is nearly 
72,000,000 tons. 

The number of houses supplied with water by the companies is estimated 
to be about 94 per cent, of the whole number existing. Dividing the 
daily quantity of water by the number of houses, we have an average supply 
of 164 gallons per day to each house ; and taking the population roughly at 
2,000,000, the quantity is 22 gallons per day for each individual. It must be 
recollected, however, that in the total supply given is included that afforded 
for other than domestic purposes, such as for trades, manufactories, public 
baths and washhouses, road-watering, extinguishing fires, flushing sewers, 
sanitary purposes, &c, which is estimated to amount to about 11 per cent, of 
the whole. 

The rates charged for water are determined by the company supplying, 
according to the circumstances of each special case ; it being very difficult to 
lay down any general rule like that adopted in the case of gas. Water-meters 
have not yet been introduced ; and their adoption in private houses would be 
objectionable, as it would tend to limit the supply of an element of comfort 
and health, to the plentiful use of which every encouragement should be 
afforded. The companies, acting on this principle, make a definite charge 
per annum to each house, and allow the inmates to use as much water as they 
please, without any restriction, except that it be used for domestic purposes 
only. The charge varies according to the size of the house, the height to 
which the water is to be supplied, the number of water-closets, &c. ; but as a 
rough approximation, it may be stated to amount, practically, in London, to 
about 2\ to 5 per cent, on the rent of the house. When large quantities of 
water are supplied for manufacturing or other special purposes, the charge 
is arranged by agreement, and varies from 6d. to 2s. per 1000 gallons. 
Supplies for road-watering, charitable, and sanitary purposes, are charged at a 
very low rate, sometimes at merely a nominal price, and any quantity wanted 
for extinguishing fires is afforded gratis. 

The water supply of London, like most other topics in which the public at 
large are interested, has from time to time been the subject of popular agita- 
tions ; sometimes, no doubt, caused by the backwardness of the companies in 
meeting the pressing demands of the public for improved supplies, but too 
frequently promoted by speculators or demagogues for their own private ends. 
In 1821, and about every six years subsequently, parliamentary inquiries 
have been instituted, and new schemes have from time to time been projected 
to supply London from the Colne, the Yerulam, the Wandle, or the Medway ; 
from the Thames at Maidenhead, Henley, or even above Reading ; from Arte- 
sian wells ; from springs at Watford ; and from chalk-cuttings in Kent. But 
the general result has been only to stimulate the existing companies to 
increase the quantity and improve the quality of the water they supplied. 
At present a neAT crusade is opened against them, headed by the " General 
Board of Health," who have recommended to Parliament that all the present 
works and sources be abandoned, and that the metropolis be supplied from the 
drainage of a tract of land at Bagshot Heath. The present agitation will no 
doubt answer the wholesome purpose that the others have done, namely, that 
of keeping the water companies awake to their duties to the public. The 
attention lately drawn to sanitary matters is beginning to induce a favourable 
change in the habits and feelings of almost all classes in regard to their 
domestic arrangements ; and one of the first consequences of the progress of 
cleanliness is a growing demand for an abundance of good water. Let the 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY — ETON. 859 

companies but meet this demand in a liberal spirit, as many of them are now 
doing, and London will continue to be, as it has always hitherto been, one of 
the best-supplied cities in the world. 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY OF LONDON. 
The neighbourhood of London abounds in the many-varying objects 
of interest for the instruction and pleasure of the stranger and the 
native. In previous portions of our Volume we have treated of the 
subject of u Gardens, Parks, &c." The neighbouring rural districts 
of London have been so described as to give the reader just con- 
ceptions of the many interesting objects of nature and art. The 
subject of " Galleries of Art," Dulwich, Hampton Court, Windsor, 
&c, are described for their collections of pictures, &c. In the article 
on " Observatories," the reader is informed of the several seats of 
learning in astronomical art immediately around London; and the 
convenient, although the more distant, seats of learning and science, 
such as Cambridge, Oxford, &c, are not omitted. Notwithstanding 
some fair ideas have been given of our vicinity, interspersed in the 
article above alluded to, we are yet desirous of adding to our task by 
inducing the stranger, by means of our railways, to visit the following 
places — particularly gratifying to persons of taste and refinement. 

I. By the Great Western, or South Western Railways, 
station either Paddington or Waterloo Road, Eton, being the nearest 
to the Slough Station, 20 miles from London, claims our first notice. 

Eton is in Buckinghamshire, on the opposite bank of the Thames 
to Windsor, from which it is only separated by a bridge. Eton is 
famed for its royal college and school, founded by Henry VI. in 
1440, for the support of a provost and seven fellows, and the educa- 
tion of seventy youths in classical learning. It is a handsome build- 
ing, of the Tudor style of art, and consists of two quadrangles; one 
appropriated to the school and the lodging of the masters and 
scholars ; the other to the apartments of the provost and fellows. 
The library is, for its extent, one of the best in England. The chapel 
is a stately structure, resembling that of King's College, Cambridge. 
Besides those on the foundation, there are seldom less than 300 noble- 
men and gentlemen's sons, who board at the masters' houses, or within 
the bounds of the college. The Eton Montem is a singular custom, 
which takes place triennially on Whit Tuesday ; the ceremony is 
generally honoured by the attendance of the Royal family and a 
splendid company; it consists of a procession of all the pupils to a 
small eminence on the southern side of the Bath road, which has 
attained the name of Salt Hill, from which spot they disperse them- 
selves to collect donations from all passengers, no one being permitted 
to pass without giving money for salt. Those collecting it are called 
salt-bearers, and are arrayed in fancy dresses. The money thus 
collected amounts to several hundred pounds. It is given to the 



860 LONDON. 

senior scholar, denominated the captain of the school, for his support 
at one of the universities. The chapel and college may be seen by 
application to a person always in attendance. 

Windsor, a borough town in Berkshire, 22 miles from London, 
sends two members to Parliament. The Castle, delightfully situated 
on the summit of the hilJ, is the royal residence of the sovereigns 
of England. The following is extracted, by permission, from Sir 
Jeffry Wyatville's elaborate work on Windsor Castle. 

Windsor Castle. — " During 720 years, out of a period of nearly 
eight centuries which have elapsed since its foundation, Windsor 
Castle has been distinguished as the most favoured residence of the 
sovereigns of England."* 

Like other places which have attained celebrity, the Castle of 
Windsor has its fable preceding its history. Tradition has assigned 
its origin to King Arthur, and assembled here the Knights of the 
Round Table, attributing to that obscure period those chivalrous 
associations of the middle ages which led to the establishment of the 
noble order of knighthood with which Windsor is so inseparably 
connected. 

It was first annexed to the crown by William I., who, being 
struck with the beauty and convenience of the situation, and its 
advantage as a station for hunting, erected a castle on the hill, which 
is represented in the Domesday Book. 

Subsequently the Henrys II. and III. added much to the castel- 
lated architectural beauty and security of the Castle. In the four- 
teenth century a total revolution had been effected in the principles 
of castellated architecture. The spirit of feudal warfare had sub- 
sided or was quelled by the increasing power of the monarchy; and 
though security might still be an important element in constructing 
the habitations of the nobility, yet it was no longer imperative that it 
should be purchased at the expense of the comforts and amenities of 
life. The birth of| Edward III. at Windsor seems to have 
determined his inclination to a site so well adapted to be the seat of 
royalty. The foundation of the College, and the institution of the 
Order of the Garter, in the locality which he delighted to honour, 
led to many very important additions to the Castle. The foundation 
of the College was the first important proceeding of Edward, and 
took place in the twenty-second year of his reign, when, by letters 
patent, in which he calls to mind his baptism in the Castle, he re- 
founded the chapel to the honour of God, the Virgin Mary, St. 
George, and St. Edward. The Pope's Bull, commending and con- 
firming this pious intention, was issued at Avignon, November 30, 
1351, and on the same day in the following year, the statutes bear 
date by which the Bishop of Winchester, as the Pope's delegate, 
instituted " The College or Free Chapel of St. George within the 

* Sir Jeffry Wyatville's admirable work, Windsor Castle, Large folio, 1841. 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY WINDSOR. 861 

Castle of Windsor." Before the establishment of the College was 
finally settled, the Order of the Garter had been instituted. This 
event has been satisfactorily fixed in the year 1349 by Ashmole, who 
assigns the origin of the order to the ancient association of the 
Round Table, which Edward revived with solemn jousts and tourna- 
ments, with a view of tempting into his service the foreign knights 
who might attend them. The greater part of the works of Edward 
III. was executed between 1359 to 1374, but there had been build- 
ings in progress at the Castle at least as early as 1350, and a new 
chapel, with houses for the custos and canons, was begun very shortly 
after the first foundation of the College. 

The most remarkable incident of the reign of Richard II. is the 
appointment of the " Father of English Poetry," Geoffrey Chaucer, 
to the office of Clerk of the Works to St. George's Chapel. His patent, 
dated in 1390, empowers him to impress carpenters, masons, and 
other workmen, for the necessary operations to the chapel, and fixes 
his salary at two shillings per day, with the privilege of employing a 
deputy. The erection of that splendid monument of English archi- 
tecture, the existing collegiate chapel of St. George, renders the suc- 
ceeding reign an important epoch in the history of Windsor (see 
description, p. 868). Windsor Castle was the residence of both of 
the Henrys VII. and VIII. The latter selected Windsor for his 
place of sepulture. In his will he directs that he shall be interred in 
the choir of the College, " midway between the stalle and the high 
altar." Under Edward VI. works were begun for bringing a supply 
of water to the Castle from Blackmore Park near Winkfield. They 
were continued by Queen Mary, and as the water was conducted from 
a distance of five miles, the undertaking was one of great labour and 
cost. A taste for architecture was too expensive to suit a sovereign 
«o calculating and economical as Queen Elizabeth, and few have 
done less to encourage it. Windsor Castle, nevertheless, owes to her 
one of its most striking, peculiar, and magnificent features — the 
terrace. Shortly after 1576 a new gallery also and banque ting- 
house were erected. 

Cromwell resided occasionally at Windsor, and it is but justice to 
his memory to believe that he prevented waste. He kept together 
the endowments of the College, and the landed estates were greatly 
improved in value during his administration. 

Windsor became the residence of Charles II., and many alterations 
and repairs were made by Sir Christopher Wren. 

St. George's Hall was not completed till some years after the death 
of Charles. As late as 1701 an account of 1800/. was still open with 
Verrio for his works at Windsor :~— for painting the sides and ends of 
St. George's Hall and repairing the ceiling, 600/.; for the altar- 
piece and sides of the Chapel, and repairing the ceiling, 500/. ; for 
the king's privy stairs, 200/. ; for the stone gallery and guard- 
chamber staircase, 400/.; and 100/. for repairing several ceilings: all 
of which charges Sir C. Wren passed as reasonable. 



862 



LONDON. 







James II. and William III. did but little for Windsor; also 
George I. and George II. George III. formed an early attachment 
to Windsor, but little was done for a long period of his reign. In 
1800 Mr. James Wjatt constructed a Gothic staircase, which, subse- 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY — WINDSOR. 



SG3 



1 Nik II 1 




quently, was partly removed, and on the commencement of the reign 
of George IV. it was to the universal satisfaction of the nation at 



864 



LONDON. 



large that this monarch adopted the Castle as his favourite residence, 
and announced his desire to extend the repairs and alterations, neces- 
sary for his own immediate accommodation, to a thorough and lasting 
restoration and re-establishment of the whole structure, and that Sir 
Jeffry Wyatville was appointed to the direction of this great work; 
and on the 5th of April, 1824, the House of Commons voted, on 
account of the works at Windsor Castle, the sum of 300,000/. A 
commission of eight noblemen and gentlemen was appointed for the 
general control of tbe works. (See following page for plan of the 
principal story.) 

Our space precludes our pointing out the precise alterations and 
great improvements made by Sir Jeffry Wyatville in the different 
quarters of the Castle. It is therefore the more desirable on the 
part of the visitor to make a personal inspection. (See pages 86*2 
and 863.) 

Before the late improvements of the Castle under the direction of 
Sir Jeffry Wyatville, no part of the royal palace or domain was so 
totally inadequate to the uses of the royal residents as the stables, 
which were at that time situated at two different parts of the town 
of Windsor, and were in no respects better, but much more dilapi- 
dated, than those of an ordinary country inn ; but although the accom- 
modation was of the worst description, the cost of maintaining them, 
and of the many temporary buildings in connection with them, which 
were obliged from time to time to be erected, was very considerable. 
George IV. always intended that a new mews on the site of the 
present building should form part of his projected improvements, 
and had he lived, there is no doubt, from his love of fine horses and 
royal display, that the mews would have been built in a style and at 
a cost only inferior to the Castle itself. In order, however, to screen 
his projected stables from view from the windows in the south front 
of the Castle, he caused a considerable part of the rubbish which 
had accumulated in the alterations at the Castle to be thrown up as an 



Explanation of the References in the Plan of the Principal Story of Windsor 
Castle. The Upper Ward. 



1. The Queen's audience chamber. 

2. The Queen's presence chamber. 

3. The guard chamber. 

4. St. George's hall. 

5. The ball room. 

6. The throne room. 

7. The Waterloo chamber. 

8. The grand vestibule. 

9. Ante-room. 

10. The King's state drawing room. (Rubens' 

room.) 

11. The council room. 

12. The King's closet. 

13. The Queen's closet. 

14. The Queen's state drawing room. 

15. King Charles the Second's room. (Library.) 

16. King Henry the Seventh's room. (Library.) 

17. Queen Elizabeth's room. (Library.) 

18. The old ball room. (Vandyke room.) 



20. Dining room. 

21. Saloon. 

22. Private chapel. 

23. Drawing room. 

24. Breakfast room. 

25. Visitors' stairs. 

26. Ante-room. 

27. 27, 27. The long gallery. 

28. The oak breakfast room. 

29. From 29 southwards, and along the south 

front, are the private apartments. 

30. Round tower. 

31. Queen Elizabeth's gateway. 

32. St. George's gateway. 

33. The north terrace. 

34. The east terrace. 

35. The sunk garden. 

36. The Victoria tower. 

37. King George the Fourth's gateway. 



19. Waiting room. 

For the description of the pictures and works of art in the Castle, see article " Galleries," (pages 
441 to 444) ; and for directions for admission, see page 441. 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY. — WINDSOR. 

3 



865 




artificial mound, as is the case with the mews at Buckingham Palace. 
In the reign of William IV. stables were designed suitable for the 
King and Queen, whose establishments were quite distinct and sepa- 
rate, each having a master of the horse at its head. But as these were 
not begun during the lifetime of his late Majesty, and as the erection 

p p 



866 



LONDON. 



of new mews could be no longer put off, the present stables were 
designed for the establishment of her present Majesty in the year 1839, 
when Parliament voted the sum of 70,000/. for their erection, that being 
their estimated cost ; and it is worthy of remark that that sum was not 
exceeded by Mr. Ash ton, the architect who carried this work into exe- 
cution after the death of Sir Jeffry Wyatville. (See opposite page.) 

It may perhaps appear to some, on looking at the plan of the 
mews, that the stables are wanting in that grandeur of arrangement 
which is produced by bringing large masses of building into view at 
one coup-d'ceil, but such was quite impossible here, both from the 
extreme narrowness of the ground and the rapid slope of it, the 
upper part being as much as 32 ft. above the lower, which made it 
necessary to arrange the stables on successive platforms ; this, how- 
ever, is found to be an advantage practically, rather than an evil, as 
each court with its surrounding building is a separate and distinct 
part of the establishment. At the same time it must be confessed 
that great ingenuity has been shown by the architect in overcoming 
the difficulties arising from so great an inequality of level. Beyond, 
however, the arrangement of the plan of the mews, which is most 
admirably adapted, the architecture of the stables seems rather to 
have been dictated by a determination not to exceed the sum of the 
parliamentary grant, than by a desire on his part to extend his well- 
earned reputation ; and they have accordingly been made so plain and 
devoid of any architectural decoration as scarcely to escape the charge 
of baldness ; at the same time the interior of the riding-house, which 
might, by a handsome open-work roof, have been effective and pic- 
turesque, has been sacrificed to the economy of obtaining dormitories 
for the grooms in the roof. 

It will be observed in these stables, as in those at Buckingham 
Palace, that the display of a large number of horses in one stable, as 
is the case generally in the large stables abroad, have, with the exception 
of the state-horse stables at Buckingham Palace, been avoided, a 
peculiarity which has been adopted from motives arising out of a 
consideration of the essentials to high condition in the horses. 

Explanation of the References figured in the Plan of the Royal Mews, Windsor 

Castle. 



1. The approach road from the Castle Hill to 

the mews. 

2. The porter's lodge. 

3. The upper or pony court. 

4. The coach house for the Queen's carriages. 

5. Harness room, with cleaning room ad- 

joining. 

6. Pony stable of 12 stalls, and two of 6 stalls ; 

saddle-horse stables of 6 and 8 stalls. 

7. Saddle room, with cleaning and boiling 

room adjoining. 

8. The royal entrance to the mews. 

9. Stairs to dormitory over the riding house. 
30. Descending covered way. 

11. Riding house. 

12. Entrance to the riding house, staircase to 

the Queen's gallery, and equerries' waiting 



13. The middle or saddle-horse court. 

14. Stables for 25 horses. 

15. Saddle room, with cleaning and boiling 

room adjoining. 

16. Three loose boxes. 

17. Coach-horse court. 

18. Stables for 39 roadsters and hacks. 

19. Standings for carriages. 

20. Harness rooms. 

21. Harness cleaning room. 

22. Loose box court, with 10 loose boxes. 

23. A veterinary forge. 

24. The town gate of the royal mews. 

25. The lodge and coachmen's dwellings. 

26. The stablemen's dwelling, mess room 

&c. 

27. The residence of the clerk of the stables. 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY. — STABLES, WINDSOR. 



867 




F P 2 



868 LONDON. 

The mews is divided into four courts ; the upper, called the pony- 
court, contains the ponies, the Queen's saddle-horses, and carriages. 

The next, the saddle-horse court, contains the horses of his Royal 
Highness Prince Albert. 

The third, or coach-horse court, contains the roadsters and the coach 
horses ; and the lowest, or court of loose boxes, near to which is the 
veterinary surgeon's apartments and the veterinary forge. The 
number of stalls, including the loose boxes, is 112, and of standings 
for carriages about 40. 

There is a peculiarity in these mews worthy of notice, which is the 
total absence of the wives and children of the stablemen, who are 
placed in separate buildings with no access to the mews. 

The large building, No. 20 on the Plan, opposite the saddle-horse 
court, contains the dwelling-rooms of the married stablemen and 
their families, and there is no connection whatever between that part 
of the building which is beyond the lodge and the mess rooms, and 
other rooms used by the single men, on the ground floor of the same 
building, which is entered from the mews. This building, formerly 
well known as the lower lodge, was originally a family mansion of 
the Dukes of St. Albans, and in more recent times was used as a 
residence for the younger members of the Royal family. 

The royal mews is open to public inspection on application to the 
resident clerk of the stables at his dwelling near the upper lodge. 

St. Georges Chapel^ Windsor. — The collegiate chapel of St. George, 
at Windsor, is the largest in dimensions, the most chaste and elegant 
in architectural style and character, and the most diversified in ex- 
ternal and internal arrangements, of the three royal chapels in Eng- 
land. This noble chapel is of different periods of Gothic architecture. 
King Henry I. is said to have erected the original chapel within the 
precincts of Windsor Castle, for eight canons, and to have dedicated 
it to King Edward the Confessor. Edward III. re-founded the chapel. 
It was afterwards either rebuilt or enlarged. A commission was 
issued to Walter de Grey, Archbishop of York, to expedite the work, 
by keeping the labourers constantly employed both in winter and 
summer, till the whole was completed. A part of the building then 
erected is presumed to be now remaining, as a series of closed 
arches, of the style of that age, is seen on the south side of the 
Dean's cloisters, and some others remain against the wall behind 
the altar, at the east end of the present chapel. The interior 
of St. George's Chapel is very magnificent. The groining of the 
roof, the vaulting of the nave, choir, aisles, and transepts, is 
justly an object of admiration, and is distinguished by its elegant 
forms and numerous ramifications. The interior of the choir is very 
splendid, having the banners, &c, of the several Knights of the 
Garter. The splendid stained-glass great west window has recently 
been restored*, and is an object of much interest. The exterior is a 

* Weale's Divers Wwks of Early Masters. 2 vols, folio. 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY. WINDSOR. 869 

very fine example of Gothic architecture. Several of the early 
monarchs, among them Henry VIII., lie buried in the vaulted 
chambers beneath; the most recent are those of George IV. and 
William IV. 

Very extensive alterations are being carried out at the present 
time in the parks and roads in the immediate neighbourhood of 
Windsor Castle, by the Commissioners of her Majesty's Woods, 
&c, under the powers of an Act of Parliament passed in 1848. 
The old approach from Datchet to Windsor was by a circuitous 
road, winding for some distance by the side of the Thames, and 
then passing between the Home Park and Frogmore, to the end of 
the Long Walk, where it joined Park Street. This road being 
objectionable, not only on account of its length, but also that it 
separated Frogmore and the Royal Gardens from the Private Park, 
and passed over a very old bridge, scarcely in a safe state, it was 
determined to make a new road, passing in a more direct line to the 
north of the Castle, and to remove the old road. This alteration 
further necessitated the construction of a new road to connect 
Datchet with Old Windsor, and Old Windsor with Windsor itself, 
by two new cast-iron bridges, of a character in accordance with the 
Castle, and spanning the river in one arch of 120 ft. It will be 
observed that the roads, as now laid out, form a complete circuit, 
enclosing a considerable space, having the Castle within it. The 
greater portion of this space is now to be devoted to the enjoyment 
of the Sovereign, who has been graciously pleased to give up for 
the use of the public the whole of that portion of what was before 
the Home or Private Park, situated between the new road to the 
north of the Castle and the River Thames. 

In connection with the Windsor improvements may be mentioned 
the extension of the Great Western and South Western Railways 
into the town. The former by a branch, about 3 miles long, 
from Slough, which crosses the Thames by a fine bridge, on the 
bow-string principle, just above the Brocas, or Eton Playing Fields, 
and terminates at George Street, Windsor ; while the latter leaves 
the Datchet Station, crosses the river at Blackpotts, not far from 
old Isaac Walton's fishing-box, traverses the margin of the Home 
Park, and terminates in Datchet Lane, very close to Windsor 
Bridge. (For an account of the park and grounds about Windsor, 
see article " Gardens," &c.) 



LONDON. 




OXFORD CATHEDRAL. 



THE UNIVERSITIES OF OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE. 

Oxford, by the Great Western Railway ; Cambridge, by the Eastern Counties 
Railway — Station, Shoreditch. 

On visiting these noble institutions of learning, it is impossible not 
to be struck with a deep feeling of veneration, on finding ourselves 
standing amidst these ancient seminaries — the schools from which, for 
centuries past, have emanated those master minds which, either as 
statesmen, divines, or lawyers, have contributed to raise this kingdom 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY. — UNIVERSITIES. 871 

to its present proud and unrivalled pre-eminence. It must be with 
gratified feelings that an Englishman contemplates these vast piles, 
erected and supported by the munificence of their founders and bene- 
factors, his forefathers, whose noble endowments furnish both oppor- 
tunity and means for the poorest scholar to qualify himself for and 
attain to the most distinguished positions in society. There is always 
a feeling of seriousness and solemnity attached to the contemplation 
of distinguished individuals; an impression deeply increased w r hen 
treading the very ground where the eminent characters have 
existed, or the memorable events that have occurred. Who, on 
visiting Oxford, w T hen viewing that magnificent structure, Christ- 
church College, can prevent his thoughts reverting to the great 
and unfortunate minister of Henry VIII., Cardinal Wolsey, his 
pomp, his magnificence, his lamentable end. With w r hat interest 
we look up to the window of that room in Pembroke College, where 
formerly sat the " great leviathan of literature" Samuel Johnson. 
When at Cambridge, w r ho but must experience a deep interest on 
visiting the college at which that illustrious statesman William Pitt 
pursued his academical studies. When passing through Trinity Col- 
lege, we dwell on the mighty mind of Newton, on the unhappy fate 
of Essex : at this College also the names of Coke, of Bacon, Dryden, 
Cowley, Byron, and a host of other distinguished characters, crowd 
upon the memory. In the Fellows' Garden of Christ's College the 
very tree planted by the hand of the immortal Milton is still in exist- 
ence. On this classic ground not a college, not a court, but conjures 
up the reminiscence of some great statesman, some eminent divine, 
some distinguished poet, all long departed to that bourne from whence 
no traveller returns. 

The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are "Societies of 
Students, devoted to the study of learning and knowledge, and for 
the better service of the Church and State." Each is a corporate 
body known by the title of The Chancellor , Master 's, and Scholars of 
the University by statutes of Queen Elizabeth, sanctioned by Parlia- 
ment with all their ancient privileges confirmed. The origin of the 
Universities as seats of learning is involved in much obscurity, and is 
of very ancient date. Originally the students formed small societies, 
occupying a variety of tenements, under the names of Inns, Halls, 
Hostells, &c. ; the Colleges, w r hich are incorporated bodies, were not 
commenced till the thirteenth century. The colleges have consider- 
able revenues, arising from the endowments of their founders and 
subsequent benefactions, out of which the members on the foundation 
receive an income and the expenses of the college are paid. Every 
college has a principal or governor, under the various titles of dean, 
principal, president, provost, rector, warden, or master, assisted in his 
government by officers chosen from the senior members on the foun- 
dation. Each college possesses statutes for its ow r n government, but 
all are controlled by the paramount laws of the University. Members 



872 LONDON. 

of a college on the foundation are termed dependent members, 
receiving their lodging and commons free ; those not on the foundation 
independent members, and reside entirely at their own expense. 

Prayers are read in the chapels of the colleges twice a day, and 
every member is required to attend a certain number of services 
weekly, or he is subject to some penalty. Each college has its hall, 
or refectory, in which the whole of the members are expected to dine 
at a stated hour ; the neglect of attendance subjecting the absentee 
to some penalty also. At a certain hour every night the college 
gates are closed, at which time all junior members are required to be 
in; non-compliance with this regulation incurs a risk of reproof, or 
punishment by task or fine*. Certain officers (proctors) are appointed 
to attend to the discipline and morals of the students. Slight offences 
are punished by reproof, tasks, fines, or temporary confinement within 
the gates ; more grave offences by rustication (sent for a time from 
college), sometimes by expulsion — a sentence attended with very 
serious consequences. 

Members of the University, before taking a degree, are called 
under-graduates ; the first degree taken is that of Bachelor of Arts, 
to obtain which it is required to reside a certain number of terms, 
and to pass two examinations ; the first commonly called the " little 
go/' Those incapable of passing their examination are said to be 
" plucked/' 

The head of the University is the chancellor (an appointment of 
great honour), who by the statutes is the supreme governor ; next in 
rank is the high steward ; neither of these officers, however, appear 
but on very particular occasions. The vice-chancellor acts for the 
chancellor, and, in conjunction with other officers appointed, conducts 
the government of the University. 

All members of the Universities wear the academic costume, vary- 
ing according to the grades of the members and the faculties in which 
degrees have been taken. 

OXFORD. 

The first impression on entering Oxford from the London roadt 
is most striking ; the combination of the bridge over which we enter, 
with the Botanic Gardens to the left, and Magdalen College, the 
splendid pile on the right, with its lofty and elegant tower, sur- 
rounded by the most magnificent trees, produces a whole that at 
once astonishes and captivates the beholder. The impression ex- 
cited by this first burst on the beauties of Oxford, is fully kept up 
during the whole progress up the High Street, every step producing 
some fresh and interesting feature, with such peeps up the streets to 
the right and left of noble structures, as to make the visitor impatient 

* Many students reside in private lodgings, but they are in no respect exempted from college 
discipline ; none but privileged persons, under certain restrictions, being allowed to let rooms 
to the students. 

t The London coach road. 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY. OXFORD. 



873 




MAGDALEN COLLEGE. 



to commence his work of examination. Mr. Dallaway justly remarks, 
on speaking of Oxford, that, " for variety and magnificence of public 
buildings, no city in Europe can oifer a competition." 

The city of Oxford contains 19 colleges, 5 halls, numerous public 
buildings and institutions, 16 churches, independent of dissenting 
places of worship. Taking the colleges in chronological order, they 
are as follows : — 

University College, — Considerable doubt exists as to the precise 
date of the original foundation of this school ; it is stated to be so 
far back as the time of King Alfred, 872. It is, however, certain 
that William of Durham, who died in 1249, left considerable property 
for the endowment of this college, and may be considered as its 
founder. The present foundation consists of a master, 13 fellows, 
16 scholars, &c, with the patronage of 10 livings. 

Balliol College, — Founded by John Balliol (father of John Balliol, 
King of Scotland) and Dervorguilla his wife, between the years 1263 
and 1268. The present foundation consists of a master, 12 fellows, 
and 14 scholars. It has the patronage of 17 livings. 

Merlon College. — Founded by Walter de Merton, Bishop of Ro- 
chester and Lord High Chancellor of England, in 1274. It is to the 
founder of this college that the present system of having all the 
students of a college together and placed under the superintendence 
of tutors and governors is attributed. Before his time they were 
distributed in insulated houses, inns, hostells, &c. Merton may be 
considered the primary model of all the collegiate bodies in Oxford 
and Cambridge, the statutes of Walter de Merton having been more 
or less copied by all other founders. The foundation consists of a 
warden, 24 fellows, 14 postmasters, 4 scholars, 2 chaplains, and 
2 clerks. It has the patronage of 17 livings. 

Exeter College, — Founded by Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter 

p p 3 



874 LONDON. 

and Lord High Treasurer of England, in 1314, under the name of 
Stapledon Hall. In 1404 Edmund Stafford, also Bishop of Exeter, 
added 2 fellowships to the original foundation, besides extend- 
ing the buildings, and obtained leave to give to the college its 
present name. The foundation consists of a rector, 25 fellows, 
and 20 scholarships and exhibitioners. It has the patronage of 14 
livings. 

Oriel College. — Founded in 1326 by King Edward II. The 
society consists of a provost, 18 fellows, with 24 scholars and exhi- 
bitioners. It has the patronage of 13 livings. 

Queens College. — Founded in 1340 by Robert Eglesfield, Chaplain 
and Confessor to Queen Philippa (consort of Edward III.), from 
whom it takes the name of Queen's College. The present founda- 
tion consists of 24 fellows, eight taberders, and 20 scholars and 
exhibitioners. It has the patronage of 27 livings. 

New College. — Founded in 1386 by William of Wykeham, Bishop 
of Winchester and Lord High Chancellor of England. The founda- 
tion consists of a warden, 70 fellows and scholars, 10 chaplains, be- 
sides clerks and choristers. Wykeham also founded a subsidiary 
college at Winchester, in 1387, from whence the vacancies in New 
College, are filled up. It has the patronage of 36 livings. 

Lincoln College. — Founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, Bishop 
of Lincoln. The foundation consists of a rector, 12 fellows, and 21 
scholars and exhibitioners. It has the patronage of 10 livings. 

All Souls College. — Founded by Henry Chichely, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, in 1437. The foundation consists of a warden, 40 fellows, 
2 chaplains, &c. It has the patronage of 17 livings. 

Magdalen College. — Founded in 1457 by William of Waynfleet, 
Bishop of Winchester and Lord High Chancellor of England, on the 
site of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist. The foundation con- 
sists of a president, 40 fellows, 30 scholars (called Demies), 4 
chaplains, together with clerks, choristers, &c. It has the patronage 
of 36 livings. The site of Magdalen College, with its grounds and 
gardens, covers a space of about 100 acres, the buildings alone occu- 
pying nearly 11; its endowments are princely. 

Brazenose College^ or The Kings Hall and Brazenose College. — 
Founded jointly by William Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln, and Sir 
Richard Sutton, Knt., of Prestbury, Cheshire. The foundation con- 
sists of a principal, 20 fellows, and 47 scholars and exhibitioners. It 
has the patronage of upwards of 40 livings. 

Corpus Christi College. — Founded in 1516 by Richard Foy, Bishop 
of Winchester and Lord Privy Seal. The foundation consists of a 
president, 20 fellows, 20 scholars, 2 chaplains, and 4 exhibitioners. 
It has the patronage of 22 livings. 

Christ Church College. — Cardinal Wolsey, in 1525, obtained per- 
mission to appropriate the revenues of a number of suppressed reli- 
gious houses to the foundation of this college, and may therefore justly 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY. — OXFORD. 875 




CHRISTCHURCH COLLEGE. 



be considered its founder; although, after making considerable pro- 
gress with the buildings, it was suppressed, and the revenues seized 
on by Henry VIII., with whom the Cardinal had fallen into disgrace. 
In 1532 the King re-founded the college on the same site, with a 
liberal endowment, in the name of King Henry the Eighth's College, 
In 1545 he again suppressed this college, taking its possessions into 
his hands; and it was not till 1546 that it was finally re-established 
in the mixed form of a cathedral and academic college, in which state 
it still continues. The foundation of Christ Church consists of a 
dean, 8 canons, 8 chaplains, 101 students, besides singing men, 
choristers, &c. It has the patronage of about 90 livings. 

Trinity College. — Founded in 1554 by Sir Thomas Pope, Knt., of 
Tenterhanger, in Hertfordshire. The present foundation consists of 
a president, 12 fellows, 13 scholars, and 3 exhibitioners. It has the 
patronage of 10 livings. 

St. Johns College. — Founded by Sir Thomas White, Knt., Alder- 
man of London, in 1555 ; re-founded by the same, 1557. The foun- 
dation consists of a president, 50 fellows and scholars, one chaplain, 
besides singing men, choristers, &e. It has the patronage of 30 
livings. 

Jes2is College, — Founded by Queen Elizabeth, in 1571 , on the 
petition of Hugh Price, LL.D. The society at present consists of a 
principal, 19 fellows, and 18 scholars. It has the patronage of 20 
livings. 

Wadham College, — Founded 1613, in pursuance of the will of 
Nicholas Wadham, Esq., of Edge and Meiefield, Somersetshire, by 
Dorothy, his widow. The foundation consists of a warden, 15 fel- 
lows, 15 scholars, 2 chaplains, 2 clerks, and various exhibitioners. 
It has the patronage of 10 livings. 



876 LONDON. 

Pembroke College. — Founded in 1624 by Thomas Tesdale, Esq.. 
and Richard Wightwick, B.D., Rector of Ilsby, Berks. It takes its 
name from Philip Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, Chancellor of the 
University at the time of the foundation of the college. The founda- 
tion consists of a master, 20 fellows, and 16 scholars, besides several 
exhibitioners. It has the patronage of 10 livings. 

Worcester College. — Founded in 1714 by Sir Thomas Cookes. 
Bart., of Bentley, in Worcestershire. The foundation at present 
consists of a provost, 21 fellows, 16 scholars, and three exhibitioners, 
It has the patronage of 9 livings. 

HALLS. 

The difference between the Halls and Colleges is that the formei 
are not incorporated, and consequently the estates and other property 
they possess are held in trust by the University for their use. In 
other respects they enjoy the same privileges as the members of the 
colleges. In former times the halls were very numerous ; in the time 
of Edward I. they are said to have been nearly 300. As the number 
of colleges increased, that of the halls became less, several halls being 
comprehended in one college ; many have been turned into private 
residences, till at the present time but &ve remain. The records oi 
halls being extremely defective, and our limits not being sufficient 
for entering into any details of their foundations, we only give the 
names of the five existing halls ; taking these societies generally tc 
consist of a principal, vice-principal, with a few scholarships anc 
exhibitioners. With the exception of Magdalen Hall, which pos- 
sesses one benefice, they have no church patronage. 

St. Marys Hall. 

Magdalen Hall. 

New Inn Hall. — In the time of the civil war, from 1642 to 1646, 
this hall was used as a royal mint, to which the different colleges and 
hails sent their plate to be melted down for the King's use. 

St. Alban Hall. 

St. Edmund Hall. 

In addition to the colleges and halls are the following public insti- 
tutions : — 

Bodleian Library. — Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, 
Knt., of Exeter. 

The Theatre. — Erected at the sole expense of Gilbert Sheldon, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and Chancellor of the University, in 1699. 
Public meetings for the annual commemoration of benefactors, and the 
recitation of prize compositions, &c, take place in the theatre. 

Badcliffe Library. — One of the most striking features in Oxford. 
Founded by the munificent Dr. Radcliffe ; completed 1747. 

Badcliffe Observatory. — This building, with a dwelling house at- 
tached for the observer, also owes its foundation to Dr. Radcliffe. 
(See article "Observatories," pp. 674-679.) 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY. — CAMBRIDGE. 877 

Ashmolean Museum. — Erected at the charge of the University, 
1683, to receive a collection of natural and artificial curiosities, fur- 
nished hy Elias Ashmole, Esq., subsequently increased by other 
benefactors. 

The University Press. — Commenced 1826; completed 1830. 

The Schools. — This building, which is well worthy of notice, was 
completed (on the site of the old schools) in the early part of the 
seventeenth century. It is not the property of any one college, but 
belongs to the University as a body. Leading out of this square 
are — 

The Picture Gallery. — Containing, besides pictures, many valuable 
curiosities ; 

The Arundel Marbles. — Collected by Sir William Petty, for the 
Earl of Arundel and Surrey ; and 

The Divinity School. — A large and splendid room, where the 
exercises for the degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Divinity are 
performed. 

The Taylor Institution and University Galleries.— Erected from 
the bequests of Sir Robert Taylor, Knt, and Rev. Dr. Randolph. 
The former as a foundation for cultivating the European languages ; 
the other for the reception of works of art. 

The Martyrs Memorial. — A very elegant cross, in memory of 
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, who suffered martyrdom by fire in 
1555, on the site of the houses in Broad Street, immediately opposite 
the Masters house of Balliol College. 

St. Marys, or University Church. — Completed 1498. The tower 
and octagonal spire is conspicuous from most parts of the town. 

The Botanic Gardens. — Founded by the Earl of Danby, 1622. 
The gardens are extensive, and contain a valuable collection of 
plants ; in the centre walk is a very elegant fountain. 

The whole neighbourhood of Oxford abounds with interest. To 
the Palace of Blenheim, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough, we 
may particularly draw the attention of the visitor ; it is distant only 
8 miles from Oxford. 

CAMBRIDGE. 

The entrance to Cambridge has a far less striking effect than that 
to Oxford ; indeed, although possessing many magnificent edifices, 
Cambridge must yield the palm to Oxford. The new buildings of 
St. John s College, however, standing in the midst of their luxuriant 
grounds, with the more ancient portions of the college adjoining, 
the new and old bridges crossing the Cam, and the splendid trees, 
form a whole that produces an effect unsurpassed even at Oxford or 
elsewhere ; and the chapel of King's College stands unrivalled. The 
view on entering the King's Parade, from Trumpington Street, 
embraces a vast pile of buildings, and excites perhaps a grander 
feeling than any single coup-d'oeil at Oxford. Cambridge contains 



878 



LONDON. 




KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 



17 colleges and halls *, besides numerous public buildings anc 
churches. The following is the chronological order of the colleges 
and halls. 

St. Peters College, or Peterhouse. — Founded in 1257 by Hugh de 
Balsham, Bishop of Ely. The society consists of a master, 14 fel 
lows, and 10 bye-fellows, with about 60 scholars. It has the 
patronage of 11 benefices and one grammar school. 

Clare Hall— Founded in 1326 by Dr. Richard Badew, in Mil 
Street, under the title of University Hall. This edifice was de- 
stroyed by fire, and rebuilt on its present site, by Elizabeth, sister 
of the Earl of Clare. This society consists of a master; 10 senior, 
9 junior, and 3 bye- fellowships ; besides scholars, students, and 
foundation servants. It has the patronage of 16 benefices. 

Pembroke College. — Founded in 1347 by Mary de St. Paul, widow 
of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. Henry VI. was so liberal 
a benefactor to this College as to be called a second founder. The 
society consists of a master, 14 foundation and 3 bye-fellowships, 
30 scholarships, besides valuable exhibitions. It has the patronage 
of 10 benefices. 

Gonville and Caius College. — Founded in 1349 as Gonville Hall, near 
to St. Botolph's Church, by Edmund Gonville, Rector of Terrington, 
Norfolk. Established on its present site as Gonville College, in 
1353, by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich. In 1558 Dr. Caius, 
physician to Queen Mary, procured a new charter, by which it took 
its present name. The society consists of a master, 29 fellows, 

* College and hall, at Cambridge, are almost synonymous, 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY. CAMBRIDGE. 



879 




HALL AND CONDUIT, TRINITY GREAT COURT. 

and about 50 scholarships, with numerous exhibitions. It has the 
patronage of 22 benefices, and the Perse free school. 

Trinity Hall. — Founded in 1350 by Bishop Bateman. The 
society consists of a master, 12 fellows, and 16 scholars. It has the 
patronage of 8 benefices. 

Corpus Christi College. — Founded in 1351 by two societies or 
guilds in Cambridge. The society consists of a master, 12 fellows, 
with about 60 scholarships and exhibitions. It has the patronage of 
11 benefices. 

King's College. — Founded by King Henry VI., 1441. The so- 
ciety of this College consists of a provost, and 70 fellows and 
scholars. It has the patronage of upwards of 30 benefices. King's 
College enjoys certain privileges exempting the members from some 
of the general laws of the University. King's College Chapel is 
universally celebrated for the beauty and elegance of its architecture. 

Queens College. — Founded in 1446 by Margaret of Anjou, Queen 
of Henry VI., and re-founded in 1465 by Elizabeth Widville, Queen 
of Edward IV. The society consists of a president, 20 fellows, and 
21 scholars. It has the patronage of 11 benefices. 

St. Catherine's Hall. — Founded in 1473, by Robert Wodelarke, 
D.D., Provost of King's College and Chancellor of the University. 
The society consists of a master, 14 fellows, and 43 scholars. It has 
the patronage of 4 benefices, and 1 grammar school. 

Jesus College. — Founded in 1496 by John Alcock, Bishop of Ely. 
The society consists of a master, 19 fellows, and 46 scholars. It 
has the patronage of 16 benefices. 



880 LONDON. 

Christ 's College. — This College dates its foundation from 1505, b} 
Margaret, Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII. ; thougl 
prior to this period it existed under the title of " God's House," from 
a foundation of Henry VI. The society consists of a master, 15 
fellows, and nearly 90 scholarships. It has the patronage o 
18 benefices. 

St. John's College. — Founded in 1511 by Margaret, Countess o 
Richmond, mother of Henry VII., foundress of Christ's College. 
This society consists of a master, 60 fellows, 114 scholars, besides 
numerous exhibitions. Forty-six benefices and three grammai 
schools are in its patronage. 

Magdalen College. — Founded in 1519 by Thomas, Baron Audley, 
of Walden. The society consists of a master, 17 fellows, and 43 
scholars. It has the patronage of 6 benefices. 

Trinity College. — Founded by King Henry VIII., 1546, and sub- 
sequently augmented by his daughter, Queen Mary. The society 
consists of a master, 60 fellows, and 69 scholars, with valuable 
exhibitions. It has the patronage of 59 benefices and 3 grammai 
schools, with the alternate presentation to the mastership of West 
minster School. 

Emmanuel College. — Founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, 
Chancellor of the Exchequer in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The 
society consists of a master, 15 fellows, and 36 scholars, with several 
exhibitions. It has the patronage of 19 benefices and 3 grammai 
schools. 

Sydney Sussex College. — Founded in 1598 by Lady Frances 
Sydney, Countess of Sussex. The society consists of a master, 12 
fellows, and 26 scholars, with various exhibitions. It has the patron- 
age of 6 benefices. 

Downing College. — Founded in 1800 by Sir George Downing, 
Bart., of G-amlingay Park, Cambridgeshire. The entire buildings of 
this College are yet unfinished; when complete, the society will con- 
sist of a master, 16 fellows, and 6 scholars. 

In addition to the Colleges and Halls, the following public build- 
ings and institutions are worthy of notice : — 

The Senate House. — An elegant structure of the Corinthian order, 
completed about 1730. The public business of the University 
here transacted. 

The University Library*. — This Library contains, in addition to 
voluminous collection of books, a rare and valuable collection 
manuscripts, and many curious relics of antiquity. 

The Schools.— The Divinity School, the Philosophy School, and 
the School for Civil Law and Physic, with a lecture room for the 
professors. 

The University, or Pitt Press. — A handsome structure, more re- 

* This library is entitled by act of Parliament to a copy of every work published in this 
country. The same privilege is accorded to four other libraries. 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY 




FITZ WILLIAM MUSEUM. 



sembling a church than a printing office ; so much so, that it goes 
by the name among the students of the Freshman s Church. 

The FitzwiUiam Museum. — This magnificent building (architect, 
the late George Basevi, Esq.), one of the greatest ornaments to 
Cambridge, owes its origin to the noble bequest of Viscount 
FitzwiUiam, in 1816. It contains a fine collection of paintings, 
with valuable drawings and prints; and a choice library, with many 
valuable manuscripts and illuminated missals. A collection left to the 
University by Daniel Mesman, Esq., has been added to the Fitzwilliani 
collection. 

Among the numerous churches in Cambridge, two are particularly 
worthy of notice : — Great St. Marys Church, or the University 
Church, is of considerable antiquity. Here on Sundays and holidays 
may be seen the dignitaries of the University in their robes of office, 
seated on the throne appropriated to them. Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre — one of the four round churches of England, recently re- 
stored. This is a very ancient edifice, well worthy the notice of the 
.ntiquarian. 

We cannot dismiss Cambridge without noticing the College walks, 
which are really beautiful; and. by the liberality of the heads of the 
Colleges, being open to the public, form agreeable and healthy spots 
for exercise to the townspeople. (For Cambridge Observatorv, see 
pp. 670-674.) 

ST. ALBANS, 

A very ancient town, 20 miles north-west of London, by the Great 
Northern Railway (Station, King's Cross, Battle Bridge), sends two 



882 LONDON. 

members to Parliament. It was one of the principal places of the an- 
cient Britons, before the Roman Conquest ; soon after, it was raised to 
the rank of a city under the name of Verulam. The greater part of 
this city was demolished by the Britons, under Queen Boadicea, in 
the sixty-first year after the birth of Christ; but it was soon rebuilt, 
and the inhabitants continued under the protection of the Romans 
for a long time. In the persecution of the Christians under the 
Roman Emperor, Diocletian, in the year 304, Alban, a native of 
Verulam, who had been a soldier at Rome, suffered martyrdom for 
his faith; and being the first Briton who had been put to death for 
his religious opinions, he is called England's first martyr, as St. Ste- 
phen is called the proto-martyr of Christianity. St. Alban's Abbey 
Church was principally erected in the reign of William Rufus, and 
is in extreme length 606 ft., by 217 ft. at the intersection of the 
transept; a large part of the original edifice is composed of materials 
taken from the ruins of the ancient Verulam, consisting chiefly of 
Roman tile. There are several monuments of illustrious men; that 
of Duke Humphrey, of Gloucester, the brother of Henry V., dis- 
covered within these few years, is curious. This venerable abbey 
altogether is an object of great interest. It is to be regretted that 
those individuals possessing enormous wealth in the church, should 
not be induced to come forward and protect from the ravages of 
time this gem of antiquity. In the church of St. Michael, hard by, 
is a magnificently sculptured sitting monument of the great Lord 
Bacon, executed by Rysbach. For an excellent Guide of St. Alban's, 
apply at Mr. Langley's, bookseller, in the town. 

ASCOT HEATH. 

Five miles from Windsor, and about 24 miles from London, long 
celebrated for its fashionable race, held in the week after Whitsun- 
tide, which lasts five days. Her Majesty and Royal Family usually 
attend one or two days. The resort on the race-course during the 
intervals of the race is exceedingly interesting, from being attended 
by fashionably dressed and beautiful women of high birth. 

EPSOM. 

Epsom Downs, or Race-Course, is the great attraction in the spring 
of the year, for horse-racing. The grand time is about the second 
week in May. It is one of the greatest horse-racing assemblies in 
the kingdom, and which the nobility liberally patronize ; all classes, 
from the highest to the lowest, are seen co-mingled in the enjoyment 
of this delightful English sport. It is in Surrey, about 15 miles 
from London. 

CHISWICK. 

A village lying between the Thames and Hammersmith, on the 
western road, about 5 miles from London, remarkable for its horti- 
cultural gardens (see article "Gardens," pp. 480-487) and the fine 



EXCURSIONS TO THE VICINITY. 883 

seat and beautiful gardens of the Duke of Devonshire. The house 
is in the Palladian style, built by the Earl of Burlington. There are 
two statues, one of Palladio, and the other of Inigo Jones, sculptured 
by Rysbach. The house contains a few good paintings, and the 
gardens are under the able direction of Mr. Edmunds (see also pp. 
506-508). In this mansion expired the great statesmen, Charles 
James Fox, in 1806, and George Canning, in 1827. In the parish 
churchyard are deposited the remains of the Countess of Falconberg, 
the daughter of Oliver Cromwell ; the Earl Macartney ; Ralph the 
historian ; Loutherbourg the painter ; Hogarth, on whose tomb there 
is an epitaph written by Garrick ; Ugo Foscolo, an Italian literati of 
eminence. 

KEW. 

Remarkable for its splendid gardens, and once a royal residence; 
formerly, also, the residences of the late Duke of Cambridge, and 
the King of Hanover. (For a description of the gardens, see article 
" Gardens/') 

RICHMOND. 

Very beautifully situated, long celebrated for its picturesque and 
romantic views of rich and cultivated fields, villas, residences of the 
nobility and gentry, hills and dales, and of the meandering Thames. 
The views present Petersham, Twickenham, Hampton Court, Wind- 
sor, Harrow-on-the-Hill, &c. These views are from Richmond Hill, 
a spot consecrated by the writings of the poet and the historian. The 
Star and Garter, an hotel of very fashionable resort, have the choicest 
repasts for visitors. The late King of the French and his family took 
up their residence in this hotel several times during their sojourn in 
this country. Richmond Bridge has from it very pretty views of the 
Hill, with the studded villas which adorn the banks of the Thames. 
Close to the bridge is a residence combining with it on either side a 
conservatory, which, by reference to the artiele " Gardens/' will be 
found explained. 

Within a very short distance looking east there is an iron bridge, 
on which the railway is carried, and is the route to Twickenham, 
Windsor, &c. 

Richmond Park is very extensive, containing upwards of 2200 
acres, and said to be about 8 miles round. Lord John Russell, 
Prime Minister, has his residence in the great lodge. It is a fine 
structure, the centre of which is constructed of stone, and the wings 
of brick. It is on an elevated spot commanding fine prospects; besides 
other edifices, with gardens, &c. 

Richmond was formerly a royal residence. Queen Elizabeth died 
here March 24, 1604. (See also article "Gardens.") 

HAMPTON COURT PALACE. 

Hampton Court Palace (see articles " Galleries" and " Gardens," 
pp. 496-498); a most interesting palatial edifice. (For a view in the 



884 LONDON. 

gardens, and an exterior of the palace gardens, front, &c, see the two 
illustrations in the article a Galleries" and "Gardens;" in the latter a 
description of these gardens will be found.) This palace was originally 
built by Cardinal Wolsey, and afterwards enlarged and improved by Sir 
Christopher Wren. It is one of the Eoyal Palaces, and it is beauti- 
fully situated on the banks of the Thames, to which it has a frontage 
of 328 ft. To this structure there are three grand quadrangles : 
the western or entrance court is 167 ft. by 141 ft. ; the clock court 
is 133 ft. by 91 ft.; and the eastern or fountain court is 111 ft. by 
117 ft. It is in the Tudor style of architecture, and is a very fine 
example, but with some mixture of a later style. The apartments of 
the interior contain a numerous collection of pictures particularly rich 
in portraits by Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, &c, and there 
are also the celebrated cartoons of Raphael. The rooms are capa- 
cious, and very suitable for the exhibition of pictures. In one of 
the apartments there is an extraordinary fine model made in Indian 
wood — the palace of one of the rich Hindoo Princes, at Moorshasabad. 
This palace was erected by Major General M'Leod, who had the 
honour of presenting it to her Majesty. A descriptive catalogue of the 
contents of this fine palace is sold by one of the domestics for 6d. 

The fine Hall (called Wolsey's Hall) has lately been restored to 
its pristine beauty, and is shown to visitors. It is a noble specimen 
of a princely and baronial hall, upwards of 100 ft. by 40 ft. in 
width. Annexed is the ancient withdra wing-room or presence 
chamber, of about 60 ft. long, being an equal breadth to the hall. 
The ceiling is most splendid, with pendent ornaments and rich 
carvings, and the windows are of equal splendour, with stained glass. 

The visitor should not omit an inspection of this splendid 
grandeur of the Tudor period. The town of Hampton affords every 
accommodation for the visitor's comforts. Opposite the palace gates 
are the fine gates of the entrance to Bushy Park, which should be 
visited for the beauty of the stately trees. 

CLAREMONT. 

Claremont Palace (west of London, in the county of Surrey), 
so much known; becoming an object of historical and mournful 
interest from being the residence of the late Princess Charlotte of 
Wales, only child of George IV., and first wife to the King of the 
Belgians, when Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg ; subsequently the 
residence of the late dethroned monarch of France, Louis Philippe ; 
and now that of his Queen and royal family. Its situation is near 
the village of Esher in Surrey, 17 miles from London. The present 
palace was built about 80 years since for Lord Clive, who spent 
upwards of 100,000/. in its erection and decoration. It was in 1816 
purchased by parliament, at a cost of 65,000/., as a residence for 
Prince Leopold, who now nominally occupies and maintains it as a 
residence for the family of the fallen monarch. (See also p. 506.) 



INDEX AND DIKECTORY. 



The following Index and Directory includes not only the objects mentioned in 
he work, but, for the convenience of the stranger, every leading street and 
mblic office, with an indication of the address, or of the locality referred to on 
,he map. The following abbreviations are used : bdgs., buildings ; rd., road ; 
iq., square ; st., street ; St., Saint ; X., E., W., S., north, east, west, and south. 
To express the part of a street in which the object indicated is situated, the 
lumber of the house is given before the name of the street ; the number of the 
page, if there is any reference in the book, after the name of the street. 

After page 504 the book is double numbered, pages (505) to (540), num- 
bered within brackets, coming before page 505, when the paging proceeds 
regularlv. 



Abchurch lane, Lombard st. 

Abingdon st., Westminster Pa- 
lace 

Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke 
Newington rd., 288 

Academv, see Arts, Music 

Arts, Royal, 63, 432, 600 

— Military, Royal, see Wool- 
wich 

— Music, Roval, 63, 324, 621 

Woolwich,' 350, 680 

\ccount-book making, 232, 

238, 243 

days, 104, 378 

Accountants, 62 

Achilles' statue, Hyde park E., 

827 
Acton, 60; almshouses, 217 

Chapel, 322; police, 97 

W T ells, 60 

Actuaries, Institute of, 12, 

Chatham place, 111 
Adam st., Adelphi, W. Strand 
Addiscombe College, 63, 323, 

363, 600 
Addison, 786 
Addresses, 101 

Adelaide Gallery, Lowther ar- 
cade, W. Strand, 700 
Adelphi Theatre, 411, Strand, 

772 
Admiralty, Whitehall, and 

Somerset House, 88, 89, 703, 

769 

— Court, Doctors' commons, 
90,91,703 

Adult Orphan Asylum, 245 
Advertising, 76 
/Eifric Society, 589 
African Civilization Society, 

20, Buckingham st. 
Agricultural College, 26, King 

William st. W. 

— Show, see Smithfield Club 

— Society, Royal, 12, Hano- 
ver sq., 586 

Alban's, St., 881 

Wood st., Cheapside, 312 
■ Duke of, House, 355. 
Albany, Piccadilly; do. St., Re- 
gent's park E.,97 
Albemarle st., 62, Piccadillv W. 
Albion Hall, London wall, 623 



Aldermanbury,Gresham St., E. 
Aldermary Church, Watling 

st. E., 308 
Aldermen, 93, 94, 98, 325, 326, 

330, 716; Court of, 326, 328, 

330, 405, 822; Deputy, 330 
Aldersgate St., General Post 

Office, near Cheapside, W. 

Ward, ditto 

Aldgate, E. City, Leadenhall 

Church, ditto, 313 

Ale, 272, see Beer 

Alfred Club, 23, Albemarle st., 
Piccadilly, 305 

Alie st., Goodman's fields 

Alien Office, Home Office, 
Whitehall (11 till 4 o'clock) 

Alley, The, 377 

Alleyne's Almshouses, 215 

Allhallows, London wall, 313 

Staining, Mark lane, 310 

Lombard St., 309 

Barking, Great Tower St., 

172, 307, 309 

the Great, Bread St., 308, 

828 

Alliance Assurance, 240 

Almanacks, 336, 652 ; Nautical, 
614, 649 

Almshouses, 214 

Alpha rd., Regent's park W. 

Alphage, St., London wall W., 
313 

All Saints, Caledonian rd., 315. 

Cambridge place, Edg- 

ware rd. 

Knightsbridge,Ennismore 

place, 315 

Lambeth, Lower marsh 

Poplar, E. India rd. 

St. Pancras, Gordon sq. 

Rotherhithe, Lower rd. 

Spitalfields, Spicer st. 

Westminster rd.,315 

Ail Souls, Langham place, 320 

Amen corner, Paternoster row, 
Ludgate hill, 562 

American Legation, 138, Pic- 
cadilly 

Amusement, Places of, 699, 
see Concerts, Gardens, Mu- 
sic, Theatres 



Anatomical Schools, see Medi- 
cal 

subjects, 66 

Anchorsmiths, 237 

Andrew's, St., Bethnal green, 
321 

by the Wardrobe, Doctors' 

commons, 307 

Holborn hill, 310 

Undershaft, Leadenhall 

st., 173, 307, 309 

Wells st., Oxford st. 

Anerly, 499 

Anglo-Saxon architecture, 127 

Anne's, St., Limehouse, 315 

Soho, 315 

Blackfriars, see St. An- 
drew Wardrobe 

Society School, 245, 364 

and Agnes, General Post 

Office, 193, 312 

Annattomanufacturers,121,234 

Annuities, 110 

Antholin, St., Watling St., 193, 
308 

Anthony, St., 308 

Antiquaries, Society of, 553, 
585, 600, 769 

Antiquities, 127; Anglo-Saxon, 
127 ; banking, 102, 103 ; 
church, 288 ; coronation 
stone, 788; crvpts, 131, 140, 
151, 159, 311, 711, 716, 720; 
glass painting, 146 ; Lambeth 
Palace, 140; London stone, 
308; mosaic, 787, 793; Nor- 
man, 128, 131; pix-office, 
127, 724; Roman, 730, see 
British Museum, Guild- 
hall; Saviour's, St., 140; 
Saxon, see Anglo ; shrine of 
Edward the Confessor, 163; 
Temple, 135; tombs, 166; 
White Tower, 128; West- 
minster Abbey, 127, 143 

Antrobus', Lady, garden, (523) 

Antwerp Steam Company, 
Fenchurch st., 71, Lombard 
st., 123 

Apothecaries Companv, 335, 
337, 494, 505, 545, 628' 

Hall, Water lane, Black- 
friars, 505 

QQ 



886 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Apparatus, scientific, 232 
Appeal courts, see Law courts 
Apprentices, City, 327, 334 
Apsley House, Hyde park, Pic- 
cadilly, W., 356, 439, 704, 827 
Arches, 704 ; St. Bartholo- 
mew's Gate, Smithfield ; 
Green park, 454, 705; Hyde 
park, 455, 705 ; St. John's, 
Smithfield ; marble, Oxford 
St., Hyde park, 706; Tem- 
ple Bar, Fleet st., 327, 704; 
York Gate, 704 
Arboretum, 37, 43, 44, see Pine- 
tum ; St. James's, 453 ; Hor- 
ticultural, 486; Kensington 
gardens, 44, 47, 452, 456, 468; 
Kew, 469 ; Loddige's, (531) ; 
Royal Botanic, 487; St. 
James's park, 453 ; Victoria 
park, 458 
Arcade, Burlington, Piccadilly, 
264 ; Exeter, Katharine st., 
Strand; Hungerford, Strand, 
264 ; London Bridge station ; 
Lowther, Strand, 264; Opera, 
Haymarket, 264 ; Pantech- 
nicon 
Archeological Institute, 26, 
Suffolk st., Pall Mall, 587 

Association, British, 32, 

Sackville st., Piccadilly, 587 
Arches Court, Doctors' com- 
mons, 91 
Architect Newspaper, 10, Flud- 

yer St., Whitehall 
Architects, 62, 66, 72, 110 

Royal Institute of, 573 

Architectural Publication So- 
ciety,14A,GreatMarlborough 
st. 

■ Society, Lyons inn hall 

Architecture of London, 
124 ; altar-screen, 142 ; An- 
glo-Saxon, 127; apsis, 146, 
162 ; arcade, 179 ; Barry, 719, 
733 ; Baths and Wash- 
houses, 254; belfries, 193; 
Bridge, 273; cathedral, 150, 
181 ; ceiling, 415; Chambers, 
Sir W., 200, 213; chapter- 
house, 147; Church, 288; 
cloisters, 149, 151, 170; Club, 
292; conservatory, 471, 492; 
conventual, 133, 135, 143, 
156, 306 ; cruciform, 133, 141, 
143; crypt, 131, 140, 151, 159, 
316 ; dome, 181, 185, 190 ; 
domestic, 160 ; exchange, 
366; gate, 160, 162, 470; 
halls, 147, 157, 158, 161, 174; 
Hawkesmoor, 198, 211; Ita- 
lian, 170; Jones, Inigo, 175, 
176, 178, 180, 203 ; Norman, 
128, 131, 133, 135, 141, 307; 
observatory, 633; oriel, 161 ; 
Palladian, 296; Paul's, St., 
181 ; piazza, 179 ; piers, 281 ; 
plans, 128, 136, 148, 177, 184, 
201, 250, 294, 295, 297, 300, 
304, 339, 344, 347, 348, 373, 
374, 559, 577, 605, 633, 733, 
865, 867; roof, 157; round 
church, 135; Saxon, see An- 
glo-Saxon ; screen, 142, 162; 
shrine, 163; squares, 179; 
stables, 867; steeples, 193, 
205,733; triforium, 133,142, 
146; Tudor, 159, 170, 172; 
villa, 450 ; vaulting, 128, 



131, 135, 146, 153, 159, 162, 
163, 165, 169; Watergate, 
179; windows, 145, 156; 
Wren, 180, 181, 206 

Architectural Tile Works, 
Commercial rd., Lambeth 

Argyle House, 354 

Argyll st., 222, Regent st. 

Arlington House, 748 

Armorers and Braziers' Hall, 
81, Coleman St., 505; alms- 
houses, 215 ; company, 336 

Armoury, Tower, 778 ; Hamp- 
ton Court, 409; Windsor, 
443; Woolwich; United Ser- 
vice Museum , 585 ; A rmorers 
and Braziers Hall, 505 ; East 
India Museum, 723; St. 
James's, 413 

Arms, College of, Bennet's 
Hill, St. Paul's, 323, 554 

Army, see Military, War Of- 
fice 

Army and Navy Club, Pall 
Mall West, 302 

Arrow-root manufacture, 235 

Art, Schools of, see Galleries ; 
Academy, Royal, 63, 432, 
600 ; architectural, 66, see 
likewise Architectural So- 
ciety ; British Artists, 385 ; 
British Museum, 566; Bri- 
tish Institution, 385; City 
of London Institution, 592; 
Design, School of, see De- 
sign ; female, 399 ; King's 
College, 323; mechanics' in- 
stitutions, 591 ; National Gal- 
lery, 420, 745 ; Society of 
British Artists, 385 ; Univer- 
sity College, 323 ; Vernon 
Gallery, 401 ; Union, 444, 
West Strand 

Arthur's Club, 69, St. James's 
St., 303, 304 

Artificial flower trade, 62, 116, 
234, 379 

eye trade, 234 

Artillery, see Military, Ord- 
nance 

Company, Armoury, Fins - 

bury sq. 

Artists, 62, 72, 379 

British Society, Suffolk 

st., Pall Mall, E., 335 

Arts, Society of, 18, John st., 
Adelphi, W. Strand, 580 

Art Union, 444, West Strand 

Arundel st, 187, Strand 

Arundel House, 539 

Ascot Heath, 35, 382 

Ashburnham House, 206, 706 

Ashburton House, 379, 706 

Asiatic Society, Royal, 582 

Aske's Hospital, Hoxton, 217, 
246, 363 

Assam tea, 11, Crooked lane 

Assault, 94, 95 

Assayers, 238, 335, 336, 616 

Assay office, see Laboratory 

Assize Courts, 91 

Association, British, 667 

Assurance Companies, 110, 
239; list of, 240 

Astley's Theatre, 6, Bridge rd., 
Westminster Bridge, S., 773, 
775 

Astronomical Society, Royal, 
Somerset House, Strand, 570, 
631, 690, 699, 769 



Asylums, 242 

Athenasum Journal, 14, Wel- 
lington st. N., Strand, 72 

Club, 107, Pall Mall, 294, 

295 

Atlas Assurance, Cheapside, 
240 

Attorney General, 89 

Auction sales, 378, 379, 
Sales 

mart, Lothbury, Bank, 

379 

Audit Office, 769 

Audley st., Oxford st. W. 

Augustine, see Austin 

St., Hackney, 313 

Aurora Borealis, 23 

Austin Friars, Old Broad st., 
City, 156, 306 

— — St., Old Change, 309 

Austrian Embassy ^ 7, Chandos 
st., Cavendish sq. 

Avenue road, Regent's park N, 

Aviary, 264, 517, (531), see Or- 
nithological, Zoological 

Bacon, Lord, 387, born in West 
Strand 

Baden Consulate, 1, Riches 
court, Lime st. , Fenchurch st. 

Badger Baiting, 95 

Bagnigge Wells, Clerkenwell, 
98, 265 

Bagshot, 34, 35, 36 

heath, 49, (533) 

sand, 34, 35, 36 

Bail, 94; Court, Westminster 
Hall 

Bailey, Old, see Central Crimi- 
nal Court 

Baker st, New road; Bazaar, 
58, Baker st., 264 

Bakers, 62, 227, 234, 379 

Almshouses, 216 

Hall, 16, Harp lane, Tower 

st., 505 

Balham hill, 465 

Ball's Pond, Islington, 320, 851 

Ballast-heaving, 340 

Baltic Coffee House, 379 

Bancroft's almshouses, Mile 
End, 215 

Band, Caledonian, 245; Ma- 
rine, 245 ; R. Military Asy- 
lum, 244 

Bank of England, Cornhill 
W., 102, 107, 247, 600, 827 

Notes, 102, 109, 249 

Savings, 66, 106, 233 

- — Buildings, 369 

Bankers, 72,- 612 

Banking, 102 

Bankruptcy Court, 82, Basing- 
hall st., Gresham st. E. 

Bankside, Southwark 

Banqueting-house, Whitehall, 
176, 440, 706, 747 

Baptist chapels, 322 

college, see Stepney 

Missionary Society, 33, 

Moorgate st. 

Barbers' Company, 333, 336, 
561; Hall, 33, Monkwell st., 
Crippiegate, 382, 445, 505 

Barbican, Aldersgate st. 

Barclay's Brewery, Park St., 
Borough, 227, 272, 273 

Observatory, 685 

Barges, City, 328, 329, 331 

Baring collection, 379, 332 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



88^ 



Barking:, 6, 55, 60 

— Police, 97; church, 321 
Barnabas, St., Pimlico, 315 

— College, 315 

— Kensington, Addison rd. 

— St. Luke's, King sq. 
Barnard's inn, Lower Hoi born., 

528, 530, 531 
Barnet police, 07 
Barnsbury park, Lower rd., 

Islington 
Barometer making, 232, 238, 

379 
Baron of beef, 334 
Bars, City, 328, 771 
Bartholomew, St., College, 

Smithfield, 63, 323, 325, 509, 

512 

Exchange, 312 

Hospital, Smithfield, 63, 

66, 323, 325, 509, 512 
Suffolk st., Cambridge 

rd..321 
the Great, Smithfield, 131, 

167, 312 
the Less, Smithfield, 160, 

307, 313 

lane, Lothbury, Bank 

close, Smithfield 

Barytes, sulphate of, 30 
Basinghall st., Gresham st., 

Guildhall, 379, 531 
Basins, see Docks 
Basketmakers, 62, 236, 243, 379 

— Company, Guildhall, 336 
Bassishaw Ward, Basinghall st., 

312 

Chambers, Basinghall st. 

Bath House, 379, 706 ' 

Bathing place, 455; see Canal 

Baths' and Washhouses,254, 
267, 763 

Battersea, S.W. London, (540) 

Bridge, near to Chelsea 

Hospital; church, 313; park, 
464, 855 

Batty's Amphitheatre, 773, 
likewise near the Great Ex- 
hibition 

Bavarian Chapel, Warwick st., 
Golden sq., 322; Consulate, 
33J, Great St. Helen's 

Bavswater, Oxford st., W., 
455, 854; brook, 5; school, 
363 

Bazaars and S how-Rooms, 
264; Baker St., 264; Blind 
Asylum, 364; Hanwell Asy- 
lum, 520; Islington, 265; 
London Bridge Station ; 
Lowther, 264; New Oxford 
st., 265; Pantechnicon, 265; 
Pantheon, 264; Soho, 264; 
Thames Tunnel, 833 

Beale's factory, 364 

Bear-baiting, 95 

Bears, 378 

Beaumont Institution, 32, 
Beaumont sq., Mile End 

Beaufort. House, 354 

Beaufoy's Vinegar Works, 
South Lambeth 

Beauvoir Town, Kingslandrd. 

Beddineton Park, 466 

Bedford Chapel, Bloomsbury 
st., Oxford st. E. 

hill, 465 

row, High Holborn, 379 

sq., near High Holborn, 770 

st., Covent Garden 



i Bedlam, see Bethlehem 

■ Beer Licences, 98 
Trade, see Breweries 

i Beggars, 69, 96 
; Belgian Embassy, 9, Wey- 
mouth st.; Consulate, 52, 
Gracechurch st. 
Belgrave sq., Pimlico, 770 
Benedict, St., see Bennet 
Benefit Societies, 111; Asvium, 

246 
Bennet, St., Fink, 312 

' Gracechurch st. 

i Paul's Wharf, U. Thames 

st. W., 196, 206, 3('7 
Berkeley House, 355 

! sq., Piccadilly W., 771 

; Berlin wool, 234, 379 

■ Bermondsev, S. London, 227, 
230, 341,* 379; chapel, 322; 

i church, 313; convent, 322; 

market, 379, 612. 
; Berners st., 54, Oxford St., W. 
; Berwick st., 371, Oxford st., W. 
1 Bethlehem Hospital, Saint 
: George's fields, 66, 509, 513, 
I 601. * 

i Bethnal green, E. London, 379; 
' churches, 321 ; almshouses, 
| 215 

Beulah Spa, Norwood, 498 
i Bexlev heath, 54 
: Bible Society, 600 

Bielefield's works, 15, Wel- 
j lington st. N., Strand 
Billbrokers, 104, 377 
Billingsgate, Lower Thames 

st. E., 338, 610 
Billiter St., 114, Fenchurch st. 
Birchin lane, 35, Cornhill 
Bishop, Mr., Villa, 456, 631, 

680, 684, 697 
Bishop's Distillery, Rope- 
maker st., Finsbury 
Bishops, 87 

Bishopsgatewardandst., Corn- 
hill E., 93, 531 

church, 200, 313 

Blackfriars, the district at each 
end of Blackfriars Bridge ; 
rd., Blackfriars Bridge S., 
773, 826 
Blackheath, S.E. London, 49 

Police, 97 

Blacking trade, 234 
Blackman St., Borough 
Blacksmiths' Company, 5, 

Conthall court, Bank " 
Black wall, E. London, 614 

Police, 97 ; station, 814 

Blackwell Hall Factors, 234 
Blenheim st. Dispensary, 514 
Blind schools and asylums, 63, 
243, 364 

Printing, 243 

Blomfield st., London wall, 9 
Blood-driers, 233 
Bloomsburv, Mid London, 770, 
828 ; County Court, 93 

Police, 96 ; dispensary, 

314 

St. George's, 199, 315 

Bluecoat School, Christ's Hos- 
pital, 64, 363, 613,716 

245, 363 

Blvth's factory, 364 
Boar's head, 334 
Boat-building, 237 
Bond st., Piccadilly W. and 
Oxford st. W. 



Bonding Warehouse, 338 

Bone trade, 233, 238 

Boniface, St., 322 

Bonnet-makers, 62, 230, 234 

shape makers, 233 

Boodle's Club, 28, James's st., 
305 

Bookbinders, 232, 233, 238, 
243; asylum, 246 

Book Trade, 61, 226, 232, 238 

Books, Duties on, 114 

Obscene, 96 

Postage, 101, 753 

Registry, Stationers' Hall 

Booking Offices, 102 

Booth's Distil'erv, 55, Cow 
Cross st., Smithfield 

Bootmakers, 61, 235; alms- 
houses, 216; see Shoemakers 

Borneo Church Mission, 3, 
Waterloo place, Pail Mall 

Borough Market (Southwark), 
611 

Boroughs, 60 

Botanic Garden, see Arbo- 
retum, Conservatory, Herba- 
rium, Pinetum 

Chelsea, 39, 467, 545 ; 

Chiswick, 467, (506), 585; 
Fulham, 46,47, (515) ; Guv's, 
519 ; Kew, 39, 48, 467, 469, 
503 ; Roval Botanic, 39, 457, 
467, 487/580, 681 

Society, Royal, Inner Cir- 
cle, York gate, Regent's park, 
39, 457, 467, 48/, 580, 681 

Botanical Society, 20, Bedford 
st., Covent Garden, 564, 535 

Botany of London, 37 

Botolph lane, Lower Thames 
st., 379 

Botolph, St., Aldgate, 313 

Aldersgate, 313 

Billingsgate, see St.George 

Bishopsgate Without, 200, 

313 

Boulogne Steam Office, 71, 
Lombardst. ; London Bridge 
station ; 4, Arthur st. E. 

Boulton and Watt's factory, 
364 

Bow, E. London, 379, 852 

Countv Court, 93 

Creek, 340 

lane, Cheapside 

Bell, 311 

Church, St. Mary le, 

Cheapside, 131,194,311 

st. Office, Covent garden, 

94, 96 

Bowyer's Company, 1, King's 
Arms yard, Bank, 335 

Brass Trade, 61 , 230 

Brazil Steam Office, 55, Moor- 
gate st. ; embassy, 41, Vcrk 
st., Portman sq. 

Bread st., Cheapside (Milton 
born), 828 

Bread trade, 227 

Brent, 5, 27 

Brewers, 61, 105,227,234 

Almshouses, 216 

Company, 270, 336 

Hall, 18, Addle st., Wood 

st., 505 

BRE^VERrES, 227, 269 

Brick Manufacture, 34, 62, 230, 
236 

Bricklayers, 236, 379 

Bride, St., Fleet st. E., 194, 309 

QQ2 



888 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Bridewell, 14, New Bridge st, 
Blackfriars N., 382, 755, 767 

Bridges, 273 ; Battersea, 274 ; 
Blackfriars, 277 ; City, 331 ; 
Charing cross, see Hunger- 
ford; chain, see Suspension; 
Hammersmith, 274; Hun- 
gerford, 279; Hvde park, 
455; iron, 276, 281, see Sus- 
pension; Kew, 8,274; Lon- 
don, 7. 8, 9, 274 ; master, 327, 
332; Putney, 7, 8, 274; Re- 
gent's park, 457 ; Serpentine, 
455; Southwark, 8, 9, 276; 
Strand, see Waterloo; sus- 
pension, 274, 279, 457; Vaux- 
hall, 281; Waterloo, 8, 9, 
278; Westminster, 8,280,830 

Bridget, St., see St. Bride 

Bridgewater House, 392 

Brighton Station, London 
Bridges., 815 

British Museum, Great Rus- 
sell st., Oxford St., 566, 730; 
reading room , Montagu place 
(10 to 7 summer, 10 to 4 
winter), 560 

British and Foreign School 
Society, Borough rd., 63, 65, 
67, 363 

Association, 6, Queen st. 

place, Southwark Bridge 

Artists' Society, 6£, Suf- 
folk st., Pall Mall 

and Foreign Bihle Society, 

10, East St., Blackfriars 

Institution, Pall Mall W., 

325, 388 

Musicians' Society, 625 

Brixton, S. London, 465; po- 
lice, 97; prison, 768 

Broiderers, see Embroiderers 

Brokers, 104, 234, 235, 237, 238 

- — Stock, see Stock Exchange 

Ship, see Lloyd's 

Share, see Stock Exchange 

Bromley, Kent, 32 ; college, 
216; police, 97 

Middlesex ; police, 97 ; 

canal, 340, 343 

Brompton, W.London; ceme- 
tery, 288; church, 320, 321, 
322; county court, 93 ; West, 
322 

Bronzes, 442, 502, 559 

Brook green, W. London; po- 
lice, 97*. chapel, 322 

Brooks's Club, 60, St. James's 
St., 305 

Brook's Market, Leather lane, 
611 

Broom -making, 61 

Brunswick Steam Wharf, 
Blackwall terminus, 830 

Brush-making, 61, 236 

Bruton st., New Bond st. 

Bryanstone sq., near Edgware 
rd. S., 771 

Buccleuch House, 354, 388 

Buckingham Palace, St. 
James's park, 426, 499, 748 

st., W. Strand 

Bucklersbury, Cheapside, E. 

Builder Office, 2, York st. 

Builders' Asylum, 246 

Building trade, 62, 230, 236 

Police regulations, 98 

Bullion, 109, 249 

Court, 251 

Bull-baiting, 95 



Bulls, 378 

Bunhill fields burying ground, 

City road, 288 

row, Old st., Finsbury 

Burial Clubs, 111 

Burlington arcade, Piccadilly, 

W., 264, 707; house, 707; 

school, 263 
Burntwood, (525) 
Burton crescent and st., near 

New rd., Eustonsq., 771,828 
Bushy park, 44, 452, 498 
Butchers, 62, 103, 227, 234; 

almshouses, 216; company, 

336; hall, Eastcheap 
Buttermen, 62 
Byzantine, see Greek Church 

Cab-drivers, 62, 94, 95, 98 

Cabinet, 88 

Cabinet-making, 61, 236 

Cadogan place, &c, Sloane st. 

Caen Wood, 49, (513), 856 

Calais Steam Office, 71, Lom- 
bard st.; 52, Gracechurch St.; 
London Bridge station 

Caledonian Asylum, 245, 246, 
363 

rd., King's Cross and Hol- 

way 

Calvert's Brewery, 89, Upper 
Thames St., 273 

Camberwell, S. London ; 
county court, 93 ; police, 97 ; 
school, 363 

Cambridge, 670, 808; station, 
Bishopsgate 

Cambridge House, Piccadilly, 
354 

Camden born in Westminster, 
387, 798 

Society, 25, Parliament 

st., 588 

Town, N. London; alms- 
houses, 216 ; dispensary, 515 ; 
station, 812 

Chapel, Portland place, 

Camberwell 

Campden hill, &c, Kensing- 
ton (512), 680, 854 

Canals, 3, 4, 5, 282 

Bromley, 340, 343 

Grand Junction,5, 282, 284 

Grosvenor, 285 

Isle of Dogs, 286 

Kensington, 285 

Lea Cut, 5, 282, 286 

Paddington, 282 

Poplar, 343 

Regent's, 5, 282, 285 

Serpentine, 455 

Sir George Duckett's, 5, 

282, 286 

Surreyj 282, 285 

Candle trade, 231 

Canning statue, near West- 
minster Hall, 794, 827 

Cannon st., City, King Wil- 
liam st. E., 828 

E., St. George's st. 

W., Parliament st. 

Canonbury sq., &c, Islington, 
W. 

Cantelo's egg hatching, 700 

Canterbury Association, Adel- 
phi terrace 

Railway, London Bridge 

Cape of Good Hope Steam 
Office, 2, Royal Exchange 
bdgs 



Capel court, Bank 
Carey st., Chancery lane 
Carlton Club, 94, Pall Mall, 

298 ; gardens, &c, Pall Mall, 

298, 826 
Carmen's Fellowship, Guild- 
hall 
Carnaby market, Regent st.,611 
Carpenters, 62, 236; company, 

334, 336; hall, 68, London 

wall E., 445, 505 
Carrying trade, 62, 237 
Carshalton police, 97, 680 
Carts, 95 

Cartmaking, 61, 237 
Carving and gilding, 61, 230 

wood, 218 

Cass's School, 12, Church row, 

Aid gate 
Castles, see Tower, Windsor 
Catch Club, 617, 626 
Catgut makers, 227 
Catherine St., see St. Katherine 

st., Strand, 379 

Catholic chapels, 322 

Schools, 263, 322 

Cattle Assurance, 112 

Consumption of, 227 

Driving, 94, 95 

Market, 612 

Cavendish, 546, 549, 770 

Society, 590 

sq., 130, Oxford st., 770, 

828 
Cecilian Society, Albion Hall, 

London wall, 623 
Cement, see Lime, Septaria 
Cemeteries, 99, 287 
Central Criminal Courts, 93, 

755, 766 
Chair-making, 62 
Chalk formation, 30 
Chamberlain of London, 327, 

332, 334 
Chambers, Sir W., works and 

life of, 200, 213, 769 
Chancellor, Lord High, 88-91, 

93 
Chancery, Court of, 91 

lane, Fleet st. and Hol- 

born, 555 

'Change, see Exchange 
Chapel Royal, Buckingham Pa- 
lace, 748; German, 323; St. 
James, 307, 415, 750 ; Hamp- 
ton Court; Whitehall, 176, 
440, 706, 747 ; Windsor, 444, 
860, 868 
Chapels, Dissenting, 322 

Roman Catholic, 322 

Chapter Coffee-house, St. 

Paul's churchyard N., 587 
Charing cross, W. Strand, 826 

Hospital, 63, 66, 508, 513 

Charities, 66, 288, see Alms- 
houses, Asylums, Hospitals, 
Schools 
Charity Schools, 363, 364 

Anniversary, 81, Basing- 

hall st., 629, 715 

Charlton, S.E.London, 32, 48, 
49 ; church, 322 ; common, 49 

Charrington's Brewery, Mile 
End id., 273 

Charterhouse, &c, Goswell st. 
S., 64, 363, 708, 771 

Chatham pi., Blackfriars, N. 

Chaucer, 388, 747, 862 

Cheapside, St. Paul's E., 823 

Cheam, (523), (524) 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



889 



Cheesemongers, 62, 234 

— Institution, 6, Bath St., 
Newgate st. 

Chelsea, W. London, (533), 

(539), 775,849, 853 
. Asvlum, 244 

— Church, 313, 320 

— College, 530, 631, 709 

— County Court, 93 

— Dispensary, 516 

— Garden, 467, 494, 545, 828 
Hospital, 210, 709 

— Police, 97 
Chemical Society, 587 

— Manufactures, 62 
Chemistry, College of, Oxford 

;t. W., 63, 323, 588 

Chemists, 63, 72 

Cheques, 103 

Cherry, 42 

Cheshunt, 49, 50, 97, 321, 
(538), 851 ; railway, Bishops- 
gate St. 

Chess Club, 5, Cavendish sq. 

Rooms, see Literary In- 
stitutions 

Chester sq., Pimlico, 7/1 

Chimes, 372, see St. Bride's ; 
Cripplegate ; St. Michael's, 
Cornhill ; Royal Exchange 

Chimney-sweepers, 236 

Chinese Gallery, 700 

Pagoda, 214 

Chiswell St., Finsbury sq. 

Chiswick Church, 321, (358), 
854 

— Gardens, 452, 480, (5C6), 
566, 585 

— House, 390 

Choirs, see Chapels Royal ; St. 
Paul's ; Westminster Abbey ; 
Temple ; Foundling ; Lin- 
coln's inn : Bavarian Chapel ; 
Spanish Chapel; St. Mary's, 
Moorfields ; St. Barnabas ; 
St. George's, Tatholic 

Choral Societies, 623, 628 

Christchurch, Bloomsbury, 
Woburn sq. 

Chelsea, Queen's rd., 315 

Commercial rd., Watney 

St., 320 

Lisson grove, Stafford st. 

■ Highbury grove, 321 

Doekhead, Parker's row 

Rotherhithe, Paradise row 

Hoxton, Dorchester St., 

New North rd. 

— — St. Giles's, Endell st. 

■ Newgate St., 193, 195, 311 

■ Regent's park, Upper Al- 

banv st., 315 

Spitalfields, Church st., 

313 

Southwark,Blackfriarsrd. 

Westminster, Chapel st., 

313 

Christ's Hospital, Newgate st., 
64, 363, 613, 716 

Christian Knowledge Society, 
67, Lincoln's inn fields 

Christopher, St., le Stocks, 
110, 249, 312 

Chronometer regulating, 651, 
652, 657 

Chrystal Palace, see Exhibi- 
tion 

Church Missionary Childrens' 
Home, 13, Milner sq., Is- 
lington 



Church Missionary College, Is- 
lington, 600 

Society, 14, Salisbury sq., 

Fleet st. 

Churches, General Account 
of, 306 

Cigars, 233 

Circulating Libraries, 76, see 
Libraries, Institutions 

City article, 7-i; club, 19, Old 
Broad St., 305; dispensary, 
516 ; editors, 74 ; library, 
Guildhall, 600 ; museum, 
Guildhall, 376; offices of 
newspapers, see the several 
papers; road, Moorgate and 
Islington; Wesleyan Chapel, 
24, City rd. 

City of London Institution, 
165, Aldersgate st., S., 325, 
592, 600 

School, Milk st., 64, 363 

and Tower Hamlets Ce- 
metery, 288 

Theatre, 36, Norton Fol- 

gate 

City of London, see Alder- 
men, Common Serjeant, 
Guildhall, Lord Mayor, Re- 
corder, Sheriff; address to 
the crown, 331 ; admiralty, 
329; almshouses, 218; ap- 
prenticeship, 327, 334 ; bars, 
328,771; barges, 328, 329, 332; 
birthright, 326 ; bridge-mas- 
ter, 327, 332; chamberlain, 
327, 332, 334; citizens, 326; 
clerk, town, 332; coal tax, 
332 ; committees, 330 ; com- 
mon crier, 329, 332 ; common 
hall, 327 ; common council, 
325, 326, 330, 406, 512, 822 ; 
Companies, 327, 334, 629; 
comptroller, 332 ; compur- 
gators, 331, 334 ; conserv- 
ancy, 329, 331 ; Corpora- 
tion, 325, 340; courts, 91, 
92, 729 ; deputy aldermen, 
330; dinners, 326, 327, 329, 
331, 333; Easter Monday, 
745; elections, 326, 333; 
electors, 87, 91, 326; fish- 
eries, 331 ; foreign attach- 
ment, 92 ; foreman, 326 ; 
freemen, 87, 218, 326, 327, 
333, 765; free worn en, 326; 
garnishee, 92; hospitals, 332, 
512; hunting, 327 ; immuni- 
ties, 327 ; independence, 325, 
326 ; inquestmen, 325, 326 ; 
Irish Society, 330, 331; ju- 
risdiction, 325, 331 ; Lady 
Mayoress, 329; lands, 330, 
331 ; law courts, 92, 330; lieu- 
tenancy, 330 ; liverymen, 37, 
91, 92, 326, 327, 333; Lord 
Mayor, see Lord Mayor ; 
loving cup, 333 ; markets, 
330, 332; marshal, 327, 330, 
332; masters, 333; members 
of parliament, 331 ; militia, 
327; navigation, 329, 330,331; 
non -freemen, 326 ; orphans, 
327, 332 ; overseers, 325 ; peti- 
tions, 331 ; plate, 333; Plough 
Monday, 326 ; police, 94, 96, 
98, 330 ; population, 60 ; 
precedence, 328, 330 ; pre- 
cept, 326 ; precinct, 325, 326 ; 
prisons, 332, 753, 765 ; pri- 



vileges, 327, 328, 330, 331, 
332, 822; processions, 328, 
331, 334; propertv, 331 ; re- 
membrancer, 331, 332; Ro- 
man, 60, 325, 327 ; St. Tho- 
mas's day, 326 ; schools, 332 ; 
sewers, 99, 330, 821 ; show, 
245, 328, 336, 745; soldiers, 
328 ; sword of state, 332 ; 
sword-bearer, 329, 330, 332; 
tolls, 327, 328 ; town-clerk, 
332; under-sheriff, 331; veni- 
son, 332; walls, 327; ward, 
325, 326, 328 ; ward beadle, 
325, 326; ward clerk, 325; 
ward inquest, 325, 326 ; war- 
dens, 333 ; wardmote, 326 ; 
water bailiff, 329, 332 ; wine, 
332 

Civil Engineers, 63, 66, 72, see 
Engineering 

College of, 63, 323 

Institution of, Great 

George st., Westminster, 
569, 581, 588 

Journal, 10, Fludver st., 

Parliament St., 688, 698 

Civil Law, College of Doctors 
of, 323, 600 

Clapham, S. London, (539); 
common, 465: police, 97 

Clapton, E. London, (532), 853 

Clare Market, Drury lane, 611 

Claremont, 33, 35, 48, 49, (506), 
882 

sq., Pentonville, 852 

Clay, London, 27, 32 

Clearing House, Post Office 
court, Lombard st., 103 

Clement's, St., Danes, Strand 
E., 3(»9; almshouses, 218 

Cannon st., 308 

Inn, 259, Strand E., 528, 

531 , 828 

Clergymen, 62 

Clergy, Sons of, 629 

Clerkenwell, Victoria st. and 
Goswell St., 230, 306, 379, 
766, 771, 773, 847, 848, 852; 
church, 315,320; dispensary, 
515 ; county court, 93 ; police 
court, 94, 96 

Clerk of Works, 862; Society, 
19, Exeter Hall, Strand 

Clerks, 62 

Bank, 108,114,248 

Government, 88 

Parish, 773, see Parish 

Cleveland House, 354 ; st, 
Fitzroy sq. 

Clifford's inn, 186, Fleet St., 
528, 531 

Climate of London, 13 

Clock, 3/2, 716, 731, 741 

Clockmakers, see Chronome- 
ters, 61, 115, 230, 236, 243, 
379 ; blind, 243 ; company, 
6, Cowper's court, Cornhill, 
243, 337; library, 337, 600; 
museum, 337 ; statistics, 236 

Cloisters, 744 ; Lincoln's inn ; 
Temple; Westminster abbey, 
805; Christ's hospital, 716; 
Westminster palace, 742 

Clothes and slop trade, 61 

Exchange, 398 

Clothfair, Smithfieid 
Clothworkers, 235; company, 
333, 334, 336; hall, 41, Minc- 
ing lane, 505; almshouses,217 



890 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Club, 289; Abbey, 628; AdeU 
phi, 528; Alfred, 305; An- 
tiquaries, 553; Army and 
Navy, 3H2 ; Arthur's, 303, 

304 ; Athenaeum, 294, 295 ; 
Bassishaw, Mason's hall, 
Basinghall st. ; Beefsteak ; 
Boodle's, 305 ; Brooks's, 305; 
Burial, 111; Card-room, 293; 
Carlton, 292, 298 ; Catch, 
617, 62b* ; Chambers, Regent 
street, 15, St. James's sq., 
298 ; City, 305 ; Civil En- 
gineers, 581 ; Conservative, 
298, 302; Coventry, 106, 
Piccadilly ; Deputy Lieu- 
tenants, 294, 305; Dormito- 
ries, see Chambers ; East 
India, 14, St. James sq. ; 
Engineers,581; Erechtheum, 
305; Essex St., 289; Farm- 
ers, 39, New Bridge st. ; 
Fox ; Garrick, 305; George's, 
St., Chess, 5, Cavendish 
sq. ; Glee, 617, 627, 628 ; 
Gresham, 305 ; Guards, 300; 
Jockey, Tattersall's; Junior 
United Service, 305; kitchen, 
290, 292 ; Law Society, 573 ; 
Liberal, 292, 205 ; Linnasan, 
564; Literary, 289; manage- 
ment, 291 ; Melodists', 627 ; 
Military and Naval Service, 
303; Military, 294, 300,302, 
303,305; Militia, 305; Na- 
tional, 2, Old Palace yard ; 
Naval, 294, 302, 303, 305; 
Nulli Secundus, see Guards ; 
Oriental, 304; origin of, 
289; Ormond,44, Great Or- 
mond st. ; Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, 299 ; Parthenon, 305 ; 
Pitt, 718 ; plans of, 294, 295, 
297, 300, 302, 304 ; Portland, 
1, Stratford place; Purcell, 
628 ; Reform, 292, 298 ; 
Round and Glee, 628 ; Royal 
Society, 538; Royal Poly- 
technic, 600; Sick,Ul; Smea- 
tonian, 581 ; Smithfield, 47, 
Halfmoon St., 264 ; Theatri- 
cal, 305 ; Travellers', 292, 
296 ; Turf rooms, 4, Arling- 
ton St.; Union, 294; United 
Service, 294 ; United Service, 
Junior, 305 ; University, 294 ; 
Wernerian, 590 ; White's, 

305 ; Whittington, 325 ; 
Wyndham, 305; Yacht 

Coachmakers, 61, 234, 237 
hall, Noble st.,Cheapside, 

505 
Coachmen, 95 
Coal trade, 63, 231, 237, 332, 

377 
Exchange, 96, Lower 

Thames st., 377, 718 

meter, 331, 332, 377 

-r — whippers, 377 

Cobham, 47, 48, (528) 

Cockfighting, 95 

Cockney, 311 

Cockspur st. , Charing cross 

Cocoa nut, 234, 287 ; fibre, 

236; works, 42, Ludgate hill 
Coffee, 115, 379; houses, 76, 

229, 234, 267, 379 
Coldbath fields, Clerkenwell, 

766 
Coleman st, Gresham St., Bank 



Collection, see Gallery, Mu- 
seum 

College, see Academy, 
School, University; Addis- 
combe, 63, 323, 363; Agricul- 
ture, see Agricultural ; of 
Arms, 323, 554; Baptist, see 
Stepney; Catholic, St. Ed- 
munds, Ware ; Chelsea, 530 ; 
Chemistry, 63, 323, 588; 
Cheshunt, Huntingdonian ; 
Civil Engineers, 63, 323; 
Civil Law, 323, 600; Coward, 
see New; Doctors of Law, 
323, COO ; Dulwich, 323, 390 ; 
East India, 323, 363; En- 
gineering, 63, 66, 323 ; Gres- 
ham, 323, 335, 539, 540, 542 ; 
Hayleybury, 63, 323, 3(J3; 
Hebrew, 63, 323, 532, 536; 
Herald's, 323, 554 ; High- 
bury, see New; Homerton, 
see New; Independent, 63, 
64, 323 ; Jews', 63, 323, 532 ; 
King's, 63, 64, 323, 520, 769; 
Law, 63; Ladies', 63, 323, 
363; London University, 
see University ; Medical, 63 ; 
Military, 63, 323; Morden, 
218 ; New, 63, 64, 323 ; Phy- 
sicians', 63, 66, 323, 562; Pre- 
ceptors', 63, 323; Putney, 63, 
323; Queen's, 63, 323, 364; 
Rabbinical, 532; St. Bartho- 
lomew's, 63, 323, 325, 509, 
512; St. John's Wood, 63, 
323 ; St. Mark's, 63 ;. St. 
Peter's, 64, 364; St. Tho- 
mas's, 63, 323, 525; Sand- 
hurst, 63, 323; Schoolmas- 
ters, 63, 323; Sion, 218, 323, 
596; Stepney, 63, 60; Sur- 
geons', 63, 66, 323, 561, 719; 
Theology, 63; Unitarian, 
see University Hall ; Univer- 
sity, 63, 64, 323, 526, 780; 
Veterinary, 63, 66, 323, 600 ; 
Wesleyan, at Richmond ; 
Westminster, 64, 323, 364 

Colliers, 614 

Colosseum, 444, 699, 719 

Colne river, 4, 12, 27, 32, 850,858 

Colomba, St., College, 79, Pall 
mall 

Colney Hatch, 70 ; hospital, 609 

Colonies, 87 

Colonial Office, 3, Downing st., 
Parliament St., 87, 89, 780 

Columns, 825 

Comb-makers, 62, 235 ; com- 
pany, 27, Lawrence Pount- 
ney lane, U. Thames st. E. 

Combe's brewery, Castle st., 
Long acre, 273 

Commerce, Hall of, Thread- 
needle st., 378, 505, 730 

Commercial Docks, 340, 343 

Sale Rooms, 379, 505 

Travellers, 237 ; School, 

245, 363 

Common, see Field, Green, 
Heath ; Blackheath, 49 ; 
C harl ton, 49 ; Clapham , 465 ; 
Finchley, 609; Kennington; 
Mitcham, 49, 466 ; Putney, 
49, 50, 451, 466; Streatham, 
49, 466; Tooting, 465; Wands- 
worth, 49, 465; Wimbledon, 
49, 50, 460, 466 ; Woolwich, 
856; Woking, 49 



Common Council, GuildhaP, 
325, 326, 330, 406, 512, 822 

Crier, 329, 332 

Serjeant, 93, 94, 331 

Hall, 327 

Pleas, Court of, 91, 407 

Commons, House of, 87, 149, 
600, 731 

Doctors', see Doctors 

Companies, City, 327, 334,639 
Compton st., Soho 
Comptroller of London, 332 
Compurgators, 331, 334 
Concerts, 324, see Music; Aca- 
demy of Music, 324, 621 ; Al- 
bion Hall, 623; Catch, 626; 
Chamber, 629; Chanty Chil- 
dren, 629, 715 ; Choral, 623 ; 
City of London Institution, 
324; Crosby Hal 1,324; Exeter 
Hall, 324, 617, 622; Free- 
masons' Hall, 625, 626, 627; 
Glee, 627; Hanover sq., 324, 
621, 628; Hullah's, see St. 
Martin's; London Tavern, 
628; lunatic, 610; Madrigal, 
617, 625, 626; Mechanics' 
Institution, 324; Musicians, 
Royal Society of, 617, 623; 
Opera House, 324, 617 ; 
Oratorios, 622, see Exeter 
Hall; National Hall, Hol- 
born, 324 ; Philharmonic, 
621; Queen's, 324; Queen's 
Theatre, 617; Royal Italian, 
620; St. Martin's Hall, 324; 
Sacred Harmonic, 623; Sons 
of Clergy, 629 ; Sussex Hall, 
536 ; 1 hatched House, 626 ; 
Whittington Club, 325; 
Willis's Rooms, 629 
Conduit st., Regent st. N., 847 
Congregational library, COO 

Schools, 67, 263 

Congreve rockets, 347 
Connaught sq., Edgware rd. 
Conservancy of Thames, 329, 

331 
Conservative Club, 74, St. 

James's st., 298,302 
Conservatory, 527 ; Bo- 
tanic, Royal, 492, 580; Chis- 
wick, 483, 585; Colosseum, 
699; Covent Garden, 611; 
Hampton Court, 498 ; Frog- 
more, 504 ; Horticultural, 
585; Kensington, 468, 748; 
Kew, 471 ; Loddige's, 39; 
Marryatt, Mrs., 451; Pan- 
theon, 264; Regent's park, 
580 ; St. John's Lodge ; Syon 
House, (509) ; Windsor, 501, 
502, 504; winter garden, 492 
Consistory Court, Doctors' 

commons, 91 
Consumption hospitals, 66 
Control, Board of, Cannon St., 

Whitehall, 10, 87, fc8, 89 
Convalescent institution, 514 
Convents, 322 
Conversaziones, 324, 582 
Conveyance directory, 102 
Convicts, 765 

Convocation, Houses of, 805 
Cooks, 235; company, 24, 
Lawrence Pountney lane, 336 
Coombe's brewery, 273 
Cooper, Sir Astley, 519, 713 
Coopers, 61, 234; almshouses, 
216; company, 336; hall, 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY, 



891 



Basinghall, St.; school, 216, 

336 
Copley medal, 543 
Copperas, 34 
Copper trade, 236, 379, see 

Brass 
Copthal court, Bank 
Coram St., Russell sq. 
Cordwainers, blind, 243; deaf 

and dumb, 244; hall, Great 

Distaff lane, St. Paul's, 505 
Cork cutting, 62, 115, 236, 379 

— Fibre works, City Saw 
Mills, Wenlock basin, City 
rd. 

Cork steam company, 25, Minc- 
ing lane; 137, Leadenhall st. 
Com Exchange, 75, 337 

- Factor, 377 

-Meter, 331,332, 377 

-JTrade, 89, 115, 227, 234, 

77 

Corney, 509 

Cornhill, Roval Exchange 
Cornish , 379 ' 
Cornwall, duchy, 90, 769 

Chancery Court, 91 

Correction, House of, 766 
Correspondents, newspaper, 

74, 75 
Cosinorama, Regent St., 700 
Council, Cabinet, 38 

— Privy, Whitehall, 89, 91 ; 
Judicial Committee, 91 

Bounty Courts, 93 

Fire Office, Regent St., 240 

Courrier de l'Europe, 1, Finch 
lane, Cornhill 

Courts, see Law 

Covent Garden Market, Strand 
W., 179, 264,611, 770 

Theatre, Bow st.,613, 620, 

772 

Coventry st., Piccadilly, E. 

Coward College, now New Col- 
lege 

Cowley, 797 

Craig's court, Charing cross S., 
575 

Cranbourn st., Leicester sq. E. 

Crane court, Fleet St., 542, 547 

Crawford St., Baker st. 

Cray, 49 

Cremorne gardens, 775 

Criminal statistics, 62, 67 

■ Courts, 90, 91 

— — Jurisdiction and practice, 
94 

Cripplegate Church, 172, 288, 
307, 313 

Almshouses, 217 

Dispcnsarv, 515 

Ward, N.W. City 

Crockford's Club, St. James's 
st., Piccadilly, 303 

Cromwell, 386," 529, 584, 862 

Crosby Hail, &c, Bishopsgate 
st. within, 160, 505, 600, 606, 
720 

Crossed cheques, 103 

Croydon, 49; assizes, 91; po- 
lice, 97 

Crutched Friars, Fenchurch 
st., 379 

Crypt, Bow Church, 131; 
Crosby Hall, 720; Guildhall, 
159; Lambeth Palace, 140; 
St. Paul's, 7H» 716; St. Ste- 
phen's, 151, 742 

Crystal Palace, see Exhibition 



Cumberland hav-market, 611 

Gate, Hvde park, 706 

Lodge, 463, 503 

Currency, 109 

Curriers' Hall, London wall, 

W. 
Curzon st. chapel, &c.,Mayfair 
Custom House, L. Thames 

St., 06, 83, 89, 209, 337, 720 
Articles, Duty Free. 

121 

Duties, 114. 721 

Long room, 339, 721 

Cutlers, 62, 236; almshouses, 

216; hall, 6, Cloak lane, 

Queen st., Cheapside, 445, 

505 
Cyclorama, 699, 720 

Daily News, 10 Bouverie st., 
Fleet st., 73, 75, 94, 698, 
699; City office, 4, Royal 
Exchange bdgs., 82, Corn- 
hill, 74 

Dancing licences, 93, 606, 610, 
820 

Danish church, 323 ; consul, 
6, Warnford ct., Bank 

Datchet, 461 

Davies St., Berkeley sq. 

Davy, 794 

Dead Letter Office, General 
Post Office, 100, 101,752 

Deaf and Dumb Asvlum and 
Schools, 63, 243 

Deal steam office, 65, King 
William st., City, 830 

Debts, Society for Relief of 
Small, 67 

Debtors' prisons, 753, 765 

De Grey House, 423 

Delahay st., Great George st. 

Denis, St., Backchurch, Fen- 
church st., 310 

Denmark, 63, 683 

Hill, Camberwell ; county 

court, 93 

Dentists, 235 

Deptford, 7, 341, (540), 856 

Police, 97; dockvard, 340, 

344 

Deputy alderman, 330 

Designs Registration Office, 4, 
Somerset place, Somerset 
House, E. Strand 

Design, Schools of, 399; So- 
! merset House, Strand, 330, 
S 769; 37, Crispin st., Spital- 
fields; Green st., Camden 
Town, 63 
[ Detention, House of, 766 
I Devonshire House, Piccadilly, 
355, 389, (506) 

Dews of London, 22 

Dickens, Chas., 1, Devonshire 
terrace, New rd. 

Dieppe steam office, Brighten 
railway 

Dinners, Citv, 326, 327, 329, 
331, 333 

Dionysius, St., Backchurch, 
Fenchurch St., 310 

Dioramas, 700, 721 

Directors, Bank, 108, 248 

Directory, Post Office, 19, Old 

Boswell court, Lincoln's inn 

fields, 90, 100, 102, 365, 379 

i Discount market, 74, 103, 107 

i Discussion Society, Belvedere, 

j Pentonville ; City of London, 



167, Aldersgate st. ; Forensic, 
Lyons inn hall; Mechanics', 
Southampton bdgs. ; Union, 
Lyons inn hall; Westmin- 
ster, Great Smith st. ; Whit- 
tington, Strand 

Dispensaries, 66, 509, 514; 
see Hospitals 

Dissenters' school, 364 

Distillers, 228, 356 ; company, 
1, Hatton ct., Threadneedle 
st., 337 

Ditehburn's factory, 364, 829 

Dockhead, Bermondsev 

Docks, 338, 339, 344, 348, 349; 
Commercial, 3-10, 343 ; Dept- 
ford, 340, 344; Drunken, 
340; East and West India, 
286, 340, 343, 344; East 
Country, 340; Grand Sur- 
rev, 340, 3-12 ; Greenland, 10, 
340 ; Grosvenor, 285 ; Gun ; 
Katherine's, St., 340; Lime- 
kiln, 10; London, 8, 10,340, 
342; Paddington, 235; plan 
of, 341, 344, 347, 348; Re- 
gent's canal, 286, 340, 342; 
St. Katherine, 340; St. Sa- 
viour's, 10,340; Surrey, 285, 
340; timber, 340 ; "Wen- 
lock, 285; West India, 10, 
286, 340, 343; Woolwich, 
340, 346 

Dockyards, see Docks 

Doctors' commons, 323, 600 

Doctors of Civil Law, College 
of, St. Paul's, 323, 600 

Dogs, Isle of, see Isle, E. 
London 

Fighting, 95 

Market, 379 

Dollmakers, 213 

Dollond, St. Paul's Church 
yard, 545, 671, 677, 682, 695 

Dollyshops, lu7 

Donkin's factory, 364 

Dorchester House, Park lane, 
410 

Dormitories, Club, 298 

Dorset sq., New rd. W., 770 

Dover rd., South wark 

Station, London br., 815 

st., 63, Piccadilly 

Steam company, 52, 

Gracechurchst., 830 

Dowgate hill, U. Thames st. E. 

Downing st., Whitehall W. 

Drainage, 99 

Drapers, 62; almshouses, 216; 
company, 335; gardens, 
Throgmorton st., 505; hall, 
27, Throgmortcn st., 445, 
505 

Dressmakers, 62 

Driving, 95 

Dropmore, 48, (517/ 

Drowning, 67 

Druggists, 379 

Drunken Dock, 340 

Drury lane, Strand E., 231, 
265; theatre, Brydgesst.,620, 
772, 774 

Drvden, 79/ 

Drysalters, 234 

Dublin steam office, 137j 
Leadenhall st. 

Ducal Residences, 354 

Dulwich almshouses, 216 

S. London, 43, 49 ; college, 

323, 390 



892 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Dundee steam office, 14, 
Bucklersbury, Cheapside 

Dunkirk steam office, Iron- 
gate Wharf, St. Katharine's 

Dunstan's, St., in the East, 
Great Tower St., 196, 197, 
309, 312 

in the West, Fleet st. W., 

313, 823 

Stepney, High st. 

Dutch church, Austin Friars, 
156, 306, 323, 600; alms- 
houses, 216 

Dwellings, model, 265 

Dyers, 62, 230, 235; alms- 
houses, 216; company, 336; 
hall, 3, College st., Dowgate 
hill, U. Thames st., 505 

Eagle Saloon, City rd., 775 

Ealing, (518), (520) 

Ear dispensaries, 340 

Earl's court, Old Brompton 

Eastcheap, Gracechurch st., 
and King William st. E. 

East Country Dock, 340 

East India, see India 

Almshouses, 217 

Club, 14, St. James's sq. 

rd., Poplar 

East and W. India Dock, E. 
London, 286, 340, 343, 344 

East London Cemetery, 288 

Eastern Counties Station, 
Bishopsgate N., 812 

Dispensary, 515 

Institutions, 600 

Easton's factory, 364 

Eaton sq., &c, Pimlico, 771 

Ebury st., &c, Pimlico, 96 

Ecclesiastical courts, St. 
Paul's, 90, 91 

— History Society, 12, Hay- 
market 

Eccleston sq., &c, Pimlico, 770 

Economic Botany, Museum 
of, 566, 580 

— — Geology, Museum of, 575 

Edgware rd., Oxford st. W. 

Edinburgh steam office, 35, 
Leadenhallst. ; 82, Lombard 
st. 

Editors, 73, 74 

Edmonton, 320 ; police, 97 

Edmond's, St., Lombard st., 
309 

Education in London, sta- 
tistics of, 63, 71, 89 

Board, Privy Council Of- 
fice, Whitehall 

Effra river, 850 

Egyptian Hall, Mansion House, 
329,505,745 

Piccadilly, 438, 505, 700 

Mission, 7, Upper Mon- 
tague st., Russell sq. 

Electors, parliamentary, 60, 
87, 91 

Electric Telegraph, 112, 
356 

Electro gilders, 236 

Gilding works, 22, Regent 

St., 236, 578 

Electrotype works, 92, Fleet St., 
236, 578 

Ellesmere House, Green park, 
392 

Elm trees, 57 

Elocution Society, London, 
City of London Institution 



Ely Chapel, &c, Holborn hil!, 
156, 306 

Emanuel Church, Camberwell 
rd. 

Hospital, 217 

Embankments, 9 

Embroiderers, 235; hall, 505 

Embroidery, 723 

Emigration Office, 70, Lower 
Thames St.; 15, Park st., 
Westminster 

Enfield, 851; police, 97; rail- 
way, Bishopsgate station 

Engineering Works, see 
Bridges ; Bricks ; Canals ; 
Docks; Embankments; 

Railways 

WoRKSiiors, 364 

Engineers, 62, 239, see Civil 
Engineers 

Mechanical, 239 

Roval, Office, James st., 

680, 819 

Engines, fire, see Fires 

Locomotive, 364, 810, 814 

- — Marine, 364, 365 

English Opera, 619, 772 

England's factory, 364 

Engravers, 238 

Enrolment Office, Chancery 
lane 

Entomological Society, 584 

Entomology, 57 

Envelopes, stamped, 100 

Epping Forest, 34, 42, 49, 54 

Railway, Shoreditcn 

Epsom, 882 

Equ i table Assurance Com pany , 
110 

Erectheum Club, 8, York st., 
St. James's, 305 

Erith, 35; steamers, see 
Gravesend 

Eshcr, (506), 884 

Essex, London in, 60, 61, 87, 
91, 92, 94 

Ethelburga, St., Bishopsgate 
st. Within, 172, 307 

Etheldreda, St., see Ely Chapel 

Ethnological Society, 587 

Eton, 859 

Euston sq., &c, New rd., St. 
Pancras, 770, 808 

Evaporation of rain, 7, 18 

Exchange, see Bazaar, Mar- 
ket; assurance, marine, see 
Llovd's ; auctions, 378 ; Bal- 
tic, 378; bills, 377, see Royal 
Exchange ; clothes, 379 ; 
coal, 377,719; College Meat, 
Newgate market; colonial, 
see Commercial Sale Rooms; 
corn, 75, 377 ; foreign bills, 
seeRoyaLExchange; mining, 
378; new, 612; news, 379; 
Royal, 366, 377, 717, 827 ; 
seed, see Corn, 377, share, see 
Stock; stock, 104, 105,377; 
underwriters, see Lloyd's; 
West India, 378; western, 
264 

Exchanges, 74 

Exchequer, 88, 89; bills, 109; 
court, 91 ; chamber, 91 

Excise, 723, 769, see Inland 
Revenue 

Exeter arcade, Catharine st., 
264 ; hall, Strand, 324, 505, 
617, 622 

Exhibition Express, 10, Bou- 



verie st., and 4, Royal Ex- 
change bdgs., 82, Cornhill,73 

Exhibition, Great, Hyde 
park, 230, 324, 455, 853 

Exhibition, 699; Academy 
Royal, 432; American, 488; 
Architectural, Water Colour 
Gallery; Artists, British, 
385; Arts, Society of, 433; 
Art Union, British Artists' 
Gallery ; Botanic Society, 
Royal, 487; British Institu- 
tion, 385 ; Cosmorama, 700 ; 
Diorama, 700 ; Egyptian 
Hall, 700; flowers, 481, 487, 
(520), (522); fruit, 481,487; 
glyptotheca, 699; Horticul- 
tural Society, 481 ; manufac- 
tures, Society of Arts ; Na- 
tional Institution, 421; paint- 
ings, 385, 700; Panorama, 
699, 700; Paul's, St., 716; 
schools of design, 399 ; sculp- 
ture, 432, 699; Royal Bo- 
tanic, 487; water colour, 
434, 700 

Express newspaper, 10, Bou- 
verie st. ; city office, 4, Royal 
Exchange bdgs., 82, Corn- 
hill, 73, 74 

Eye hospitals, 66, 67, 509, 517, 
525 

Factories, Engineering, 
364 

Factory Inspector's Office, 
Home Office, Whitehall 

Fairs, 95 ; Bartholomew ; 
Smithfield ; Camberwell ; 
Croydon; Greenwich; Peck- 
ham 

Faith, St., 711 

Falmouth steam office, 137, 
Leadenhall st. 

Fanmakers, 5; company, 
Guildhall, 335 

Faraday, Michael, see Royal 
Institution and Society 

Farmers' Club, 39, New Bridge 
st., Blackfriars 

Farriers' Company, 4, St. 
Thomas st., Southwark, 237 

Farringdon dispensary, 515 

Hall, Victoria st. 

Market, 611 

Ward, West City 

st., Fleet st. and Holborn 

Fellmongers, 227, 235, 239 

Fellowship Porter's Hall, 17, 
St. Mary-at-Hill 

carmen, Guildhall 

Feltmakers, 239; company, 
17, Salisbury sq., Fleet st. 

Fenchurch St., Lombard st. 

Festivals, 326, 328, 334 

Fetter lane, Fleet st. & Holborn 

Fever Hospital, 66, 509, 517 

Fields, Battersea, 49; Copen- 
hagen; Croydon, 49; Hack- 
ney ; Norwood, 49 

Fighting, 95 

Filbert, 42 

File-cutters, 233 

Finch lane, Cornhill W. 

Finchley, N.W.London, 35, 699 

police, 97 

Finsbury, E. Mid. London, 60, 
87 

chapel, East st. 

— circus, 379, 771 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



893 



Finsbury dispensary, 513 

Market, 611 

Police, 96 

sq., &c., City rd., 770 

Fire Assurance, see Assurance 

Brigade, 11] 

Engines, 237 

Escapes, 112 

Police, 111 

Fires, 62, 75 

Fire-proof safes, 373, 572 

Firestone, 30 

Fireworks, 96, 233, 239 

Fish trade, 52, 62, 116, 234 

Fishmonger's almshouses, 217, 
218 

Company, 335; hall, 

London bridge, N., 445, 505, 
723, 828 

Fistula Infirmary, 38, Charter- 
house sq. S., 66, 509, 517 

Fitzroy market, sq., &c, Tot- 
tenham Court rd., 611, 770 

Flamsteed, 542, 631, 632, 726 

Flaxman, 713, 794 ; hall, 444 

Fleet river, 5, 59 

st., St. Paul's and E. 

Strand, 98, 555, 826, 828 

Fletchers' Company, 335 

Hall, 25, St. Mary Axe 

Floor-cloth, 231,236 

Flowers, see Botanv, Gardens 

Artificial, 62, 116, 234, 379 

Market, 264, 611 

Fogs, 21 

Footmen, 62 

Footway, 95 

Fore st., Bank, N.; Limehouse 

Foreign Office, 15, Downing 
st., Whitehall, 88, 89 

Churches, 322, 323 

Correspondents, 75 

Letters, 100, 101 

Foreigners, 62, 101 

Forest, Epping, 34, 42,49,54; 
Windsor, 49 

Foreman of Inquest, 326 

Forensic Discussion Society, 
Lyon's Inn Hall 

Fossils, see Geology 

Sheppey,33 

Founders' Hall, Lothbury 

Foundling Hospital, Lamb's 
Conduit st., 67, 244, 398 

Foundries, 33, 239, 346 

Fountain Tavern, 555 

Fountains, (512), (514), (520), 
601, 696 ; Covent Garden ; 
Drapers' Garden, 335; Hamp- 
ton Court, 497; St. James's 
park, 453; Temple, 496; 
Trafalgar sq., 851 ; Windsor, 
501,504 

Fox, C. J., 794, 828 

Fox and Henderson's factorv, 
365 

Framework - knitters' alms- 
houses, 217 

Company, 10, Langbourn 

chambers 

France, 63 

Francis's Cement Works, Nine 
Elms, Vauxhall 

Franklin, 419, 546 

Freehold Land Society, 2, 
Moorgate st. 

Free Hospital, Gray's Inn rd., 
66 

Freemen of London, 87, 213, 
326, 327, 333, 765 



Freemasons, 110 

Asylum, 246 

Hall and Tavern, Great 

Queen st., Holborn, 445, 505, 
567, 532, 621, 625, 626, 627, 
628 

School, 245, 364 

Freewomen of London, 326 

French, 379 

Consulate, 47, King Wil- 
liam st., E. 

Church, Catholic, Little 

George St., Portman sq., 322 

Church, Protestant, St. 

Martin's - le - Grand, 730 ; 
Bloomsbury St., 323 

Embassv, 10, Bel grave sq. 

Hospital, 217 

Hospital, Protestant, 

Baldwin st., City rd., 217 

School, Protestant, 245 

Theatre, see Princes 

Friars, Austin or Augustine, 
Old Broad st., 156 

Black, Ludgate hill 

Clutched, Mark lane 

Grey, 716 

White, Fleet st. 

Friday st , 36, Cheapside W. 

Friendly Societies Office, 5, 
Bolton st., Piccadilly 

Frith st. , Soho 

Frogmore Lodge, 461, 503 

Fruit Market, 106, 379, 611 

Fruiterers' Company, 336 

Fuel, see Coal ; peat for Lon- 
don use, 32 

Fulham, W. London, 46, 47, 
49, 55, 450, (515), (537), (540), 
854 

Church, 320 

Fuller's earth, 30 

Funds, Public, 109, see Stock 
Exchange 

Fur trade, 61, 235, see Skin- 
ners 

Furniture trade, 61, 231 

FurnivaPs Inn, Holborn Bars, 
528, 529, 531 

Gaelic Society, 533 

Gallery, Picture and Col- 
lection, 379, 505, see Ex- 
hibition ; Academy, Royal, 
432; Adelaide, 700"; ancient 
painting, 384, 385, 389, 405, 
411, 415, 421, 438; ancient 
sculpture, 380, 411, 413, 557; 
Angelo, Michael, 433, 440, 
746; Apsley House, 439; Ash- 
burnham ; Ashburton, 379, 
438; Barbers' Hall, 382; 
Baring, 3/9, 383, 436 ; Barrv, 
433; Bath House, 379; Bour- 
geois, 390 ; Bridewell, 382 ; 
Bridgewater, 392 ; British 
Artists, 385; British Insti- 
tution, 325, 385, 700; British 
Museum, 386 ; bronzes, 442, 
559, 574; Buckingham Pa- 
lace, 426, 750 ; Buccleuch, 
388 ; Bvzantine, 415 ; Ca- 
nova, 411, 418, 439, (514); 
Carpenters' Hall, 445 ; casts, 
432; Cellini, 443; Chelsea, 
388, 726; Chinese (East India 
Museum), 700 ; Chiswick, 
203, 390; Christ's Hospital, 
718; Claude, 384, 391, 393, 
402, 411, 415, 420, 423, 426, 



431, 440; Colosseum, 444, 720; 
copies, 422; Corre^gio, 420, 
437, 439, 746 ; De la Roche, 
see French ; Devonshire, 
423; De Grey, 423; draw- 
ings, 398, 426, 479, 561, 573, 
574; Dulwich, 390; Durer, 
Albert, 380, 416, 437; Dutch, 
380, 383, 391, 393, 410, 411, 

420, 423, 440; Dutch, an- 
cient, 417 ; Dutch, mo- 
dern, 383; East India, 723; 
Egyptian (Museum) ; Elles- 
mere, 392 ; enamels, 578 : 
English, 383, 392, 393, 401 \ 
402, 406, 415, 419, 422, 436, 
445; English, early, 398; 
engravings, 561, 574; Etrus- 
can (British Museum), 411, 
432, 574 ; Evck, Van, 384, 390, 
417, 431 ; Fesch, 438 ; Fish- 
mongers, 723; Flaxman, 444, 
713 ; Flemish, 380, 383, 389, 
411; Flemish, ancient,384,390, 
405, 415, 431 ; modern, 383 ; 
Foundling, 398 ; French, 
383, 390, 393, 437 ; Garvagh, 
423; German, 415; Glvpto- 
theca, 444, 699, 720; Gold- 
smiths, 445, 724; Greek, 413 
(British Museum) ; Green- 
wich, 400, 727; Grev, Earl 
De, 423 ; Grosvenor, 402 ; 
Guildhall, 405, 445, 729 ; 
Hampton Court, 407; Hert- 
ford, 438; Hogarth, 398,401, 
402, 420, 512, 575; Holbein, 

380, 382, 390, 412, 415,416,423, 
431,718,744; Holford, 410; 
Hope, 411 ; House of Lords, 
173; Italian, early, 416, 422, 
430, 438 ; James, St., 413, 
748 ; Jones, 423 ; Kensing- 
ton, 415 ; Lambeth Palace, 
744; Lansdowne, 418; Lin- 
wood's, 700 ; Lawrence, 393, 
443; Lucca, 390, 410, 438; 
Marlborough House, 401 ; 
Merchant tailors' Hall, 445 ; 
Montagu House, 388; Mo- 
rales, 384, 419; Munro, 415; 
Murillo, 380, 384, 390, 391, 
402, 410, 415, 419, 421, 431, 
436 ; National, 420, 745 ; 
National Institution, 421 ; 
naval, 400, 407, 727; Nor- 
manton, 423; Northumber- 
land, 422 ; Orleans, 392, 431, 
437; Overstone, 422; Pain- 
ter Stainers, 445 ; Pantheon, 
264; Peel, 423; Portland, 

421, 700; portrait, 385, 410, 
430, 744; print-room, 561, 
574; Queen's, 426; Raffaelle, 

381, 393, 403, 407, 411, 415, 
421,422,423,431,433,436,438, 
440, 746; Rogers, 430; Royal 
Academv, 432; Rubens, 380, 
388, 391,' 402, 411, 412, 421, 
423, 428, 431, 433, 436, 440, 
747; Saltmarshe, 438 ; sculp- 
ture, 380, 411, 418, 423, 444, 
(521), 700, 750; sculpture, 
ancient, 380, 411, 418, (508), 
557; sculpture, casts, 432, 
720; Shakspeare, 385, 700; 
Sheepshanks, 422 ; Soane, 
574 ; Society of Arts, 433 ; 
South Sea House, 445 ; Staf- 
ford, 392, 434 ; Stationers' 

Q Q 3 



894 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Hall, 445 ; Sutherland, 434 ; 
terra cottas, 559, 578 ; 
Thames Tunnel, 833; Thor- 
waldsen, 380, 411, 437 ; Ti- 
tian, 381, 384, 387, 389, 390, 
393, 403, 410, 411, 419, 421, 
422, 423, 426, 430, 437, 746; 
Tomline, 390, 410 ; Town- 
ley, 557 ; University Col- 
lege, 444; Vandyck, 381, 388, 
389, 391, 407, 410, 412, 419, 
421, 423, 426, 429, 438, 440, 
442; Van Eyck, 384, 390, 
417, 431 ; Velasquez, 380, 
391, 403, 410, 419, 421, 431, 
435, 439, 442; Vernon, 401, 
745; Ward, 438; Water Co- 
lour, 434, 700; Wellington, 
439; Westminster, 402; West- 
minster Palace, 739 ; White- 
hall, 440, 706, 747 ; Windsor, 
441 

Gallery of Arts (Maj. Parlby's), 
32, Sloane st. 

Gaming Houses, 95 

Gardeners, 486, 489; Company, 
24, Moorgate st. 

Gardens, 450, see Arboretum, 
Botanic Garden, Conserva- 
tory, Nursery, Park, Pine- 
tum; American, 488, (515); 
Antrobus's, (523); Bedding- 
ton, 466; Beulah Spa, 498; 
Botanic, see Royal; Buck- 
ingham Palace, 426, 499 ; 
Burlington, 707 ; Chelsea, 
39, 47, 467, 494, 545, 828; Chis- 
wick, 452, 480, (506), 566, 
585 ; Claremont, (506) ; Cor- 
ney, (509) ; Cremorne, 775 ; 
Cumberland Lodge, 463, 503 ; 
damag in g a , 96 ; D rapers , 335 , 
505; Dropmore, 48, (517); 
Dutch, 487, (517), (539) ; 
Ealing, (518), (520); Frog- 
more, 461, 503; fruit, 482, 
503, (524), (540); Fulham, 
46, 47, 49, 55, 450, (515) ; 
Gray's Inn, 531 ; Guy's, 519 ; 
Gymnasium, 457; Hampton, 
460, 476, 496, 503; Holland 
House, (513) ; Horticultural, 
467, 480, 585; Jussieuan, 
491 ; Kensington, 44, 47, 48, 
49, 55, 452, 456, 467, 503; 
Kenwood, (513) ; Kew, 39, 48, 
211, 467, 469, 503; kitchen, 
482, 503, (509) ; Lambeth 
Palace, 47, 307; Lawrence, 
Mrs., (518) ; Lincoln's Inn, 
529 ; Linnaean, 491 ; Lod- 
dige's, 39, (531); market, 539 ; 
Marlborough House, 401 ; 
Marryatt's, Mrs., 451, (522) ; 
medical, 491, 495, 519; 
nurserv, see Nursery; Oat- 
lands, " (516) ; phvsic, 467, 
491 ; Primrose hill, 457 ; 
Queen's, 426, 499; Regent's 
park, 487 ; rose, 487, (538) ; 
Rosherville, W. Gravesend ; 
Royal Botanic, 39, 457, 467, 
487, 580, 681 ; Rucker's, Mr., 
(529); St. James's, 453; Syon, 
39, 48, 475, (509) ; Temple, 
495; Tower hill, 770; Tox- 
opholite, Regent's park ; 
tulip, (539) ; Vauxhall, 775 ; 
Victoria park, 458; Wimble- 
don, (513), (522); Windsor, 



461, 500; winter, 580; Zoo- 
logical, Regent's park, 457, 
(530), 583; Zoological, Sur- 
rey 

Garnishee, 92 

Garraway's, 378 

Garrick, 798 ; club, 35, King St., 
Covent garden, 305 

Garvagh House, 26, Portman 
sq., 423 

Gas-works, 231, 237, 446, 606 

Gas cannel coal, 447 

holders, 448 

meters, 237, 448, 534 

Gate, see Arch 

Gazette, London, 45, St. Mar- 
tin's lane 

General Cemetery Company, 
287 

Steam Navigation Com- 
pany, 71, Lombard st. 

Register Office of Births 

and Deaths, 7, Somerset 
place, Somerset House 

Geographical Libraries, &c, 
see Maps, Wyld's Globe 

Society, Royal, 583 

Geological Libraries, 560, 567, 
575 

Museums, 556, 567, 575, 

599 

Schools, 575 

Society, 549, 566, 769 

Geology, 10, 11,835 

of Thames basin, 24 

George St., Great, Westminster 
bridge, N. St. James's park 

George's, St., Battersea, 315 

— - Bloomsbury, Hart St., 
Oxford st. E., 199, 315 

Botolph lane, 309 

Camberwell, Well st., Al- 
bany rd. 

Catholic church, 322 

Hanover sq., 199, 315 

Hospital, 63, 66, 508, 518 

in the East, Cannon st. E., 

315 

in the Fields, 313 

the Martyr, Queen sq., 315 

the Martyr, High st., 

Borough 

Market, Borough rd., 612 

Samaritan fund, 518 

st., E. London, Upper E. 

Smithfield 

Germans, 379 

German church, 323 

hospital, 66, 509, 519 

■ school, 363 

papers, 563, see Coffee- 
houses 

Gibbons, Grindling, 213, 442, 
748,827 - 

Gibson sq., Islington 

Gilding trade, 61 , 236 

Giles's, St., Camberwell, 
Church st. 

Cripplegate, Fore st., 172, 

288, 307, 313 

in the Fields, High st., 

Oxford st. E., 288, 313 

police, 96; almshouses, 218 

Giltspur st., Holborn, 753, 767 

Girdler's Company, 335 ; alms- 
houses, 217; hall, 39, Ba- 
singhall st. N., 505 

Glandular Infirmary, 67, 519 

Glass sellers' Company, 30, 
Bloomsbury sq. 



Glass, stained, 6, 11, 236, ", 
868 

working, 61, 116, 230, 236 

Glaziers, 236 ; company, 14, 
South square, Gray's Inn 

Glee club, 617, 627, 628 

Globe Assurance, Cornhill,241 

newspaper, 73 

Wyld's, Leicester sq. 

Glovers, 235 ; company, 3, Fen 
court, Fenchurch st. 

Glyphographic office, 79, Shoe 
lane, Fleet st. 

Glyptotheca, Albany st., Re- 
gent's park E., 444, 699, 720 

Gog and Magog, 160, 405, 730 

Goldbeaters, 62, 379, 236 

Golden square, 72, Quadrant, 
Regent st., 770, 828 

Goldsmid, Baron, 106, 457, 533, 
537 

Goldsmith, 798 

Goldsmiths, 61, 379, 235, 236 

Almshouses, 217 

Company, 335, 724 

Hall, General Post Office, 

335, 379, 445, 505, 724, 828 

jury, 355, 616, 724 

notes, 102 

stamps, 335, 724 

wiredrawers, 236 ; com- 
pany, 9, Cloak lane 

Goodge st., Tottenham ct. rd. 

Goodman's Fields, near White- 
chapel 

Gordon's factory, 365 

square, New rd., St. Pan- 
eras, 770 

Goswell st., &c, Aldersgate st. 
N. to Islington 

Government, administration 
of, 86 

clerks, 88 

Governors of hospitals, 508 

Gower st., &c, New rd., St. 
Pancras 

Gracechurch street, London 
bridge N. to Bishopsgate S. 

Grafton House, 355 

Graham's Almshouses, 217 

Grammar schools, 64, 363 

Granaries, 234, 343, 377 

Grand Surrey Dock, 340, 342 

Grange rd., Bermondsey 

Gravel lane, Wapping 

Gravesend, 830; London bridge 
station; Blackwall station, 
Fenchurch St.; Old Shades 
pier, London bridge; Hun- 
gerford pier 

Gray, 798 

Gray's, 36; steamers, see 
Gravesend 

Gray's Inn, High Holborn, 528, 
530 

lane, road, &c, Holborn 

bars to Great Northern Rail- 
way, 379 

Great Northern station, King's 
cross, New road E., 811 

Western station, Padding- 
ton, 807 

Greek church, 81, London 
wall, E., 323; Russian, 32, 
Welbeck St., 323 

st., Soho 

Greeks, 379 

Green, Brook, 97, 322; Dept- 
ford; Islington; Kew, 470, 
480; Newington; Padding- 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY, 



ton; Turnham, 321, 480; 

Walham 
Green-coat School, 245, 363 
Greenhouse, see Conservatory 
Greenland Dock, 10, 340 
Green park, Piccadilly, W., 

453, 499, 705, 709, 853' 
Greenwich, S.E. London, 

60,87,341,044, 607 

— Bathsandwashhouses,254 
East, 321,829 

Hospital, 179, 211, 644, 

667, 724 

Institution, 600 

Market , 543, 551 , 600, 611 , 

631 
— - Observatory, 542 

Palace, 427. 727 

Park, 47, 49, 58, 452, 458, 

644, 856 

Police court, 94, 97 

Railway. 644, 815 

Schools, 644, 667, 729 

Gresham St., Bank to General 

Post Office 
Club, King William st. E., 

Mansion House, 305 

— College, Gresham st. E., 
208, 323, 335, 366, 539, 540, 
542, 723 

Committee, 375 

Hall, Gresham st. E., 366 

Sir Thomas, 366, 445, 827 

Almshouses, 217 

Grey's, Earl de, gallery, 4, St. 

James's sq.. 423 
Grey-coat School. 245, 363 
Grocers, 62, 229,234,379 

Company, 335 

Hall, Poultry, Bank, 110, 

445, 505 
Grosvenor Dock, 285 
sq., gate, and st., Hvde 

park E., 770, 828 
• place, row, and crescent, 

Pimlico, 353 
Grotto, (516), (523) 
Grub si:., now Milton st. 
Guarantee Societies, 114, 241 
Guards Club, 70, Pall Mall, 

305 
Guilds, 332 

Guildhall, King st., Cheap- 
side E., 158, 327, 329, 405. 

445, 505, 729, 750, 828 

Chambers, Basinghall st. 

Library, 376, COO, 729 

Museum, 376, 729 

Police court, 93 

Sessions, 92, 93 

Guilford St., Russell sq. 
Gunmakers,61,239; company, 

58, Gracechurch St., 337; 

proof house, 337 
Gunnersburv, Middlesex, 206, 

533, (520) ' 
Gutta-percha works, 19, Wharf 

rd., City rd., 239 
Guy's Hospital and School, 

London bridge, Southwark. 

63, 66, 245, 508, 519, 828 
Gwydir House, Whitehall W. 
Gymnasium, Primrose hill, 457 

Haberdashers' Almshouses, 
Hoxton, 217; hall, 3, Gresham 
St. W., 445,505 

Hackluvt Society, 590 

Hackney, E. London, (531), 853 

Church, 313, 320,321 



Hackney Institution, Manor 
House, Church st. 

Police, 97 

South, 321 

Coaches, see Cabs 

Haggerstone, near Hacknev, 
Church, 320 

Haileybury College, Hertford, 
63 3^3 363 

Hair working, 62, 116, 235. 236 

dressers, 235 

Hakluyt Society, 590 

Halkin st., Belgraye sq. 

Hall's factory, 365 

Hall, 505 ; Albion, 023 : Apo- 
thecaries' , 505 ; Armourers 
and Braziers', 336, 505; Ba- 
kers', 505; Barbers', 382, 445, 
505; Brewers', 505; Bro- 
derers', 505; Carpenters', 
445, 505 ; Chapter House, 
Westminster, 147; Chelsea, 
720; Clement's Inn, 528, 531; 
Cloth workers', 505; Coach- 
makers', 505; Commerce, 
378, 505, 730; Commercial, 
505', Coopers', 505; Cord- 
wainers', 505; Crosby, 161, 
505, 600, 720, 780 ; Drapers', 
445, 505; Egyptian, Mansion 
House, 329,505, 745; Egvo- 
tian, Piccadilly, 438, 5(^5, 
700, Embroiderers', 505; Exe- 

^ ter, 505 ; Farringdon ; Fish- 

' mongers', 445, 505, 723. 823; 
Flaxman,444; Freemason's, 
445, 505, 567, 582, 024, 025, 
626, 627, 628; George's, St., 
443,862; Girdlers',505; Gold- l 
smiths', 335, 379, 445, 505, 724, ' 
828; Gray's Inn, 530; Green- 
wich painted, 400, 505, 727 ; 
Grocers', 110, 445, 505; Guild- 
hall, 158, 327, 329, 405, 445, 

505, 729, 745, 750, 828; Haber- 
dashers', 445, 505 ; Hampton 
Court, 506; Hicks's, 566; 
Innholders',500; Inner Tern- 
pie, 529 ; Ironmongers', 445, 
505 ; Joiners', 506 ; Kneller ; 
Lambeth Palace, 174, 506, 
744 ; Law Society, 572 ; Lea- 
thersellers', 506; Lincoln's 
Inn, New Hall, 529, 530 ; 
Lincoln's Inn, Old Hal!, 529; 
London Tavern, 628; Lyon's 
Inn, 528, 531; Martin's, St., 
S24, 506', .Mercers', 110, 445, 
506; Merchant Tailors', 445, 
506; Middle Temple, 174, 

506, 529; Music, 506; Ser- 
jeants', 528, 531 ; National, 
High Holborn; New Inn, 
531 ; Painted, 400, 505, 727 ; 
Painterstainers', 445, 506 ; 
Parish Clerks', Wood st.; 
Pewterers', 500; Pinners', 
506; Plasterers', 506; Plum- 
bers ',506; Roval Music, 506; 
Saddlers', 445," 506 ; S alters", 
506; Science, Hall of, City 
road; Skinners', 506; South 
Sea House, 445, 506 ; Staple's 
Inn, 528, 531; Stationers', 
336, 445, 506 ; Stephen's, St., 
737; Sussex, 536; Tallow- 
chandlers', 506 ; Temple, 506, 
529 ; University, see College ; 
Vintners', 336, 445, 506; 
Watermen's, 506 ; Wax 



Chandlers', 507; Weavers', 
507; Wesleyan, 17, Bishops- 
gate st. within; Westminster, 
157, 507; Whitehall, 440; 
Wolsev's, 506, 8&3 

Halley, 541, 634, 641 

Ham, West, Essex, 97, 321 

East, 97 

Hamburgh Synagogue, Church 
row, Fen church st., 535 

Steam Office, 71, Lom- 
bard st. 

Hamilton House, 355 

Hammersmith, W. London, 

49, (537), (540), 853; police 
court, 94, 97; institution, 600; 
chapel, 322; church, 320 

Hampstead Hill, and Heath, 
N. London, 34, 35, 43, 49, 

50, 60, 450, (513), 852, 856 
wells, 60 

police, 97 

road, Tottenham court 

rd. N.j New rd. 

Hampton Court, 211, 855, see 
Bushy Park; maze. 408; 
palace, 407, 460, 476, 496, 503, 
506; police, 97; railway, 
Waterloo station ; steam- 
boat, Hungerford; vine, 408 

Handel, 798 

Hanover Chapel, Regent st. 

square, Oxford st. W., 

770, 027: rooms, 324, 621, 628 

Hans Town School, 245, 363 

Hanway st., Oxford st. E. 

Hanwell, 7°, 97; asylum, 70, 
5119, 520, 601 

Harcourt House, 355 

Harley st., Cayendish sq. 

Harrington sq., Hampstead id. 

Harrow, , Q 4; police, 97; school, 
303; hill, 501, (522); road, 
Edgware rd. 

Hartwell House, 690, 691 

Hatband makers, 235; com- 
pany, 335 

Hatmaking, 61, 116, 230, 235, 
379 

Hatton garden, &c, Holborn, 
232, 265, 379 

Haverstock hill, Highgate, 
322 

Havre Steam Office, 71, Lom- 
bard st., S. Western terminus 

Hayleybury College, 63, 323, 
363 

Havmarket, Piccadilly, 379 

- Theatre, do., 613, 772, 774 

Health, Board of, Gwydir 
House, Whitehall, 99 

Heath, Ascot, 35, 882; Bag- 
shot, 35, 36, 49, (538), 858; 
Bexlev, 54; Black, 49, 694; 
Hampstead, 35, 49, 50, 52, 
450 ; Putney, 49, 50, 451, 460, 
466 

Hebrew College, 63, 323, 532 

College, ' Palestine place, 

Cambridge rd. 

Helen's, St., Bishopsgate With- 
in, 172, 307 

Hemingford terrace, &c, 
Barnsbury 

Henry VIL'th's Chapel, see 
Westminster Abbey 

Heralds' College, Bennet's hill, 
St. Paul's, 323, 554 

Herbarium, Botanical, 585; 
Botanic, Royal, 580 ; British 



896 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Museum, 560; East Indian, 
564; Kew, 479; Linnoean, 
564 

Heme Bay Steam Office, 113, 
Fen church st. 

Hertford, 5, 717. 

House, 438, 456, 490 

Railway, Bishopsgate sta- 
tion 

St., May Fair 

Hicks's Hall, 506 

Hickson's school, 363 

Hide trade, 122, 379 

Highburv, Hollo way, church, 
321 

College, now New College 

Highgate, 34, 36, 50, 60, 320, 
(513), 852 

Police, 97 

Cemetery, 288 

School, 363 

Hill, Balham, 465; Barrow, 
Regent's park, N. ; Bedford, 
465; Brixton, 465; Campden, 
(512), 680; Denmark, Cam- 
berwell; Greenwich, 631, 
644; Hampstead, 34, 35,49, 
50,52,450, (513), 852; Harrow, 
34, 501, (522); Haverstock, 
322; Highgate, 34, 36, (513), 
852; Holborn; Ludgate; Mus- 
well, 35, 36; Norwood, 454, 
466; Notting, 315; Obser- 
vatory, Greenwich, 631, 644; 
Pain's, (528) ; Primrose, Re- 
gent's park N., 457, 854 ; 
Richmond, 451, 459, (524); 
Shooters', 644; Stamford, 
Stoke Newington rd. ; Snow, 
Holborn ; Streatham, 466, 
855; West, (529); Wimble- 
don, 451, 454; Winchmore, 
320, 851 

Historical Society, Lyon's inn 
hall ; 165, Aldersgate st. 

Hoare's brewery, 21, Lower 
East Smithfield, 273 

Hoarfrost, 22 

Hocking's factory, 365 

Holborn, Newgate st. W. and 
Oxford st. E.*, 771* 847 

police, 96 

Holford House, 410 

inner circle, Regent's pk. 

Holland, 63 

House, 452, (514) 

Consulate, 123, Fenchurch 

st. 

Holloway, N. London ; church, 
320; dispensary, 515; prison, 
767 

Holtzapffel's factory, 365 

Holy Trinity, see Trinity 

Holywell, 847 

Home Office, Whitehall, 88, 
89 

Home and Colonial Infant 
school, 11, St. Chad's row, 
Gray's inn rd., 65, 363 

sailors', 268 

— — servants', 49, Great Marl- 
borough st. 

governesses', 66, Harley st. 

Homerton, N.E. London, 853 

Church, 321 

College, see New College 

Honey lane market, Cheap- 
side, 611 

Hooke, born in London, 207, 
539 



Hope House, Piccadilly W., 
411,730 

Hops, 41, 57, 116, 234, 379 

Horn market, 122, 379 

Horner's Company, 28, Man- 
sell st., 851 

Hornsey, N. London, 851 

police, 97 

Horn ton st., &c, Kensington 

Horseferry rd., Westminster 

Horse Guards, Whitehall, 730 

Horses, 95, 237 

market, 379 

Horselydown, S.E. London 

Horsemonger lane, Borough, 
768 

Horticultural show, see Royal 
Botanical and Horticultural 
Societies 

Society, 467, 480, 565, 585 

Horticulture, see Botany 

Hospital, 66, 288, 507; 
Aske's, 217, 246, 363 ; Aural, 
67, 517; Bartholomew's, 63, 
66, 509, 512; Bathing, 509, 
524 ; Bethlehem, 66, 509, 513, 
601 ; Blue-coat, see Christ's ; 
Cancer, 523; Charing-cross, 
63, 66, 508, 513; Charter- 
house, 64, 363, 708; Chest, 
514; Chelsea, 210, 709 ; chil- 
dren, 514, 527; Christ's, 64, 
363, 613, 716; Coldstream 
guards, Vincent sq., West- 
minster; Colney Hatch, 70, 
609; Consumption, 66, 509, 
514 ; Convalescent, 514 ; 
County, 70, 509, 520, 601; 
Dispensary, 514; Ear, 517; 
Emanuel, 217; Eye, 66, 67, 
509, 517, 525; Female, 509; 
Fever, 66, 509, 514; Fistula, 
66,509, 517; Foundling, 67, 
244; Free, 66, 508, 517; 
French, 217; Gentlewomen, 
518; German, 66, 509, 519; 
German Jews', Mile-end rd.; 
Glandular, 67, 519; Green- 
wich, 179, 211, 214, 644, 667, 
724; Grenadier Guards', 41, 
Old Rochester row ; Guards, 
see Coldstream, Grenadiers, 
Scotch Fusiliers ; Guy's, 63, 

66, 245, 508, 519, 828; Han- 
well, 70, 509, 520, 601 ; Idiots, 
244, 509, 520; Invalids, 520 ; 
Jews', 66, 243, 246, 509, 524, 
536; King's College, 63, 66, 

508, 520; Lambeth work- 
house, 91 ; Lithotriptic, 527 ; 
Lock, 66, 509, 521 ; London, 
63, 66, 508, 521 ; Luke's, St., 

509, 521, 600; Lunatic, 66, 
70, 509, 513, 519, 521, 600; 
Lungs, 522; Lying-in, 66, 

67, 522, 523; Magdalen, 67; 
Marine, 66; Marylebone, St. 
Mary's, 508, 523 ; Maryle- 
bone workhouse ,71 ; Middle- 
sex, 63, 66, 508, 523 ; Middle- 
sex Lunatic, 601,609; Mili- 
tary, 210,see Guards; Morden, 
218; North London, 03, 66, 
508, 526 ; Ophthalmic, 66, 67, 
509, 517, 525; Orthopeedic, 
C6, 509, 525 ; Paddington, St. 
Mary's, 508, 523 ; Portuguese 
Jews', Mile end rd. ; Prison, 
762; Queen Elizabeth's, 216; 
Rupture, 67; St. Bartholo- 



mew's, 63, 66, 508, 512; St. 
George's, 63, 66, 508, 518; 
St. Katharine's, 60, 306, 315; 
St. Luke's, 509, 521 ; St. Mar- 
garet's, 245, 364 ; St. Mary's, 
508, 523 ; St. Pancras work- 
house, 71 ; St. Peter's, 217, 
364; St. Thomas's, 63, 66, 

508, 525; Sanatorium, 67, 
524 ; Scotch Fusilier Guards', 
Lillington St., Vauxhall 
bridge rd. ; Scotch, 7, Crane 
court; Sea-bathing, 67, 524; 
Seamen's, 66, 215, 509, 524 ; 
Skin, 524; Small-pox, 66, 
524 ; Spanish Jews, 509, 524 ; 
Spinal, 527; Stepney, 335; 
Truss, 67,526; Trinity, 215, 
218, 219, 335, 346; Univer- 
sity College, 63, 66, 508, 526; 
Vaccine, 510, 526; Westmin- 
ster, 66, 508, 527 5 Whitting- 
ton's, 219, 335; Women, 509, 
527 

Hotels, 234 

Houndsditch, Bishopsgate str, 
379, 536 

House of Commons and Lords, 
see Commons and Lords, 
731 

of Correction, 766 

Surgeons, 508 

Houses, 61,66, 94, 95 

number of, 61 

Howard, John, 686, 714, 756 

Howland st., Fitzroy sq. 

Hoxton, Old st. rd. ; asylum, 
246; church, 320; college, 
see New College; county 
court, 93; market, 611 ; po- 
lice, 97 

Hudson's Bay company, Fen- 
church st., 87, 583 

Hulks, 765 

Hull steam office, 35, Leaden- 
hall st.; Custom house quay, 
Lower Thames st. 

Humane Society, 3, Trafalgar 
sq., 67, 455 

Hungerford arcade, 264 

Bridge, 279 

Market, West Strand, 264, 

611 

Pier, 281 

Hunter, John, 518, 561 

Hunterian Society, 4, Blom- 
field st., Finsbury 

School, Bloomsbury st.,63 

Museum, Lincoln's inn 

fields, 561 

Huntingdonian College, Ches- 
hunt 

Chapel, Providence pi., 

Islington 

Hutchinson market, 611 

Hyde park, Piccadilly W., and 
Oxford st. W., 455, 468, 631, 
705, 706, 827, 849, 853 

corner, Piccadilly W. 

square, gardens, gate, ter- 
race, Hyde park N., 771 

Hydrographical department, 
Admiralty, 703, 704 

Hydrography, see Maps of 
Thames, 3, 7 

Ice trade, 234 

Idiots, Asylum for, 63, 244, 

509, 520 

Illustrated News, Strand, 73 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



897 



Imperial Assurance, 241 
Independent chapels, 322 

College, 63, 64, 323 

India, East, almshouses, 216 
Company, Leadenhall St., 

Cornhill, 89, 3/9, 722 

I Board, see Board of Con- 
trol 

College, 63, 323, 363 

Museum, Leadenhall St., 

597, 723 

India Rubber trade, 236 
Indian Empire, 37 
Infant schools, 65, 363 
Infirmary, see Hospital 
Ink manufacture, 34, 238 
Inland Revenue office, Bi- 
shopsgate St., and Old Broad 
St., 88, 89, 98 
Inn of Court and Chan- 
cery, 528; Barnard's, 528, 

530, 531; Clement's, 528, 

531, 828; Clifford's, 528, 531 ; 
Fumival's, 528, 529, 531; 
Gray's, 528,530; Inner Tem- 
ple, 495, 528, 771 ; Lincoln's, 
528, 529 ; Lyon's, 528, 531 ; 
Middle Temple, 174, 495, 
506, 528, 529, 7/1 ; New, 528, 
531; Outer Temple, 528, 
771; Serjeant's, Fleet St., 
528, 531 ; Serjeant's, Chan- 
cery lane, 528, 531 ; Staple's, 
528, 530, 531; Strand, 529; 
Symond's, 528, 531 ; Temple, 
174, 506, 528, 529, 771 ; Tha- 
vies, 528, 529, 531 

Inner Temple, Fleet st. W., 
495, 528, 771 

Innholders' Hall, 6, College St., 
Dowgate hill, 506 

Inquest, 75, 336 ; ward, 325, 326 

Insolvent Court, 33, Lincoln's 
inn fields S. 

Institution, Literary, Sci- 
entific, and Mechanics, 
65, 76, 590; Aldersgate, 
592; Beaumont, 37, Beau- 
mont sq., Mile End; Bri- 
tish, 325; Camberwell, 7, 
Camber well grove; Catho- 
lic, 14, New st., Bishops- 
a gate; City of London, 325, 
592, 600; City of London 
Mechanics, 3, Gould sq., 
Crutched friars; Conver- 
saziones, 324, 582; Crosby 
Hall, 160, 505, 600, 720; 
Eastern, 600 ; Finsbury, Bun- 
hill row; General, 23, John 
st., Fitzroy sq. ; Greenwich, 
GUQ ; Hackney, Manor house, 
Church st.; Hammersmith, 
600; Islington, Athenaeum, 
107, Upper St.; Islington, 
Wellington St., Upper st., 
593; Jews' and General, 52, 
Leadenhall st., 536; Ken- 
sington, 600; London, 325, 
582; London Mechanics, 29, 
Southampton bldgs., Hol- 
born, 591; Marylebone, 17, 
Edward st., Portman sq., 
600; Mechanics, 591; Pad- 
dington, 65, Great Carlisle 
st., Portman market; Pop- 
lar, 67i,High st., 600; Ro- 
therhithe, 29, Paradise row ; 
Royal, 21, Albemarle st, 
325, 549, 562; Russell, 55, 



Great Coram st., 600; St. 
Martin's, 600; Socialists', 23, 
John st., Tottenham Court 
rd.; Southwark, 8, Port- 
land place, Borough rd., 600 ; 
Tennison's, 597; United Ser- 
vice, Scotland yard, White- 
hall, 583; Walworth, 21, 
Manor place; Western, 47, 
Leicester sq. ; Westminster, 
6, Great Smith st., 600; West 
London, Manor house, Chel- 
sea; Whittington, Strand, 325 

Instruments, see Mathemati- 
cal, 232 

Insurance, see Assurance 

Invalids, Asylum for, 520 

Inverness steam office, 257, 
Wapping 

Ireland, Secretary for, 88, 89 

Irish in London, 02, 69, 70, 379 

Charities, 245, 363 

Society of London, 330, 

331,363 

Ironmongers, 236; almshouses, 
218; hall, 113, Fenchurch 
St., 445, 506 

Iron ships, 365 

Iron trade, 122, 289, 379 

Iron working, 61, 236, 239 

Irvingite chapels, 62, Harrow 
rd. ; 14, Newman st. ; Dun- 
can st., Islington, 322 

Isle of Dogs, E*. London, 9, 35, 
36, 286, 322, 341 

Isleworth, 450, (539), (540) 

Islington, N. London, City rd. 
W., 60, 851 

Bazaar, 265 

Police, 97; church, 313, 

320, 321 ; dispensary, 515 

Institution, 593 

Missionary college, 600 

School, 363 ; market, 611 

Italian, 232, 379 

Chapel, Lincoln's inn 

fields, 322, 323 

Protestant church, Du- 

four place, Golden sq., 323 

Opera, Haymarket, 613, 

772 

Covent Garden, 613, 620, 

772 

Ivory trade, 62, 236 

Jamaica coffee-house, St. Mi- 
chael's allev, Cornhill, 378 

James's, St./the Great, Beth- 
nal green rd. 

the Less, Bethnal green, 

Bonner's hall fields, 321 

Bermondsey, St. James's 

place, 315 

Chapel Roval, Pall Mall 

W., 307, 415, 470 

Clerkenwell green, 313 

Duke's place, Aldgate, 

313 

Garlick hill, L'pper 

Thames st., 196, 308 

Chapel, Hampstead rd., 

315 

Hatcham, Dover rd. 

Hyde park, Gloucester rd. 

Islington, Liverpool rd. 

Market, Haymarket 

Notting hill, Addison rd. 

N., 321 

Paddington, Sussex gar- 
dens, Hyde park 



James's, St., Palace, Pall Mall, 

307, 413, 747, 743 
park, St. James's, 453, 

583, 586, 826 

Pentonville hill 

Piccadilly, 193, 315 ; 

baths, 254 ; police, 96 
Ratcliffe, Butcher row ; 

theatre, 772, 775 

Shoreditch, Curtain rd. 

square and st., Pall Mall, 

354, 355, 770, 827 
Jermyn St., Haymarket N. 
Jesuit chapel, 322 
Jewellery, 61, 116, 122, 230, 

235, 379 
Jewel office, Tower, 779 
Jewin st., Cripplegate, 531 
Jewish Mission College, 43, 

Stamford st. 
Jewry, Old, Gresham st., 93> 

531, 582 
Jews, 379, 531 

Aldermen, 537 

Beth Hamedrash, 536 

Blind, 243 

Board of deputies, 532 

British, 536 

Burial ground, 531 

Chief rabbi, 532 

College, 323, 532, 536 

converted, 323 

Episcopal chapel, Pales- 
tine place, Cambridge rd. 

German, 532 

Hamburgh, 532 

History, 531 

Holidays, 534 

Hospitals, 66, 243, 246, 

509, 524, 536 

Institution, 536 

Market, 611 

Polish, 532, 536 

Portuguese, 509, 524, 532, 

536 

President, 533 

Rabbi, 532 

reformed, 536 

Schools, 245, 363, 364, 532, 

536 

Spanish, 509, 524, 532 

Synagogues, 535 

Jobber, 378 

John's, St., Clapham Rise, 315 

Clerkenwell, St. John's 

sq., 306, 313 

Chapel, Tower, 130, 306 

Great James st., 315 

the Baptist, Hoxton, 

Critchill place 
the Evangelist, Waterloo 

rd., 315 

Charlotte st., Fitzroy sq. 

Westminster, Smith so.-, 

315 

Gate, Smithfield, 162 

Horsleydown, Fair st. 

Lodge, inner circle, E., 

Regent's park, 457, 533 
Notting hill, Lansdowne 

terrace, 315 

Savoy st., Strand 

South Hackney, Grove 

St., 321 

sq., Clerkenwell 

Wapping, Church st. 

Westminster 

Wood chapel, St. John's 

wood rd.; dispensary, 516; 

police, 517 



89S 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



John the Baptist, St., Savoy 

St., Strand 
Johnson, Dr., 714, 798 
Joiners' hall, 506 
Jointstock companies registry, 

13, Serjeant's inn 
Jones, Inigo, life and works, 

175, 176, 178, 180, 203, 529, 

611, 704, 706, 713, 724, 747* 

750, 768, 769 
Jonson, Ben, 203, 796, 797 
Journals, Public, see Press 
Joyce's factory, 365, 829 
Judd st., &c, New rd., King's 

cross 
Jude's, St., Old Bethnal green 

rd., 321 
Commercial rd., White- 
chapel 
St. George's fields, 15, 

London rd. 
Upper Chelsea, Turk's 

row 
Judges, 91, 94,407 
chambers, Rolls gardens, 

Chancery lane 
Judicial Committee, see Privy 

Council 
Junior United Service Club, 11, 

Charles st, St. James's, 305 
Justices of peace, 90, 92, 98, 

see Sessions 

Katharine's hospital, St., Re- 
gent's park E., 60, 306, 315 
Cree church, Leadenhall 

St., 175, 204, 307, 310 
Coleman, Fenchurch st., 

313 

Dock, Tower hill, 340 

Kelly's directory, 90, 100, 102, 

365, 379 

* Miss, theatre, 772 

Kennington, S. London, 447 

■ Police, 97 

Kensal green, W. London, 450 

Cemeterv, 287 

Church, 321 

Kensington, W. London, 60, 

849, 854 

Church, 313, 320, 321 

Dispensary, 515 

Gardens, Oxford rd., 452, 

456, 467, 503 
Palace, 44, 47, 48, 49, 55, 

203, 415, 452, 456, 468, 748, 

853 
Kent, 60, 61, 87 
Kentish town, 856; police, 97 
Kenwood, 49, (513), 856 
Kew, 8, 43, 450, 480, 882 
Gardens, 39, 48, 211, 467, 

469, 503, 518 

Observatory, 667 

Palace, 354, 480 

Steamers, Hungerford, 

Westminster, and Chelsea 

piers 
Kilburn,N W.London, 60, 854 
King William st., W. Strand 
Bank and London bridge 

N., 827 
King's Bench, see Queen's 

Bench 
King's College, Strand E., 63, 

64, 323, 520, 769 
King's College Hospital, 63, 66, 

508, 520 
Cross, New rd. E., 447, 

811 



King's head tavern, Cheap- 
side E., 569 

Kingsland, Shoreditch; police, 
97 

Kingston, 5, 467,855; railway, 
Waterloo station 

Kneller hall, Battersea 

Knightrider st., St. Paul's 
churchyard, 562 

Knightsbridge, Piccadilly W., 
near the Great Exhibition, 
455, 456 

Knights, Bath, 785 

Garter, 444, 861 , 868 

Hospitallers, 162, 306, 771 

Templars, 135, 162, 495,771 

Knowle park, (517) 

Laboratory, Apothecaries' 

Hall, 505; College of Che- 
mistry, 63, 323, 588; Eco- 
nomic Geology, 579; Gold- 
smiths' Hall, 724; Mint, 
Royal, 615; Pharmaceutical, 
580; Polytechnic Institu- 
tion ; Royal Institution, 
563; Woolwich, 347 

Labourers, 62 

Ladbrokesq., &c, Netting hill 

Ladies' College, 47, Bedford 
sq., 63, 323, 363 

Lady Chapel, Southwark, 143 

Mayoress, 329 

Lambeth, S.W. London, 60, 
71, 87, 231, 233, 447, 850, 854 

Church, 172, 307 

County court, 93 

Palace, 47, 140, 162, 174, 

306, 506, 743 

Police office, 94, 97 

School, 364; water, 854 

Lamb's Conduit St., High 
Holborn, 847 

Lancaster, Duchy of, 60, 90 

Chancery of, 90 

Lancasterian school, 363 

Lancet office, 423, Strand 

Landing surveyor, 338 

waiter, 338 

Langham place, Regent st., N. 

Lansdowne House, Berkeley 
sq., 418 

road, crescent, terrace, 

villas, Notting hill 

place, terrace, villas, New 

Brompton 

Launches, ship, 613 

Laurence Pountney hill, &c, 
Upper Thames st. E. 

Law Courts, Admiralty , 90, 91 , 
613, 703; appeal, 90, 91; 
Arches, 91 ; assizes, 91 ; At- 
torney-General (patents) ; 
Central Criminal Court, 93, 
613, 753, 766; Chancery, 
91, 529; city, 91, 92, 729; 
civil, 91 ; colonial, 90 ; 
Common Pleas, 91, 729 ; 
Common Serjeant, 93; Con- 
sistory Court, 91 ; Cornwall, 
Chancery, 91 ; Council, see 
Privy; County Courts, 93; 
criminal, 90, 91, 92; eccle- 
siastical, 90, 91 ; election, 
91, 92; equity, 91, 92 ; Essex, 
91, 92, 94; Exchequer, 91, 
729; Exchequer Chamber, 
91 ; Guildhall sessions, 92, 
93; House of Lords, 90, 736 ; 
Indian, 90; Judicial Com- 



mittee, see Privy Council; 
Kent, 91, 92, 94; Lancas- 
ter, Chancery, 90 ; licensing, 

93, 98 ; Lincoln's inn, 529 ; 
local, 92 ; London sessions, 
92, 93; Lords, House of, 90; 
Lord Mayor's, 92; Masters 
in Chancery; Master of 
Rolls, 91; Middlesex ses- 
sions, 94; patents, 90; po- 
lice, 92, 93, 94; poor law, 
93; prerogative, 91; Privy 
Council, 90 ; Queen's Bench, 
91, 729; recorder, 92; re- 
venue, 91; revision, 92; 
Rolls, 91 ; secondaries, see 
Sheriffs ; sessions, 91 , 92, 93, 

94, 768 ; Sheriffs', 92, 93, 94; 
Surrey, 91, 92,94, 768; South- 
wark, 92, 94; Tower Ham- 
lets, 92, 94; Vice Chancellor, 
91, 529; Westminster, 91, 
747; Westminster sessions, 
92,94; wills, 91 

Law schools, East India, 63; 
Gray's Inn, 530; Haileybury, 
63, 323, 363 ; Inner Temple, 
528 ; Institution, Chancery 
lane, 571 ; King's college, 
323; Lincoln's Inn, 529; 
Middle Temple, 529; Tem- 
ple, 529; University of Lon- 
don, 63; University college, 
63, 323 

Law Society, Incorporated, 
103, Chancery lane, 571 

Lawrence, Mrs., gardens, (518) 

St., Jewry, Gresham st., 

Guildhall, 311,312 

lane, Cheapside E. 

Lawyers, 62, 72, 379 

Lea, 5, 10, 27, 32, 50, 59, 286, 
850, 851, 852, 857 

Lea bridge, (539), 852 

Leadenhall street, market, 
&c, Cornhill E., 379, 611 

Leader office, 265, Strand 

Learned Societies, 537, 
see Colleges, Institutions, 
Schools, Societies, Acade- 
mies 

Leather-dyeing, 230, 236 

lane, Holborn hill, 232 ( . 

trade, 61, 116, 227, 225, 

239, 379, 612 

Leathersellers' almshouses, 
215, 218, 235; company, 336; 
hall, St. Helen's place, Bi- 
shopsgate, 506 

Lectures and Lecture-rooms, 
see Institutions, Academy, 
Royal, 432 ; college, see Col- 
lege; law, 573; London In- 
stitution, 582; lunatic, 606; 
Pharmaceutical, 580; Royal 
Institution, 563; United Ser- 
vice, 584 

Lectureship, Golden, Loth- 
bur v, 335 

Lee, Kent, 97, 641 

Legacy duty office, Somerset 
House, 769 

Leicester sq., place, st., Picca- 
dilly, E.,379, 561,700, 828 

Leinster House, 355 

Leith steam office, 71 and 82, 
Lombard st. 

Leman st., Goodman's fields 

Leonard, St., Shoreditch, 313 

Bromley, Middlesex 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



899 



Letters, see Post Office 
Lewisham, S.E. London, 856 

Police, 97 

Levstonstone, (539) 
Library, 595, 600 ; see Club, 
Institution, Records ; Addis- 
combe, 363 ; Admiralty, 704; 
Agricultural Society, Royal, 
586 ; Antiquaries, 555, 600 ; 
antiquarian, 323, 553, 556; 
Apothecaries, 505 ; Arms, 
College of, 323 ; Arts, So- ; 
ciety of, 580; Arts, Royal 
Academy of, 600; Archaeo- , 
logical Institute, 588 ; archi- > 
tectural,573, 574; Architects, j 
Institute of, 573; Arundel, 
539 ; Asiatic Society, 582 ; As- \ 
tronomieal Society, 571, 652, ■ 
658; Athenaeum Club, 294; ; 
Bank of England, 600 ; Bible ' 
Society, 600; Botanic, Royal, 
580; botanical, 560, 564, 566, i 
580, 585 ; British and Foreign 
Bible Society, 600; British; 
Museum, 557, 560, 596; , 
Buckingham Palace, 750; ! 
Cambridge, 880; Charter- ' 
house, 363; Chelsea Hos- j 
pital, 600; Chemical So- ; 
ciety, 587; Chemistry, Col- j 
lege of, 323 ; Chinese, 329, I 
560,582, 597; Christ's Hos- | 
pital, 363; Church Mission- | 
ary, 600; City of London 
Institution, 592; City, 376, 
600, 729; Civil Engineers' 
College, 323; Civil Engi- 
neers' Institute, 570; Civil 
Law, Doctors of, 323, 600; 
Clockmakers' Company, 337; 
College of Surgeons, 561 ; 
Congregational, 600; Cot- 
tonian, 556 ; College of Sur- 
geons, 561 ; Crosby Hall, 
600; Doctors of Law, 323, 
600; Dutch Church, 600; 
East India, 597, 723; Eastern 
Institution, 600; Economic 
Geology, 575 ; Engineers, see 
Civil Engineers: Entomolo- 
gical, 584 ; Ethnological, 587 ; 
genealogy, 560, 600 ; Geo- 
graphical, Royal, 583, see 
Maps ; geological, 560, 567, 
575 ; Geology, Museum of 
Practical and Economical, 
575 ; Geological Society, 567 ; 
George the Fourth," 557; 
Gray's Inn, 530; Greenwich 
Hospital, 600 ; Grenwieh In- 
stitution, 600; Greenwich 
Observatory, 652, 658 ; Guild- 
hall, 376, 600, 729; Guy's, 
245; Hammersmith, 600; 
Hanwell, 606; Hebrew, 323, 
532; heraldry, 560, 600; He- 
ralds, 600; Horticultural, 
481, 566; House of Com- 
mons, 600; House of Lords, 
600, 741 ; hydrographic, see 
Maps; Irmer Temple, 528; 
Islington Institution, 593; 
Jews' College, 532 ; Jews' In- 
stitution, 536 ; King's Col- 
lege, 323; Lambeth Palace, 
600, 744; law, 528, 529, 530, 
572; Law Society, 572; Lee's, 
Dr., 690 ; Lincoln's Inn, 529 ; 
Linnaean, 565; Literature, 



Royal Society of, 568; 
Lloyd's, 373; London, 600; 
London Hospital, 521 ; Lon- 
don Institution, 582; lunatic, 
606; manuscripts, 560, 582, 
598, 600, 658 ; maps, 373, 560, 
583, 597, 613, 704; Maryle- 
bone, 600 ; Mechanics' Insti- 
tution, 591 ; medical, see 
Schools ; Medical and Chi- 
rurgical, 573 : Medical So- 
ciety, 582 ; Merchant Tai- 
lors', 600 ; Microscopical, 
586 ; Middlesex hospital, 523 ; 
Middle Temple, 529; mili- 
tary, 294, 300, 302, 303, 305, 
583; Morden College, 218; 
Musical, Westminster Ab- 
bey, 627 ; New College, 323; 
Numismatic, 585; Observa- 
tory, Roval, 600, 652, 658; 
Oriental, '532, 560, 582, 588, 
597 ; Oxford, 876; Paul's, St., 
6iH), 716 ; Pharmaceutical, 
580 ; Philological , 587 ; Phy- 
sicians' College, 323; Poly- 
technic, Roval, 600; prints, 
561,574; Putney College, 323; 
Rabbinical, 532 ; Reform 
Club, 298 ; R oyal Society, 538, 
553 ; Roval Institution, 563 : 
St. George's Hospital, 518; 
St. Bartholomew's, 512 ; St. 
Thomas's, 525 ; St. Martin's, 
600; Sion College, 596; 
Soane, 574 ; Society of ATts, 
580; Southwark, 600; Sta- 
tistical, 585; Stepney Col- 
lege, 600 ; Surgeons' College, 
561; Syro-Egyptsan, 588; 
Tenison's, 597 ; Temple, 
529 ; University College, 323 ; 
United Service Institution, 
583,613; Veterinary College, 
600 ; Westminster Abbey, 
600 ; Westminster Hospital, 
527; Westminster Institu- 
tion, 600; Williams's, :>96, 
60O; Woolwich; Zoological, 
883 
Licensed Victuallers, see Inn- 
holders, Publicans 

Asylum, 246 

Schools, 245, 363 

Licensing sessions, 93, 94 
Life Assurance, see Assurance 
Lightermen, 217, 233, 237 
Lighters, 614 
Lignite, 35 

Lime, hydraulic, 28, 30, 31 ; see 
Cement 

Phosphate of, 30 

Limehouse, E. London, 341, 853 

Church, 315 

Limekiln dock, Limehouse, 10 
Lime st., Leadenhall st. E. 
Lincoln's Inn, Chancery lane, 
528, 529 

Chapel, 175, 529 

Hall, 529 

fields, High Holborn E., 

179, 206, 770 

square, 529 

Lindsay House, 206 
Linendrapers, 235 
Linnaean Society, Sohosq., 564 
Lisbon steam office, 122 
Leadenhall st., Cornhill E. 
Lisson grove, &c, New rd., 
Paddington 



Literary Gazette, 72 

Men, 72, 73 

Fund, 73, Great Russell st. 

Literature, see Press, Univer- 
sity, Institutions 

Royal Society of, 567 

Lithographers, 238 

Lithotriptic ward, 527 

Liverymen of London, 87 > 91, 
92, 326, 327, 333 

Lloyd sq. and St., Pentonville 

Lloyd's, Roval Exchange, 105, 
113, 373, 378 

Register of Shipping, 113 

Loan societies, 106 

Livery stables, 237 

Lock "Hospital, Harrow rd., 
Paddington, 66, 509, 521 

Chapel, do., 521 

Locke, 388, 444 

Loddige's garden, 39, (531) 

Lodgins:s/94, 234 

Lollard's Tower, 743 

Lombard St., Bank, 102 (Pope 
born here) 

55, Fleet st. ; Lamb st.; 

Chelsea; Mile end 

London, Assurance, Royal Ex- 
change, 373 

Brtdge, 7, 8, 9, 141, 274, 

830, 848, 850 

Station, 815 

CeSneterv company, 288 

Dock, 8," 10, 340, 342 

Hospital, 63, 66, S08, 521 

Institution, Finsbury cir- 
cus, 325,582 

Mechanics' Institution, 

591 

"Missionary Society, 28, 

Blomfield st. 

Stone, Cannon st., 308, 

828 

Tavern, Bishopsgate st. 

Within, 628 

University, Somerset 

House, Strand E., 63 

University College, see 

University College 

Wall, Bishopsgate to Crip- 

plegate (portions of to be 
seen in Cripplegate church- 
yard ; St. A l phage church- 
yard ; Tower hill) 
London - , see City of London; 
Almshouses, 216; Archi- 
tecture, 124; Arts, Manu- 
factures, and Trade, 219; 
Banking, 102; Baths and 
Washhouses, 254; Ba- 
zaars, 264; birds, 54; Bo- 
roughs, 60; Breweries, 
269'; Churches, 288; City, 
see City of London; clay, 
27, 32; Climate, 13, 14; 
Directory, Post Office, 90, 
100, 102, 226; education, 63; 
electoral statistics, 87, 91 ; 
fogs, 21; Geology, 27; go- 
vernment, 86; hills, 34; his- 
tory, 7-16; hurricanes, 23; 
Hydrography, 3; isother- 
mal line, 14; latitude, 13; 
Law Courts, 90, 91, 92, 93, 

! 94 ; longitude, 13 ; map, 822 ; 
Markets, 610; Members 

j of Parliament, 87; Muni- 
cipal arrangements, 91; 
Natural History, 37 ; Po- 

I lice, see Police ; port of, 



900 



INDEX AND DIKECTORY. 



354; population, 60; porter, 
227,270; press, 71; Prisons; 
rain, 7, 20; Railways, 806; 
Roman, 60; Schools, 363; 
sessions, 92, 93; Sewers, 
820; Societies, Learned, 
537; Statistics, 59, 60; 
Statues, 826; storms, 23; 
trade, 61, 219 ; Water Sup- 
ply, 847; winds, 17; zoo- 
logy, 50 

London and North Western 
Railway, Euston sq., 808 

Long acre, Piccadilly E. and 
Drury lane, 231,379 

Long Bowstring makers' Com- 
pany, 42, Moorgate st. 

Lonsdale sq., Islington 

Lord Lieutenant, 89, 90 

Lord Mayor, 91, 93, 94, 98, 
512,716,717,771,822 

elect, 328, 745 

past, 328 

Lord Mayor's carriage, 332, 
745 

Court, 7, Old Jewry, 92, 

729 

conversazione, 324 

day , 245, 328, 330, 729 

dignities, 329 

dinner, 328, 729, 745 

Easter Monday, 745 

household, 329 

precedence, 328, 745 

robes, 329 

show (9 Nov.), 245, 328, 

336, 745 

Lords, House of, Westminster 
palace, 87, 90, 600, 731 

Lorimers' Company, Guild- 
hall, 337 

Lothbury, Bank N. 

Loving cup, 323 

Lowndes sq., &c, Knights- 
bridge, 771 

IiOwther arcade, 264; bazaar, 
35, Strand W., 264 

Ludgate hill and st., St Paul's 
to Fleet st. E., 771,826 

Luke's, St., Chelsea, Robert 
St., 313 

■ Hospital, Old st., City 

rd., 509, 521, 600 

King's cross, Weston pi. 

Old st., 315; police, see 

Clerkenwell 

Soho, Berwick St., 321 

Lumber court market, Seven 

Dials, 612 

Troop, 127, Fetter lane 

Lunatic Asylums and Hos- 
pitals, 600; Bethlehem, 66, 
509, 513, 601 ; Colney Hatch, 
609; Guy's, 519; Hanwell, 
70, 509, 520, 601; Luke's, 
St., 509, 521, 600; plan of, 
605 

Lutheran Church, 7, Great 
Trinity lane; 1, Hooper sq. ; 
Little Alie st.; Savoy st., 
Strand, 323 

Lyceum Theatre, Strand, 619, 
772 

Lying-in Hospitals, 66, 67, 
522, 523 

Lyon's inn, Newcastle st., 
Strand E., 528, 531 

Mace, Royal Society's, 548 
Machine, printing, see Printing 



Machinery, see Factory, Mint, 
Printing 

trade, 61 

Maddox st., Regent st. N. 

Madeira steam office, 55, Moor- 
gate st. ; 2, Royal Exchange 
bdgs., Cornhill 

Madrigal society, 617, 625, 626 

Magazines, 72 

Magdalen hospital and chapel, 
115, Blackfriars bridge rd. 
S., 67 

Magistrates, 90, 93, 94 

police, see Police 

Magnetic observatories, 661, 
667 

Magnus, St., London bridge 
N., 308, 312 

Maida hill, Edgware rd., Pad- 
dington 

Maison de Sante, 511 

Mall, St. James's, 454 

Malta College, 3, St. James's st. 

Manchester House, 355 

railway, Euston sq. 

warehouses, 379 

sq., Duke St., Oxford st., 

W., 770 

Mansell st., Goodman's fields 

Mansion House, Cornhill E., 
329, 717, 744 

police court, 93 

Manure trade, 233, 239 

Maps, 373, 560, 583, 597, 613, 
704, 822 

Wyld's, 3, Charing cross, 

E. 

Marble works, 5, Esher st., 
Millbank 

1, Earl st., Horseferry rd. 

Mare's factory, 365, 829 

Margaret st. chapel, 10£, Great 
Titchfield st. 

Margaret's, St., chapel, 313 

Hospital, 245, 364 

Lothbury, Bank, 312 

Pattens, Rood lane, Fen- 
church st., 309 

Westminster, Broad Sanc- 
tuary, 307, 313 

Margate steam office, 65, King 
William st. E ; 4, Arthur 
st. E.; 113, Fenchurch st.; 
71, Lombard St., 829, 830 

Marine assurance, 111, 112 

Barracks, 856 

Board, 613 

Mercantile, 613 

Society, 245, 363, 613 

store dealers, 233, 238 

Mark's, St., college, Stanley 
grove, Chelsea 

Camden town, High st. 

Kennington, Clapham 

rd., 315 

Pentonville, Myddelton 

sq. 

North Audley st. 

Old st. rd. 

Upper Hamilton terrace, 

321 
Whitechapel, Tenter 

ground 
Mark lane, 55, Fenchurch st. 

E., 379 

Express, 24, Norfolk st. 

Market, 600; ass, 612; auc- 
tion, 378 ; Bermondsey, 227, 
379, 612; bill, 377; Billings- 
gate, 227, 610; birds, 264; 



Bloomsbury, 611 ; Borough, 
611; Brooks, 611; butter, 
227; carcase, 611, 612; Car- 
naby,611; cattle,612; Clare, 
611; clothes, 379,612; coal, 
377; coffee, 379; colonial, 
379; copper, 379; cork, 379; 
corn, 75, 377, 611; Covent 
garden, 227, 611; Cumber- 
land, 611 ; dead meat, 611 ; 
dog, 612; dogs'-meat, 611; 
drug, 379; egg, 227; Far- 
ringdon, 611 ; Finsbury, 611 ; 
fish, 610, 611,612; Fitzroy, 
611; flower, 264,611; fruit, 
379, 611; game, 227; goat, 
612; Greenwich, 611; Gros- 
venor, Davies St.; hay, 611, 
612; herb, Covent garden; 
hide, 379; Honey lane, 611; 
hop, 379, 611; horn, 379; 
horse, 611; Hoxton, 611; 
Hungerford,264,611 ; Hutch- 
inson, 611; indigo, 379; iron, 
379; Islington, 611; James's, 
St., Haymarket; Jews, 611; 
Leadenhall, 227, 379, 611; 
leather, 379, 612; Lumber 
court, 612 ; mining shares, 378; 
monkey, 264 ; Mortimer, 612 ; 
mules, 612; Newgate, 227, 
612; Newport, 612; news- 
papers, 379 ; old clothes, 612 ; 
orange, 379, 612; Oxford, 
612; pig, 612; pineapple, 
2, Monument yard ; Port- 
man, 612; potato, 379, 611; 
poultry, 227, 611, 612; Rag 
Fair, 612; Romford, 612; 
salt, 379; St. George's, 612; 
seed, 377 ; share, see Stock ; 
sheep, 612 ; Shepherd's, 612; 
skin, 379; Southall, 612; 
Smithfield, 103, 227, 612; 
Spitalfields, 612; stock, 104, 
105, 377? straw, 611, 612; 
sugar, 379; tallow, see Bal- 
tic ; tea, 379 ; tripe, 234, 61 1 ; 
turtle, George and Vulture ; 
Tyler's, 612; Uxbridge, 612; 
vegetable, 227, 611 ; venison, 
Leadenhall, 234; watercress, 
Covent garden, 234; White- 
chapel, 227,612; wine, 379; 
wool, 379; yam, 2, Monu- 
ment yard ; zinc, 379 

Marlborough, 387, 443 ; House, 
Pall Mall, 401 

st., Regent St., police of- 
fice, 94 

Marryatt, Mrs., garden, 451, 
(522) 

Marshal, City, 327, 330, 332 

Martin's, St., le Grand, Alders- 
gate st., 99, 750 

in the Fields, Trafalgar 

sq., 198, 200, 313, 747; alms- 
houses, 218 ; baths and wash- 
houses, 254, 262 ; library, 600 

Ludgate hill, 187, 193, 309 

Outwich, Bishopsgate st. 

Within, 313 

Hall, 89, Long acre, 324, 

506 

lane, st., and court, Tra- 
falgar sq. N. 

Mary's, St.,Abbot,Kensington, 
Church st. 

Abchurch lane, Lombard 

st. W., 308 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



901 



Mary's, St., Aldermarv, Wat- 
ling st. E., 308 

Battersea, Church St., 313 

Bow, Stratford 

West Brompton, Earl's 

court, 322 

Chelsea, 322 

Clapham, 322 

I Grosvenor place, Park st., 

315 

Haggerston, Brunswick 

st., 320 

atHill,Eastcheap,309,312 

. Hampstead, 322 

Hospital, 508, 523 

Islington, Upper st., 313 

• Kensington, 313 

Lambeth, Church st., 172, 

307 

Lambeth, Princes rd. 

le Bone, New rd., 60, 71, 

81,315,320; baths and wash- 
houses, 254, 262', county 
court, 93 ; dispensary, 516 ; 
hospital, 508, 523; institu- 
tion, 17, Edward st., 600 ; 
police court, 94, 96 ; theatre, 
39, New Church st., 772; 
vestry, 99 

le Bow, Cheanside, 131, 

194,311,312 

■ le Strand, 199, 313 

Magdalen, Bermondsey st. 

Magdalen, Old Fish st. 

Matfelon, Whitechapel, 

313 

Moorfields, Finsbury cir- 
cus, 322 

Newington Butts 

Norton folgate 

■ Church passage, Spital sq. 

Overy, London Bridge, S., 

141,306,313,850 

— — Paddington green, 313 

Poplar, 322 

— — Rotherhithe, Church st, 
313 

Somerset, Upper Thames 

st., 308 

Temple, see Temple 

Whitechapel, 313 

■ Woolnoth, Lombard st., 

193, 309, 313 

Westminster, Vincent sq., 

321 

Wyndham place, Bryan- 
stone sq., 320 

the Virgin, Aldermanburv 

and St. Michael, 322 

Masons, 62 

Hall, Basinghall st. S. 

Master of the Rolls, see Rolls 

of City Company, 333 

in Chancery, 25, South- 
ampton bdgs., Holborn 

Mathematical school, 613 

instrument making, 61, 

232, 238 

Matthew, St., Bethnal green, 
Church row, 320 

Friday st., Cheapside, 309 

Denmark hill 

City rd., Oakley crescent 

Matthias, St., Bethnal green, 
James st., 320 

Maudslay's factory, 365, 829 

May fair, Hyde park corner 

Mayor, see Lord Mayor 

Maze pond, Tooley st. 

Meat trade, 227 



Mechanics' Institution, South- 
ampton bdgs., Holborn, 591, 
see Institutions 

Mecklenburgh sq., &c, Found- 
ling Hospital, 770 

Medical gardens, 491 , 495 

libraries, see Library 

men, 62, 72 

schools, see Schools 

Society, 582 

and Chirurgical Society, 

53, Berners st., 573 

Medico-Botanical Society, 32, 
Sackville st., Piccadilly 

Memorials, 90 

Mendicity Society, 13, Red 
Lion sq., High Holborn, 69 

Mercantile Marine, 613 

Mercers, 91 ; almshouses, 218 ; 
arms, 335; company, 335, 366, 
375, 540, 542; hall, Cheap- 
side E., 110,445,506; school, 
20, College hill, 64, 335, 363 

Merchant, 62, 233 

Navy, 613 

seamen, 613, see Seamen 

Tailors' Almshouses, 218 ; 

company, 335 ; hall, Thread- 
neediest. E., 445,506; school, 
6, Suffolk lane, Cannon st., 
64, 363, 600 

Metal trade, 62, see Brass, Iron 

Meteorological Observatory, 
666, 697 

Society, 698 

Meteorology, see Climate 

Meter, City, corn, coal, fruit, 
331, 332/377 

Metropolitan sewers office, 1, 
Greek st., Soho 

police, see Police 

Meux's brewery, 268, Totten- 
ham court rd., 227, 273 

Michael, St., Bassishaw, Ba- 
singhall st., Guildhall, 312 

Cornhill E., 196, 310 

■ Crooked lane, 312 

Pimlico, Chester sq., 315 

Queenhithe, U. Thames 

st., 308 

Paternoster, Royal, Col- 
lege hill, 312 

Strand, Burleigh St., 320 

Wood st., Cheapside, 312 

Microscopical Society, 21, Re- 
gent st., 586 

Middlesex, 60, 86, 94 

Hospital, Charles st., Tot- 
tenham court rd., 63, C6, 508, 
523 

Sessions, Clerkenwell 

green 

st., Aldgate High st. 

passage, Bartholomew 

close, 132 

Middle Temple, Fleet st. W., 
174,495,506,528,529, 771 

Hall, 500 

Mildred, St., Bread st., Cheap- 
side W., 308 

the Virgin, Poultry, 310 

Mile end, E. London, White- 
chapel rd., 846 

Almshouses, 217 

Cemetery, 288 . 

police, 97 

Military, see Ordnance, War 
Office 

Asylum, Roval, 244 

Colleges^63,"323, 363 



Military Departments, 614 

Hospitals, 210 

— Offices, 614 

Schools, 63, 244, 323, 363 

and Naval Service Club, 

50, St. James's St., 303 

Milk st., Cheapside, W. 

trade, 62, 234 

Millbank Penitentiary, Vaux- 
hall Bridge, 764, 849 

Miller and Ravenhill's factory, 
365, 829 

Millinery, 61, 235 

Millwall, Isle of Dogs; chapel, 
322 ; works, 365 

Milner sq. and st., Barnsburv 

Milton, 432, 797. 828; born in 
Bread St., buried in Cripple- 
gate 

St., Fore st., Cripplegate 

Mincing lane, 42, Fenchurch 
st., 379 

Mining Museum, 578 

Record office, 579 

Journal, 26, Fleet st. W. 

Ministry, 87, 88 

Minories, Aldgate High St., 815 

Mint, Royal, Tower Hill, 
109, 544, 615 

Master of, no longer a po- 
litical office, 88, 616 

Deputy master of, 616 

Missionary College, Church, 
600, see Church 

Museum, 8, Blomfield st., 

Finsbury 

Mitcham, 49, 466 

Mole river, 5, 12, 27, ^6, (529) 

Molton st., Oxford st. W. 

Money market, 74, 103, 107, 
111 

Money orders, 100 

Montagu House, 355, 388 

House, Bloomsbury, 556 

i sq., Portman sq., 771 

Montefiore, Sir M., 106, 533, 
! 536, 537 

! Montpelier sq., &c, Brompton 
i Montrose House, 355 
I Monuments, the, 825 
I Moor lane, Moorfields, Moor- 
gate St., N., 98 

Moorgate st., Bank, N. 

Moravian church, 31, Fetter 
lane, Fleet st. W. 

Mission, 97 > Hatton gar- 
den, Holborn hill 

Mordan's pencil works, 22, 
City rd. 

Morden College, 218 

Morning Advertiser, Fleet St., 73 

Chronicle, Strand, 73, 75 

Herald, Catherine St., 

Strand, 73 

Post, Wellington st. N., 

Strand, 73 

Mornington crescent, Hamp- 
stead rd., 771 

Mortimer market, 168, Totten- 
ham court rd., 612 

st., Cavendish sq. E. 

Moses', Messrs., shops, 533 

Mount st., Berkeley sq. 

Mourning warehouses, 235 

Munro collection, 415 

Munster sq. and st., Regent's 
park E. 

Museum, Antiquarian, 323, 
376, (508), 553, 556 ; Archaeo- 
logical Institute, 588 ; ar- 



902 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



chitectural, 573, 574, 716, 
883 ; Architects, Institute of, 
573 ; armour, 336, 409, 582, 
583, 599, 778 ; Arms, College 
of, 323 ; Arts, Society of, 580; 
Asiatic Society, 582 ; Bar- 
tholomew's, St., 512 ; bo- 
tanic, see Herbarium, Gar- 
den ; Botanic, Royal, 580 ; 
botanical, 479, 585; Botany, 
Economic, 479 ; British, 
556, 560 ; bronzes, 442, 502, 
559 ; City, 376 ; Civil En- 
gineers' College, 323; Clock- 
makers' Company, 600 ; Col- 
lege of Surgeons, 561, 719 ; 
drawings, 479, 561, 573, 574 ; 
East India, 597, 723; Eco- 
nomic Botany, 479, 490, 566, 
580 ; Economic Geology, 
575 ; Egyptian, 419, 558, 574, 
582 ; Elgin, 557 ; enamels, 
578 ; engravings, 561 ; En- 
tomological, 584; Etruscan, 
411, 432, 559; fruits, 566 ; 
geological, 556, 567, 575, 959, 
723, see Saull ; Geographical, 
see Wyld's Model ; Geologi- 
cal Society, 567; Geology, 
Practical and Economical, 
575; George the Third's, 
King's College ; glass, 578 ; 
Guiidhall, 376; Guy's Hos- 
pital, 245 ; Hope, 411 ; 
Horticultural, 566 ; Hun- 
terian, 561, 719; jewels, 
779; Kew, economic bo- 
tany, 479 ; Kew Observatory, 
667 ; King's College, 323 ; 
Lansdowne, 418; Lee's, 690 ; 
Linnasan, 565; London Hos- 
pital, 521 ; mechanical, 580, 
583 ; medal, 559 ; medical, 
see Medical Schools ; Mid- 
dlesex Hospital, 523; Mili- 
tary, 583, see Armour; mine- 
ralogical, 560, 580; mining, 
578 ; Missionary, 8, Blom- 
field st., 560, 580 ; model, 
324, 580, 727 5 naval, 583, 
613, 727 ; numismatic, 559 ; 
Ordnance, 86, Pall Mall ; 
oriental, 582, 588, 597 ; Or- 
nithological, 453, 556, 584, 
586, 599 ; Pathological, see 
Medical; Paul's, St., 716; 
Pharmaceutical, 580; Poly- 
technic Institution ; porce- 
lain, 559, 575; prints, 561, 
574 ; Royal, 547 ; Royal In- 
stitution, 563 ; Sappers, 
Woolwich; Saull, VV. D., 
Esq., 15, Aldersgate st. — 
(geology); Soane, 574; So- 
ciety of Arts, 580; Somer- 
set House, 613 ; Surgeons' 
College, 561 ; Syro-Egyp- 
tian, 583; terra cottas, 559, 
578 ; Thomas's, St., 525 ; 
Tower, 779; Townley, 557; 
United Service, 583, 613 ; 
Veterinary College, 600 ; 
Woolwich repository, 350 ; 
Wyld's, Leicester sq.; Zoolo- 
gical, 560, 565, 583, 597 

Music, see Band, Choir, Con- 
certs, Institution, Normal 
School, Opera, Theatre 

Handel commemoration, 

624 



Music, Institutions : Abbey 
Club, 627, 628 ; Academy, 
Royal, 63, 324, 621 ; Adelphi 
Club, 627, 628 ; Amateur 
Musical, 628 ; British Mu- 
sicians' Society, 625 ; Catch 
Club, 617, 626; Cecilian, 
623; Choral, 623; Choral 
Harmonists, 628 ; Female 
Musicians' Society ,624 ; Glee 
Club, 617, 627, 628 ; London 
Sacred Harmonic Society, 
623; Madrigal Society, 617, 
625, 626 ; Melodists' Club, 
627; Musical Union, 628; 
Philharmonic Society, 621 ; 
Purcell Club, 627; Round 
Club, 627, 628; Royal So- 
ciety of Musicians, 617, 623, 
626 ; Sacred Harmonic So- 
ciety , 623 ; Sacred Harmonic 
Society, London, 623; Wes- 
tern Madrigal Society, 626 

Licences, 98 

Lunatic, 606 

Oratorios, see Concerts 

Police, 96, 93 

Sacred, see Concerts 

Teachers, 238 

Music and Singing, Schools of, 
Academy, Royal, 63, 324, 621; 
Blind, 243; Chapel Royal, 
St. James's, 625; St. Bar- 
nabas, Pimlico ; St. Mar- 
tin's, Long Acre ; St. Paul's, 
629 ; singing classes, St. 
Martin's Hall ; Westminster 
Abbey, 625, 628 

Musical instrument trade, 61, 
232, 237 

Union, 628 

Musicians, Royal Society of, 
617, 623 

Amateur, 628 

British, 625 

Company of, 80, Fore st. 

Female Society, 624 

M us well Hill, 35, 36 

Myddelton, 724, 827, 848; sq. 
and st., Clerkenwell N. 

Napier's factory, 365 
Napoleon, 439, (514), 575, 584; 

see Tussaud Gallery 
willow, Royal Botanic 

gardens 
Natal Colonization Society, 80, 

Fleet st. 
National Baths, 7k , Mount st., 

Lambeth 

Club, 2, Old Palace yard 

Gallery, Trafalgar sq. N., 

420, 745 

Institution, 421 

Schools, 63, 65, 67, 363 

Naturalization Office, Home 

Office, Whitehall 
Nautical Almanack, 614 
Naval clubs, 294, 302, 303, 305 

Museums, 583, 613, 727 

School, Royal, 364, 613, 

728 
Needle-makers, 235 
Company, 3, Angel court, 

Bank, 327 
Nelson, 228, 400, 405, 406, 414, 

443, 445, 714, 716, 729, 727, 

826, 828 

Column, 826 

Newcastle House, 355 



Newcastle steam office, 35, 

Leadenhall st. 
New College, St. John's Wood 

and U. Blomfield st., 63, 64, 

323 

cross, Greenwich rd. 

Cut, Lambeth 

Newgate prison, 753, 766, 771 

st., Cheapside W., 379, 828 

Market, Newgate St., 612 

Newington Butts, S. London 

County Court, 93 

Stoke, see Stoke 

Newman st., 39, Oxford st, 379 
New Inn, Strand, 528, 531 
Jerusalem Church, Cross 

st., Hatton garden 
Newport Market, Soho, 612 
New river, 848, 851 
New rd., Islington to Pad- 

dington 
News Exchange, Catharine st., 

Strand E., 379 

Blackhorse alley, Fleet st. 

Newspaper, see Press 

Postage, see Post Office, 

753 

Newsvenders, 76, 100, 238 

Newton, Sir I., 387, 539, 540, 
541, 542, 543, 726, 796; house 
and observatory, 35, St. Mar- 
tin's st., Leicester sq.; relics, 
543 

New York steam office, 2, 
Royal Exchange bdgs. ; 52, 
Old Broad st.; 57, Thread- 
needle st. 

Nicholas, St., Coleabbey, Old 
Fish st., 308 

Deptford Stowage 

Nine Elms, Vauxhall W., 818, 
819 

Nonsuch park, (524) 

Nore, 11 

Norfolk House, St. James's 
sq. E., 355 

crescent, Oxford sq. 

Norland sq., &c, Notting hill 

Normal school, Battersea, Ter- 
race House 

British and Foreign, Bo- 
rough rd., 63, 65, 363 

Female, Whiteland's 

House, King's rd., Chelsea 

Governesses, 243, 364 

Home and Colonial In- 
fant, 363 

Infant, Tufton St., West- 
minster, 363 

Kneller Hall 

National, 63, 65, 363 

Queen's College, 67, Har- 

ley st. , 364 

St. Barnabas, for singing 

- — St. Mark's College, Stan- 
ley grove, Chelsea, 63 

Wesleyan, Horseferry rd., 

Westminster 

Norman architecture, 128, 131, 
133, 135, 141 

Normanton collection, 423 

Northern lights. 23 

Northfleet steamers and rail- 
way, see Gravesend, 829 

North London hospitals, 63, 
66, 508, 526 

North rd., New, Hoxton to 
Islington N. 

Northumberland House, Tra- 
falgar sq., 175, 355, 422 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY, 



903 



Norton folgate, Bishopsgatest. 

Without 
Norwood, S. London, 454, 

466, 498 
Norwood cemetery, 288 

- Middlesex, 601 
Notting hill, Kensington N., 

315 

Nuisances, 93, 95, 326 

.Numismatic Society, 41, Ta- 
vistock st., Covent Garden, 
585 

Nunhead cemetery, 283 

JNursery Gardens, 39, 40, (531 1; 
Beck's, (589) ; Cattleugh's, 
(539) ; Chandler's, (537) ; 
Chapman's, (540) ; Fraser's, 
(539) ; Glendinning's, (538) ; 
Groom's, (539) ; Henderson's, 
(537) ; Knight's, (533) ; Lee's, 
(537) ; Loddige's, 39, (531 ) ; 
Low's, (532); Paul's, (538); 
Rollison's, (532) ; Rose, (538); 
Smith's, (538) ; Standishand 
Noble, (538) ; Waterer, (538); 
Whitley's, (537); Wilmot's, 
(540) 

Nurses, school for, 36, Fitzroy 

sq., 523 
Institution, 63, Cornhill 

Nursing sisters, 4, Devonshire 
sq., Bishopsgate 

Oatlands, (516) 

Obelisks, 825 

Obscene books, 96 

Observatory, 630; Mr. Bar- 
clay's, 635 ; Mr. Bishop's, 
456, 631, 080, OKI, 097; Cam- 
bridge, 670; Chatham, 630; 
Mr. Dawes's, 697; Mr. Dell's, | 
693; Mr. Drew's, 688, 697; 
Greenwich, 542, 543, 551, 
600, 031 ; Greenwich school, 
667; Kew, 667; Dr. Lee's, 
689; Mr. Lowndes's, 691; 
Magnetic, 661, 667; Mr. 
May's, 695 ; Meteorological, 
666, 697; Oxford, 675; Mr. 
Reade's, 692 ; Mr. Simms's, 
683; Mr. Slatter's, 696; Mr. 
Snow's, 693; South, Sir Jas., 
681 ; Wanstead, 634, 635 ; 
Mr. Whitbread's, 686; Lord 
Wrotteslev's, 693 

Ochre, 34, 35 

Oddfellows, 111 

Oil trade, 239 

Olave's, St., Hart St., 172, 307, 
310 

Old Jewry, 312, 407 

- Tooley St., 313 

- School, 364 

Old Bailey, Ludgate hill, see 

Central'Criminal Court, 753 
Old Change, Cheapside, W. 
Old Ford, near Bow, 850, 852 
Old Jewry, Poultry, to Gres- 

ham st. E., 98,531, 582 
Old st. and rd., Goswell St., 

City rd., to Shoreditch 
Olympic theatre, Wych st., 

Strand, E., 772 
Omnibuses, 62, 94, 95, 98 
Onslow sq., &c, Fulham rd., 

Brompton 
Opera, 264, 613, 772, 774, 775 ; 

colonnade, Haymarket, 264 
Ophthalmic Hospital, 66, 67, 

509, 517, 525 



Opticians, 238 

Orangerv, see Conservatory 

Oranges,* 117, 234, 379 

Oratorios, 622 

Ordnance Office, 86, Pall Mall 

W., 89 

Tower 

Organ building, 61, 238, 379 
Oriental Club, 18, Hanover sq., 

304 

Texts Fund, 589 

Translation Fund, 588 

Ormond Club, 44, Great Or- 

mond st., Russell sq. 
Ornithological Society, 536; 

collection, St. James's park, 

453, 583, 586; Zoological 

Gardens 
Orphan schools and asylums, 

244, 245, 246, 363, 624 

City, 327, 332 

Orthopcedic Hospital, 66, 509, 

525 
Osier beds, 45 
Osnaburgh st., Regent's park 

E. 
Ostend steam office, 71 , Lom- 
bard st. ; 52, Gracechurch 

st., London bridge station 
Oven builders, 227, 239 
Overseers, 92, 98, 325 
Overstone Gallery, 422 
Ovington sq., &c, Brompton 
Owen's, Ladv, school, 363 
Oxford, 675, 869; station, Pad- 

dington 
Oxford and Cambridge Club, 

71, Pall Mall W., 239 
Oxford st., High Holborn W. 

to Edgware rd. S., 455 

bazaar, 265 

market, 87, Oxford St., 

612 

sq., Hyde Park N., 771 

terrace, Edgware rd. 

Paddington, N.W. London, 
60,71,313 

Church, 313, 321 

Dispensary, 515 

Dock, 285 

Institution, 65, Great Car- 
lisle st. 

Police, 96 

Painters, blind, 243 

— - Company, 243 

Hall, 9, Little Trinity 

lane, 445, 506 

Painting, 61, 02, 237 

Palace, 7-16, 755, 849, see Ducal 
Residences ; Bromley, 216 ; 
Buckingham, 420, 499, 748, 
851 ; Carlton, now Carlton 
House Gardens, 826 ; Clare- 
mont, (506), 882 ; Crystal, see 
Exhibition; Ely, 156, 306; 
Frogmore, 461 , 503 ; Fulham, 

46, 47, 49, 55, 450, (515); 
Greenwich, 179, 211, 427, 
727; Hampton Court, 400, 
476, 496, 503, 506, 883; 
James's, St., 307, 413, 747, 
748; Kensington, 44, 47, 48, 
49, 55, 203, 415, 452, 456, 
468, 748, 853 ; Kew, 39, 43, 
211,354,480,882; Lambeth, 

47, 307, 743; Marlborough 
House, 401 ; Nonsuch, 
(524); Queen's house, 748; 
Richmond, 883; St. James's, 



307, 413, 453; Savoy, 172, 
306, 323 ; Somerset House, 
200, 613, 708; Tower, 746-, 
Westminster, 151, 170, 307, 
731, 746; Whitehall, 176, 
440, 707, 747 ; Windsor, 441, 
461,500,863 

Pall Mall, Trafalgar sq., 453 

Palmer's school, 363 

Pancras, St., Euston sq., 60, 
71, 307, 313,315,320 

Vestry, 99 ; church, 313, 

315 

Dispensary, 516 

Panorama, 700^ 720 
Pantechnicon, Halkin st. W., 

Belgrave sq., 265 

Pantheon bazaar, 359, Oxford 
St., 264 

Panton st. and sq., Haymarket 

Paperstaining, 62, 231 

Paper trade, 62, 232, 237, 238 

Paragon, New Kent rd. 

Parcels, 101, 102 

Delivery Company, 102 

Parish Clerks' Company, 335, 
506; hall, 24, Silver st. 
, Almshouses, 218 

Schools, 65 

; Paris correspondent, 75 
; Park, see Garden, Heath, Com- 
i mon, Walk, Wood, Forest; 
Battersea, 464, 849 ; Bedding- 
ton, 466 ; Bushv , 44, 452, 498 ; 
Cobham park, 34, 47, 48 ; 
damaging, 96; Ealing, (518) ; 
Green, 453, 499, 705, 769; 
Greenwich, 47, 49, 58, 452, 
458, 644, 856; Gunnersbury, 
(520), 533; Hampton, see 
Bushy; Holland. 452, (514) ; 
Hyde, 455, 468, 705, 706, 853; 
James's, St., 453, 583, 586, 
826; Knowle, (517); Maryle- 
bone, 456; Nonsuch, (524); 
Oatlands, (516); Primrose 
hill, 457; Regent's, 456, 
487, (530), 681, 099; Rich- 
mond, 459, 667, 883; St. 
James's, 453; Victoria, 458; 
Wimbledon, 466, (513), (522), 
(523) : Windsor, 47, 49, 452, 
460, 501, (517), 869 

Parker society, 33, South- 
ampton St., Strand, 588 

Park lane, Hvde park corner 
to Oxford st'. W., 110, 455 

Parlby (Major) Gallery of Arts, 
32, Sloane st. 

Parliament, 87, see Commons, 
Lords 

Members of, 87 

Parliamentary reports, 101, 753 
Papers, sale office, 6, Gt. 

Turnstile, High Holborn 
Parthenon Club, 16, Regent st., 

Pall Mall, 305 
Patent agents, 702 
Patents, instruction for ob- 
taining, 701 ; see Designs 

extension, 90 

Paternoster row, St. Paul's 
Pathological society, 21, Re- 
gent st. S., 588 
Patrick, St., 322 

Society of, 245, 363 

Patriotic fund, 61, Thread- 
needle st., 378 
I Pattenmakers, 235 ; company, 
i Guildhall 



904 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Paul's, St., Cathedral, 181, 
600, 629, 709, 828 

Old, 205, 208, 7H 

Ball's Pond 

Bermondsey, Nelson st. 

Camden sq. 

Covent Garden, 178, 313 

Deptford, Church st., 315 

Finsbury, Artillery place, 

Bunhill row 

Knightsbridge, Wilton 

place, 321 

School, St. Paul's church- 
yard, 61, 335, 364 

Seamen's, Dock st. 

Shadwell, High st., 315 

Paulton sq. and st., Chelsea 

Pauperism, see Poor Law 

Pavilion theatre, 85, White- 
chapel rd., 773 

Paving boards, 99 

Paviours, 239; company, 2, 
America sq., 337 

Pawnbroking, 106, 111, 239 

Peace Congress, 19, New 
Broad st., City 

Peat, 32, 467 

Peel, Sir R., Gallery, 423 

Peerless pool baths, 59, Bald- 
win st., City rd. 

Peers, House of, 87, 90, 600 

Pelham crescent, &c, Fulham 
rd., Brompton 

Pellatt's glass works, Holland 
st., Blackfriars bridge S. 

Pembroke sq., Kensington 

Peninsular and Oriental steam 
office, 122, Leadenhall st. E. 

Penitentiary, 755, 764 

Penn's factory, 365 

Penny bank, 146 

Pentonville, &c, New rd., 
Islington 

Penitentiary, Caledonian 

rd., 755 

Percy society, 589 

Chapel, Charlotte st. S., 

Fitzroy sq. 

Periodicals, 71, 229 

postage, 101 

Perth steam office, 14, Buck- 
lersbury, Cheapside 

Peter's, St., Bethnal green, 321 

— College, Westminster Ab- 
bey, 64, 323 

. Cornhill E., 310 

Hackney, St. Peter st. 

Hospital, 218, 364 

Islington, River lane, 315 

■ Knightsbridge 

Kingsland, De Beauvoir 

sq. 

le Poor, Old Broad st, 315 

Pimlico, Charlotte st. 

Pimlico, Eaton sq., 315 

Saffron hill, Hoi born, 320 

Southwark, Sumner st. 

Tower, 172, 307, 776 

Vere St., 315 

Walworth, Beckford row, 

315 

Westminster, see West- 
minster Abbey 

Petersburgh, St., steam office, 
64, Mark lane, Fenchurch 
st. 

Petitions, 90 

Petticoat lane, 535 

Petty-bag office, Rolls', build- 
ings, Chancery lane 



Pewterers, 237 ; company, 336; 
hall, 17, Lime st., 506 

Pharmaceutical society, 17, 
Bloomsbury sq. W., 580 

Philanthropic society, 15, Lon- 
don road, Southwark 

National, 44, Leicester sq. 

Philip's, St., Bagnigge wells 
road, Granville sq. 

- — Chapel, Regent st. 

Dalston, Richmond rd. 

Neri, King William st. W. 

322 

Stepney, Turner st. 

Philharmonic society, 621 

Phillimore terrace, &c, Ken- 
sington 

Philological society, 12, Saint 
James's sq., 587; societies, 
582, 583, 587, 588, 589 

school, 38, Gloucester 

place, New rd., 64, 364 

Philosophical Transactions, 
539, 667 

Philpot lane, 12, Fenchurch st. 

Physicians, 238, 508 

College of, Trafalgar sq. 

W., 63 

Piano manufacture, 61, 232, 
233 

Piazzas, 179, 264, 769 

Piccadilly, Haymarket N. to 
Knightsbridge E. 

Pickford's, Messrs., Gresham 
St., &c, 286, 810 

Pictures, see Gallery, 117, 238 

Piers, steam-boat, 281 

Pimlico, W. London, police, 
96 

Pinetum, Botanic, Royal, 488; 
Chiswick, (507) ; Drbpmore, 
48, (517); Kensington, 468; 
Kew, 475 ; Nonsuch, (524) ; 
Regent's park, 488 

Pinner's hall, Old Broad st., 506 

Pistol trade, 61 

Pitcher's dock, 829 

Pitt, W., and Son, 223, 405, 730, 
794, 796, 827, 828 

Pix, 335, 616, 725 

Placards, 95, 96 

Plaistow, police, 97 

Plasterers, 237; hall, 506; 
company, 2, King's rd., Bed- 
ford row 

Plate manufacture, 61 

Playing-card makers' com- 
pany, Guildhall 

Plough Monday, 326 

Plumbers, 62, 237; hall, 12, 
Great Bush lane, 506 

Plymouth steam office, 137, 
Leadenhall st. 

Poland st., 365, Oxford st. 

PoLrcE, 62, 67, 75, 94, 96, 112; 
banking, 105 ; city, 94, 96, 
98, 330 ; commissioners, 
Scotland yard, Whitehall; 
Courts, 92, 24; drowning, 
67; nre, 111; Men and du- 
ties, 62; music, 96, 98; 
Prisons, 753 ; Stations, 
96; Thames, 97,613 

Polish synagogue, 536 

Literary Association, 10, 

Duke st., St. James's 

Polytechnic Institution, 309, 
Regent st. N. 

Poor Law, 66, 67, 68, 88, 93, 
99 



Poor Law Board, I, Somerset 
place, Somerset House, 769 

union houses, 846 

Poor rates, 66 

Pope, 388; birth-place, Lom- 
bard st.; tomb, 798; villa, 
450 

Poplar, E. London, 341, 853; 
almshouses, 217; baths and 
washhouses, 254; canal, 343; 
church, 315; institution, 
600; police, 97 

Porchester pi., &c, Bayswater 

Portable baths, 71 J, Oxford 
st., W. 

Porteusrd., &c, Paddington 

Porters, fellowship, 335 

Portland Club, 1, Stratford pi., 
Piccadilly 

Gallery, Regent st. N., 

421, 700 

House, 355 

place, Regent st. N.,828 

rd. and St., Oxford st., to 

Regent's park S. 
terrace, Regent's park, 

W. 
town, Regent's park W., 

854 
Portman market, New Church 

st., Lisson grove, 97> 612 
sq. and st., Orchard st., 

Oxford st. \V., 770 
Portugal, 63 

st., Lincoln's inn fields S. 

Portuguese, 379 

Consulate, 5, Jeffreys sq., 

Leadenhall st. 

Jews, 509, 524, 532 

Synagogue, 536 

Post office, Cheapside W. and 
St. Paul's, 66, 88, 99, 750 

Directory, 90, 100, 102, 

226, 365 

Regulations, 99, 752 

Postage stamps, 99 
Potato market, 3/9 
Potter's Bar, Barnet 
Pottery, 33, 231, 237 
Poulterers, 234; almshouses, 

218; company, 52, Mark 

lane, Fenchurch st. 
Poultry, Cheapside E. 
Praed St., Edgware rd. 
Pratt st. , Camden town 
Preceptors, College of, 28, 

Bloomsbury sq., 63, 323 
Precincts, city, 325, 326 
Prerogative Court, 6, Great 

Knight rider st., St. Paul's, 

91 
Prescot st., Goodman's fields 
Press, Public, 71 
Price currents, 101 
Primrose hill, Regent's park, 

N., 457, 490 
Prime warden , 333 
Prince's theatre, King st., St. 

James's, 772 
Princess's theatre, 73, Oxford 

st., 772, 775 
Printers' almshouses, 218 
Printing, bank note, 249 

for the blind, 243 

house sq., Water lane, 

Blackfriars E. 

machine, Times, 76, 365 

trade, 61, 232, 238 

Print room, British Museum 
Prints, obscene, 96 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



905 



Prior, buried in Westminster, 

387, 445, 798 
Prisons, 753 

Privy Council, see Council 
Processions, public, 95, 96, 

328,331, 334 
Professional men, 62 
Prostitutes, 96 
Provident institutions, 107 
Provision trade, 62, 227 
Prussian blue, 34; Consulate, 

106, Fenchurch st. 
Publicans, 62, 73, 94, 98, 105, 

110, 111, 228, 234, 245, 246; 

see Licensed Victuallers 
Public-houses, see Publicans 
Public Press, see Press 
Punch office, 85, Fleet st. E. 
Punts, 614 
Purcell, 795; commemoration, 

627 
Purfleet, 36, 546; steamers, 

see Gravesend 
Putney, 7, 450,614 
College, 63, 323 

— heath^, 49, 50, 451, 460, 
466, 467 

Pyx, 335, 616,725 

Quaker's school, 364 

meetings, 86, Hounds- 
ditch; 4, White Hart court, 
Lombard st. ; 54, St. John 
st., Smithfield; 100, St. 
Martin's lane 

Quebec chapel, Old Quebec st. 
Queen, 87 

- sq., Bloomsbury, 771 , 828 

- sq., St. James's'park, 827 
Queen's Bench, 91, 407; pri- 
son, Southwark bridge rd., 
753, 765 

College, 67, Harley st.; 

4, Artillery pi., Finsbury, 63, 
323, 364 

— Printing office, 9, East 
Harding st., Fetter lane, 
Fleet st. 

stables, 864 

Theatre, Haymarket, Pall 

Mall, 264, 617 

Theatre, 4, Tottenham 

st., Fitzroy sq. S., 772 

Queen Elizabeth's hospital, 216 
Queenhithe, Upper Thames 

st., 338 
Quicksilver trade, 239 

Races, 882 

Rag Fair, 612 

Ragged schools, 15, Exeter 

hall, Strand W., 65, 68-, 364 
Railway, 89, 698, 798 

- accidents, 111 

- Stations, 798 

- Works, 231 
Raine's charity, 245, 364 
Rainfall, 7, 20 

Ramsgate steam office, 65, 

King William st. E., 830 
Ranelagh terrace, &c. , Pimlico 
Raspberry, 42 
Ratcliffe highway, E. London, 

447 
Rathbone place, 28, Oxford st. 
Ravensbourne, 6, 10, 27, 856, 

857 
Ray society, 589 
Reading rooms, 229, 267 5 see 

Institutions , Libraries 



Recorder of London, 92, 94, 

328, 331 
Record offices , see Registry 
Records, public, 130, 147; 
Rolls house, Chancery lane; 
Tower, 130; Chapterhouse, 
Westminster, 149; Carlton 
ride, Carlton gardens 

State Paper, 12, Duke st. 

Rectifiers, 229 

Redcross St., Cripplegate, 531 
Refiners, silver, 239, 379 
Reform Club, 104, Pall Mall 

W., 298 
Regent's canal, 286, 340, 342 
park, New rd. W., 456, 

487, (530), 681, 699 

street, St. James's park to 

Oxford st. W. 

Registry of Births, Deaths, 
and Marriages, 7, Somerset 
pi., Somerset House, 698, 769 

Books, Stationers' hall, 

Ludgate hill 

Designs and Inventions, 

4, Somerset pi., Somerset 
House, 89 

Joint -stock Companies, 

13, Serjeant's inn, 89 

Mining, Piccadilly, 579 

Newspapers, Stamp of- 
fice, Somerset House 

PatentSjEnrolment office, 

and Petty-bag office, Chan- 
cery lane 

Seamen, 2, Hammet st., 

Minories; 70, Lower Thames 
st., 613 

Shipping, 2, White Lion 

court, Cornhill ; Custom 
House 

Solicitors, Law society, 

Chancery lane, 5/1 

Wills, Prerogative office, 

6, Great Knight rider st., St. 
Paul's 

Reid's brewery, Liquorpond 
St., Hatton garden, 227, 273 

Remembrancer, City, 331, 332 

Renterwarden, 333, 334 

Reporters, 74, 75 

Rennie's works, 365, 616, 829 

Reversions, 110 

Reviews, 71 

military, 456, 467 

Revising barristers, 92 

Revision courts, 92 

Reynolds, Sir J., 713 

Rhine steam office, 52, Grace- 
church st. 

Rich's school, 364 

Richmond house, 355 

Richmond, 7, 8, 450, 459, 830, 
883; bridge, 7, 8, 450, 883; 
hill, 451, 459, (524), 883; pa- 
lace, 407, 883 ; park, 459, 667, 
883 ; police, 97 

Steam office, Hunger ford 

pier, 459, 830 

Railway, Waterloo sta- 
tion, 459 

Riding, 95 

Robinson and Russell's fac- 
tory, Mill wall, 365, 829 

Rocket making, 348 

Rod in g river, 6 

Roehainpton, 451 

Rogers', Samuel, collection, 
430 

Rolls Court, 91 



Rolls Chapel, Chancery lane, 

828 
Roman baths, 5, Strand lane, 

Strand E. 
Roman cement, 237, see Sep- 

taria 
Rood lane, Fenchurch st. 
Ropemaking, 231, 237 
Rosherville, Gravesend W. 
Rotherhithe, S. E. London, 

341, 832, 856; church, 313 ; 

police, 97; institution, 29, 

Paradise row ; tunnel, 831 
Rothschild, Messrs., St. 

Swithin's lane, Mansion 

House, 106, 377, (520), 533, 

534, 535, 536, 537 
Rotterdam steam office, 71, 

Lombard st. 
Rotten row, Hyde park, 455 
Round church^ Temple, 135 
Royal Exchange:, Cornhill, 

335, 366, 717, 827 
Exchange bdgs., 82, Corn- 
hill W. 
Exchange Assurance, 239, 

242, 373 
Institution-, Albemarle 

St., Piccadilly, 325, 549, 562 
Society, Somerset House, 

Strand E., 207, 324, 494, 538, 

632, 635, 709, 769 
Mail steam office, 55, 

Moorgate st. S., Bank 
Rucker, Mr., garden, (529) 
Rumford medal, 549 
Rupture institutions, 67, 524 
Russell sq., between High Hol- 

born and New rd., 410, 828 
Russia, 63, 846; companv, 

South Sea House, O. Broad 

st. 
Russian church, 32, Welbeck 

st., 323; embassy, 706; con- 
sulate, 2, Winchester bdgs., 

London wall 
Rutland gate, Hyde park, 422, 

423 
Rutland House, 355 

Sackville St., 40, Piccadilly 

Sacred Harmonic Societv, 6, 
Exeter Hall, Strand, 62J 

Saddlers, 61, 237 

Hall, 143, Cheapside, 445, 

506 

Wells Theatre, St. John's 

st. rd., 772, 774 

Saffron hill, Lower Holborn 

Sailmakers, 62, 237 

Almshouses, 215 

Sailors, see Seamen 

Home, 268, 613 

Saint Bartholomew's, &c, 
see Bartholomew's, St. 

Sales, auction, 378, 379; 
book, 379 ; cattle, see Mar- 
kets ; coffee, 379 ; colonial, 
379; Custom House, 379; 
drug, 379; fruit, 379; hide, 
379; hop, 379; indigo, 3/9; 
leather, 379; pawnbrokers, 
379; pictures, 378, 379; 
shares, 378, 379 ; sugar, 379 ; 
tea, 379 ; wool, 379 

Salesmen, 227, 234, 237, 612 

Salisbury sq. and court, Fleet 
st. 

st, Strand 

Saloons, 820 



906 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Salters, 234; almshouses, 218 
hall, St. Swithin's lane, 506 

Samaritan funds, 513,514, 513, 
521, 523, 527, 607 

Sambrook court, Basinghallst. 

Sanatorium, 67, 524 

Sandhurst College, 63, 323 

Sanitary, see Health 

Sardinian chapel, 32, Duke st., 
Lincoln's inn fields W., 322 

Saull, W. D., Esq., 15, Alders- 
gate st., Museum of Geology 

Saville row, Regent st. 

Savings banks, office, 5, Bolton 
st., Piccadilly, 66, 106, 233 

Saviour's, St., Brompton, Wal- 
ton place 

Chelsea, Hans place, 315 

— Southwark, 141, 306, 313, 
797, 850 

Dock, 10, 340 

Savoy chapel, Strand, 172, 306, 
323 

Saw mills, 237 

Sawyers, 62, 230 

Saxon architecture, see Anglo- 
Saxon 

Schoolmasters, 62, 238 

College for, 28, Blooms- 
bury sq., 63, 323 

Society, 73, Great Russell 

st. 

School, see College, 363; 
Anne's, St., 245, 364, 855; Apo- 
thecaries' Hall, 335, 337 ; ar- 
chitecture, 66; astronomy, 
680; Blind, 63, 243, 364; 
Blue Coat, 245, 363, see 
Christ's Hospital ; botany, 
see Medical; British and 
Foreign, 63, 65, 67, 363; 
Burlington, 363; Caledo- 
nian, 363 ; Camberwell, 363 ; 
Catholic, 322, 363 ; Charing 
cross, 63, 513 ; charity, 363, 
364; Charterhouse, 64, 363, 
708; chemistry, see College, 
Medical; Christ's hospital, 
64, 363, 613, 716; City of 
London, 64, 363; Commer- 
cial Travellers', 363; Congre- 
gationalist, 67, 363; Deaf 
and Dumb, 6^, 243; Design, 
see Design; Dissenters, 364; 
engineering, 66; foundation, 
65; Freemasons', 245, 365; 
geology, see Museum of Geo- 
logy ; George's, St., 63, 518 ; 
German , 363 ; Gra mm a u , 
64, 363; Green coat, 245, 363; 
Greenwich, 667, 729; Gray 
coat, 245, 363; Guy's hos- 
pital, 245; Harrow, 363; 
Hickson's, 363 ; Highgate, 
363; Homeand Colonial, 65, 
363 ; horticultural, see Hor- 
ticultural Society, Royal 
Botanic Society ; Hunte- 
rian,63; idiots, 63,244; in- 
fant, 65, 363; Irish, 363; 
Islington, 363 ; Jews, 245, 
363, 364, 532,536 ; Lambeth, 
364; Lancasterian, 363 ; law, 
63, 571 ; Licensed victual- 
lers, 245, 363 ; Lock hospital, 
521 ; London hospital, 63, 
521 ; London Institution, see 
London Institution ; lu- 
natic, 606; Marine, 245, 
363, 613 ; Mathematical, 



613, 716; Medical, 63, 66, 
509; Mercers', 64, 335, 363 ; 
Merchant Tailors', 64, 363, 
600; metallurgy, 575; Mid- 
dlesex hospital, 63, 523 ; Mi- 
litary, 63; music, see Music; 
National, 63, 65, 67, 363; 
Naval, 364, 613, 667, 729; 
Navigation, 613, 716, 728; 
Normal, see Normal; nurses, 
523; orphan, 244, 245, 246, 
363, 624; Olave's, St., 364; 
Owen's, 363 ; Palmer's, 363 ; 
parish, 65; Paul's, St., 61, 
335, 364; Pharmaceutical, 
580; Philological, 64, 364; 
Polytechnic Institution, see 
Polytechnic Institution ; 
Quakers', 364; Raine's, 364; 
ragged, 65, 68, 364; Rich's, 
364; Saviour's, St., 364; 
seamen's, 363 ; servants, 
245, 364; singing, 63, 606, 
see Music ; Stepnev, 364 ; 
Sunday, 65, 68, 363, 364; 
Tennison's, 363 ; Voluntary, 
364; Welsh, 245, 314; We's- 
leyan, 67; Westminster, 64, 

65, 364; Westminster hos- 
pital, 63, 527; Westmore- 
land, 245, 364; writing, 606, 
717 ; Yorkshire, 245, 364 

Scotch, 379 

Church, Halkin st. W.; 

Philpot st., Commercial rd. ; 
Wells st. ; Crown court, Co- 
vent garden; Swallow st., 
Piccadilly, 322 

Church Secession, Oxen- 
don st. 

Church, Free, 39, Burton 

st.; Alfred pi., Brompton; 
River terrace, Islington 

Scotland yard, Whitehall 

Screw steam office, 2, Royal 
Exchange bdgs., Cornhill 

Scriveners' company, 11, Essex 
st, Strand E. 

Sculptors, 61, see Arts 

Seamen's Church, 613 

Fund, 613 

Home, 268, 613 

Hospital, river Thames 

and 74, King William st. E., 

66, 215 

Registry, see Registry 

School, 245 

Seamstresses, 62 

Sea ward's works, 365, 829 

Selenite, 34 

Secondaries of Sheriffs, 92, 93, 

94, 331 
Septaria,.28, 34, 36 
Sepulchre, St., Skinner st., 

Newgate, 162, 307, 310, 313 
Serjeant, Common, see Com- 
mon 
Serjeant's inn, Fleet st. and 

Chancery lane, 528, 531 
Serle st. and place, Lincoln's 

inn fields S. 
Serpentine, Hyde park, 455, 

456, 468, 853 
Servants, 62 

- School, 245, 364 
Sessions, Quarter, Courts of, 

91, 92,93,94,98,768 
Sewers, 99, 330,820 
Shad Thames, Horselydown, 

S.E. London 



Shadwell, London dock, E 

London, 850; church, 315; 

police, 97 
Shakspeare, 228, 337, 461, 70/ 

Gallery, 385 

Society, 589 

Share market, see Stock Ex 

change 

Lists, 378 

Sheepshanks' gallery, 422 
Shepherdess walk and fields. 

City rd. 
Shepherd's Bush church, 321 

Market, May fair, 612 

Shepperton st, &c, New 

North rd., Islington 
Sheppey, 33, 34 
Sheridan, 798 
Sheriffs, 92, 93, 94, 325, 327 

330,331,768 
Court, Basinghall st. S. 3 

92, 93, 94 ; Judge of, 93, 331 
Fund, Sessions house, Olc 

Bailey 
Secondaries, 92, 93, 94, 

331 

Under, 331 

Ship building, 61, 231, 237, 6U 
Chronometers, 651, 652 

657 

Church, 613 

Hospital, 66 

Launches, 613 

Letters, 101 

Owners, 613 

Prison, 765 

School, 245, 613 

Screw, 614 

War, 614 

Shipping Trade, 62, 73, 117; 

338, 613, 651, 765 
Registry, 113, 338, 613 

Lists, 101, 113 

Masters, 613 

Shipwrights' company, 6, Size 

lane, Cheapside E., 337 
Shoe lane, Fleet st. 
Shoemaking, 61, 62, 235; se( 

Cordwainers 
Shooters' hill, Dover rd., 644 
Shoreditch, Bishopsgate N. 

church, 313, 320 

County court, 93 

Police court, Worship st. 

94,96 

Station, 812 

Showboards, 95 

Show rooms, see Bazaars 

Shows, 95, see Processions ; 

Exhibition, Lord Mayor 
Shrine of St. Edward, 163 
Sick clubs, 111 
Sidcup, Kent, police, 97 
Signs, public-house, 228, 828 

Bankers, 103,828 

Pawnbrokers, 102 

Silk weaving, 61, 117, 123,229 

235, see Weaving 
Throwers' company, 34 

New Broad st.,.City 
Silversmiths, 236, 237, 

Goldsmiths 

Stamps, 335 

Simms & Troughton, Fleet st. 

671, 680, 684, 6H6, 687, 694 

695 

Observatory, 683 

Singers, public, 96 
Singing Schools, see Music 
Sion college, 218, 323, 596 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



907 



Sion House, 39, 48, 475, (509) 

Skin diseases, infirmary for, 
524 

Skinners, 239; hall, 8, Dow- 
gate hill, 506; company, 336 

— — Almshouses, 218 

st.,Newgatest.W.; Clerk - 

enwell; Somers town; Bi- 
shopsgate 

Slaughter houses, 612 

Sloane, Sir Hans, 386, 494, 545, 
556, 828 

st., &c, Knightsbridge 

and Chelsea 

Small Debts'courts,see County 
courts 

Society, 7> Craven st., 

W. Strand 

Pox Hospital, 66, 524 

Smeatonian Society, 509, 581 

Smith sq. and st., Westminster 

Smith field, near Newgate st. 
W., 227, 612, 771 

Banks, 103, 612 

• Club, 47, Half-moon st., 

Piccadilly, 264 

Police, 98 

East, Tower hill, E. 

Smiths, 62, 237, see Black- 
smiths 

Snow's fields, Bermondsey 

Snow hill, Lower Holborn E. 

Soane, Sir John, 249, 574, 747* 
780 

Museum, Lincoln's inn 

fields N., 5/4 

Soap trade, 233, 239 

Societies, Learned, 538, see 
Colleges, Institutions ; Ac- 
tuaries, Institute of, 111 ; 
JElfric, 539; Agricultural, 
Roval, 586 ; Antiquaries, 
324; 553, 585, 769; Archaeo- 
logical, 587; Archaeological 
Institute, 587 ; Architects, 
Royal Institute of British, 
324", 573; Architectural; 
Arts, Adelphi, 324, 580; 
Asiatic, Royal, 582; Astro- 
nomical, Royal, 570, 681, 
690, 699, 769 ;" botanic, 564; 
Botanic, Royal, 325, 457, 
467, 487, 580, 681; Bota- 
nical, 585 ; British Associa- 
tion, 667; British Institu- 
tion, 325 ; Camden, 588 ; 
Cavendish, 590; Chemical, 
537; Civil Engineers, Insti- 
tution of, 324, 569, 581 , 583 ; 
Conversaziones, 324 ; Elo- 
cution, 592 ; Engineers, Insti- 
tution of Civil, 569, 581, 588; 
Entomological, 584 ; Epide- 
miological ; Ethnological, 
325, 587; Farmers' Club; 
Forensic, Lyon's Inn Hall ; 
Gaelic, 583;' Geographical, 
Royal, 583 ; Geological, 325, 
566, 769; Hakluyt, 590; 
Historical, Lvon's Inn Hall ; 
Horticultural', 467, 480, 565, 
585 ; Hunterian, 4, Blom- 
field st., Finsbury ; Law, In- 
corporated, 57l"; libraries, 
see Library ; Linnjean, 564 ; 
Literature, Royal, 567 ; Lon- 
don Institution , 582 ; Madri- 
gal, 617; Medical, 582; Me- 
dical and Chirurgical, 573; 
Medico-Botanical, 32, Sack- 



villest., 494; Meteorological, 
699 ; Microscopical, 536 ; Nu- 
mismatic, 585, 690 ; Oriental 
Translation Fund, 588, 589 ; 
Ornithological, St. James's 
park, 453, 556, 586, 599 ; Par- 
ker, 583 ; Pathological, 588 ; 
Percy, 589 ; Pharmaceutical, 
580; Philological, 587 ; phi- 
lologieal, 582, 583, 587, 588, 
589 ; Ray, 589; Royal, 207, 

324, 494, 538, 632, 635, 709, 
769 ; Royal Institution, 

325, 549, 562: Shakspeare, 
589; Smeatonian, 569,581; 
Statistical, 585 ; Surgeons, 
College of, 561 ; Syden- 
ham, 589; Syro-Egyptian, 
588; United Service Insti- 
tution, 583 ; Wernerian, 590 ; 
Western Medical, 44, Sloane 
st. ; Zoological, 583, also 
564, 584, 586 

Soda water, 234 

Soho sq., &c, Oxford st. E., 
564, 827 

Theatre, 73, Dean st. , 773 

Bazaar, 4, Soho sq., 264 

Church, 315 

Soldiers, 62 

Solicitor, Citv, Guildhall, 332 

Solicitors, 62, 72 

Somerset House, Strand E., 
200, 613, 768 

Duke of, 355 

Somersetshire Society, 18, Lin- 
coln's Inn Fields 

Somers Town, New rd., St. 
Pancras 

Police, 97 

Chapel, Upper Seymour 

st. 

Sons of Clergy, 629 

Soup kitchen, 40, Leicester sq. 

South, Sir J., observatory, 681 

Southampton buildings, High 
Holborn, E. 

row, High Holborn 

Station, 818 

South Eastern Railway, Lon- 
don bridge stntion 

Steam Company, London 

bridge station 

Southgate, Middlesex, 609 

rd., Islington N. 

South Sea House, Thread- 
needle St., E., 445, 506 

South wark, or the Borough, 
London bridge, S., 60, 87, 
323 

Bridge, Upper Thames st., 

8, 9, 276, 830 

Countv court, 93 

Police 'court, 94, 97 

Sessions, 92, 94, 768 

Waterworks, 850, 855 

South Western station, Water- 
loo rd., 818 

Southwick st., &c, Oxford sq. 

Spa, Beulah, 498, see Well 

Spafields, Clerkenwell 

Spaniards, 379 

Spanish chapel, Manchester 
sq.,322 

Embassy, 9, Cavendish sq. 

Jews, 509, 524, 532 

Spectacle makers, 235; Com- 
pany, Guildhall, 337 

Speculators, 104 

Speech days, 65 



Speed, 387 (born in London) ; 

tomb, St. Andrew Under- 

shaft 
Spencer House, 454, 769 
Spenser, 797 
Spiller's works, 365 
Spinal Diseases, Hospital for, 

527 
Spirit licences, 93 
Spital sq., &c, Spitalfields 
Spitalfields, Bishopsgate st. 

Without, 229, 379 

Church, 313; market, 612 

Police, 97 

Spring, Hyde park, 455 

gardens, Trafalgar sq. 

Squares, 179, 769 

Stafford House, St. James's 

park, 356, 392, 434, 454 
Stags, 378 
Stained glass, 146, 236 

paper, 62 

Stamford st., Blackfriars rd. 

hill, Edmonton rd., 852 

Stamp Office, Somerset House, 

799 
Standard newspaper, Bridge 

st., Fleet st., 73 
Theatre, 204, Shoreditch, 

773 
Stangate, Westminster bridge, 

Staples Inn, Holborn Bars, 528, 
530, 531 

State Paper Office, 12, Duke 
st., Westminster, 780 

Stationers, 239 ; Company, 329, 
336; Hall, Ludgate hill, 336, 
445, 506 

Statistical Society, 12, St. 
James's sq., 585 " 

Department, 89, 585 

Statistics of London: Bank of 
England, 108; beer, 272, 273; 
births, 61 ; brewing, 227; 
cattle, 227, 612; charities, 
66, 288; children lost, 62', 
criminal, 62 ; customs, 66 ; 
deaths, 61 ; drunkenness, 
62 ; education, 63, 65, 67 ; 
employment, 61 ; extent, 
59, 60 ; fires, 62 ; foreign- 
ers, 62 ; gas, 449 ; hats, 
230; hospitals, 66, 509, 512; 
houses, 61,66; institutions, 
67; Irish, 62; Jews, 533; 
loan societies, 107; lunatics, 
608 ; malt, 227, 270 ; mar- 
riages, 61 ; omnibuses, 98 ; 
Pauperism, 66, 67, 68 ; po- 
lice, 62, 67; poor, 66, 67; 
population, 60; postage, 66; 
press, 71 » 86; prisons, 763; 
robbery, 62; sanitary, 512; 
savings' banks, 66; schools, 
63, 65, 67, 68; Scotch, 62; 
shipping, 338 ; streets, 61 ; 
suicides, 62; taxation, 66; 
Times, 86; trade, 61, 227 ; 
traffic, 98 ; water supply, 
857 

Statues, public, 288, 463, 825 

Steam-boats, 89, 613 

Navigation, 830 

Piers, 281,830 

Offices will be found un- 
der each name, as Boulogne, 
Gravesend, &c. 

Steeples of London, 193, 205 

Stephenson's works, 365, 829 



908 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Stephen's, St., Borough, Kent 

St. 

Chapel, &c, Westminster, 

151,170,306,307,737 

Coleman st., Bank, 312 

Islington, Portland place, 

Lower rd. 

Rochester row, Westmin- 
ster, 315 

Walbrook, 192, 308 

Stepney, E. London, 853; alms- 
houses, 217 

Church, 315 

College, 63, 600 

Hospital, 335 

Police court, 94, 97 

Stereotyping, 232, 238 

Stock and Share Market, Bar- 
tholomew lane, 74 

broker, 104, 377 

Exchange, 104, 105, 377 

Jobber, 377 

Stockwell, see Clapham 

Stoke Newington, N.E. Lon- 
don, 851, 852; police, 97 

Stone, building, 28, 29, 30, 31, 
230 237 

Store'st., Tottenham Court rd. 

Story's gate, St. James's park 
g 

Strand, Fleet st. W. to Tra- 
falgar sq. E. 

Bridge, see Waterloo 

Theatre, 168, Strand, 772 

Stratford, E. London, church, 
321 

place, Oxford st. W. 

Stratton st., 79, Piccadilly 

Strawberries, 42 

Strawberry hill, 450 

Streatham, 466, (529); police, 
97 

Streets of London, 60, 61, 101 
(many will be found m this 
Directory) 

Police", 94, 95 

Sufferance wharfs, 338 

Suffolk st., Pall Mall E. ; Mile 
End; Pentonville ; South- 
wark 

Sugar refining, 62, 229, 234 

duties, 119 

Suicides, 62 

Sun newspaper, Strand, 73 

Sunday schools, 60, Paternoster 
row, 65, 68, 363, 364 

— Papers, 72 

Sun st., Bishopgate Without 

Surgeons, 62, 72, 239, 508 # 

Royal College of, Lin- 
coln's inn fields S„ 63, 66, 
323,561,719 

Surgical instruments, 232 

Surrey, 60, 86, 91,92, 94 

Chapel, 218 

Dispensary, 516 

Dock, 285, 340 

Theatre, 128, Blackfriars 

rd. S., 773 

Surveyors, 239 

District, 93 

Shipping, 113, 237 

Sussex gardens and sq., Hyde 
park N. 

Hall, 52, Leadenhall st. E. 

Sutherland House, St. James's 

park, 356, 434 
Sutton police, 97 
Swan with Two Necks, Swan 
chambers, Gresham st. 



Swans, 334 
Sweden, 63 
Swedish church, Princes sq., 

Ratcliffe, 323 
Swiss, 379; church, 19, Moor 

St., Soho, 323 
Swithin's, St., London stone, 

Cannon st., City, 193, 308, 

828 
lane, King William st.E., 

106 
Swordbearer, City, 329, 330, 332 
Swordcu tiers, 239 
Sydenham Society, 45, Frith 

st., Soho, 589 
Symonds' Inn, Chancery lane, 

S., 528, 531 
Synagogues, 323, 531, 532, 535 
Syon House, 39, 48, 475, (509) 
Syro-Egyptian Society, 588 

Tabernacle, Finsbury, 218; 
square, &c, City rd. S. 

Tailors, 62, 235; almshouses, 
219; see Merchant Tailors 

Tallow trade, 61, 238 

Chandlers' Hall, 5, Dow- 
gate hill, 506 

Tallyman, 107 

Tanners, 227, 235 

Tapestry, St. James's, 413 ; 
Hampton Court, 409; Wind- 
sor, 443 

Tattersall's, Grosvenor place, 
Hyde parkS. 

Tavistock sq., Russell sq., 770 

Tax Office, 769 

Teachers, 62, 238 

Teddington, 6, 7, 8,450 

Telegraph, Electric, 356, 703 ; 
Founder's Hall, Lothbury; 
London br. station; General 
Post Office; 448, Strand; 
Shoreditch station; Water- 
loo station; Euston sq. sta- 
tion 

Telford, 569, 794 

Temperance Society, 80, Fleet 
st. 

Temperature of London, 13 

Templar, Knights, 135 

Temple, Fleet st. W. 

Bar, 209, 327, 704, 771, 828 

Church, 135, 306, 307, 

771, 802 

Garden, 495 

Hall, 174, 771 

— Inner, 495, 528, 771 

Middle, 174, 495, 506, 528, 

529, 771 

Outer, 528, 771 

Tenison's, Abp., Library, 597 

School, 363 

Chapel, Regent st. 

Thackeray, W. M., 3, Young 
st., Kensington 

Thames bank, Pimlico 

st. , from Blackfriars bridge 

to the Tower, 379 

Thames, 9, 594, see Canals, 
Docks; banks, 9; Basin of, 
Physical Geography, 3, 26; 
bridges, 273; canals, 3, 4, 5 ; 
conservancy, 329, 331, 340; 
estuary, 10; evaporation, 7, 
18; floods, 12; frozen, 13; 
geology of, 24; geography, 
3; hydrography, 3; islands, 
45; length, 3; navigation, 3, 
4, 5, 6, 7, 613; osier beds, 



45 ; plan of, 341 ; police, 94, 
97, 613 ; shoals, 9 ; shipping, 
616 ; source, 3 ; steam navi- 
gation, 827; tides, 3, 7, 8, 10; 
tributaries, 4, 11, 27; Tun- 
nel, 831; volume, 6; water, 
11, 12,53,847,857 

Thavies inn, Holborn hill, 
528, 529, 531 

Theatre, 772; Astley's, 773, 
775; Adelphi, 772; ballet, 

619, 620, 775; Batty's, 773; 
City of London, 36, Norton 
folgate ; Cyclorama, 445, 699, 
720; Colosseum, 445, 699, 
720; Covent Garden, 613, 

620, 772; Deptford, Church 
st. ; Drury Lane, 620, 772, 
774; Eagle, 775; English 
Opera, 619, 772; Fitzroy, 
772 ; French, see St. James's; 
Greenwich ; German, see 
Drury Lane, Queen's, 620; 
Haymarket, 772, 774; horse- 
manship, 773; illegal, 95; 
Italian (Queen's), 613, 772; 
Italian (Royal Italian), 613, 
620, 772; James's, St., 772, 
775; Kelly's, Miss, 772; 
Kensington; Latin, West- 
minster, 65; lecture, see 
Lecture ; Lyceum, 619, 772; 
Marylebone, 772; medical, 
see Medical schools; Olym- 
pic, 772; Opera, English, 
619,772,775; Opera, Italian, 
264, 613, 772, 774 ; Pavilion, 
773; police, 95; Princess's, 
772, 775; Prince's, 772; 
Queen's (Italian), 264, 617; 
Queen's, Tottenham st., 772; 
Sadler's Wells, 772, 774; 
St. James's, S.W. London, 
272, 775 ; Soho, 772 ; Stand- 
ard, 773; Strand, 772; Sur- 
rey, 773; vaudeville, 775; 
Victoria, 773; Woolwich 

Theberton st., Islington 
Theobald's rd. Kingsgate st., 

Holborn 
Thomas's, St., Bethnal Green, 

321 

Charlton, 322 

College, 63, 323, 526 

Charterhouse, Goswell st. 

Day, 326 

Hospital and st., Borough, 

High St., 63, 66, 508, 525 
Liberty of the Rolls, 

Bream's buildings, Chancery 

lane 

Southwark, 313 

Stepney, Arbour st., W. 

Threadneedle st. Bank N. 
Throgmorton st., Bank S. 
Thurloe sq., Old Brompton 
Tibberton sq., Islington. 
Ticket-writers, 232 
Tides of Thames, 3, 7, 8, 10 
Tidewaiters. 338 
Timber trade, 230, 237 

duties, 119 

Tilemaking, see Bricks 
Times City'office, Lombard st., 

74 
Times machine, 76 
Newspaper, PrintingHouse 

sq., Blackfriars, 73, 75, 76, 

86, 718 
Tinplate workers, 61, 237 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



909 



Tinplate workers' Company, 

6, London wall 
Titchfield St., Oxford st. W. 
Tithe office, Somerset House, 

769 
Tobacco trade, 239 
pipe makers, 239 ; com- 
pany, 46, Amwell st. 
Tokenhouse vard, Bank N. 
Tolls, City, 327,328 
Tombs, 166, 288, 713 
Tomline collections, 390 
Tooley st., London bridge S. 
Tooting, 465, (32), 855 
Torrington sq., &c, Russell 

sq. N., 771 
Tothill st., Westminster, 76b 
Tottenham, 97; church, 321 ; 

Court road, Oxford st. E. to 

Hampstead rd. 
Tower of London, L.Thames 

st. E., 128, 160, 631, 632, 446, 

775 

Armourv, /78 

Bloody, 160 

ditch/128 

green, 128 

hill, 771 

Hamlets, 60, 87, 92, 94 

Hamlets cemetery, 288, 

846 

Hamlets dispensary, 516 

Jewel office, 779 

street, City E. 

White, 128, 775 

Town clerk of London, 332 
Toxopholite Society, inner 

circle, S. Regent's Park 
Tov trade, 61,120, 239 
Tract Society, 56, Paternoster 

row, St. Paul's churchyard 
Trade of London, 61, 63, 

66,219; see Assurance, Bank- 
ing 
Board of, Whitehall, 88, 

89, 613, 780 

Female, 233 

Trafalgar sq., or Charing cross, 

W. Strand, 771, 826, 827, 851 
Traitor's gate, 128 
Travellers, see Commercial, 

237 
Club, 1C6, Pall Mall W., 

292,296 
Treadmill, 766 
Treason, 95 
Treasury office, Whitehall W., 

88, 89, 780 
Trevor sq., &c, Knightsbridge 
Trinity almshouses and hospi- 
tal, 215, 218, 219, 335, 346 

Board, 340, 345, 613 

Church, St. Bride's, Great 

New st., Fetter lane 

Albany st., Regent's park 

Upper Chelsea, Sloane st. 

Islington, Cloudesley sq. 

Gray's inn rd. 

St. Giles's, Little Queen 

St., Holborn 

Carlisle st. 

Mile end road, Cottage 

grove 

New rd., Albany st. 

Newington Butts, Trinity 

sq. 
Paddington, Gloucester 

gardens 

. Rotherhithe, Trinity st. 

Holy, Minories, Church st. 



Trinity Church, Holy, Bromp- 

ton rd. 
Holy, Shepherdess walk, 

City rd. 
Trinity sq., Tower hill, 771 
Troughton and Simms, Fleet 

st., 671, 680, 684, 686, 687, 695 
Truman's brewery, 174, Brick 

lane, Spitalfields, 227, 273 
Truss societies, 67, 526 
Tunnel, Thames, 831 
Turncocks, 857 
Turners, 237; company, 7, 

Lincoln's inn fields 
Turnham green, W. London, 

321, 480, (507), (538) 
Turnpike roads, 99 
Tussaud's, Madame, Baker st, 

bazaar, 700 
Twickenham, 450, (524) 
Tyler's market, 612 
Typefounding, 62, 232, 238 

Ulster place, &c, Regent's 
park 

Umbrella trade, 62, 229, 236, 379 

Under-sheriff, 331 

Undertakers, 111,239 

Underwriters, 113, 373, 378 

Union, Poor Law, 69, 99, 244, 
846 

Club, Trafalgar sq., 296 

Unitarian chapel, Essex st., 
Strand; 26, Stamford St., 
Blackfriar's ; Little Portland 
st. ; 12, South pi., Finsbury. 

College, see University 

Hall 

United Service Club, 116, Pall 
Mall W., 294 

Service Club, Junior, 11, 

Charles St., St. James's, 305 

Service Institution, Scot- 
land yard, Whitehall, 583, 
6.3 

University of London, Somer- 
set House, Strand E., 63 

Club, Suffolk st., Pall 

Mall E., 294 

College, Gower st. N., 63, 

64, 323, 5^6, 780 

College Hospital, Gower 

st. N., 63, 66, 508, 526 

Hall, University College, 

Gordon sq. 

Universitary bodies, 66, see 
likewise "Colleges of Sur- 
geons, Physicians, Doctors 
of Law, Royal Veterinary, 
Haileybury, Sandhurst, Ad- 
discombe, Woolwich, Marine 
Board, Inns of Court, Apo- 
thecaries' Hall, Law Insti- 
tutions 

Upholder'scompany, Guildhall 

Uxbridge, 97, 612; do. rd., 
Bayswater 

Vaccine institutions, 510, 526 

Vanbrugh, 21 1 ; Castle, Black- 
heath 

Vardv, 769 

Varnish trade, 62, 237 

Vauxhall, S.W. London, 447, 
(537), (54(s), 818, 850, 855; 
gardens, 775; bridge, 281 

Vedast's, St., Foster lane, 
Cheapside W., 195, 311 

Vellum trade, 238 

Venison, City, 332; feast, 433 



Venison market, see Hunger- 
ford 

Ventilation, 609, 672 
Verral institution, 527 
Verulam, 857; Society, 29, 

Essex st. 
Vestries, 99 
Veterinary College, Roval. 63, 

66, 323, 600 ; surgeons', 237 
Vice-Chancellor's Court, 91, 

529 
Vice-makers, 239 
Victoria, Queen, 827; theatre, 

135, Waterloo rd., Lambeth, 

773 

sq., Pimlico 

park, Bethnal green, 458 

Tower, 741 

Vincent sq., Westminster, 96 
Vinegar manufacture, 229, 234 
Vinery, 493, (505), (540) 
Vintners' almshouses, 219; 

company, 336; hail, 6Vh. U. 

Thames st., 336, 445, 506; 

porters, 2, Botolph lane 
Virginia Water, 463 
Voluntary schools, 26, New 

Broad St., City, 364 

Wager boats, 614 

Walbrook, Mansion House S., 

847 
Walcot place, &c, Lambeth 
Walham green church, 320 
Walk, see Common, Field, 

Forest, Garden, Heath, Hill, 

Park, Wood, Cheyne, Chel- 
sea; Customhouse Quav ; 

Lambeth, 47; Tower hill, 

7/0; Tower Quay 
Wallingford House, 703 
Walls, City, 327, 771 
Walworth, New Kent rd., 

church, 315 
police, 97; institutional, 

Manor place 
Wandle, 5, 27, 53, 466, 857 
Wandsworth, S.W. London, 

5,60, 451,465, (525), (529) 

police court, 94, 97 

Wanstead, 634, 635; orphan 

asylum, 245 
Wapping, E. London, 97, 232, 

447 
Wardens of City companies, 333 
Warden pie, 334 
War office, Horse Guards, 8.?, 

H9, 730 
W T ard's, Lord, Gallery, 438 
Wardour st., Oxford st. E. 
Wards, City, 325, 326, 328 
Warehousing, 338 
Warehouses, 239, 379 
War steamers, 614 
Warwick lane, Newgate St., '62 
Washhouses and Baths, 

254, 847 
Watchmakers, 234, 236; see 

Clockmakers 
Watchmaking, 61, 120, 2C0, 37J 
Water, Thames, 11, 12 

bailiff, 329, 332 

Supply, 112, 847 

works, 847 

Waterfowl collection, 536 
Waterloo bridge, Strand, 8, 9, 

278, 830 

place, Tall Mall, 826 

road, Lambeth 

Station, York rd., near 

R R 



910 



INDEX AND DIRECTORY. 



Waterloo and Hungerford 
bridges, 818 

Waterproofers, 236 

Water Colours, Society of 
Painters, 5, Pall Mall 

Colours, Society of Paint- 
ers (New) 53, Pall Mall 

Watermen, 98; almshouses, 
217; hall, 217 

Watling st., St. Paul's, 379 

W r att, 787 

Watts, Dr., 288, 797 

Waxchandlers, 61, 238 

Hall, Gresham st. W. 507 

Weavers, 61, 62, 229, 379 

almshouses, 219 

Company, 333 

Hall, 22,Basinghall st., 507 

Weekly Dispatch, 139, Fleet st. 

Weighhouse Chapel, 13, Fish 
st. hill, London bridge N. 

Welbeck St., Cavendish sq. 

Well, 22, 23, 851; Acton, 60; 
artesian, 33, 606, 851, 858 ; 
Beulah Spa, 498 ; Hampstead, 
60; Highgate,60; Hyde park, 
455; Kilburn, 60; mineral, 
60, 498 ; sulking, 239 

Wellington, Duke, 228, 406, 
443, 827; house, Piccadilly, 
Hvde park, 356, 459, 704 

"Statue, 705, 827 

Wells st., Oxford st. E. 

Welsh, 379 

Church, Bartlett's bdgs. ; 

Eldon st., Finsbury ; Church 
st., Lambeth ; Ely chapel ; 
Jewin crescent; Grafton st., 
Soho; Little Guilford st. 

School, Gray's inn rd., 

245, 364 

Wenlock basin, &c, City rd., 
285 

Wernerian Club, 590 

Wesleyan Conference, 14, City 
rd. 

Chapels, 322 

- — Mission, 17, Bishopsgate 
st. Within, City 

Schools, 67 

Training college, Horse- 
ferry rd., Westminster 

Times, 80, Fleet st. 

Western dispensary, 516 

Institution, 47, Leicester 

f sq. W. 

Medical society, 44,Sloane 

st. 

- — Exchange, Old Bond st., 
Piccadilly, 264 

Westboume crescent, &c, 
Bayswater 

West End, 854 

West hill, (529) 

West India Docks, Black wall, 
10, 286, 340, 343 

India steam office, 55, 

Moorgate st. S., Bank 

West London and Westminster 
cemetery, Earl's court 

Westminster, 60, 87, 144, 732 

Abbey, 127, 143, 163, 211, 

214, 306, 600, 782; Chapter 
house, 147; choir, 628; 
Glee Club, 628; Henry 7th's 
chapel, 163, 167, 172, 784; 
Purcell Club, 628, 795; St. 
Edward's chapel, 163, 164, 
787 ; tombs, 163, 166, 214, 781 



Westminster baths and wash- 
houses, 256 

Bridge, 8, 280, 830 

City, 782 

County court, 93 

Courts at, 91 

Dean, 782 

Dispensary, 516 

Hall, 157, 507. 746 

Hospital, 63, 66, 508, 527 

Institution, 6, Gt. Smith 

St., 600 

Marq. of, Gallery, 402 

Palace, 151, 170, 307, 

600,731,746 

Police court, 94, 96 

School, 64, 65, 207, 364 

Sessions, 92, 94 

Westmoreland Society, 19, 

Bread St., 245, 364 
Wey, river, 4, 12, 36, 53 
Wharfingers, 237, 338 
Wheelwrights, 237; company, 

56, Coal Exchange, 337 
Wherries, 614 
Whipper-in, 89 
Whispering gallery, 716 
Whitbread's brewery, Chiswell 

St., City rd., 227, 273 

Observatory, 686 

White's Club, 37, St. James's 

st., 305 
Whitechapel, E. London; Aid- 
gate, 229, 233; Church, 213; 

Baths and washhouses, 262; 

County court, 93 ; market, 

227, 612; police, 97 
White Conduit St., Islington 

W., 847 
Whitecross st., Fore st., W. 

City ; prison, 753, 765 
Whitefriars Glassworks, 16, 

Temple st., Fleet st. 
Whitehall, near Trafalgar sq. 

and St. James 's park, 747, 851 

Chapel, 176, 440, 747 

Whitfield chapel, Wilson st., 

Drury lane 
Whiting trade, 237 
Whitmore rd., &c„ Hoxton 
Whittington's Hospital, 219, 

335, 512, 827 

Club, 189, Strand, E. 

Wigmore st., Oxford st. W. 
Wigram's ship-yard, 610 
Willement's glass-staining 

works, 25, Green St., Gros- 

venor sq. 
Willesden police, 97 
William st., K ing, West Strand 

and Mansion House 
Willis's Rooms, St. James's, 629 
Wills, courts for, 91 ; registry, 

9, Great Knightrider st. , St. 

Paul's churchyard 
Wilmington sq., &c, Spa- 
fields 
Wilton crescent, &c, Knights- 
bridge, 771 
Wimbledon, 451, 460, 466, 

(513), (522), (523) 
Wimpole st., Cavendish sq. 
Winchester st., &c, Old 

Broad st. and London wall 
Winchmore hill, 320, 851 
Windham Club, 11, St. James's 

sq., 305 
Windmill st., Tottenham ct. 

rd.; Haymarket; Finsbury 



Winds in London, 17 

Windsor, 53, 444, 860 

Forest, 47, 49, 461 

Palace, 210, 441, 461 

500, 860 

Park, 47, 49, 452, 460,501 

(517), 869 

Tombhouse, 210 

Wine, British, 229, 234 

licences, 98 

trade, 120, 229, 234 

Winter garden, see Conserva 
tory, Royal Botanic 

Woburn sq., Russell sq., 771 

Women, hospital for, 509, 527 

Wood st., Cheapside, W. 

Wood, see Forest; Caen, 49 
(513), (522); Combe, 50 
Cray, 40; Hornsey, 49; Ken 
49, (513), (522) ; Fenge, 499 

Woods and Forests, Office of 
1, Whitehall pi., 89, 99 

Woolmen's Company, 22, Aus 
tin Friars, O. Broad st. 

Wool trade, 229, 237, 379 

Woolwich, 10, 32, 60, 87, 346 
352, 830, 856; academy, 350 
almshouses, 217; Arsenal 
346 ; cadets, 350 ; common 
856 ; Dockyard, 340, 346 
hulks, 765; laboratory, 347 
marines, 352, 856; marshes 
9 ; police court, 94, 97 ; rail 
way, London bridge, Fen 
church st., and Bishopsgate 
repository, 350 ; steamers, 83( 

Workhouses, 69, 846 

Works, Office of, see Woods 
and Forests 

Workshops, Engineering 
364 

Worship st., Finsbury sq. 

Wren, Sir C., life and works, 
149, 159, 180, 181, 206, 539, 
713, 716, 720, 803, 825, 862 

Wvch st., Strand, E. 

Wyld's Map and Globe Office , 
3, Charing cross, E. 

Wyld's Great Model Globe, 
Leicester sq., Piccadilly E. 

Wyndham Club, 11, St. James's 
sq., 305 

place, &c, Bryanstone sq. 

Xanthian marbles, 557 

Yachts, 614 
Yarmouth steam office, 35, 
Leadenhall st.; 71, Lom- 
bard st. W. 
Yeast dealers, 234 
York Column, 826 

Stairs, 179,206,704 

House, 356, 747 

New, see New York 

Yorkshire Society, 12, Bank- 
side, Southwark, 245 
School, Mead pi., West- 
minster rd., 245, 364 

Zinc working, 237, 379 
Zoological collection, St. 

James's park, 453, 583, 586 
■ Gardens, Regent's park, 

457, (530), 583 

Surrey, 779 

Museums, 564, 583, 584, 

586 
Society, 583 



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